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COVID Cases:
The number of cases in Massachusetts* for the week of Aug. 30–Sept. 5 was 406. This is pretty much the same as previous week, but more than three times higher than levels July 5–11.

Over the same week, there were 25 confirmed cases in Boston, and 88 in Middlesex County: the latter is somewhat above the level from the previous week. (Still no cases in Cambridge or Somerville that they know of/admit to.)

Wastewater Levels in Greater Boston: about 100 V/PMMoV.** Verily.com is still describing this as "very low", but it's appreciably above last week's figure. (Probably still PRETTY low, though.)

* That's confirmed AND suspected cases, as reported here.

** As of 9. Sept. See my Sept. 5 post for discussion of their method and data source.

( Notes: )

CoViD Levels in Greater Boston (as 2 September) are 54 V/PMMoV.****
That could correlate to anything from 25–150 Bobcat-Robots, but regardless, Verily is describing this as "very low"; and assuming my calculations are correct, that's actually pretty accurate.

( footnotes )

CoViD Situation:
The number of cases in Massachusetts* for the week of Aug. 23–29 was 410. This is 31% higher than the previous week, and more than three times higher than levels July 5–11.

Over the same week, there were 30 confirmed cases in Boston, and 71 in Middlesex County: the latter is considerably above the level from the previous week. (Still no cases in Cambridge or Somerville that they know of/admit to.)

Time to order more KN95s...

* That's confirmed AND suspected cases, as reported here.

Meantime, one of the ringers allegedly knows a guy who knows a guy who's still working on Covid wastewater levels, so I should ask about that.

ETA: Hookay, found it! The ongoing CoViD wastewater data can be found can be found here!

Of course, they're using a completely different method of calculating CoViD levels in the population, so I'm going to have to go back and work out how CoViD:PMMoV ratios correlate to Bobcat-Robots. But the pattern they suggest is that CoViD levels are going up, but not at as dramatic a rate as reported Covid cases. In any event, for the moment I'm going to be slightly pessimistic and say that

CoViD Wastewater Levels (as of 31 Aug.): around 100 CoViD:PMMoV.

CoViD Situation:
The number of cases in Massachusetts* for the week of Aug. 16–22 was 313. This is 7.5% higher than the previous week, and about 146% higher than that July 5–11.

Over the week of Aug. 16-22, there were 26 confirmed cases in Boston, and 50 in Middlesex County: around the same as the previous week. (No cases in Cambridge or Somerville that they know of/admit to.)

* That's confirmed AND suspected cases, as reported here.

So for anyone who hasn't been following: the MA DPH has terminated the Biobot testing program, so CoViD levels are going to be harder to track now.

The number of cases in Massachusetts* for the week of Aug. 9–15 was 287. This is about 125% higher than that from a month earlier (July 5–11). The good news is that at the former point,** CoViD levels were vanishingly low (around 37 Bobcat-Robots), so they're probably still very low: probably below 100 Bobcat-Robots.

Over the week of Aug. 9–15, there were 19 confirmed CoVid cases in Boston, and 5 in Cambridge; the total for Somerville is unclear, but probably ~~zero~~ low.***

* That's confirmed AND suspected cases, as reported here.

** which was around the last time when there stopped being good Biobot data.

*** ETA: The number listed for Somerville (and Newton) was "*", which I'm pretty sure means either "No clue, probably some?" or "F--- you, we're not telling (because of overblown concerns about patient confidentiality.)".
The number of cases in that week for "Middlesex County, but we're not going to tell you where!" was 46; so there may have been some in Newton/Somerville, seein' as how they're the county's third & fourth largest cities, respectively.

There's a Bourne Surprise Minor, but no Sagamore or Identity?!?

This is fun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGia1R3xacM

Just a quick note to say I am back from hiking Mt. Moxie (NE Fifty Finest #50) and Mt. Redington (our last Maine 4000'er) and man, several parts of me are sore now.

TWO! Two 250th anniversary peal attempts that I'm now in! (One of them in the really difficult tower!)¹ Ah-ah-ah-aahhh!

¹ The one where the bells are on plain bearings, i.e. the oldschool kind that have to be greased every time. I guess this will be good practice for the memorial QP that my Dad has requested, assuming that I'm still ringing at that point in my life?
(For clarity: my father is still very much alive, and I'm hoping and assuming that he will remain so for at least the next decade or so. And by that point I'll be close to/past 60, so who knows if I'll still be in shape for a QP at Chesterton, which is what he's requested as a memorial? [And obviously, we're also assuming the non-collapse of civilization and the continued existence of transatlantic travel.])

Aaand in typical fashion, I came out of church and accidentally walked into the back of the Somerville fireworks.

ETA, following morning: Wow, I am behind on reading everybody's journals.

Huh. I haven't updated this in a while. But that's actually sorta fine, because
CoViD levels are Vanishingly Low: 22 Bobcat-Robots.*

* Again, that's my self-invented unit for "Copies of CoViD RNA per mL of wastewater in the Boston-area North System, as reported here." (The name being inspired by the Pirate-Ninja + a couple of XKCD references.)
And for context: the height of the Omicron surge (Jan. 2022) saw levels over 8,000 Bobcat-robots; Boston Change Ringers currently sets our threshold for requiring masking in the tower at 800 Bobcat-Robots; and I have previously described levels of 200 Bobcat-Robots as "pretty low". So these levels are somewhere under the cellar floor. (Buried, probably with a wine cask on top.)

At work. With new transition lens glasses and a head cold. Urrrghhh.

(Meantime: I am listening to the Baldur's Gate 3 soundtrack on YouTube. As usual, the compiler has used various backgrounds from the game as a backdrop. from which it looks like it's even worse than Skyrim for being in the uncanny valley of "the natural world does not move like that".)
(Hm, I should see if Red Dead Horse B***s does a better job on that... ETA: NO.)

SECOND ADDENDUM: I should note: I aten't ded, I was just in western Mass. all weekend. At my college reunion. I now have a hat that totally doxxes me.

Too hot yesterday.

Too hot tomorrow.

And today the T fell over.*

*Specifically, a train broke down [again], this time at Alewife, causing massive delays on the Red Line, which meant that it was going to get me to Alewife roughly 60 seconds AFTER my shuttle left. So I gave up, went back upstairs, got right back on the bus I had just exited, went home, and grabbed my car keys...

ETA: Stress-ate 3/4 of a Ritter Sport. I now have even more regrets.

Y'know what? From now on, I am just going to tell everyone that I'm too irresponsible to own and take care of either an apartment or a car.

(Guess who apparently left a light on in his car [? or something?], and now is going to need a new battery and probably a tow truck? It Me.)

My co-owners want to repave the driveway.
This is probably not an inherently bad idea, except that the price tag for ME is...nearly two months' gross pay (or 3½ months worth of mortgage payments.)

Meantime, my supervisor wants me to fill out a form every week to meticulously document everything I did that week, the better to micromanage me, I guess.

I am regretting my life choices, but I don't see a way out of either terrible situation.

In the realm of "Somehow, not an Onion headline":

Hunter Biden challenges Trump's sons to cage match

Sing now, ye people of the Tower of Anor,
for the Realm of Sauron is ended for ever,
and the Dark Tower is thrown down.

Sing and rejoice, ye people of the Tower of Guard,
for your watch hath not been in vain,
and the Black Gate is broken,
and your King hath passed through,
and he is victorious.

It's been a hot minute.

In our last post, it was two Mondays ago. It was 35° and snowing heavily. (Everything that day and the next got canceled.) The snow piles were temporarily epic.

I say "temporarily" because fairly soon thereafter, the weather shifted into "melting" mode. It was like 65° and sunny over the weekend, and today is going to be even warmer.
I went out to look at the river, on that 65° day. The ice was still there, but was definitely starting to melt. Ironically, it was then that I knew definitively that I could have walked over it, even a week earlier. The ice sheets on the boat ramp, the holes in the ice, all showed that it was like 15 cm. thick. It was, in fact, tempting to try to walk across it... but it was probably rotten AF.

ETA, Tuesday: it was 80 ucking degrees earlier. What is this freaky unnatural shit.

(Ik know. A sign of the end times.)

Current weather: 35 degrees (according to the weather app., I haven't been outside; near-whiteout conditions.

My old Greek textbook had quotes at the start of every chapter, and the one that I actually remember (other than "...with your shield or on it") was a line from some play by ?Aristophanes, where the servant says "That is what I said before!"
Anyway, guess how my meeting with my boss just went?

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