Cruise Covid

I just heard that my father-in-law, a 90 year old knight of St. John of Matla (hospitaler) and his wife caught covid on a cruise. I am worrried about them. If you are able, please, pray for Harry and Nora.

And now I covid.

Seriously, I'm teaching 7 different subjects(Econ, U.S. hist, world hist, current events, college prep, and entrepreneurship, shotgun team), taking one class, and running a political campaign. And I have Covid. I am falling behind. Uggh.

Covid Again

Kathleen had a headache on Wednesday. Thursday she had a fever and started coughing. On Friday she tested positive for Covid. I had the virus and was sick for a few days. My son, Basil was sick for months. My step-daughter had it it and was miserable for a week. Right now Kathleen is so sick she is semi-delusional. I hope the people who designed this virus suffer 10x more than they have made members of my family suffer.

Honeymoon and Covid

We went on a cruise to Alaska. We flew from San Jose to Seattle, where we got on the ship, the M.S. Westerdam. Our first stop was in Juneau where we visted St Nicholas Orthodox Church (They currenty do not have a rector and are surviving on reader services and occasional clergy visits), and then Glacier Bay, then Sitka where we visted St Michal Orthodox Church and were blessed to venerate a relic of St Herman. The ships next stop was Ketchican, where we went fishing.

We caught amazing number of fish, and Kathleen caught the largest one, a 34" Silver Coho.

We had 180 pounds of various species of salmon flash frozen and shipped to us, even one chum salmon which we will feed to the dog.

The next stop was Victoria, BC but we did not get off the ship. That was the night Kathleen started coughing. The next morning we got off the ship in Seattle and Kathleen had a fever. Our hotel, the Mayflower Park Hotel was very comfortable and the staff was very helpful. As soon as I told them my wife was sick they had a room ready for us, letting us check in 7 hours early.

Kathleen spent a miserable night. I walked to a nearby drug sstore to get her medicine but it did not do much. The next morning I was coughing too. By the time Basil Wenceslas picked us up at the airport in San Jose on the 31st of June we both had fevers. When we got home we went strait to bed. The next morning we both tested positive for covid. Then the next day Basil tested positive. All three of us got perscriptions for paxlovid that day. As of Sunday (today is Tuesday the 8th of August.) we are both testing negative and Kathleen says she is 80% recovered. She began teaching her fall semester yesterday. Today was the first day I was able to get out of bed. I can't taste anything except for salt and citrus, or smell anything except for what I think is a hallucination (burning wood), and my sense of balance is off, and I am partially deaf. Hopefully, that all corrects soon. I go back to work tomorrow so today I spent writing my course syllabi. Basil is doing worse than Kathleen and I. This is his third time to have covid.

A Joyful Day!

Today Basil Wenceslas, who has been suffereing from Long Covid, was well enough to return to Church. It was his first time to be in Church since Holy Week. He was exhausted by the end of Communion and we left before the Prayers of Thanksgiving but he was there. I am much relieved and very happy.

Update on my children

My son, Anselm Samuel has been on a couple of short training missions, each one only a few days, aboard the U.S.S. Hampton. They were just off the coast of California for the short missions and all they did was test equipment and run through some drills. Today he told me they are leaving for a real mission (I didn't ask what it is because I know he can't tell me.) in a couple of weeks and will be gone until after Christmas.

My son, Basil Wenceslas is doing better. Last night he went out of the house with some friends for the first time in months. When I called him about 11 p.m. to read Exodus together he was whiped out and feeling exhausted by the exertion of going to a movie but I am just so happy he was able to get out of bed and go outside!!!

What We Call Fun at Our House

Fun thing #1: Basil was feeling well enough to get out of bed yesterday. We sat at the table and played three games of 7 Wonders and two games of Go. (I am a 30th degree white belt. The boys laugh every time I remind them of that.) He is paying for it today, however. He has not been able to get out of bed at all today.

Fun thing #2: Kathleen and I are both history, government, and economics teachers, and we have been sitting in the living room most of the day with computers on and surrounded by books as we plan out our courses, share sources, write syllabi, and refine lectures.

Oh, no, I said it.

The other day, because 98% of the Monkey Pox cases in the U.S. are in men who have sex with other men, I said the spread of Monkey Pox could be halted if men would stop having sex with men. I was astounded by the reaction. People were quick call me a bigot, to inform me that the disease is spread easily between people and not just by sodomy, that it is possible for non-homosexual men to be immoral, and more. It was just astounding to me. All one has to do is look at the SCIENTIFIC FACTS to see that what I said is true. But it seems that the Overton Window has shifted and we are no longer able to say what is true about the link between homosexual behavior and disease. But I am going to say it anyway because it is not love to not warn people when they are in danger or, even worse, to encourage them to engage in the behavior that will kill them. Just like my parents who used to warn me to lose weight, like my sister who used to tell me to not drive too fast, like the Church that warned me not to commit suicide (because sucides are separated from God forever) when I was suffering from depression, like the U.S. government that warns people not to smoke cigarettes, love also demands that we warn the homosexuals that what they are doing is deadly.

Here are some facts about homosexual behavior and disease.

Only about 4.5% of the U.S. population (male and female) engages in homosexual activity but just the men in that 4.5% account for:
83% of primary and seconday syphillis cases
10% and 20% of hepatitis A and B cases
Between 64% and 72% of the people who have HIV

Those are facts. But what should be done about them? In the early days of the HIV epidemic the mayor of San Francisco closed all the bath houses (it's a euphemism for orgy club) in the city. (I'm not arguing that the closure stopped the spreead of HIV.) In 2020 the whole country was shut down to halt the spread of Covid-19. (I'm not arguing that the shutdown stopped the spread of Covid-19.) What I am arguing is that if we could shut down private sex clubs and even the whole country, we should be free to say what is obvious. We have laws that forbid the sale of tobacco to minors but it is the social and moral approrbium that have really cut the percentage of cigarette smokers to historic lows. Maybe, a good first step to reducing HIV, syphillis, monkey pox, and hepetitis infections is to speak the truth about homosexual behavior leading to disease instead of celebrating their behavor in Pride Parades and Up Your Alley street orgies.

American History and the Divine Liturgy

Yesterday and today all I did was go page by page through a history book writing down questions for class discussions. I'm using three different texts for my history classes, which star in two weeks. The book I've been in all of Friday and yesterday is Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story by Wilfred McClay. I don't really like history textbooks which are written by committes, and read like they were written by comittees. In general, monograph narratives of specific events such as Patriots: The Men who Started the American Revoluiton by A.J. Lannguth which only deal with the American Revolution and The Second Work War by Winston Churchill are much better, having been written by experts, having one point of view with which the reader can grapple, and having lots of footnotes so the reader can see what the author's sources are. History textbooks for highschool try to cover so much in so few pages that it is difficult to really know anything, there is often no point of view, and they always lack footnotes.

What McClay has done, however, is really good. Land of Hope might be the best history text book I have ever read. It has a point of view, e.g. America is good but flawed and we are still struggling to perfect it, so let's be thankful for the past, hopeful for the future, and get to work living lives worthy of our ancestors' hopes for us. Land of Hope is written in such a way that even though it doesn't go into much detail about anything it leaves you wanting to read more. Sadly, there are no footnotes but for those who want to go deeper into the knowledge of the people and events McClay wrote about there is, in the back of the book, a four page list of the kinds of history books I prefer to read. And finally, Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story is one long flowing narrative, which is in itself, a huge improvement over every highschool history textbook I have ever read. I think my students will learn much from it.

Today I went to the Divine Liturgy at Saint Stephen Orthodox Church in Campbell, California. My parish, Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church in Saratoga has been hit by Covid-19, and both the priest and choir director are suffering. After liturgy I ate an ommelette and took a nap. Now I have to get back to preparing for the semester.

A Vacation, a Job, and My Youngest Son

Last week Kathleen and I went fishing on the Rogue River in Oregon. I caught no fish but Katheleen caught a beautiful steelhead smolt. I cleaned it and cooked it for her. On the way to Oregon we stopped in the charming little town of Winters. Then we drove on to Red Bluff, at the north end of the Central Valley where we spent the night. While we were there someone stole our anchor off the the trailer. I had read it was a high crime area but I never would have thought someone would steal an anchor. We drove past Mount Shasta (I had never seen it. Wow! It is amazing. Even in July the peak was covered with snow.) It was fun going over the Siskayou Pass. After Passing Mount Shasta we stopped in Yreaka to mail postcards to the kids. I talked to the postmaster and saw something interesting. She sprayed my money with a chemical that neutralizes meth and cocaine. She said that cocaine isn't a problem in the area but meth is everywhere. Cute town, though.

When we got to the Rogue River we had to go get a new anchor. The owner of the Rogue River Boat Shop was friendly and helpful. And then one of the fishing reels broke. I bought some new ones. They are better than the old ones. Talked with the owner of Bradbury's for a long time. He was an MP in the Army a few years before I enlisted. He gave me the fishing line for free and gave me some good information about fishing on the Rogue River, mainly, that I was there at the wrong time of year and that I shouldn't expect to catch anything. We stayed there four nights. The river was beautiful.

On the way home we stopped in Yreka again and had a picnic at the Greenhorn Reservoir Park. Deer walked within 30 feet of us. The dog almost died trying to break his leash to get to them but the deer didn't care.

On Monday I applied for a job teaching history, government, and economics at a private school in San Jose. I interviewed on Tuesday. On Wednesday I found out I got the job. Later this afternoon I'll go in to fill out all the HR paperwork. On Monday of next week I'll start training to get AP certified.

Basil is still very sick from having Covid back in April. He has many of the long covid symptoms but the doctors do not seem to know what to do. It is very alarming. Please, pray for him.

Anselm, Basil, and Baptism

Anselm was graduated from his final training (I think they put him through three different courses) as a junior enlisted man at the U.S. Navy's Submarine School. He is a qualified navigator and navigation equiment repairman now. Oh, he is a pistolero for the Navy, too. That last qualification, I am sure, will not be used on a submarine, but the more qualifications a sailor has the faster he gets promoted. Today he began driving from Connecticut to California. He'll stop by San Jose for a couple of days but then he reports for duty at Point Loma.

Basil is still very sick from the Covid, it has been since just before Palm Sunday. He is able to keep up with his classes (regular high school classes + an art history class from Evergreen Valley Community College but easly spends 15 hours a day in bed. He has no active virus but his heart and lungs are taking a long time to recover. The doctors changed his meds a week ago but say not to expect any improvement for at least another week.

Kathleen and her son are scheduled to be baptised on May 28. She ordered baptismal gowns from someplace in Greece. It was 45 years ago when I was baptised but I think I remember wearing brown couduroy pants and a brown and white striped cowboy shirt with mother-of-pearl snaps. It was just what I had on. No one had planned on me being baptised that day. I don't remember a lot about it. I remember visiting a church in Mountain View (The church my Dad pastored was in the neighbring city of Palo Alto.) where a whole lot of peole were being baptised. I remember having to convince my Mom and Dad that I really believed. And I remember standing in the water with my Dad and Uncle Harry (He was a preacher in the same denomination as my Dad.) I remember the question, "Do you believe in and choose to follow Jesus as your only Lord, God, and Savior" When I said "I do" they laid me down in the water saying I was being baptised in the "name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." When I came up they said to me, "You are a new creature in Christ". It was shorter than the Orthodox way of baptizing.

Covid-19

A few days ago I was exposed. Yesterday after subbing I was feeling pretty bad. Burning in my chest, chills, muscle aches, slight cough. So, I called in sick to Bass Pro Shops where I was going to work at night, and went by my doctor to get a Covid-19 test. The results aren't back so I didn't go to work at the school this morning or at Bass Pro Shops tonight. I hope the results come back soon and say I don't have covid. I don't want to miss any more work.

A 7th grade science and math teacher I subbed for last year wants to use me again next week. I talked with her today to go over the lesson plans and she asked me me to give my talk on Aristotle and the laws of identity and non-contradiction to her students. She said that last year her students really enjoyed it and that they used it for the rest of the year. Based on that, the things that are in her classroom, and the things that are not in her classroom I think she must be a Christian. But I don't feel anything so I don't want to ask her. Well, regardless of whether or not she is, it makes me happy that she wants me to give her students a tool to recognize Truth.

Update: I got the test results. They are inconclusive so I have to get another test on Monday. The said I have some Covid RNA in me but they don't know if I'm getting over it or just catching it. Until the resultd from the new test I have to act like I'm contageous.

Another update: I don't have covid. The rna in my blood was from the vaccine. I just had a cold.

Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday

On Lazarus Saturday I made Grandfathrs cioppino but since it wasn't a Fish Day we we left the fish out of the recipe. Also, I couldnt find any crabs. Essentially, it was the same recipe but we used scallops, clams, and shrimp instead of all the animals called for in the original recipe. It was still good. And because Lazarus Saturday is the only caviar day during any of the Church's fasting periods, we had caviar. We served it on slices of English cucumber with avocodo and chive. It was the first time in many years I didn't order from Marky's but that's okay. Also, because finances are tight for me (lack of work due to the Covid) I only bought the least expensive edible fish eggs I could find in a local store but it was still very good. The boys and Kathleen enjoyed it. After dinner I had to go to work but Kathleen and the boys went to the festal vigil for Palm Sunday.

On Sunday the boys and I went to church. It was a glorious service. Anselm and I carried the palms branches during the procession around the church. After the service I picked up the paskha and kulich I ordered. I am not making my own this year but bought it from the parish fundraiser. THe woman in the parish who makes it does a good job. Her paskah is better than mine but I think my kulich is better than hers. It balances out. Also, the parish needs the money.

After church we came back home and and I fried up crab cakes and served them with a corn and pineapple salsa as a snack. Then got to work making dinner. THere was a cucumber tomato and red onion salad dressed with soy sause and rice vinegar, grilled tuna steaks, roasted potatoes with garlic cumin parsley black epper and thyme, and a fruit macedonia. While Anselm was getting the coals ready Basilwent out to the garden and turned the compost pile.

Speaking of the garden, here are some pictures Kathleen took yseterday.

Duck Hunting and Tragedy in the Garden

One of the things I have enjoyed about COVID is all the time I get to spend with my kids.  Just this morning the three of us went duck hunting on San Francisco Bay.  Much fun.  Also very important since Anselm is leaving for the Navy in 4 months.   Last night after dinner (They spent the night since we had to leave the house before dawn this morning.) we talked about stewardship and the importance of planning giving and not just handing out money to everyone who asks for it.  (Because they are inexperienced and have very few financial needs, young sailors and soldiers are often targeted by various charities.) So I told him about the OCMC and FOCUS:NA, and encouraged him to talk with our priest about other giving opportunities before he leaves to go to be a submariner.  I also made sure the boys saw me write 3 checks to our parish for various things.  I explained to them what the checks were for, and told them about Malachi 3:8-10.  And I talked with them about God's mercy because when we give money to the poor r to the Church, or do charities we will often do it then think of ourselves as good men for doing it, or how we've done it hoping someone will see us do it and thing highly of us  - that even the good things we do are polluted by sin.  Thus we ask God to show us His mercy.  As for ducks there were none, and the geese were flying too high to shoot.  But it was a good time boating around on the bay.

A few days ago Kathleen and I started a bunch more seeds in little pots.  Most of them have sprouted.  Altogether we have almost two hundred little seedlings of various kinds.  But now we have a problem:  I wrote the names of each kind and variety we planted on the outside of each of the little bio-degradable pots. Why is that a problem?  Because when watered the pots begin to decompose and I can no longer read what I wrote on more than 70% of the pots.  I planted six varieties of squash in about 25 pots but have no idea exactly which variety is in which pot.  I have the same situation with cukes, melons, zukes, peas, and tomatoes.  The only things I know for sure are black beauty eggplants and burley tobacco because those are the only varieties we planted of eggplant and tobacco. We'll just have to wait a few months to see what grows on all the other plants.

Christmas and After

On Christmas morning we went to church.  Because of Covid the service was held outside.  And because of a forecast of rain only a dozen people were there.  But that worked out perfectly because I only had a dozen fruit cakes to giveaway.  The boys had gone to Confession a few days before so they were able to go to Communion.

After church we went home an I cooked the Christmas sausage while every one opened presents.  That evening we had a crown pork roast for dinner.

On the third day of Christmas I baked three French hens.  It's noting too fancy, just chickens covered in butter and herbs du Provence. 

Kathleen and I wend duck hunting at Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge.  (I know it sounds weird to hunt at a wildlife refuge but the refuge was created to protect only two species, neither of which is a duck.)  We were only out for an hour because I didn't feel well (I hurt my neck and, as a result, had horrible pain in my shoulder and arm.  Had to get and MRI and then drugs.  The drugs made me sick and I spent 5 days mostly in bed. Only yesterday afternoon did I start to feel better.) but we still managed to shoot one pintail.  We could have had two but I missed a shot.

Kathleen got us a green house to start seeds in.  Remember a few weeks ago when we started seeds indoors?  Well of those 32 little seed starting cells eleven germinated.  We transplanted those eleven in to cow pots and moved them into the little green house.  We also sewed a bunch of seeds in cow pots and put them in the little green house. 

Tomatoes:  Paul Robeson, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Wood's Famous Brimmer, and Bush Goliath

Cucumber: Solly Beiler and Yamato Sanjaku

Squash: Hybrid Gold Rush

In the ground where we grew radishes in the fall we planted a row of purple kohlrabi, and along the fence where we have poppies and lots of bulbs, we transplanted milkweed (a gift from a friend), and sewed seeds for bee balm and butterfly weed.

The kale we planted a couple of months ago is doing amazing.  I just used a basket full of it, together with the last of the Christmas sausage, to make a very yummy soup.

Pumpkin and Pistol

 Sunday night the boys came over and we ate a Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good.  Rather my version of it, which is better.  I use croutons made from day old baguette buttered and dusted with powdered sage and thyme, and I use 1/4 pound of bacon, cubes of beef, and slices of bratwurst all fried in bacon grease. And I use more cheese and cream, too.  Oh, and many 12-15 cloves of garlic sliced in half and fried in bacon grease, too.  It's a dish that can be changed many ways and still be amazing.

After the dinner we watched John Wayne in Henry Ford's 1939 film, Stagecoach.  I wanted to take them to see it at the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto this year but, because of COVID, the theater is closed.  I took Anselm there to see the movie when he was 5 but he didn't remember it.  He remembered the theater but not the movie.

Yesterday, Kathleen and I worked in the garden.  I think I like the winter garden as much as the summer garden.

Last night I completely disassembled and rebuilt my pistol.  It was the first time I had done it since I bought in 1994.  It was long over due and much needed as the gun would not cycle nor would the magazines eject properly.  I replaced the recoil spring, lubricated the firing pin, cleaned the carbon build up off of every surface (It was carbon on the grip screws that was hindering the magazines.), and greased it up.  Now, it's as good as the day I bought it.  I've very happy about that.  Hmmmm.  Maybe I should become a gunsmith.

The summer is over

I finished up my work for the U.S. Census Bureau this week.  It was a good way to finish up the summer.  Most of my work was here in San Jose but they sent be to Reno for a little over a week and to Stockton for five days ending Tuesday of this week.  While I was on the Stockton trip they named me to the permanent travel team, and I thought my next trip was going to be Wyoming and Montana where I would finish up the census on Oct 31.  But then, the very next day, Wednesday of this week they shut down all our operations.  Well, it was fun while it lasted.  Now, I'll look for something else.  I still am working part time at Bass Pro Shops but that is only a few hours a week because of Covid. (The health department only lets us serve 2 customers per hour at the gun counter and two customers per hour at the ammo counter.)

A lot has happened in the garden.  About 2 weeks ago we took delivery of a truck-load of horse manure and covered all the beds with it.  Then we planted beets, garlic, kale, and radishes.  Everything except the garlic has sprouted.  I don't know if I mentioned it or not in earlier posts but we made an 8 foot tall tube out of cattle panel, set it in a trash can full of our compost, and planted a bunch up stuff in it last spring.  All the vines climbed to the top and have produced spaghetti squash, butternut squash, cucumbers, melons, and last and getting ripe right now, a pumpkin 6 feet up in the air.  We planted some beit alpha cucumber seeds a few weeks ago and harvested the first one yesterday.  We have a volunteer acorn squash in a 2' pot.  We had filled the pot with our compost but, I guess, our compost doesn't get hot enough to kill all the seeds.  But that's okay.  There are six acorn squash on the vine.  And we still have four potted zucchini vines from the spring that are producing.  Not as much as in June but each still produces one or two per week.  The star of the garden right now is the eggplant bush.  We have given away a lot of eggplant to neighbors and there are 8 or 9 on the bush getting big and ripe right now.  Today, I mailed a bunch of our Thai dragon peppers to my brother in Modesto. 

A couple of weeks ago, Kathleen and I visited Fort Bragg, a little coastal town in northern California.  We rode the Skunk Train, ate at some amazing restaurants (Silver's and the North Coast Brewing Company), watched seals playing in the harbor, and stayed at the Anchor Lodge.  Almost everything in town was closed because of Covid, but the Silvers and  North Coast had outside and socially distanced seating.  

Oh!  We found out that there is a small preschool that visits the garden a couple of times a week.  The teachers talk about the different plants, the compost bin, take measurements, etc.  They also sampled some of our millions of sungold tomatoes when they were still growing.  When we found out they were visiting the garden Kathleen gave them cucumbers.
 
I made 6 fruitcakes today.  Well, they are still in the oven so, to be more accurate, I'm still making them.  Basil Wenceslas is coming over tomorrow and together we'll make six more.

Last trip to Truckee/Donner/Reno for 2020 and an Eagle Scout.

Kathleen and I went to Reno last Friday night.  I promptly got altitude sickness and was no good most of Saturday.  I had never experienced that before, and I hope I never do again.  It was misery but I started feeling better late on Saturday.  In the afternoon we went shooting at Reno Guns and Range then out to dinner at Wilde River Grill.  I had meatloaf.  Kathleen had braised beef spareribs.   On Sunday morning we stopped at St Anthony Church to pray before going up to Donner Lake to get the boat.  We had to get the boat because the berth I rented back in June was only until September 20.  So, we strapped it to the roof of the car and drove it home.  Now it is in Kathleen's garage.  I'm going to have to do something about that.

When we left San Jose on Friday night it was horrible smokey and still very hot.  Reno was the same.  While we were gone something must have happened because when we got home the air quality was much improved and the temperature was much lower.  It is almost like a normal September.  I'm starting to plan for Thanksgiving.

Covid is still messing with my life.  One of my goals every year is to be in church for all the Great Feasts.  I have never achieved this goal.  I was off to a good start with Nativity of the Theotokos but due to restrictions put in place because of Covid none of the parishes in the in the San Jose area had services open to the public.  So, maybe, next year.

Exactly a week ago tonight, Anselm Samuel (AKA the Little Boy) attended his last Boy Scout Troop meeting.  Technically, he hasn't been a Boy Scout since the spring when he turned 18 but Covid messed stuff up and there were no more troop meetings from before he turned 18 until last Wednesday.  And at that meeting, he was given the emblems of the Eagle Scout rank.  He did it.   Fewer than 5% of the boys who start out as Cub Scouts attain the rank of Eagle Scout.  He started in 2008.  It's been a long 12 years.  I  am super proud of him. 

Darkess at Noon, Working in the Garden.

I didn't have work for the Census Bureau today and I'm on leave from Bass Pro Shops until Sep  17 so I took advantage of this time to work in the garden,  I took all the tomato vines out of one bed (So, yes, we are having fried green tomatoes at supper tonight.), chopped them up and threw them in the compost pile.  Then I dug up the whole bed to loosen up the soil and and mix straw into it.  About 6 inches down it was very compacted so it really needed to be broken up; and the straw should help with water retention.  Then I transplanted six basil plants from various places in the garden to the north 1/5 of the bed.   In the remaining part of the bed I transplanted onions we started in a 2'x1' pot back in March.   There were hundreds of them in the pot, all totally root bound.  I separated them transplanted the biggest 40, gave some to the Indian woman who showed me how to grow garlic a couple of years ago, and some to the HOA's landscaper to take home and put in his garden.  What was left over went in the compost pile.

There was ash from the fires on the ground this morning.  On cars and on the balcony, too.  One of the fires, a small one was about 1/4 mile from my house but San Jose Fire Department extinguished it in just a few hours.   The smoke is so thick today that I had to turn on the lights in the house and the street lights (they come on automatically when it gets dark outside.) came on about 11 a.m.  The sky is dark orange and even the hummingbirds are confused.  They are acting like it is end-of-day feeding time.  The nice thing about today is that it is cooler than it has been in a week.  

Work for money, work for love

Yesterday I finished all the training for the Census Bureau.  Now I'm just waiting for my boss to call me and tell me when I can go out and start counting people.  I'm pretty excited about it.  It's fun to do a job mandated by the Constitution.

I'm still working part time at Bass Pro Shops.  It is only part time because of Wuhan restrictions.  The health department only lets us serve two customers per hour at the gun counter, and only two customers per hour at the ammo counter; not that we have any ammo.  For example, there is a nationwide shortage of all the most popular kinds.  We've been out of buckshot since March.

My instructor from last semester's waste water management class sent me an email and asked me to apply for a job in his department.  He is the director of public works for a small city here in the Bay Area.  I  submitted my application late last night but wont hear anything until October.  Governments have very slow hiring processes.  This brings to three the number of waste water management departments I've applied to since I finished the training.

Also yesterday, I helped Kathleen with her classes.  I wrote the first assignment for her history class (it has to do with identifying values that motivate people to make the decisions we call history) and gave her the readings and assignments for the first six weeks of her economics class.  Plato, Aristotle, Bastiat, Marx (He's been in the grave for 140 years but he is still killing people.), Smith, Hazlitt for the first six weeks.  In the second 6 weeks, I think, she is going to do Hayek, Friedman, and Keynes.

Today I began growing bacteria for the garden.  Yes, we are composting but I think the nutrients we have been putting into the soil are not getting into the plants because the bacteria are getting killed by the heat.  (Hot soil is a hazzard of growing in raised beds.) So now I am growing bacteria and in a few days I will pour it all over the garden.  Then I'll cover the ground with a good mat of straw to keep the soil from getting too hot.