On the weather front, we expect to have some bitter cold temperatures. Tonight’s low is forecasted to be 10, with strong winds and a windchill of 0. But we dodged most of the snow. We got about half an inch. We have a very sunny day with no winds right now. I’m basking in a very warm seat just inside our storm door. It’s 25 outside and certainly over 80 while sitting in the sun. Amazing!

The deck door is installed. They still have to install the trim and screen, and paint. We’re enjoying the view out behind our house.

We have the car back. Replacing that expensive module did not solve the problem. I’m charging the 12 volt battery at night. I also got a cigarette lighter volt meter to help keep an eye on things while I think about what to do next.

Howard County is doing very well with COVID. The CDC has 4 transmission levels. According to the Maryland site, we have 50 cases per 100K population. That is level 2. Our positivity rate is 10.4%, which puts us just over the definition of level 4. We will officially drop to 3 when the positivity rate drops below 10, and level 2 when the positivity rate drops below 8.

We feel safe enough to attend the BSO concert tomorrow. Everybody is masked and vaccinated. This pleases me immensely. The last piece will be Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony. You can say this piece is unsophisticated. You can even call it schmaltzy. But I love it, especially the last movement. The feeling can’t be reproduced with any audio system I will ever own. The only way for me to experience this piece is in person. We’re still taking precautions. We mask up in any public building. That means no eating in restaurants. We’re still using N 95 masks. But if present trends continue, we’ll eat with the Jones’s when the food truck shows up next Friday. It’s Italian food. Yummy. And the conversation is always first rate.

Unfortunately, the sun stopped shining in the front door. I hope everybody is doing well.

We are still waiting for our new door to be installed. Hopefully it will happen this week.

We are still waiting to get our car back. Hopefully it will happen this week. Just by coincidence, the dealer sent an offer to purchase an extended car warranty. They use Zurich, which is supposed to be a pretty good company. This would be for “next time”. We’re thinking about it. Everybody says electric cars don’t need much maintenance, but we racked up $1700 so far in the last 12 months. No more Nissans for me. Selling the car now is very unattractive, due to depreciation. Thank goodness our other car is a Honda.

Our Honda needs routine service. I scheduled it for Wednesday. Wouldn’t it be cool if our Leaf was back so I didn’t have to sit at the dealer waiting for the service to be done.

It looks like Mom’s apartment will be repaired this week. Fingers crossed on that one.

We had an incredibly exciting week. (Not). A food truck came Wednesday. That’s all that’s scheduled for now. We’re not eating at the Jones’s due to the level of Covid cases. Clubhouse activities are being cancelled because very few are signing up. Not that we would be going in any event. The good news is that COVID infections in Maryland seems to have peaked. The positivity rate in MD is down to 16% (down from a high of 30%). We’re under 100 cases per 100K population (down from a high of 220).

It’s been cold lately. I decided I no longer enjoy riding when the temperature is below freezing. I’m using the neighborhood gym on cold days. It’s not particularly fun, and it’s not as good exercise, but it’s better than nothing.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We still don’t have the new back door. The dealer figured out what’s wrong with our car. It needs a “TCM” (whatever that is). It costs $1000, and it’s not under warranty. Unfortunately, the E-car mechanic got COVID, so we’re waiting for him to get better and come back to work. Danita had her colonoscopy. They found a small polyp, so she’ll be going back in 3 years. I gave my cyber security talk for St. Paul’s Church. We had about 20 attendees. It went well.

On the having fun part, we had our Icelandic dinner last Sunday. The lamb stew didn’t work. Sometimes new things work, sometimes they don’t. It’s all part of the adventure. In all of our married life, we have now doubled the number of meals we threw away, from one to two. But the Icelandic rye bread was quite good. It wasn’t totally authentic. You’re supposed to put it in a pullman pan and bake it in a hot fissure. We don’t have many hot fissures in this area, so Danita used her oven and a regular bread pan. It was quite good — a lot like Russian black bread.

We’re hoping that our new back door and our car will both be completed this week. Fingers crossed!

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Danita and I had a fun time today. Jul gave us a subscription to Finders Seekers. This month’s puzzle was about Iceland and Jules Verne’s book “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. We started out by reading the novel. Today, we solved most of the puzzles, but had to look up the answer to one. We got a playlist of Islandic music, which we played while working on the puzzles. We also got an Icelandic recipe, which was Volcano cake. We decided we have had a lot of rich food lately, and while there are a lot of volcanos in Iceland, volcano cake was probably not a specialty of the area. Instead, Danita is making lamb stew and rye bread.

Maintenance wise, things aren’t going very well. Mom suffered from a water leak in the apartment above hers. Her bedroom is OK and the living room is mostly OK. She decided to stay in her apartment while the maintenance crew works on repairs. Our electric car is back at the dealer. Parts for the door to our deck will arrive no sooner than Friday. Before they can install the door, a Pella representative has to come and review the correct procedure for installation. The dryer is showing signs of advanced age. But we now have a really cool network.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

For the new year, we had plans to see a Matisse exhibit at the BMA followed by an afternoon dinner Gertrude’s restaurant. We decided that given the Omicron surge, it would be better not to eat in a restaurant. Then we decided we might as well can the exhibit also. Instead, we popped a frozen pizza in the oven and broke out a bottle of wine.

Before Verizon gave me the free upgrade, I had two networks in the house. The first was for all the Internet of Things devices (video streamers, security cameras, etc.) The second was a private network for our computers. I lost the second network when I rewired for the new Verizon configuration. I spent a lot of time this weekend getting the two networks back. The only thing I had to buy was a power strip. I’m getting better. I had to add a connector to an Ethernet cable. This time, instead of 3 hours and two frustration breaks, I got it done in one hour flat. (Any normal person takes a few minutes.) It’s a good thing I don’t have to make a living with this stuff. The result is pretty good. I found I’m going to have to make a couple of adjustments. I should have everything ship shape tomorrow.