Just before lunch yesterday, Oliver’s support worker reported to me that he hadn’t been feeling well: headache, sore throat, stuffy nose, aches. In other words, enough boxes ticked on the COVID-19 symptoms list that I was concerned.

As it happened, The Dr. Heather Morrison Show aired its weekly episode yesterday morning, so I was well-primed with instructions for action.

My first call was to 811, where I was shunted into the “our nurses are occupied right now — someone will call you back within 3 hours” queue.

My second call was to our family doctor, but his office was closed.

A careful reading of the COVID-19 testing page suggested that it was actually okay to simply drop in for a test, so, after a quick bite of lunch, fortified for the prospect of spending the afternoon in one of the long testing lines that have been much-evident in the media from elsewhere of late, we got in the car and drove to the old Government Garage on Park Street.

As it turned out, there was no line at all. We were in and out in 10 efficient minutes. The test didn’t hurt (Oliver reported). The staff were friendly. It was less of a hassle than picking up a burger at the Wendy’s next door.

We were given a sheet with a URL for picking up the results, available, we were told, within 24 to 48 hours; Oliver was told to self-isolate, but I was free, I was told, to move about, albeit with more-than-usual masking (and I’m wearing a mask whenever I’m indoors anyway, so no change for me).

Unsatisfied with the need to hit reload for 24 to 48 hours, and feeling icky about the Google, Facebook, and other advertising trackers on the results pickup page, I threw together a little Node-RED flow to scrape the page for Oliver’s test results every 30 minutes and email me the response.

This flow takes advantage of the fact that the government’s system consists of a simply HTTP POST of the health card number and expiration date, along with the date of birth and test date, as JSON, and returns JSON with either “No Results Found” or “COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Test Result.”

All of which was easily observable from Firefox’s Developer Tools, which allows the request to be copied as a cURL command:

curl 'https://wdf.princeedwardisland.ca/workflow' -H 'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:81.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/81.0' -H 'Accept: application/json' -H 'Accept-Language: en' --compressed -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Origin: https://www.princeedwardisland.ca' -H 'DNT: 1' -H 'Connection: keep-alive' -H 'Referer: https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/feature/search-my-covid-19-test-results' -H 'Pragma: no-cache' -H 'Cache-Control: no-cache' --data-raw '{"featureName":"CovidNegativeResults","metaVars":{"service_id":null,"save_location":null},"queryVars":{"phn":"XXXXXXXX","card_expiry_month":"XXX","card_expiry_year":"XXXX","birth_date":"XXXX-XX-XX","test_date":"XXXX-XX-XX","wdf_prevent_query_string":"true","sid":null,"page_num":"1","page_count":"1","finished":"0"}}'

(I’ve replaced Oliver’s actual data with Xs).

It returns JSON that looks, in part, like this:

[
  {
     "id":"10f659b6-8d21-465d-a243-e72e1acd603f",
     "classes":null,
     "type":"Heading",
     "data":{
        "text":"No Results Found",
        "size":2
     },
     "children":[
        
     ]
  },
  {
     "id":"50ce2982-167b-41e6-a979-decaaea1bb97",
     "classes":null,
     "type":"Paragraph",
     "data":{
        "text":"Check that the information you entered is correct and retry. If your results do not appear 72 hours after testing, please contact mytestresults@gov.pe.ca or 1-833-533-9333 and Press 1 for health information and leave a voicemail to receive a call back."
     },
     "children":[
        
     ]
  }
]

when the results aren’t available yet, and:

[
   {
      "id":"9ccb8479-4eae-4177-a3fb-267358ddb910",
      "classes":null,
      "type":"Heading",
      "data":{
         "text":"COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Test Result",
         "size":2
      },
      "children":[
         
      ]
   },
   {
      "id":"12c25d77-c03b-4582-8f40-be82e1b0ec09",
      "classes":null,
      "type":"KeyValueTable",
      "data":{
         "keyValuePairs":{
            "Health Card Number Ending In":"XXXX",
            "Test Date":"XXXX-XX-XX",
            "Test Result":"NEGATIVE (A negative result means that you did not have COVID-19 when you were tested.)"
         }
      },
      "children":[
         
      ]
   }
]

when a negative test result comes back (positive results aren’t delivered through the online system: I presume they’re communicated with a phone call).

My Node-RED flow simply grabbed the ”No Results Found” or “COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Test Result” and emailed that to me every 30 minutes.

Which is how I got this email at 7:00 a.m. this morning:

Whew!

The 811 nurse phoned back yesterday at 4:30 p.m., four hours after I first called, and three hours after Oliver had already been tested.

If you want a simple way of checking your own results, and you have access to a machine with cURL (like any Mac with the Terminal app), a stripped down version of the cURL command will get you what you need:

curl 'https://wdf.princeedwardisland.ca/workflow' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' --data-raw '{"featureName":"CovidNegativeResults","metaVars":{"service_id":null,"save_location":null},"queryVars":{"phn":"XXXXXXXX","card_expiry_month":"XXX","card_expiry_year":"YYYY","birth_date":"YYYY-MM-DD","test_date":"YYYY-MM-DD","wdf_prevent_query_string":"true","sid":null,"page_num":"1","page_count":"1","finished":"0"}}'

where:

• phn is you Provincial Health Card number
• card_expiry_month is the month your health card expires, as a three-letter month abbreviation (JAN, FEB, etc.)
• card_expired_year is the four digit year your health card expires.
• birth_date is your birth date, YYYY-MM-DD
• test_date is the date you had the test, YYYY-MM-DD

(All you’re doing when you do this is acting a web browser of a different sort; it’s a completely legitimate way of obtaining your results and you’re not doing anything nefarious, as you only have access to your results this way).

Needless to say, both Oliver and I are relieved that he doesn’t have COVID. He’s still got his traditional fall cold, but that, relative to the alternative, is manageable.

Lost in the discussion of the new Sherwood Elementary School’s construction as a “net zero ready” building has been that the catalyst for this move was MLA Ole Hammarlund’s successful Net Zero Now motion in the Legislative Assembly:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislative Assembly urge government to with immediate effect design, build and fund only buildings the Net Zero or beyond building standards.

The original tender call for the new school went out in the summer of 2019; Ole’s motion passed in November 2019, prompting a change of plans, and a re-issue of the tender this month, closing in late October.

In the original tender there was a brief mention under the heading “Energy Efficiency”:

It is the intent of this project to meet or exceed the National Energy code for Buildings 2011.

In the revised tender this is significantly expanded:

The PEI Department of Transportation, Infrastructure and Energy (TIE) is working closely with both efficiencyPEI and the PEI Climate Change Secretariat to address mandated requirements of the current PEI Energy Strategy, as well as the Climate Change Action Plan for PEI, 2018-2023, to reduce the production of greenhouse gases and improve energy efficiency for all government building construction projects. To achieve these goals, building construction must begin to meet far more stringent energy use requirements. Design approaches will include enhancements to building controls, envelopes and durability; the integration of the most efficient energy sources — with the lowest overall impact on the province’s carbon emissions footprint — as practical; effective building siting, the potential for geothermal systems, and for on-site energy production.

It is therefore TIE’s intention to build a fully electric building to minimize greenhouse gases which are generated due to the operation of this building. TIE is also requiring enhanced building efficiency. The project is intended to be a ‘Net Zero’ building to be designed to minimize annual energy consumption. By targeting a 50% reduction in energy usage over the NECB 2017, and having a maximum targeted Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 110 kWh/sq.m, this highly energy-efficient building will have the capability of having on site or on-grid clean energy used by this building to offset any GHG from its operations. 

TIE is also interested in reviewing the financial analysis for a roof mounted installation of a new 100 kW Photo Voltaic (PV) array for this building. The building roof design should be optimized to maximize the output of the PV array.

The building design is to be remodeled utilizing anticipated real world schedules, and actual design elements to develop a financial review of the various energy efficiency options. The designer will work with TIE and the End User Group to develop an anticipated real world operational schedule for this model.

The design team is to work with TIE and the End User to assess building improvements and operational requirements, which are beyond the minimum NECB standards, to ensure the energy reduction options as a whole project (architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical enhancements and PV) has a simple payback target of fifteen (15) years or less.

The individual energy saving options to get to an EUI of 110 kWh/sq.m. are to be costed with net present value considerations included for review by TIE before proceeding to the design phase.
Additional Comments:

(a) TIE does not want the Design Team exploring “high capital cost” options that would have lengthy paybacks when considered through financial analysis.
(b) Appendix ‘B’ outlines a number of building related requirements that have been identified by the end user that will need to be vetted and confirmed during the schematic design process.
(c) The cost required for reinforcing the roof for PV installation should be included during the financial analysis review.

Government sees this project as a flagship initiative that will lead to other projects across the province also decreasing their GHG emissions.

Government, as well as the school board’s, goal is to create a comfortable learning environment and to provide an exemplary building for students that could also be used as a learning tool that can be incorporated as part of the curriculum of the school.

While Ole’s motion was non-binding, it obviously set wheels in motion, and government deserves credit to stopping the new school in its tracks, reconsidering, and coming up with a new net-zero building plan.

Minority parliament for the win!

My friend Jamie has an opinion piece in yesterday’s USA Today about his two month stint working as a census worker in Hawaii.

Our Saturday started with our new-usual one-two of smoked salmon bagel pickup from Gallant’s, followed by a loop or two around the still-outdoor Charlottetown Farmers’ Market. Next, in a radical departure from our local food trail, we headed west to Kinkora in search of dilly bars.

In May I wrote about a disappointing Dilly Bar experience at Dairy Queen; my friend Thelma responded, later in the summer, with a suggestion that we visit the Somerset Ice Cream Bar to try their take. Reasoning that, with summer’s end, they will soon be closed, that’s what we did. We were not disappointed: it’s worth the drive to Kinkora (and, as of this writing, they’re still open daily).

Our dilly bars consumed, I realized we were within spitting distance of The Handpie Company in Albany, so we headed there for lunch, enjoyed under the shade of a tree on the grounds. The handpies we had were light and flaky and just wonderful, and this precipitated an email thread with Sarah, personable owner of the enterprise, about how to achieve this when I heat frozen handpies at home (she advised to give a “light egg-wash first to get that golden top crust,” something that’s right on the instructions but a step I’d been skipping).

From The Handpie Company we took the back route, through downtown Albany (a lovely village; my first visit) into Borden-Carleton, where we topped up the Kia Soul EV at the new Flo charger behind the gas station. We then drove along the south shore, through Cape Traverse and Tryon, to Victoria where, what with the sugar-dam already having burst, we stopped for Factory Coffee and hot chocolate on the patio.

Fortified with caffeine and sugar, we headed toward home for afternoon chores.

Our house at 100 Prince Street shares a 24 inch “alley” with our neighbours at 104 Prince Street, an alley that, despite living here for 20 years, I’d never looked inside until a few weeks ago, when I took a look with a insulation contractor. Once of the mysteries unveiled to me on that visit was that the vents for our range fume hood, our bathroom fans and our clothes dryer were in need of repair, their flaps no longer flapping open and closed. Attending to that was my Saturday project.

And a fascinating project it was: I learned a lot about vent assemblies–a 4 inch aluminum tube attached to the flappy part–at Home Hardware, and, in sliding the existing dryer vent out, I learned just how thick the walls of our house are (from shingles to plaster is about 15 inches), and that there actually is some insulation in the walls. The job ended up extending over two days, as I wasn’t satisfied with my first go at bodging the existing dryer vent together with some replacement parts on Saturday, so I ripped everything out on Sunday and did a much cleaner job. I ended up spending a lot of time in that little alley, and thus extended my dominion of comfort to a whole new region of the house.

As the afternoon drew to a close, I pressed pause on chores, made a quick supper, and prepared for Fountain Pen Night on Zoom.

Because both Oliver and I were going to attend, I decided to try an experiment in projecting the Zoom on the living room wall with our screen projector while, at the same time, capturing Oliver and I on a standalone Logitech webcam mounted on a tripod. The ergonomics and image quality left something to be desired (it was a delicate balance to get the room dark enough to see the projected Zoom clearly while light enough to allow others to see me and Oliver).

Special guest star at Pen Night this week was my friend Bill, a medical physicist with a particular research interest in optics. Bill uses fountain pen ink to approximate blood in his lab, and he walked is through spectral analysis of various ink samples. It was an interesting deep dive into colour theory, light, reflection, and absorption, and Bill, left without a webcam by circumstances beyond his control, gamely rose to the occasion of conducting the entire seminar with his iPhone.

Pen Night drew to a close around 9:30 p.m., and, in the normal course of affairs this would have been the time to start getting ready for bed, but it was also Saturday Movie Night and Oliver would have none of suspending that routine, Pen Night or not.

It was the week I was commanded to pick a movie from Oliver’s teen years and, further, I was told the film had to be on the theme either of Google or Oliver. There was really only one clear choice: The Internship, the 2013 film starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson that was set on the Google campus. Not a great film, but not a horrible film, and really the only one eligible given Oliver’s dictates.

It was thus almost midnight by the time Oliver started his playlist playing and went off to bed.

Sunday was a two-breakfasts-no-lunch day.

We started the day with our habitual waffles, then, at noon, went down to the waterfront to enjoy Sunday pancakes with Catherine Hennessey and G. We emerged into the early afternoon again caffeine-filled (this time on Catherine’s black tea), and headed to Home Depot to pick up supplies for day two of the dryer vent odyssey. 

Home Depot was positively hopping, and it took a lot of social distancing gymnastics to manoeuvre ourselves into the right aisle for long enough to pick the parts I needed for the job (I set on the flappy part, a 3 foot length of 4 inch aluminum tubing, a 4 inch pipe clamp, and a small length of flexible 4 inch conduit to allow the final connection to the dryer some flex). With Saturday’s experience already under my belt, I made short work of the job, and I’m very pleased with how it all turned out.

As I already had the extension ladder up out of the basement, I used the opportunity to pick the remaining apples and plums from the trees in the back yard. I managed to pick all but the very highest ones; the apples were tiny, but plentiful, and I ended up with three dozen.

Apples and plums picked, I set the plums aside to pass along to a friend, and set out to make another batch of applesauce. The Instant Pot was almost-overflowing by the time I’d filled it with apples; 8 minutes of pressure, and 30 minutes of mashing about, and I had a quart in the fridge ready for this week’s breakfast.

I was on a roll, so I just kept going after supper and made another batch of pasta sauce, using two pounds of Roma tomatoes purchased at the market from Sam at Cranbush Farms, along with carrots and zucchini from Trudy White, leeks from Paul Offer, and the single pepper I grew this summer, Fiero (who turned out to not be fiery at all). We’re now set for at least three weeks of pasta eating with a couple of quarts in the freezer.

I finished the evening by running up to Sobeys for weekly groceries and then, on my return, clearing out the kitchen cupboards around the dishwasher, as a new one is set to be delivered this morning from MacArthur’s, continuing the season of appliance replacement due to breakdowns (in this case the Whirlpool dishwasher, purchased only 4 years and one Premier ago, needed a $300 motor replacement; on the advice of our repairman, and brother Johnny, the replacement is a Bosch). Here’s the old one on its last morning in place, for posterity:

All and all a satisfying and productive weekend.

Today’s How we met feature in The Guardian: “I was trying to rent a flat from him – but then there was a murder”. Heds like that don’t come along every day.

When texting (finally) came to PEI.

I had lunch with a friend today at Slaymaker & Nichols. We sat on the patio; the experience was top flight from beginning to end: great patio, great service, great food, great drinks. Lots of bees, but, net-net, the bees are keeping us alive.

I’ve been reluctant to use restaurants for anything other than takeout: there are few meals where the ROI on the COVID risk is sufficient to convince me to dine in. But I’d happily return to Slaymaker’s cozy patio any time.

True to my word, I bought a Gachuck today from The Bookmark.

The history of the device here suggests it’s named that because of the sound the dispenser makes when clipping paper together, which I took to be apocryphal until I actually heard it for myself:

Yes, that’s a gachuck sound.

From William Denton, a pointer to the Dr. Canadiana Podcast, which includes a “minisode” titled Who is Robertson Davies? It’s a helpful explainer.

I spotted a “Gachuck” on the shelves at The Bookmark this afternoon, and personable owner Dan Macdonald helpfully passed along this pointer to a explanation of what it is (essentially a tool for applying binder clips minus the ungainly wires). I am now intrigued enough to consider purchase.