fun new aspen tidbits

 I served like 300 burgers yesterday at the hockey fundraiser and now my dogs think I am the best most tasty human EVER.

I have run into a bear each of the past 3 days (twice in horse ranch and one family on the ditch trail).

My daughter was driving into town and ran a (very) stale yellow light at Cemetary lane.  The person who was first in line turning onto 82 followed my daughter into town and when she pulled over to park near Koch park proceeded to yell at her for running the light.  Yes, I had already used that as a teaching moment in the car to talk about timing and how she had plenty of room to stop and should have but this most helpful Aspen citizen decided to help as well by following her 1.5 miles and then informing her that she is a shit driver and shouldn't drive.  Sylvie asked how she was going to learn and that resulted in more screaming---glad she wasn't armed.

My son was driving in horse ranch.  He tends to drive fast but in this case seeing an off lead dog he slowed down to about 8 mph and gave everyone a wide berth.  The home owner chased my son down (gives you an idea how fast he was going) to yell at him, but my son decided he didn't want to deal with some old guy yelling and him so he drove away.  Next thing you know at the HOA meeting my son is the subject of scrutiny for his reckless driving.

Thank you Aspen vigilantes.

And best of all in true Western slope style due to construction, cars were deviated off Owl creek into the dirt.  The car in front of us kicked up a stone and cracked the windshield.  Big long spider crack that needs to be fixed.  Called the local shop and they quoted $1050 (the national average is $550) and Safelite in Glenwood Springs was at $700.  I schedule an apt (having given my Vin to ensure the glass was available), get lots of texts and emails confirming and reminding me of my apt.  I get there at 9:25 for my 9:30 apt.  Leave car per request with instructions that it will be done by 5 pm.  Ugh.  I go to the park and do some work and get some mex food, and at 1:45 Safelite calls to tell me they don't have the glass--that it got sent to Denver the day before.  I let them know that sucked.  They let me know it sucked for them too because they would get less business done today but I could schedule for next week and this has happened with their computer system before.  I let them know I had to drive a hour each way and missed a day of work for this and they said well it sucks for them too.  

Fuuuuuck

Can I please give Safelite less than 1 star.  Ohhh yea and then I went on the corporate website to see about compensation for my time and gas and after waiting 30 min for chat feature was told to call the shop--the same shop that basically told me to fuck off.  Or I could call corporate but its too late now as they closed while I was waiting on chat.   GRRRRRRRRR

One week into Jewish new year and graciousness is failing me.

she is negative (i think), happy new year and ohhh yea we got rats (and chipmunks and mice)

 first things first---Monday at noon we got a result (negative)  that is 6 days after the school asked her to get tested and 5 days after test was taken.  Only one test result although they took two samples (nasal and spit they only return spit (I believe)).  Heard from the board of health that they were surprised over the need for testing---AND they are trying really hard.  I could give a lot of snarky comments but seeing as its Yom Kippur I will just say----ummmm poor job.

Happy and healthy new year to one and all.  I hope that you can find a way to find joy and happiness in our new weird normal and I am going to be more understanding and gracious to others.

I am having trouble being understanding with my new landlord and his agents.  I am paying a HUGE sum of money to rent an ok house.  OK assuming not having a working laundry machine is ok.  We moved in and next thing ya know I am driving to El Jabel (25 min away) to do laundry at the laundromat.   But wait there's more---when we viewed the house in May we noticed a lot of mice traps all around the house.  I asked the rental agent if there was a rodent problem and they said 'NO'.  The previous renters had moved out early and they put out the traps because the house was unoccupied but no rodent problem.  Today the pest control person showed up to do their monthly thing and we spoke about rodents.  Turns out the house has mice, chipmunks and rats.  We found evidence of woodrats in the house.   I have been hearing them in the roof at 4 am tearing up the roof (can't wait for the snow to melt and the leaks to start).  And it seems they are fond of taking toothbrushes and shiny objects.  Earlier this summer they had a chipmunk infestation--I asked how many chipmunks does it take to be infested and pest control estimated that they had killed 20 in the house.  And then there are the mice droppings in the garage which pest control said was our hotspot.

I am already having trouble with the understanding and gracious party of the new year.

COVID testing update part 3

Its Sunday 11am and I am getting ready to watch some football having walked the dogs up to Sam's knob.  I got a beautiful view from Slot of the hot air ballons.  Weather is great.  Dogs found some bones.  Son got to work on and fly one of the balloons.  Daughter got to practice pipetting on her computer.  We almost got working laundry machines today but hey didn't fit (yes I am paying $20k a month in rent and at day 12 still don't have a working laundry machine---clearly I expect too much).  All good.

It's now been 98 hours since my daughter's CVOID test was administered, and 116 hours since the school requested she be tested.  No results so far.

To put it simply, IMHO this is a massive failure by both Pitkin County and Aspen School District.  How is it possible that a private lab can turn around test in hours but it takes Pitkin County days (or maybe weeks who knows).  If the school wants students and staff tested (and they should) they should make sure they can provide rapid PCR tests.  If Pitkin county is serious about lives and livelihood they should also be able to provide testing equal to the private sector, but they can't even come close.  What a fucking joke.

Let me take a minute to walk through some possible objections.

1.  Cost---private PCR test cost either $185 or $425.  That is gonna be a pretty big bill for school parents if every time their kid gets tired or a runny nose they need to drop $425 to get their kid back in school.  But the county is awash in COVID money from the state and federal government.  And if that isn't enough put a special COVID fee on ---well everything.  Resturants did this, hotels can do this, all retail can do this, shoot if Pitkin wasn't scared they could do it on real estate transactions.  If there is a will there's a way to get this paid for----maybe there just isn't the will.

2.  Availability and staffing.  Currently there are 4 locations all within about 2 miles of each other but the county ones are pretty much only open from 7:30-11:30 am 5 days a week.  Why 3 county locations?  Why shut at 11:30 AM?  My guess is it's hard to get staff, but might I suggest 1 location open 11 hours a day and get the tests processed in the roaring fork valley?  If it's a cost issue see above---there has got to be a way for a county as rich as Pitkin to be able to process tests locally---a private business figured out how to do this why can't the county that covers 4 police departments and a hospital.

Goodness, I am struggling to find any good objections.  Fast, free and accurate testing is a key tool to fight a pandemic.  The testing functionality exists.  The source of funding exists in Pitkin County.  But if you can't get fast test results free and accurate is pretty much meaningless.  I guess we could argue over the meaning of fast but I strongly believe that most right minded people would agree that results in hours is fast and useful as a mitigation measure, and results that take 3-7 days isn't.

While I am on a rant, how about ASD provides N95 masks to students and staff?  How about ASD having a plan and implementing  it for kids that are told to isolate or quarantine (simple and obvious one being turn the cameras on at school so students can attend class virtually ---its not perfect but better than nothing). How about the school provide fast turnaround testing if the county can't -won't.  How about ASD only use providers who are vaccinated (the guides on my daughter's raft trip weren't).   

Pitkin County how about moving out of third world services where testing results take 3-7 days?  How about doing contact tracing (well that is pointless if results take days---but if you figure out how to get test results in hours like the for profit business in town then contact tracing is effective).

And Aspen Times and Daily News how about a tiny bit of investigative journalism and less puff marketing bits.  If you were sending employees to get tested a couple of times a week a the free county facilities you could have broken the story about how delayed testing results are in Pitkin County.

My guess is our leaders are scared.  They don't really want to know how much COVID there is.  So they bury their heads in the sand, and take walking tours on Pandora's and debate removing parking spots to improve parking in downtown.

I feel like I have fallen through the looking glass.

more COVID info from the front lines

 still no test results for my daughter.

While all my medical friends continue to tell me I am an idiot and don't know anything (as do members of the local board of health and the school superintendent), I do wonder how effective testing is as a tool to fight COVID if testing results take 3 or more days.  3 hours or less would be great, but honestly contact tracing when testing takes 3 days seems like a waste to me.  I know, I know clearly I don't understand.  But how useful will a positive test result for my daughter be?  Will Pitkin and the school district decide to test her entire EX Ed group, friends she had a sleepover with, friends at a party and ohhhhh the best part people in the VIP section at JAS.  Oh yea testing the VIPs is gonna be excellent.  Oh yea and the kids in her class room at school.  And of course her family and then after her family get results anyone and everyone we have had contact with over the past week.  

Speaking of COVID and JAS labor day music fest those same docs pointed to lollapalooza in Chicago and the (limited) evidence that lolla resulted in minimal COVID transmission.  What those same docs fail to note is Cook county at that time had a transmission and positivity rate half of what we had in Pitkin over labor day.  Maybe comparing an outdoor music event when CDC risk level is moderate (Chicago in August) vs high as it was in Pitkin during JAS labor day fest isn't really a informative comparison.  

Or maybe I am just clueless and my risk management brain just gets me into trouble.

what I learned (yea a COVID post sorry)

 My daughter went on Ex Ed (experiential education trip) last week.  This involved rafting, sleeping in a tent and a fair bit of rain.  A couple of days after she returned she developed a sore throat and was tired.  Given the trip that isn't a surprise.  She had no fever, she hasn't not lost her sense of smell and she is pretty much just seems like a teenager with a very mild cold.  The school did require everyone who went on the trip to either be vaxxed or show a negative COVID test, EXCEPT for the guides who were all unvaccinated. (good GOP Mormons).  

Yesterday at school she fell asleep in class.  How many high school kids fall asleep in class in the first full week of school? (answer pretty much everyone).

The teacher sent her to the nurse (which is in the elementary school).  The nurse told her to get a COVID test and go home.  She asked if she could go home with her brother at 3:45, but the nurse said she wanted my daughter out of their ASAP so I drove 25 min from Snowmass to school to pick her up at 3:20 reducing the school exposure to my daughter by 25 min.  

When I arrived at the elementary school my daughter was sitting inside the entry of the elementary school because the nurse didn't want her in the infirmary.  The nurse came out and told me that my daughter could return to school after she is 'symptom free' for 24 hours and has a negative COVID test.  I asked about where I could get a COVID test and she said in town or the airport and I told my daughter,  "lets go".  The nurse was then kind enough to inform me that the testing sites close at 3 pm.

Last night I checked out the testing sites online and they said no appointment was required.  I went to the airport at 8:30 am and discovered that an appointment is required.  I worked my way through the very shitty user interface from my phone and got her registered.  Because she is 'symptomatic' they did both a nasal and spit test.  I also learned that the samples go to 'our lab' in Texas and fly out at the end of the day.  Once the lab gets the test results (sometime tomorrow) the turn around is 24-48 hours with possible delay because of the weekend.  Bottom line, my daughter is going to miss at least two days of school and maybe 4 while we wait on a test (assuming its negative).

Some quick observations:

1.  In my brief time at school I saw two teachers and one police officer not wearing masks in school buildings.  I also saw a nurse struggle to cover her nose while dealing with my daughter (presumptive COVID positive).  I only saw 4 adults while picking up my daughter (the 4 I just called out).

2.  The school is sending high school kids who are presumed COVID positive to the elementary school---why send a student from the high school where most people are vaxxed to a building where no students are vaxxed?

3.  I totally understand the school wanting to act out of an abundance of caution with 'sick' kids, BUT if you send every tired kid with a runny nose home from school and make them miss 3-5 days of school while waiting for a COVID test result how damaging is that to their educational experience?  In case you don't know the answer its VERY.  I am also aware that it is possible to get a PCR test turned around in less than an hour---how about getting that functionality to the school so the school can both protect students and staff's health while not making every kid with a runny nose miss 4 days of school.  While we are at it how about randoming testing of students and staff.  They do this at my mom's nursing home.  They do this at private schools all over the east coast.  Given the risk of asymptomatic spread, random testing is a great way to provide useful data to make informed decisions and promote a safer school environment.

Lastly, from the front page of today's paper; to paraphrase-- our local fearless leaders indicated they couldn't support a mask mandate because people wouldn't like it.  You know what my daughter didn't like?  A chem assignment that involved using a 'gizmo' on her computer to fill a beaker to a certain water level ----over and over again.  That was supposed to teach her is how to read the meniscus on a beaker, but in reality was more about the functionality of a program to 'pour and pipette' water.  She doesn't want to do that, finds it boring and completely unuseful.  She is right, but I tell her she has to do it.  An inside mask mandate in a county that has been at high transmission for 3-4 weeks would actually be useful and make a difference but people don't want to do that either.  I guess adults shouldn't have to do stuff they don't want to even if it makes sense, yet we demand that our kids do pointless stuff.  I can see why teenagers are pissed.