Entry 595: Cold

Baby, it's cold outside.

Here in DC, there is a short (and getting shorter) time of the year in which it gets really frickin' cold. We are currently in that period now. From roughly Christmas to Valentine's Day, the temperature vacillates between the high teens and the low 40s, settling in around the mid-20s for the most the day. We also usually get a snowstorm or two during that time. Although I'm glad this period still exists in an ever-warming world, I cannot say it's very pleasant. It especially sucks in the midst of a pandemic, when you are somewhat wary of group indoor activities.

The good news, however, is that cold spells don't last and Omicron is finally starting to recede. The arrow is now pointing down, which means my relatively rosy prediction is on track. If we don't get hit by another breakthrough variant this might actually be the beginning of the end. But that's a big if. We could have said the same thing before Delta and the same thing before Omicron. At some point, you have to think, things are going to break our way, but they haven't yet. It would obviously help if more than 63% of the population was vaccinated. At the very least, the vaccines have proved quite effective at helping your body rid itself of the virus once it enters (as an expert framed it, vaccines act more as a badass army of knights rather than as an impassable moat). The less time the virus stays in our bodies, the less time it has to mutate. One theory of Delta's origins is that it cultivated in a single immunocompromised individual who had the virus for months. It's possible this particular person wasn't able to get the vaccine, but it illustrates a larger point: More vaccines equal less chance of mutation.

Unfortunately, vaccines seem to be following the general pattern of "debate" in this country right now. It seems like no matter the issue, there are 25% of the people who are just going to be unreachable crazy in one direction. Then there are about 10% of the people who are unreachable crazy in the other direction (the crazy usually isn't symmetric), and then there's the remaining 65% of us, who just want to figure it out and get on with our lives. The unfortunate thing about vaccines is that the crazies on both ends are against them. It's mainly coming from extremists on the right, but we all know the anti-big pharma lefties who are also not down with vaccines. In fact, our political right-left model should probably be a circle and not a line segment. There actually is no left end and right end because the extremists on the left go so far, they actually align themselves more with extremists on the right than moderates on the left, and vice-versa.

Anyway, S and I have been coping with everything by material improving our own lives. Seriously, we've been spending a lot of money lately. But why not? You pay your bills, you put away what you need for savings, and if you are fortunate enough to have something left over, what else are you suppose to do with it? I've never been the type to spend money on myself. I just don't want much. I try to keep the same devices forever (not always successfully -- I accidentally put my Bose headphones in the washing machine a few weeks ago, making them my second water-based technological death of the past three months) and my wardrobe is mostly composed of free tee shirts, company swag I got as a gift for my employment, and two old pairs of jeans. But now I'm doing a thing where if I want something that I think will improve my life, I'll check with my financial adviser (i.e., my wife) and if we have the money, I'll just get it -- or I won't and I'll move on. But I'm not going to just endlessly wish I could have it from afar like I used to do.

Here are some recent purchases.

Solar panels: I can tell myself that they will pay for themselves in the long-run and that they're good for the environment, and that's all true, but that's not the main reason we got them. The main thing is that I think they're cool. It's cool technology, and I like the idea of powering our house with them.

New TV: This one was mainly on S. I purchased our last TV in 2012, which was right before it became standard to have all the streaming app capabilities built into the TV. Supposedly, we had a way to set up Netflix directly, but I tried it once and it didn't work, so I just gave up on it. We had a Google Chromecast stick, so we would just cast everything from a device to our TV. It mostly worked, but not always, and it was annoying. Our new TV is much better. Plus, we moved our old TV to the kids' playroom and made it the video game TV, which has also been a quality of life boost.

Treadmill: I already discussed this one in the last entry. I haven't been going into the office because of Omicron, so I also haven't been going to the gym much (my gym is near my office because I like to go immediately after work). With the weather the way it is, outdoor exercise is totally off the table. That treadmill has been a godsend thus far.

Airbnb near my family: This is the one I'm most excited about. We booked a place close to my parents (and my brother and sister and their families) for six weeks in the summer. It took some logistical planning (still not totally done) and some money (although considering we aren't sending the kids to expensive summer camp here and that we would take a trip out there anyway, it's not that much more expensive), to the point that I wondered if it was worth it. But then I thought: What's more important than spending time with family? What do you want out of life, if not that? Not to be macabre but my parents are not young. If you actually do the math on the number of times we will see them again, it's an integer with a relatively small upper-bound. We gotta make the times we do see them count. Ever since I left the PNW, I always envisioned myself coming back in some way, even just a part-time way, and if not now, when?

Tesla: Yes, that's right we bought a Tesla. We pick it up next month. Like solar panels, I've had my eye on an electric car for a while. I put a bug in S's ear about it, and then one of our friends randomly got one, which really piqued her interested. (Remember what I said about S's first thought being We should do that too?) She test drove our friends' car and really liked it and kinda became obsessed with it. The conversation quickly escalated from Yeah, maybe next year to What about right now? So, we bought a Tesla yesterday and made an appointment to install a "juice box" charger on the side of our house. I have no idea how to charge a Tesla or even operate one, for that matter, but I've got a couple months and YouTube -- I'll be fine.

Until next time...