Rosey's Diary & Newsy Things: Tripledemic Peaked But Still Kicking Ass | TFG on School Shootings: "Get Over It" | Ape Recognition | Diving In To 2024 |

2024 is off and running and I'm exhausted already. I did three nights of merch in a row for The Dragons and then The Beat Farmers, and then Monday was Otto's memorial and I am pooped. The kid has been sick, my sister had COVID last week, and everyone seems to think taking their kids to the zoo is okay when they're staying home from school and daycare because they're sick. So I'm not gonna lie, I'm pooped. I usually start my listings on Tuesday so they're ready to go on Thursday, but I'm gonna call it an early night and hopefully the kid is back at school on Wednesday and I can watch the Murdaugh hearing that I started watching today and get my work done in the peace and quiet of an empty house. 

Today you get a picture of sweet Loretta. She is the matriarch of the bonobos and turns 50 years old on January 22nd. There are only 8 zoos in the US that house bonobos and they are critically endangered within the politically volatile Democratic Republic of Congo where they are endemic. Bonobos are amazing great apes and to get to watch and know their personalities is an incredible privilege. Go visit her.  

Stay safe and healthy out there. 

CoViD-19 Breaking: Southern California Hits Stay-At-Home Trigger: 13.1% ICU Capacity | Who Closes? Who Can Stay Open?

Spreckels Organ Pavilion at December Nights (Taken 12.6.2019)

Talk about doom-scrolling. I was trying to motivate to run to Costco for provisions with the Stay-at-home order imminent and instead decided it can wait until next week. Now I'm slightly regretting that decision because the California COVID site updated with new data, putting San Diego, as part of the greater Southern California Region, at 13.1% ICU capacity which is below the 15% trigger for the new Stay-At-Home order. The effective order is a little wonky...the order kicks in at 12:59pm on December 5th and sectors must be closed within 48 hours. But once the trigger is met from that point, which it already has, businesses have 24 hours to comply. So I think either way, everything needs to be closed or adhering to reduced capacities by Monday at 12:59pm. I did see a lot of restaurants reminding people that they can still do curbside and takeout, but a reminder NOT to use food delivery apps, which take nearly a third of the money. I would also highly recommend that anyone who can, like my sister who is a hair stylist, should file for unemployment as soon as your first shift is cut. This order will last a minimum of three weeks, and with the after-effect of Thanksgiving still rolling in, I wouldn't expect this order to be lifted until sometime in mid to late January, and beyond that if we can't get things under control and make alternate plans for the upcoming holidays.

CoViD-19 County & State Stats | Gov. Newsom Explains Eviction Protections | SDSU Closes In-Person Classes For 4 Weeks | Last Chance For Fair Food | Photos: Dog Beach

Social Distancing at OB Dog Beach (Taken 9.2.2020)

I got up pretty early this morning since the plumbers were back demolishing the downstairs bathroom. There were state and county briefings today and there was a lot of information, so all the notes on those are below. 

We're kinda planning ahead to be home all weekend to avoid holiday crowds, so Darren tackled all of our household laundry, and since Nova still has a minimum days on Wednesday-- even when distance learning-- we decided to get the dog to the beach. We were initially headed toward Fiesta Island but thought since it was overcast, OB might be chill enough. The parking was almost enough to deter us, but it ended up being just fine and we could distance from everyone else most of the time (even if at times the dogs didn't). 

Darren and I have a speakeasy night planned ahead of us so I'll be sleeping in tomorrow and certainly enjoying the break from media briefings. I'd like to think that emails will slow down the next few days, but somehow I doubt it. 

CoViD-19: CDC Doesn't Give A Fuck If You Die | California Develops New Testing Partnership | Numerous Leagues Strike For Racial Justice | #JusticeForJake

Wednesday was National Dog Day, so here's Ficus at Fiesta Island Dog Park (Taken 7.14.2020)

On Wednesday the first piece of news I read was that under pressure from the administration, the CDC changed guidelines on who should be tested, and I was infuriated. Our health should not be a political issue. I was comforted by watching the State and County media briefings where it was stated that these new guidelines do not change anything for who, how, and when tests happen within the county or the state.

But as the day went on and I dove into my emails and the news cycle, it was one more upsetting thing after another. If you don't click all the links and reading I'm outlined today, please at least take the time to watch Clippers head coach Doc Rivers talk about the shooting of Jacob Blake, who is now paralyzed from the waist down after being shot 7 times in the back by Wisconsin police. I've included his interview below. (The actual video of the shooting has been shared widely but I don't watch such things.) 

So I've been trying all night to find good news and gathered a couple cool music happenings, but I'll give them their own post so as not to contaminate it with news of this very bad, no good day. One bright spot, however, is that if you have a Chula Vista, National City, or Escondido library card (I'm sure there are other cities, too), you can now access Hoopla via app or Roku among other formats. It allows you to "check out" up to six movies monthly. I haven't fully explored but found a Bill Nighy movie that I'm gonna dive into now to clear my head. Lots of reading and links after the jump. 

CoViD-19 & CA Wildfire Updates | County Below 200 New Cases | 625 Fires Rage On In California | Sea World Lays Out "Zoo Days" Reopening Plan

Strawberry's pose when she's on balcony lookout (Taken 8.19.2020)

Darren and I had a late Sunday night in the speakeasy and when we were finally coming back upstairs, I dropped my laptop. Today it won't turn on and so needless to say I'm kinda freaking out about it. I'm using my old one in the meantime, but it has a really hard time typing the letter V, needs a new battery and powercord, which I guess I should've taken care of when I wasn't desperate for a backup. Hopefully Davey can take a look at it on Tuesday and assure me that i didn't destroy it. Nova didn't go to soccer because she had her mandatory online school orientation, which means we haven't been to La Jolla Cove since last Monday. I'm currently bingeing the second season of Trinkets on Netflix, a show I'd completely forgotten I'd watched before. I don't really have anything going on at all this week, but hopefully it cools down and we can do a couple trips to the San Diego Zoo or Safari Park or some fun stuff before Nova's days become filled with school stuff again. Monday's briefing notes and some reading are after the jump. 

COVID-19 San Diego Stats | Streaming Watchlist: Drunk Parents | SPLC Weekend Longread for Anti-Racists

Ficus In The Yard Back Before The Heat Dome (Taken 5.12.2020)

Today Darren and Nova took Ficus to Balboa Park, went for a bike ride, played soccer, painted, played guitar together, and read for awhile, too.
I slept.
And when I wasn't sleeping, I was scrolling and reading and catching up with all the rest of the news that I missed this week (Check out Heather Cox Richardson's daily breakdowns.) I think I need to get my sleep back into non-vampire hours, so I'll probably bust out some melatonin and try to sleep like a normal person for once and get back to real life in the morning. Till then, just a couple articles and today's stats, after the jump. 

CoViD-19 Hits 3rd-Leading Cause of US Deaths | California Burning | Recycle Right

Darren rockin out in the "speakeasy" (Taken 8.14.2020)

Darren and I have been having so much fun in the speakeasy lately. I've been teaching him to swing dance and salsa a little bit so we have this little dance parties that are completely out of character for both of us, or he'll play songs, or we'll just play his favorite podcast, Yo, Is This Racist? Last night I ended up staying up all night through this morning and ended up listening to the testimony of DeJoy. What a piece of shit that guy is. Absolutely unbelievable how these people have been allowed to carry on in their destruction of literally everything that Americans value right in front of our eyes with no repercussions.  
Of course, being up all night and morning meant I pretty much slept the day away, thankfully with no recurring ant nightmares. Fingers crossed that it starts feeling like San Diego again sooner rather than later because even at 2:30am with my A/C running, my living room is still almost 80 degrees and I am over it.  

CoViD-19 Updates | Biden Accepts DNC Nomination | Ant Nightmares | Bannon Arrested | San Diego Zoo Updates Health Screening

Amur Leopard Cub (Taken 8.20.2020)

I finally gave in and have been watching Backyard Envy on Bravo and I'm obsessed. We went back and started from Season 1 but we're gonna get through it pretty quick. I'm learning a lot, but the problem is that it's hard to know if the plants they use in New York would be viable here. Not that we're running out with multi-thousand dollars to build a backyard, but it's fun to watch for ideas and whatnot. I guess I finally understand what Pinterest is for. 
Anyway, today me and Darren went to the San Diego Zoo for the final hour it was open but mostly just to get me out of the house. I also feel vindicated from my whole Facebook fight about face masks because now they've added a 4th question to their health screening: 

Failure to properly wear an acceptable face covering at all times during your visit will result in dismissal from Zoo grounds. Do you acknowledge and agree to comply with this requirement?

It just further validates that facial coverings are not actually a personal choice. You agree to the social contract that if you're out in public, you will protect others, and they will protect you. Just like you cannot smoke in public, you don't get to make decisions about my health.

CoViD-19: California Under Heat Dome of Extreme Heat | San Diego Likely To Get Off State Monitor List on Tuesday | Watch Michelle Obama's Hopeful DNC Speech

A Sea Lion exits the water at La Jolla Cove  (Taken 8.14.2020)

We went back to La Jolla Cove today while Nova was in soccer and it's been a while since I've done the thing where my battery was completely dead. The video switch must've been triggered in my bag. Still, it was nice to get our feet wet and hang out in our usual spots for a little bit. She doesn't have soccer this Friday, so it will be a week until we go back. We're just mostly still bunkering at home. I started a new book last night and read for several hours this morning before finally falling asleep in my air conditioning. I also started watching Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story, but I was bummed because USA Network only has the first 3 episodes and it won't be on Netflix in the US until the spring. It's interesting because it happened while I was in middle school, so I was aware of the story but maybe too young to care or follow along. There are lots of local references in the show, and fun fact, the guy who plays the case investigator during the court scenes and questioning is Jesse Mackey, who was an old pal from Chula Vista back in the day. Anyway, I've got a lot of email to still catch up on, but the speakeasy is calling. Today's notes after the jump.

CoViD-19 150 Days | SDGE Outages | California & San Diego County Stats | Mayor & Supe Whine About Reopenings

Strawberry loves her new catio redesign. (Taken 8.12.2020)

My heat strategy is to sleep as much of the day away as I can (it helped that Nova had her birthday gathering today), but now that the sun is set, I can go about my normal business. We picked Nova up from her friends' house and decided to tackle a couple errands along the way. We popped into Home Depot to finally get trash pickers to clean up our neighborhood a little, though I wish we could've just borrowed these from North Park Main Street or another organization that has an abundance of them because they're $20 each and not as good as the industrial ones we've used for San Diego River Cleanup and the like. We got takeout from El Panson (which is now our fifth takeout meal since March). It was delightful, but now I'm totally stuffed, enjoying the A/C in the speakeasy while Darren plays some music and I enjoy a cocktail or four. I didn't have much in the way of news today and what I did was just a regurgitation of every other thing: the US is failing in curbing COVID-19, our testing is pathetic, the USPS is being dismantled, our mayor and county supe sent a letter to Newsom whining for more reopening guidelines, and the CoVidiot-in-chief's bro died, to which everyone unanimously seemed to say, "it is what it is." Just another day. Stats and stuff after the jump. 

COVID-19: Bill Gates Speaks Truth | San Diego Has Fewer Than 200 New Cases, Lowest Since June 22nd | Must Streams | Kids Are Little COVID Vectors | Fiesta Island Pics

Ficus at Fiesta Island (Taken 8.11.2020)

Today was a pretty good day. I now see all the blowback on Biden announcing Kamala Harris as his running mate, but I'm pretty happy about it. I think it's a big deal for women, for people of color, particularly bi-racial people who don't see much representation in this world. Neither Biden nor Harris are without faults, and I would be voting blue no matter who, but I'm encouraged with this ticket. 
Anyway, we spent most of the day chillin' around the house but we did go to Fiesta Island for 'golden hour' with Ficus, who hasn't gotten much time outside the yard this quarantine. Mostly that's because she's a big scaredy cat and is always kinda limited on where she'll go, but the water was nice to splash around in, even if her hip is a little pained now. 
Other than that, I don't know why my volume of email seems to be increasing every day but it's nearly two in the morning and I just finished getting through everything. I'm gonna checkout and catch up on Housewives and veg out. Hoping to make it to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park on Wednesday for World Elephant Day and Zuli's birthday. Lots of stuff and today's stats after the jump.   

CoViD-19 Updates | State Pushes For Worker Protections | Community Spread "A Decrease In The Increase"

Ficus at Fiesta Island (Taken 7.14.2020)

I was really gung-ho at the beginning of the shutdowns and tried to take a very "we got this" attitude. We were cooking every meal, I would get up at 5am to go to Home Depot for supplies when they opened at 6am, we were regularly playing sports in the backyard, and would find some new project to spend our time on in the house or the yard or the studio. 

Nowadays I'm so media consumed and have certainly had my lulls in motivation to do anything, allowing myself to sleep too long, call a plate of cold cuts dinner because I don't want to cook, wandering from bed to couch, couch to bed. Perhaps it's the expiration of the EDD funds, of the inaction of our representatives to enact new plans, the arguing back and forth that it's safe to reopen when we can clearly see the numbers that it is not. 

I'll wake up on Saturday and I will shower and I will let the sun hit my skin and I will carry on, but like everyone, some days are just too much. I'll reengage, but for today, I'll let myself drift, crawl back into bed and get in a better headspace to face another day in a string of days. 

CoViD-19 Diary | Governor Newsom Releases School Guidance (Spoiler: We're Not Opening For A Long Time) | Everything Is Terrible

La Jolla Cove Sea Lion (Taken 7.3.2020)

Today I suppose you could say I'm having a 'Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.' But before I get into it, I'll just say today the Governor had a briefing about schools, there's lots of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter and social justice issues and it just wore me down today, but now I'm home, back in pajamas, everyone is asleep and I'm watching Netflix, so things are already turning around. More after the jump.

CoViD-19: Orange Plays Chicken With Governor | County Jobs: Become A Contact Tracer | Death Isn't The Only Metric That Matters | Wear A Mask

Darren dons a mask at Fiesta Island (taken 7.14.2020)

When I was a little girl, maybe 1st grade, I was in a school talent show. Me and two other girls sang a variation on the San Diego Zoo theme song and during my performance I kept shushing one of the other girls for singing too loud. 

Not much has changed all these decades later (The Bossy R) because while watching today's County Media Briefing, all I wanted to do was comment back to everyone still denying the virus, blaming the governor, arguing about having to wear masks, complaining that their gyms and salons are closed: STFU. WE TRIED YOUR WAY AND IT DIDN'T WORK, SO COMPLY OR FURTHER RUIN OUR ECONOMY AND LIVELIHOODS AND WATCH MORE PEOPLE DIE OR SUFFER THE LONG TERM EFFECTS OF THIS SCARY VIRUS AND DISEASE. Yeah, free speech, whatever, people are 'entitled to their opinions' but this virus and science in general does not care what you believe, there aren't always two valid sides to every story, and you NOT wearing a mask actually impinges on MY rights to LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Phew. I feel better now. /rant, as they say.

CoViD-19: Governor Newsom Gives Fire & Covid Updates | Cabrillo Monument Extends Weekend Hours | San Diego News of Interest | Experts Weigh In On Covid-19

Fiesta Island Leash-Free Dog Park is fully reopened (Taken 8.24.2019)

About half an hour ago, Nova asked me if we were doing anything today. Darren is sleeping after playing music in the studio all night but I think maybe I owe it to her to go do something fun and before the weather gets unbearable this weekend. I don't really have much to say today that I haven't been saying every day so I'm gonna go offline and try and have a day with the kid. News after the jump. 

CoViD-19: San Diego Added To State Watchlist: Must Close (Some) Indoor Activities For 3 Weeks

Well, to nobody's surprise, San Diego is now added to the State's impacted list and will have to close specific sectors for 3 weeks (regardless of whether numbers improve in that time). The good news is that Fletch is saying the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park should be relatively unaffected, because the action is specifically for INDOOR activities related to the specific sectors. The bar rules are still pretty confusing, but just keep it simple: stop going places where you're sitting and socializing with anyone outside of your household or breathing in other people's air for any extended amount of time. It's gross that gyms are still open, but if there've been no outbreaks, I don't foresee them adding more sectors to the updated health order. Anyway, today's briefing updates are after the jump. I think I'm going back to sleep. 

CoViD-19: No Testing Saturday | Beluga Whale Sighting In San Diego | Weekend Watching | The US Hasn't Failed- We're Not Even Trying |

Let's Hope This June Gloom Acts As Beach Control (Taken 6.29.2020)

We're heading out to take Nova to soccer, so we'll probably actually do two trips to La Jolla Cove, one without her and one with her. Unless it's crazy, then we'll find something else to do, I suppose. I thought this might be my last post for the weekend, but if I'm going to be sitting around the house all weekend, maybe it won't be. Lots of links and info and stuff after the jump. Hope everyone has a great Independence Day weekend. 

CoViD-19: San Diego Reports 10 New Community Outbreaks In One Day | EU Strikes Back | Covid Deaths Underreported

I listened to the Governor's briefing today and it was essentially 45 minutes of begging people to wear masks. We went to the Zoo for the last hour and a half they were open and it was nice and empty; I hope they keep the no re-entry rule until this pandemic is under control because the afternoons there are dreamy. We also had to drop some supplies off at my parents' house in Chula Vista, so it was nice to be able to catch up with my mom (masked and physically distanced in the backyard, no hugs) and we picked up Jochi Filipino food on the way home, which was the first take-out we've had since March. I get that people are supporting small businesses, but we've just been super frugal with our spending because if the CARES unemployment ends, we're kinda gonna be screwed. It took me the rest of the night to get through my email and whatnot, so sorry for the late night post. Basically what you need to know is that Friday, San Diego County will be added to the State "watchlist" and we'll likely stay there for three days with current trends, which means we'll have to face the rollbacks on Monday. The only thing that might change that is the fact that Saturday is a holiday so testing might fall off. I've included that graphic, and also posted the trigger dashboard from Wednesday and Thursday, which is quite scary because one dropped off, which means 10 new outbreaks were identified in one day.  

LA County Closes All Beaches For Fourth Of July Holiday Weekend: Will San Diego Follow? (Fireworks are done, too)

Will It All Come Crashing Back Down? (La Jolla Cove, 10.23.2019)

On Sunday, Governor Newsom sent a tweet. 

Due to the rising spread of #COVID19, CA is ordering bars to close in Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, San Joaquin, and Tulare, while recommending they close in Contra Costa, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, & Ventura.

On Monday, San Diego proactively decided to close bars, too, effective July 1st at 12am, so like, in the middle of Tuesday night bar hours. Many questions were asked of other closings and it was left open...the County would discuss with local cities and see if additional moves were needed. 

But now LA is closing all of their beaches for 4th of July weekend. That will certainly reverberate to all other nearby counties, including San Diego. Our County and all the coastal cities within should close the beaches for the weekend with tight enforcement. The LA press release is after the jump. Sounds like Tuesday is going to be another busy day of news and briefings and fighting over whose statistics matter, what they mean. Put on your masks, shit is about to get SUPER FUCKING UGLY. I'ma go drown myself in rye. 

*updated to add their press release about cancellation of all fireworks. PLEASE DO THIS IN SAN DIEGO 

CoViD-19 Continues to Spread | San Diego County Is Reclosing All Bars, Wineries, and Breweries | Stop Hate For Profit

Albino Wallaby Joey at San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Photo by Nova (6.28.2020)

I took the weekend off from CoViD-19 updates because at this point, if you're not paying attention, you're not going to now but I will do updates for today nonetheless. Instead, we spent Friday evening checking out the sea lions after Nova's first soccer practice/"camp", , we did a big CostCo run (but no paper towels!!), I finished reading another Mindy McGinnis book and started a new one, binged "Love, Victor" on Hulu, watched some other random streaming movies, and went to San Diego Zoo Safari Park in the late afternoon on Sunday. I got a new camera so it was fun to test it out, and Nova's learning to use my old one, so this is a pic of the albino wallaby joey that she took. We went back to the Zoo today but it turned into Stroller Derby and we had to get out of there. We hit up Costco again and people are either stocking up for the 4th or expecting stay-at-home to be reinstated so we still couldn't find paper towels. Today's news is pretty grim but not unexpected, so I'll do some Zoo and Safari Posts soon just to break things up a little bit. In the meantime, here's your briefing news...after the jump.