The weather improved substantially today, so we worked out with our trainer and managed to take a walk in the early afternoon.

And that’s about all that I have to say about today.

I did something today that I haven’t done for nearly two weeks – I put on long pants instead of shorts. We had to get out for an early walk and it was still in the 60s when we left.

We had to leave early to be home in time for a virtual tour of Beit Hatfutsot that we’d won at Shir Hadash’s 40th anniversary virtual auction. We’d actually bid on a trip to see the Salvador Dali exhibit in Monterey, but….

The tour was interesting and fast-paced; we’d been to the museum during our 1999 trip to Israel, but things had changed in the intervening 21 years. The tour was centered on art and culture, and I really enjoyed it – I’d like to see some of the exhibits in person, but for now, I’ll have to settle for what’s on the museum’s web site.

Today’s mail included the Valpak envelope – I always open it and glance through it, and very occasionally find a coupon of interest. Today, though, I was greeted by something different when I opened the envelope:

It’s already been donated to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s fire relief fund.

We were supposed to work out with our trainer this morning, but the JCC texted us last night saying they’d be closed all day today because of the pollution from the fires, so that didn’t happen. It wasn’t completely horrible in the morning, so we did get a walk in, but there were fewer people outside than usual.

We were also supposed to be landing in Barcelona today, beginning our Iberian adventure. That didn’t happen either.

What did happen today was that I finally successfully wired up the AlarmDecoder and got it back on the air. I had more trouble putting four little 22 AWG wires into a screw terminal block than even a hardware-impaired person like me should have been able to have. I kept breaking the wires and having to re-strip them; unfortunately, 22 AWG is too small for my good wire stripper, so I had to do it by hand and…well, there’s a reason I have a good wire stripper. But after several attempts and hardly any swearing, I got everything connected and it worked!

Last week, our fish vendor told us that they weren’t going to be at the Farmer’s Market today. Normally, we would have gone anyway and picked up some veggies and fruit and taken our usual long walk afterwards, but today we skipped it. I had my doubts how many of the vendors would make it because of the fires and road closures and the air was VERY smoky.

Instead, we made a bonus trip to Lunardi’s for salmon (which we cooked inside, not on the Traeger!). And then we went to Target for the first time since the lockdown started to see if we could find a thermometer and a pulse oximeter – and we found both! The thermometer is a Kinsa, so we are now donating our temperatures to science; the pulse oximeter is not connected to the world as far as I can tell.

Beyond that, it’s been a very quiet day at home.

We took a walk early this morning, even though the AQI was slightly over 150 (at least that’s what the AirNow app and my iPhone’s Weather app claimed – PurpleAir gives a different number, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has yet another reading). There were occasional bursts of sunlight, but it was mostly gloomy and smoky, so we stayed home the rest of the day.

The Post Office went above and beyond the call of duty again today, delivering my new alarm interface even though it had the wrong address on the envelope. They called me to tell me that they would try to get it to me this afternoon, even though my carrier had already gone out to make deliveries – and they did!

By the time it got here, it was getting dark; I tried to hook it up anyway, but couldn’t get the wiring to stay in place properly. Tomorrow is another day, right?