The Pittmeister's Parade Around America

 It is Sunday morning and that means it is time for the weekly statistical update for COVID-19 cases in our state, our county, our zip code.  Per the state's department of Health Services , as of this morning, the number of COVID-19 cases is nearing 754,000 cases. There have been 13,100 deaths.  There were 5,120 new cases reported yesterday along with 76 new deaths attributed to COVID-19.  Overall, our state has a total positivity rate of 14.2% In our rural, southeast county, there have been 10,143 cases, with a total number of deaths at 226.  There were 48 new cases reported yesterday, but no new deaths attributed to COVID-19 were reported.  Overall, our county has total positivity rate of 12.3%.  In our zip code area, there have been 428 confirmed cases of COVID-19, but 128 of those cases have come since the beginning of the year and we are approaching 10% of the population of Old Mining Town testing positive for COVID-19.  That's all for t...

During the snow day, Wife and I finished refinishing the chairs. This is what they ended up looking like. I'm sorry I don't have a before picture. My job in this project as the "Staple Man". Wife would pull the fabric on the back of the padded board taught, then direct me where to put the staple. It took 3 trips to the local ACE Hardware and 2 trips to the Home Depot store in Sierra Vista to finally finish this project.   Last night, Wife had some grand plan to make parfaits, because she wanted to eat what she called a "wow food" so instead of making dinner, we went to the local Safeway grocer and $30 poorer (I mean later) we returned home with the following ingredients to make her dream parfaits a reality:  Safeway Select Java Chip Ice Cream Strawberries Whipped Cream (in a can) A box of orange creamed flavored wafers "Brookies", which are combination of Brownies with a cookie topping we found in the bakery Bananas Wife started assembling the parf...

  Winter has come to our SE corner of Arizona and Old Mining Town. It began snowing last night and this is what our street looks like this morning.  Snow is nothing new to me. I grew up in northern Arizona, at 7,000 feet in elevation, and snow was a regular occurrence, but I am still astounded by its beauty, especially in the mornings. Growing up, there were varying degrees for snow day schedules. There was a regular schedule which meant we still had to pull our groggy heads out of bed;, a snow day schedule which was a 2 hour delayed start and still caused massive confusion, and a snow day which meant we didn't even have to come to school.  When my employment began here back in 2016, my director advised me that I was not permitted to call out sick if it snowed. I advised her I grew up in northern Arizona, drove a GMC Yukon, and knew how to drive in snow. It was everyone else I was worried about.   I have since sold the Yukon for a newer, smaller, more fuel effic...

  Wife and I were doing our weekly shop at the nearest Fry's Marketplace yesterday when we noticed this new kind of "salad bar"... This is the greatest "salad bar" in all the land! 

 Good Morning and welcome to another edition of the COVID Chronicles.  I have to admit, this week was rather mundane, but since this blog is about documenting the mundane events of my life along with the exciting, I will document the mundane.  Monday was a holiday, so it was day off from work. Wife and I didn't do much, except to continue to work on reorganizing our house. Tuesday was a work day and the first of the two 10-hour days. I left work at 6pm and got home when it was dark. Wednesday was more of the same.  Thursday was the last day my department was in this large "community" room. We tidied up our "desks" which were nothing more than two, 6-foot white plastic tables pushed together along the long edge with a plastic shield between us and the student. It was also the day we say the biggest drop-off in appointments and student traffic. I think I only had one scheduled appointment the entire day and maybe saw two to three others on a drop-in basis.  Friday...

 Today is Sunday, which means it's time for weekly update on the COVID statistics in our state, county, and zip code.  In the State of Arizona, we are nearing 674,000 COVID-19 cases & 11,300 deaths and total positivity rate of 13.7%.  In our county, Cochise County, we are nearing 10,000 cases and 200 deaths with total positivity rate of 11.9%.  Our city's zip code has reported a total number of cases at 386.  Earlier this week it was reported that the State of Arizona was the #1 place in the world for COVID-19 infections. Not something we want to be in my opinion.  Tuesday, January 19th will be a one year anniversary of my last hair cut. I take regular selfies to document the length of my hair. I don't have a "starting photo", but the recent ones show how long my hair has gotten. Some day I'll post the progression.  All for today. 

It has been a hellish week of work. Every day felt like 2 or 3 and by the end of each day, my brain was fried!  I don't know why feel surprised because this happens every year in the week leading up to the start of the new school term as the final rush of students comes in to get registered for a new term and deadline for the start of classes and financial aid verification looms like an executioner. We work extended, 10-hour days Monday-Thursday; a regular 8-hour day on Friday, and then a 4-hour half today (Saturday).  The following week we always work another 2, 10-hour days as more students register late the first 2 days of the semester.  All too often, I must repeat to myself the mantra of " your procrastination is not my emergency " and it has taken me a couple of years to truly appreciate the true meaning behind this mantra. Typically, I am on my last nerve as we approach the homestretch and end of registration, especially on the Saturday before and the first few day...

For most people, Sundays are meant to be a day of rest and for Wife and I, they usually are, but not today. Wife and I are embarking on a mission to finally organize and clean up house, so this weekend, given the fact that we are battling mice in our house, we embarked on deep cleaning weekend of our house. This involved Wife buying a mop and mopping the floors with a diluted bleach solution and us using a Hoover Smartwash carpet shampooer to deep clean our carpets, which was my responsibility. I'm tired from moving furniture around all day and pushing the carpet cleaner, but this is the first time in the nearly 5 years we've lived in our house that we cleaned the carpets and boy were they dirty. We're having an extermination company come on the 20th to complete some tasks that we hope will rid of the mice problem and then after that we are going to clean the carpets again. Wife even took some pictures of the dirty water to compare to the dirty water after the home is servi...

 Hello and welcome to the latest addition to the my blog, The COVID Chronicles. The title might not very original, but it says what I want it to say and blogging keeps me sane in this mad, mad time we seem to find ourselves.  Now that I have returned to work after my winter break, my posts may be less frequent than the daily posts I was writing during the break, but perhaps a weekly digest on Saturday mornings might still be a good outlet. I think that would be better than having to write each day, "today I stared at a computer screen and help college students pick their classes". I do more than just that in a given day, but that's the digest version.  One of things I did start doing (again) at work this week was walking during my lunch time. I recently discovered that my iPhone has a step-counter feature in the iHealth app and I found that I could some days I can eat my lunch in the half hour before my official break (while still doing work-related tasks), and then use t...

 Good afternoon!  I am sad to report that Wife and I did not continue with our deep cleaning today. I think neither felt much like working today. I postulated that my motivation for cleaning and tidying up yesterday that was in part due to feelings of grief over the passing of our neighbor and friend. Those same feelings today caused a given level of apathy and procrastination that will need to be resolved tomorrow. Wife does not have a stipulation that the work needed to be done today, just that it needs to be done before Friday, January 8th. In fact Wife even said, "I know today is the last day of your vacation so you can relax if you want to..."  Like many of you, I too make NYR's or New Year Resolutions for the uninitiated. These are yearly goals Americans set and usually by the end of February or March, many Americans have given up on these goals. For country in which obesity is such a problem, weight-loss or fitness is often a NYR for many Americans and the gyms and...

Let me just put this thought out there: Wife and I are terrible at keeping house!   In addition to sending out our yearly Christmas cards and doing our Christmas shopping, keeping our house clean is probably the one thing we struggle to keep up with.  Let me be clear, it is not because we are slobs (but Wife is a bit of a hoarder) and enjoy living in squalor because we both prefer to live in a well-picked up, well organized house. I think it is more of a combination of the following 2 reasons:  1. My mom, who was a working mother, didn't like to clean house and therefore since she was working, paid to have house cleaning services come every two weeks to clean our house from the time I was little.  2. Wife's mom was so meticulous in keeping her house clean that Wife knows she cannot duplicate that effort or result that she doesn't even try.  So, today, Wife and I embarked on deep cleaning effort of our house and will continue tomorrow. Today, I ended up doing 3 l...

 It is with a heavy heart that I compose today's post. A day that started out with so much positivity ended with a sad tragedy.  Wife's and my day started at midnight. For whatever reason we decided to stay up until 12am to welcome in the new year. Wife and I almost never stay up that late. Soon after welcoming in the new year, we went to sleep, eventually waking at 7:30am for me.  We departed our house at 9:30am and drove to The Town Too Tough to Die where we met up with my parents for an exchange of Christmas gifts from one car to other. After the exchange, we spent 30min to 1 hour outside taking pictures in front of the historic courthouse and talking before they loaded back up in their Honda Pilot and drove back to their little corner of Arizona Wine Country. Wife and took a little bit more time in Tombstone before getting back in our car, and heading to Sierra Vista for lunch, which ended being burritos from Chipotle. After consuming our lunch in the parked car outsi...