Tech Check

 

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Test Drive Success!

We are able to capture a decent 5G signal from our hill-top, and a mobile-carrier switch to T-mobile is under way. Their Magenta plan does more for us at the same price we're paying now, and adding internet this way will save us quite a bit. The risk is out there for signal clogging in bad weather or too many trees, but for now we're giving it a shot!

It should be noted that we had ~5Mpbs with the old landline internet, and 5g to wifi isn't much faster here on the edge of civilization. Since access is more important than absolute speed, we feel no need to go for 5g phones on this system. Let competition increase¹ and prices fall, at once that happens we will likely dip our toes into the highest ends of tech speed on the road.

¹ In fact, my primary reason not to go 5g is that all manufacturers have decided to adopt 7-inch screens with a 20:9 screen ratio. Most people dislike it - I however, pretty much detest it. I've ordered a Moto e5 Plus for $39 with 4g,  a 6" 18:9 screen and a mix of specs that suit me better. It might have a decent camera and a bit less battery life² but I don't care. I'd like a small-body 5g Android phone, and I'll wait for someone to introduce one. I'm not the only person seeking a phone that doesn't reach my knees when in a pants pocket!

² No surprise since it's a smaller device. It needs less power to drive the smaller screen and also has less space to add a monster battery. It uses the prehistoric µUSB port but still has a speedy recharge cycle. Oh no, no USB/c.?!?  Surprise: I don't care.

An Unusual Heat Storm

In general, the pacific NW USA endures heat waves in 3-day snips. A lot like snow in that way - extended periods of heat or cold are rare. So we are living through an exception!We're on day seven of temperatures above 90° - and we're expecting one more. Portland's record for 95+ is seven days, and I think that record is at risk.

Our heat storms generally end in one of two ways. The transition that I remember mostly from my youth is a few nice thunderstorms (big ones only by NW USA standards), . Not a massive squall line like the rest of the US gets at the end of a heat wave, though; just storms that form along the Cascades and drift NW to valley-dwellers around sunset. The day after would be cooler as marine air slipped into the valleys.

Nowadays the t-stormy phase gets skipped for the valleys nearly every time, and a strong but dry west wind brings a Marine Push. Wind ramps up late one afternoon and rushes in with cool air, and a cloudless evening in the 60s replaces 80-100° heat. Less exciting but still dramatic. Living here for eight years (north of Portland, aligned with the long lower-Columbia estuary) this has become the default ending.

We had several of these late-day pushes this week, each causing temps to crash in the late afternoon -- but in each case the west wind was stymied and the heat resumed! Forecasts generally agreed that late-week break would arrive Saturday.. no Sunday. Now it is Saturday and it's expected late on Monday. Maybe?

Nearly every day was warmer than even the warmest forecast, and the week's slow cooling became a double peak on Tue and Fri. A couple of 90s then dropping.. well maybe 90 again Fri, or Sat. Oops, today we hit 105° - matching our high during last year's record-crushing Heat Dome, six degrees or more above the forecasts, and the new peak of the week. No push today until 7PM: too little, too late.

 

At least no nearby stations reached 116° like last year, thankfully.. But

 Ugh.

Tomorrow was supposed to be a pinch cooler. So is that 97, or 103°? 

Tune in & find out.

summer heat

Today has already overshot the forecast by several degrees. Thankfully the west continues to receive shallow west winds and should hang in the 70s all week. We're in the 90s and could be hotter through at least Tuesday, then slowly cool off through the weekend. Forecasts are a bit lower then they had been - but we'll still be feeling it, Portland especially more than us. Somehow we'll manage.

It's quite likely that a day trip west is in the cards, assuming our schedule will have a free day. 

Sure looks nice over there!

covid inflation and chaos, o my

First the Classic version, then Alpha, Delta, Omicron. And now the O-variants.

Many news stories about BA.4 and BA.5 taking over caseloads - and now stories of a throwback, BA.2.75 with massive mutations from an earlier variant! 

No more coordinated national mandates, no more direct reports of home-test results unlike tests made within the health-care system (fragmented as even that is) - so increases are mere blips on the Omicron-peak-scaled charts and unreported cases are a mere guess. Hospital visits are no longer at crisis levels at least, as so many are on 3rd and 4th injections. I just received my fourth before a gathering that caught my best buddy and his wife with three weeks of Covid lousiness (variant: unknown).

The upper graphic from ourworldindata.org shows the USA percentage of the original COVID virus and its variants over time. It does not deal with the variants within each variant, so Omicron still rules whether BA.4, BA.5 or BA.2.75

Once upon a time I had a daily record of cases and deaths for the US, and my state and county. Then small governments stopped giving daily reports so I moved to 5-day points; my chart and a 4-period moving average are at the bottom of the graphic. No doubt the 5-day spacing includes weekends now and then, leading to a pronounced zigzag; I put a 4-period average on the data (darkest line) to make trends clearer. Our current cases are around Delta-outbreak levels (fall 2021), which were frightening until Omicron 1.0 came on the scene. 

After nearly three years we've all been desensitized by the relentlessness and the scale of this pandemic, and the political spins that have made science just another variable in our rhetoric. No wonder fatigue is a symptom of the pandemic - even not catching the virus in this environment is exhausting!

In the meantime, the President and Congress have been stymied by the parity in the Senate and the bitterness of 21st-century partisanship. Add in big-time inflation that is rather independent of economics (supply issues still rule), a war in Ukraine and the impact of sanctions on Russia, various amounts of chaos elsewhere (e.g. the UK now choosing another prime minister) and the result is a bitter brew. It's a no-win situation for anyone, but blame is an irresistible sport in today's chaotic climate.

We'll deal with the topic of climate another time..