Monday, Santa Clara County (along with the rest of the Bay Area) announced that everyone would be under a “shelter-in-place” order for the next three weeks. I decided I’d keep a little journal of what we do, and don’t do, and where better to keep it than in public – so here I am. I wish my Google AdWords account was working….but oh, well.

We got the quarantine off to a great start by sleeping late, though I didn’t sleep soundly; perhaps spending the last hour before bed on Twitter wasn’t a good idea!

After a leisurely breakfast, we went out for a walk (specifically allowed by the order) to Lunardi’s to see if we could pick up a few necessities. We mostly walk through our residential area, and traffic is always pretty light – but it was noticably lighter; I think we saw two or three cars on our 1.5-mile walk to the store. There were quite a few people (including families with children) out walking – we gave them plenty of distance.

Lunardi’s was doing a reasonably brisk business, but it wasn’t at all crazy. We didn’t use a cart (next time, I’ll bring two shopping bags) and picked up most of what we wanted – chicken, coffee, yogurt, jelly, and bread – nothing we wouldn’t have bought normally. They didn’t have any red or orange peppers, but there were plenty of other vegetables and fruits available.

Much to my surprise, the beauty supply shop in the same shopping center was open – I would not have thought they qualified as an essential business. I didn’t go in (as usual).

We walked home and settled in for the rest of the day. Lunch was leftover chicken, salad, and some very old whole wheat pasta (“Best Before Feb 2016”, and it wasn’t that great then!). I did some work for Toastmasters (I’m mentoring a corporate club which is trying to figure out how to handle everyone working from home) and finally got around to entering my notes from the last three speeches I gave so I could clean up the area around my computer. I also set up a Kanopy account.

We spent a lot of time in front of the TV or computer – more than usual (I didn’t even get my 12 “active” hours on my watch). We started by watching Monday’s Colbert Late Show with the monologue from the bathtub and then rewatched the Jim Carrey interview. After that, we watched most of the Dropkick Murphys livestream from Boston in honor of St. Patrick’s Day; I’m sure I wouldn’t have done that without the quarantine, but I’m glad I did – it was upbeat music! Both Diane and I made a point of wearing green, though I doubt we had to worry about being pinched if we hadn’t.

Dinner was seared tuna with sesame seeds, an idea I’d gotten last month (was it only last month?) at Azahar Panama in Panama City. It was excellent and easy, if I do say so myself.

Tuesday is usually trivia night at Khartoum, but it would have been cancelled anyway for St. Patrick’s Day; I still missed it.

After dinner, we listened to the CD we’d bought on the cruise last month – the ship musician, Sergey Yurchenko gave a classical piano concert and sold his CD afterwards; we bought a copy but, as usual with such things, hadn’t played it…until yesterday. It brought back good memories. When we bought the CD, Sergey didn’t have change in dollars so he gave us a 5 Euro note instead – it may be a while before we can spend it!

We also watched a DVD we’d been given a while ago but hadn’t opened (there’s a theme here) – Jeff Dunham’s Spark of Insanity. I’d never heard of Jeff Dunham before, but he’s a good ventriloquist. It did seem strange to see such a large crowd gathered! We left half the DVD for later, though it doesn’t seem we’re going to run out of things to watch.

On Memorial Day weekend 2013, my friend Sam told me about the great health results he was having with his Fitbit One pedometer.  It sounded easy enough to try, so a few days later both Diane and I bought one, and we used them faithfully – I kept using mine even after getting my Apple Watch (and even after upgrading to the Apple Watch 5).  It was simple, rugged, and only did one thing – and I could compete with friends.  The only real problem with the device was keeping it – it was small, and could easily slip out of my pocket, but I always managed to find it, even when it escaped me on a small cruise ship last month!

Late last year, the battery in my Fitbit died; Diane had upgraded to a Fitbit watch, so I took her One and kept on stepping.  The battery in hers was in better shape than mine had been, but of late, it’s been doing well to get through two days without charging (and would die without warning), so I knew the end was near – but I wanted to nurse it through its seventh anniversary.

That plan ended yesterday; we were out on a walk and when I got home, I noticed that my left pants pocket had my phone, but no Fitbit.  And the app couldn’t find it, either.  I posted to the local NextDoor group, but no luck.

Today, Diane and I retraced our steps; I used the Bluefruit app to look for Bluetooth devices in the area.  I found many interesting devices in the neighborhood (such as an Ember Ceramic Mug), but my One was nowhere to be found.  And then Diane reached down and picked up the clip that used to hold the Fitbit…but the Fitbit was gone.

I’ve figured out how to export my weight data from Fitbit to the Apple Health app, so my history is not lost, but I’ll still miss my Fitbit One.  For the record, here are my lifetime activity stats:

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT STATS

Steps | 41,950,251

Floors | 35,274

Distance | 20,344.19 mi

BEST ACHIEVEMENT STATS

Steps | 33,507 on June 25, 2017

Floors | 186 on August 17, 2016

Distance | 16.18 mi on December 20, 2017