Several people have told me that the timing of our Italy & Paris trip was good. If we had gone earlier, there were still many COVID restrictions, and we would have needed to get a PCR test before coming back to the US. Any later, then we would have been caught in the July heat wave, and the recent spike in COVID cases due to the BA.5 variant. Here is the chart of new cases for Campania, where Sorrento and the Almafi Coast are located.
I picked Campania since that was our last destination in Italy, but the pattern for the entire country is similar. The large spike due to OG Omicron is about twice the BA.5 spike in July. Again, we thought we missed the BA.2 spike in cases but walked into the most virulent variant to date.
Above is the temperature in Europe a month after our trip. It was in the mid-to-high 80’s Fahrenheit most days. This maps shows mid-to-upper 90’s, which is a huge difference if you are walking around outside. I cannot imagine wearing a KN95/PPF2 mask in 100 °F weather.
Ugh. I am getting old and forgetful. I purchased a Kasa outdoor security camera last week. It had a coupon for $18, which took the price down from $60 to $42. Last night, i saw it for $42, but I forgot what I paid for it. I checked the order history, and it said $60. The $18 coupon was at the bottom of the invoice, but you do not see that when you view the order from the refund page. Anyway, like an idiot, I asked for a refund, thinking I paid $60, and reordered the product.
Since I was going out to get dinner, I dropped off the item at the local Kohl’s. When I got the refund notice, it said I was refunded only $42. Again, like an idiot, I call Amazon. It took me fifteen minutes and three tries to get a live person. I then berated them about giving me the wrong refund when the CSR insisted I got the correct refund (I did). I finally pulled up the invoice PDF and saw the $18 credit at the bottom. Ugh. I apologized several times and hung up. So instead of paying $42 for a security camera, I now have the same $42 camera coming next week, and I have a $42 Amazon credit instead of cash.
So stupid.
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I have dropped off several Amazon returns at the local Kohl’s. Initially, the refund desk was right at the entrance. You go in, drop off, and leave; it was quick and simple. At some point, they moved the Amazon drop-off point near the right-middle of the store so you have to walk through several clothing sections. Last night, the Amazon drop-off point was moved upstairs. Y0u have to walk to the middle of the store, take an escalator up, then walk to the middle of the second floor for the down escalator. It adds about 60 seconds to the return experience and you get to walk through half the store. I guess Kohl’s wanted to maximize the foot traffic through their store. I wonder if the cost is worth the extra foot traffic.
Also, even with the prevalence of the BA.5 strain of COVID, nobody was wearing a mask.
It is ancient history by now, but my friend in Beijing sent me both the mascots for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. She picked up a bunch of them in Beijing, and shipped one of each to my friend who happens to be in Chengdu, and he brought them back to the US a few weeks ago while I was on vacation.
This mascot’s name is Bing Dwen Dwen and it is supposed to be a panda inside an “ice” shell. This is for the main Olympic games; there is another mascot for the Paralympic games. It is a red lantern child(?), and no one wants that one. There was a price sticker on the box for ¥210 (about US$30), but these are hard to get without connections, so they are probably worth more for now.
I showed a pic of the various mascots and my niece wants the panda. She was not even sure what the red thing was. People in her high school Chinese class thought it was an alien.
The name of the name of this mascot is Shuey Rhon Rhon, and the sticker price is about half of what the panda above costs. They are fairly large so I do not know what I am going to do with the lantern child if no one else wants it.
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In my living room..The smaller panda has a pedestal that sticks to your car’s dashboard. I am not putting that in my Tesla.
I just had a dream where I was having a conversation with Nayeon of the K-Pop girl group TWICE. Maybe it is because she has a solo song out recently so there is a lot of news about her.
In my dream, she drew something on the back of my wrist with a blue or green Sharpie. Of course there was nothing there on my wrist when I woke up, but my left middle toe was hurting like crazy from neuropathy. That is why I still remember parts of the dream and typing this post now. Ouch.
On our last day in Paris, we visited the flagship Louis Vuitton store on Champ Élysées. As you can see from the photo, there are at least five stories of luxury goods. I am a typical cheap Chinese male, so I do not own anything with a high-end designer label. There was a line to get in the door, only because each party was assigned a personal shopper to assist you in choosing your perfect purse, wallet, clothing, or whatever.
Here is the line at the side of the building. It moved quickly; we were in line for only about 15 minutes. I was a bit worried that they would not let me in the door.
Here is the entrance from the inside. I did not take a lot of pictures as no one else was, and it seemed inappropriate. But I did get a pic of some shoes. There was no price tag, but I would not buy them.
My sister’s family bought some stuff. My 15-year-old niece bought a small $1,300 purse. Wow, I know it is a long time ago, but all my possessions did not cost even $500 when I was fifteen. They also had some issues with payment since you needed a passport for VAT refunds, and I believe the store reports sales to the buyer’s national tax authorities. Initially they did not bring their passports, then they did not have matching passports and credit cards for the same person. I ended up having to get all their passports and wallets from the hotel so the purchase will go through. In total, it took about three hours. We were offered beverages but none of us asked for anything. I wonder if they have Dom Perignon available.
I am back from my 16-day Europe trip. The trip went mostly well except for one “day from Hell” where we could not get a taxi or van to our Eiffel Tower tour, and we missed our Louvre tour since the tour agency changed the meeting place without notifying us. We also had to walk forty minutes back to our hotel at midnight after a night tour since all the taxis were full during that time.
The food in Italy was great, but we ate a lot of pasta and pizza. We did not eat any French food since our schedule was so packed, and most French restaurants near our hotel were expensive and had non-children-friendly menus. We did eat dinners at a Japanese and a Vietnamese restaurant; prices were like what we have here in Orange County.
We also walked a lot. Some of it was due to the many walking tours, but there was also walking in airports, train stations, and just in general since we did not have our cars. Here is the log from Apple Health app.
On WFH days, there is not much walking since I am in my house all day. Starting June 5th, you can see a significant increase in the daily number of steps. The 17,688 day was the night walking tour and having to walk from Notre Dame to the Louvre (hotel area) at night.
On the health side, I was mostly okay except for two medium intensity neuropathy attacks. We did spend $1,500 on travel insurance, but it was worth the peace of mind. My sister’s entire family tested positive for COVID this morning (day after trip), but I tested negative so far. I still need to test for a few more days, and self-quarantine due to close-contact or exposure to COVID infected persons.
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One other health related item. I packed the wrong medication before the trip, so I had way too much Rosuvastatin and no Metoprolol. Since i did bring Losartan, it was not a big deal to miss the medication for two weeks.
Since our flight is tomorrow night at 9:20 pm, we were able to go online to check-in and print boarding passes. Or so we thought. My sister tried to get it at their house and got sidetracked by a request for COVID vaccination verification. I have been getting several emails from British Airways and it is very unclear what is happening. The oddest thing is that I received an email from BA, but the content is different on my iPhone and browser on my Mac. Timestamp and message subject are the same, but the text is different. I do not even understand how that happens. One message said to sign in and verify documents, while the other says verification failed and I need to do it at the airport tomorrow. When I do go online, the website says still processing. Weird.
Since my sister booked a code-sharing flight on American Airlines, we must do some of the check-in on British Airways website. I believe my seat is okay, but my sister’s seat was reassigned. However, if you look on the BA website, the confirmation and the seat selection pages show different values for her. Also, if you go to the AA website, there are also different seat assignments, plus the seat assignment page has a third seat number. How can that be? We also cannot find the seating map on BA’s website. The original booking said the plane was a 77W. That designation does not exist on BA’s website, and none of the plane seat maps matches what we see when we go to choose seats. We did see a seat map on Aerolopa that matches the seat selection diagram on BA’s website but was for a 77H.
It is not an exaggeration to say that evne though we are checked in (I think), we do not know where our seats are. I would guess the boarding pass if most accurate, but both airline’s websites do not agree.
I used to fly a lot pre3-COVID and pre-dialysis. I have never see so much confusion about seat selection and online check-in. My sister is waiting for a callback from American Airlines; the wait time was 90 minutes. Fairly sure they will tell her to call British Airways tomorrow.
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My sister said she was able to talk to someone from British Airways. They did say she and one of my nieces were bumped from their confirmed seats, though they could not or would not tell my shyster why. They also said there was a row of reserved seats at the back of the section used for this purpose. Unfortunately, the first row of business class is right next to the bathrooms, and the back row has basinets behind the bulkhead. We are going even earlier to the airport tomorrow to see if we can get our original seats back. I think someone with their top tier frequent flyer program wanted the seats we had, and British Airways went ahead and screwed their non-status customers. Makes business sense, but shitty custome5r se5rvice neverthless.
This is a form that all visitors to EU countries had to fill out previously. However, most countries have stopped requiring this form, except for Malta, Slovenia, and France. Since we are visiting Italy and Paris on our trip, we need to fill out this form.
I started filling out this form on my iPhone using Chrome browser. Since we are stopping in Italy first, I did not know what the form wanted for origin. Italy? United States? United Kingdom (London transit)? Finally, I decided to enter all our flights, including the return flights.
The form asks for a lot of information, including flight and seat numbers. After each flight is entered, you get options to enter the next flight and [Temporary Save]. I did hit save after the first flight but skipped that step going forward. Of course, the webpage decides to crash and freeze on the fourth flight data entry, so I went over to my MacBook to continue. The app did save something, but it was missing random fields for the first flight, and all subsequent flights.
Ugh.
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Done. Luckily I could add family members traveling together so my sister’s family do not need to fill out this ugly form.
Also, whenever you see an option to temporary save on a webform, click it. It is like a save point before you encounter a boss monster in a game. You need to save because you will fail and need to return to your save point.
Official MV for OST from Our Beloved Summer K-Drama. I found an English cover version on YouTube.
maybe if I woke up in the morning hearing your voice maybe if I was with you maybe if we’d gone through the hard times together would we have never broken up? would we have stayed the same? the distance between you and me it never seems to disappear you and your harsh words frozen in my heart
if you had met me before this happened it shouldn’t be this hard if you just told me the things you went through swear I’d hold your hand we wouldn’t be strangers like we are right now but still I would try, try, try can I hug you just one last time
memories fade but all i know is I miss you this longing that I feel the pain feels fresh and oh so real only if you… if you could come the distance between you and me it never seems to disappear you and our memories still locked in my heart
if you had met me before this happened it shouldn’t be this hard if you just told me the things you went through swear I’d hold your hand we wouldn’t be strangers like we are right now but still I would try, try, try can I hug you just one last time
will you be there when I wake up from this nightmare? open arm in a wide embrace and you tell me things you regret you never told me before I’ll hold you tight and never let you go tell me whenever I’ll be wherever you are only if you come
For someone born in Taiwan and can speak Chinese fairly well, I am woefully ignorant about a lot of Chinese culture. One of them is the Dragon Boat Festival, or 端午節 in Chinese. I mostly remember it as the holiday when you eat sticky rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves. One of my few memories of growing up in Taiwan was watching my grandma make these stick rice balls with lots of finished ones wrapped in bamboo leaves and string so they can be steamed later. I just had one for lunch today.
Without Googling, I believe the story is about a scholar in some previous dynasty that was opposed to the new emperor. He refused to write positive things about the emperor, so he was thrown into a lake or river to drown. The people would later go out on the water in boats and throw these rice balls into the lake/river for the fish to eat so they will not eat the body of the scholar. Or something like that.
After reading the linked Wikipedia article, I am only about 50% correct. According to the most popular story, he committed suicide by throwing himself into the lake. At least I got the stick rice ball and fish food part right.
I am starting to pack for our Europe trip already, and one of the biggest headaches is packing all my medications. I have eight pill bottles to take with me, and only six have the prescription label still available. I am not too worried about over-the-counter vitamin D since the yellow gel capsules are quite recognizable. I am missing labeling for Tacrolimus however. and since I take seven pills per day, there is a lot of it.
The other issue is all the paraphernalia that I need to bring along. Due to the length of the trip, I will need two pens for each insulin type. Then I need to take the glucose monitor with enough test strips for three tests per day. Finally, needles. Since I am shooting myself four times per day, I will need a lot of needles. The photo above has seventeen days’ worth of needles or sixty-eight needles. I also need to carry some buffer in case i mess up or catch COVID and must quarantine. So instead of enough medication for sixteen days, I am taking a month’s worth just in case.
My sister decided we would all take one backpack and one carry-on since we have a short layover in LHR (London Heathrow), and there are a lot of inter-city travel on trains and cars. I will need to find all the dry-fit clothing I purchased for my Tunesia trip in 2014 so I can handwash my travel clothing in the hotel bathrooms.
My sister’s mother-in-law was visiting a few weeks ago, and all of us gathered at my parents’ new place. They have a grassy area outside their house, and we decided to take some family photos. We basically set up two lawn chairs and had different groups of people sit/stand for photos.
I took this photo on my iPhone while they were taking pictures elsewhere. I did not think much about it at the time, but now it reminds me that my parents are eighty-one years old, and they will not live forever. Since our family moved quite often when we were young, we are still very close; I even lived with my parents for the past twelve years. Because we were always near each other, I have not really thought about life after my parents pass away.
I do not think I am very emotional, but I also have not experienced much loss or grief in my life. That was likely why I was devastated when my ex-wife left me after seven years of marriage. She was my first girlfriend and my first breakup. I thought I would just take it in stride, but that did not happen. Instead, I was depressed for years, and it is still affecting me today. That is why I am uncertain how I will react when my parents leave. For many years, while I was on dialysis, I also thought I was going to die before my parents, so I still need to unwind and deal with those thoughts too.
One of his points is how using detergent pods actually goes against how our dishwashers are designed to work. Most dishwashers have a pre-rinse cycle, and the instruction manual says to add a bit of detergent to the tub for that. However, if we use pods, then we typically do not have some extra powdered detergent handy, and the pre-rinse cycle is not as efficient as it could be with detergent. He also said that due to higher margins, no one sells powdered detergent anymore. I went to my local Albertsons and saw this:
There were a few boxes of Cascade powdered detergent at the bottom left just off camera. However, it is true that most of the dishwasher detergents today come in pods, much like laundry detergent. I may have to go to a 99 Cents Only Store to find some cheap powdered detergent.
I have five items being delivered by Amazon today. One was a one-day delivery while the other two orders of two items each were same day delivery. I could not sleep so I ordered some stuff.
Judging by past performance, I expect to only get three out of the five items since Amazon seems to miss quite a few same-day deliveries.
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It is 5:40 pm and nothing has arrived from Amazon yet. To be fair, they did say delivery by 10:00 pm. However, I did receive two packages from FedEx already. One is the occasional blood draw package from Natera for their post-transplant study. The other is from my online pharmacy delivering my next tacrolimus refill.
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OK, I stand corrected. All five items arrived on-time in two packages. Yay!
Since it never rains in Southern California and I rarely wash my car, I went downstairs and backed my car out of the garage and onto the driveway. Even though it is not a car wash, the rain will wash away some of the accumulated dirt and dust. My iPhone’s weather app says rain will stop in about half an hour, but it should rain more tonight.
This is one time that the Summon function is useful in my Tesla. I can back the car out of the garage without getting in the car, and thuse not get wet when exiting the car.
Our family has a lot of old stereo equipment. Most people today just listen to music streaming to their smartphones using headphones. In the old days, however, people had entire stereo systems that cost from hundreds to many thousands of dollars. Since my parents moved out, they left behind lots of stuff, including audio system components and speakers. They brought two systems with them: a Sony AV amp with a pair of vintage Bose 10.2 speakers, and a Pioneer Elite amp with Energy speakers for the bedroom.
Since I am reorganizing all the furniture in the house, I managed to piece together three stereo systems from the leftover components. We moved a TV stand from the family room to the master bedroom today, and I put in my dad’s prized McIntosh MA-6100 amplifier from the 1970’s. It looks like this and weighs a ton:
Even though it was originally sold in the 70’s, people are still selling it on eBay for thousands of dollars. I read that the last production model sold for $799 which is about $3,750 in today’s dollars. We also used to own two pairs of old Infinity speakers, made before they were purchased by Harman International. They used to be made nearby in Chatsworth, CA. Unfortunately, the speaker cones deteriorate over time. The Infinity drivers were made with polypropylene but attached with some type of foam that disintegrated, leaving us with only one working speaker, a black RS3000. I believe I swapped out both main drivers before, and my dad has repaired them as well. Not too durable.
Anyway, you cannot have a stereo system with only one speaker. Fortunately, we have a spare. For some reason, my dad purchased one single JBL J2080 speaker. I think he was going to use it as a home theater center speaker, but it was way too large. Similar to Infinity, JBL is not in the home audio business anymore, but they do continue to make pro-audio speakers. Old JBL speakers were make in Northridge, CA, which is also fairly local. Today, likely all products are made in China, except maybe for McIntosh. Their equipment still has that vintage look and is quite expensive.
This is the current setup in the master bedroom: a 50-year-old amplifier driving two mismatched speakers from the 80’s, receiving signal from a Chromecast Audio (also discontinued) and Spotify on an iPhone 12. Crazy mix of technology.
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Oh, balance knob… To be honest, I have never used one before. Every system had it set in the middle since the speakers were always matching. This time, I think the Infinity speaker has a lower impedance, so it is slightly louder than the JBL. To “balance” out the sound, I have to bias the output so the two channels are of equal volume. Admittedly, the sound is not great. I will probably need to look for new speakers if I start listening to music in the bedroom more often.
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There are still two amplifiers and more speakers in the house. I will set up a home theater system again in the family room even though there is no TV now.
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Updated: soon after initial posting
I found some RS3000 documentation online. The speaker has an impedance of six ohms. Ugh, that is likely why the Infinity speaker sounds louder than the JBL. I tried listening using headphones and the balance sounds fine when the knob is in the middle. Another reason to get some new/better speakers. I am looking at good bookshelf speakers and some tall speaker stands as an option.
My home Internet provider is Cox Communications. They have been okay; not good but not bad. The service is up most of the time, but it feels expensive. I am paying $84/month for 150 Mbps.
Earlier this week, I received an email from Cox saying they are upgrading their service tiers so I will be getting 250 Mbps for the same price. I am assuming that they are feeling pressure from eventual competition with fiber or satellite Internet. The infrastructure is already in place so giving customers more bandwidth is likely not costing Cox that much extra.
Life with chronic diseases 