captainsblog | ♫Two Out Of Three Ain't Good....♫

This is my travel day for the week. I'd initially set it for a 2 p.m. phone hearing from my office with a client and a state agency, and eventually added two client appointments around it. Then, the earlier client and the hearing client both notified me: they'd been contact-traced for possible COVID exposure and were quarantining. So I still have the late one scheduled, and could not get out of the one hearing so we'll be trying a four-point conference call with me here, the client across town, the claimant in a third place and the hearing officer in a fourth. My experience with these things has never been good.

The contact-tracing is a good sign but also scary as shit, as so many States of Denial continue to ignore the science, refuse to take the curve-flattening steps New York has, and even prohibit localities within them from imposing stricter steps because, MAGA! Gotta get that roaring economy back in time for November!

Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than 14 to 20,000 schoolkids sacrified, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks.

Meanwhile, the office here is taking it even more seriously. They'd previously limited clients and staff coming in if they'd been out of the country in recent weeks. They've now added about a third of the US states, as close to here as Ohio, which have played footsie with the virus and are seeing their cases spike again. Also, anyone who has been contact-traced to someone exposed- hence, shutting off my two appointments du jour. I did walk into a government office for the first time in four months today, for a quick certification of the Court Order From Hell that I will need to write about sometime. And our town court is resuming in-person hearings before the end of the month- at least as of how things stand now.

Eleanor wound up being fully paid- she thinks she even got an extra hour in there somehow- for the days she was scheduled to work last week and couldn't because of the delayed negative results. Her second and third days back were less of a shock to the system than the first one was, plus she got word yesterday that her longtime not-quite-boss, who had been driving her craycray at work for months, has finally taken retirement and won't be returning.

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Me? When I'm not trying to get work done, I just take pictures outside. This one from yesterday with the dog, who got in a staring contest with a passing cat:

I then came upon this one, crossing the street near my office to get to the corner bagel joint (Wegmans has been hopelessly out of pumpernickel, for some reason):

It’s some kind of construction marker- 10 feet down is sprayed with a “55”- but man they’re gonna be wondering why this one spot smells like it was pissed on.

And then heading home last night, there was this sight outside the abandoned Chuckie's. I saw it as something of an updated Edward Hopper diner painting:

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Other random updates:

* Apparently, Facebook has finally taken me off double-secret probation for my malaprop in May;

* Eleanor spent time on the phone yesterday with a lovely Lowe's online rep who was kind and helpful and we think got us a workable replacement heating element for the ancient oven for all of 14 bucks, due to arrive next week;

* We'd planned on doing homemade wings the other night, which the dead element ruled out until Eleanor decided to smoke them outside (as opposed to smoking him inside;) on the grill. They came out great and she likely will make that the default method now. My contribution was to experiment with the Rootie's label instructions for the blue cheese dressing, which really does make the stuff work better as a wing topping.

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And that just about tops it off.