Charmion, shifting into a smaller pair of jeans is a nice bit of progress in an a world otherwise stuck in place. I, on the other hand, ripped out the seat of a really really old pair of thin PJ pants and went against my "no-spend" policy this month and ordered a replacement flannel pair. Larger (alas).

I've researched the sites for monoclonal antibody infusions and have forwarded the information to my friend with COVID and to the most responsible of her grown children. I just heard that her son got on that plane to Hawaii. I am so disappointed in him right now. I have contacted my doctor's office and asked for Rx refills for now and go in for annual bloodwork when it's safer to go out. I don't want to go sit in that tiny lab room that has butts in the chair all day long (and compare that to the insanity of sitting in a jet for 8 hours).

Thompson, I was thinking out loud when I remarked about convection ovens, but this morning I found a study that looks into it. Skimming it and skipping to the bottom, it looks like the ovens had a liquid source for higher humidity and that the tests had a lot to do with how well the masks fit after being treated in a convection oven. A scalable method of applying heat and humidity for decontamination of N95 respirators during the COVID-19 crisis. From June 2020, so ages ago.

This article (from November, 2020) says dry heat can be used to decontaminate: FDA allows dry heat treatment for single-user mask reuse

So maybe just putting the mask away for a few days? Here is one that is quite bizarre - putting the mask in a paper bag inside a pressure cooker (with liquid? with the weight on top?) in the oven. How to Disinfect Your Mask: A Step-by-Step Guide is from June 2020.

And it sounds like some of them can be washed in water - a combination of treatments may turn up in a scholarly journal if I keep looking. I need to share this over on the COVID thread also. Give people something to dig their teeth into to complain about. :-/

No mail, no banks open today for MLK Day. One holiday isn't enough to bring virus spread to a halt if everyone stays home, so I'm going to postpone returning to my volunteer work by a couple of more weeks.

My jigsaw puzzle is coming along, though I swear there aren't enough edge pieces. Along the area where the dog usually attacked past puzzles, but I've kept it covered. In the end it usually means the size of the puzzle is smaller than I thought (it starts out spread out widely across the table top and compresses with its being solved.)

It's that time of year when a bulb of hyacinth or amaryllis is in a special clear pot (roots in water) to bloom on the kitchen windowsill. This year's purple hyacinth is open - and the smell is strong and sickly sweet. It's the worst of cheap motel soap smells, and I think this plant is going to go into dirt and out to the greenhouse really soon.