The Pittmeister's COVID Chronicles

  As of this morning, the state of Arizona has had 814,528 cases of COVID-19. There have been nearly 16,000 deaths.  Maricopa county, the most populous county in the state has seen 509,000 cases of the virus and 9,061 deaths.  In our county, there have been 11,145 cases of the virus and 265 deaths.  I took a half-day off yesterday to take Wife to a dental appointment. She was getting mouth and teeth scanned for nighttime mouthguard which will prevent her from grinding her teeth while she sleeps and which we hope will reduce or eliminate the headaches that this often causes her. We also were able to renew her drivers license for 1 year while her permanent residence card renewal is still being processed. We had made an appointment at the local DMV for yesterday morning and arrived an hour early, but I neglected to bring her SSN card (b/c I was told she would not need it), but she didn't know her SSN and therefore we had to drive the ~40min back home to get it, then ~40min back to the

 I feel like a got a little bit of a sunburn, but a windburn is more like it. It as a windy day here in SE Arizona and I think our faces bore the brunt of the wind.  Today Wife and I worked outside and continued our efforts to build her Hinamatsuri, "Girl's Festival" display shelf where she can display her dolls.  Today's progress was done in two parts with a one hour break in-between.  The first part of cutting out and sanding the other piece of plywood of what will become the other side of the shelf. This I did with moderate success, but when the two sides were paired against each other, it quickly became clear that one side is going to be slightly higher than the other side and this is due to fact that, 1. I got confused which side would the top, and 2. I only traced the lines to cut the board from the one we cut on Monday afternoon so when I went to cut, I cut on the outside of the line, not the inside. I would like to add that there were times when I had them mat

 Welcome back to the COVID Chronicles! Last weekend, I did not complete the weekly statistical accounting of COVID cases around us, so here it is as of this morning:  In the State of Arizona, there have been 804,116 cases with 15,421 deaths. There were 1,918 new cases today with 145 new deaths. The total positivity rate is at 14.2%.  In our county, there have been nearly 11,000 cases and 260 deaths. There were 37 new cases reported today with 2 additional deaths. The overall positivity rate is 12.1% In our zip code for Old Mining Town, there have been a total of 447 cases. Wife, who has been tracking the increase in cases, has note there has been a signfiicant slowing in the growth of cases in our zip code. The zip code for the border town of Douglas has seen 4,087 cases and the zip code for Sierra Vista has seen 2,326 cases.  In our neighboring county of Santa Cruz, where my parent's live, there are 7,600 cases, but in their rural zip code in the eastern side of the county there h

 Today, we celebrate President's Day in here the U.S. of A. President's Day is a holiday created to honor the birthdays of two of our most revered presidents; George Washington & Abraham Lincoln.  George Washington was our very first president, serving from 1789-1797. He died two years after leaving office. George Washington is one our most revered presidents because many of the traditions and precedents for the office during our country's infancy were created by him. He refused a lifetime appointment to our king and voluntarily stepped away after serving 2 elected terms.  Abraham Lincoln is our 2nd most revered president because he was president during the American Civil War. He was elected to 2 terms, but only served one because he was assassinated only weeks into his 2nd term and just days after the Surrender at Appomattox effectively ended the Civil War.  Both men were born in February, so to honor both of their contributions to our country's history, a national

Welcome back to the Blog!  I realize I did not post anything last week, but let's be honest, Wife and I didn't do very much this week. We just sort of went about the business of living.  On Friday though, we did two different pest control services done on our house; rodent exclusion & a termite service.  Yesterday drove out to my parents' place and helped them with some carpet cleaning they had been wanting to do. They even paid us $125 for doing so. I'm trying to get what's called a "side hustle" going to make a little extra money.  Maybe carpet cleaning can be that side hustle if I can clean the carpets of a few friends and then have them spread the word for me.  Here are the COVID-19 statistics for Arizona and our county:  In the state of Arizona, we are nearing 779,100 cases with 14,011 deaths.  The positivity rate is 14.3%.  In our county, we are nearing 10,600 cases and have experienced 238 deaths. There was a drop in daily cases of -19 per the A