Downton Abbey - Season Four

At Sea Ranch, Sharon and I finished watching season four of Downton Abbey. We finished season one in August, season two in early September and season three in late September.

The fourth season comprises nine episodes. It originally aired from September 22, 2013 to November 10, 2013 with a December 25, 2013 special Christmas episode.

The show explores the lives of the fictional Crawley family, the hereditary Earls of Grantham, and their domestic servants. The storyline in season four runs from February to August of 1922. Historical events include the Hitler's Brownshirts, the Teapot Dome Scandal and the Prince of Wales relationship with Freda Dudley Ward.

I continue to enjoy and recommend the series. I was shocked to realize that the Freda Dudley Ward was not the woman for which Edward VIII abdicated the throne. He had a fourteen relationship with the married Ward before he fell in love with Wallis Simpson.

A Memory Called Empire

My book for October was A Memory called Empire by Arkady Martine. After reading a seventy year old science fiction book in September, I starting casting around for something more current.

The book caught my attention because it won a number of awards. It won the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel. The book was also a Locus and Nebula Award nominee for 2019.

It follows Mahit Dzmare, the ambassador from Lsel Station to the Teixcalaanli Empire, as she investigates the death of her predecessor and the instabilities that underpin the Teixcalaanli society. The story looks at language, grammar, and custom and how they are intertwined with the politics of conquest and the broader culture.

I enjoyed the book and recoommend it. The book is a nice balance of cyberpunk, space opera, and political thriller. I enjoy books that play with ideas about the future of technology.

I Voted

7 Days to Vegas

Friday night at Sea Ranch, Sharon and I watched 7 Days to Vegas on Amazon Prime. Sharon had seen a tweet from Eileen Davidson about the movie.

The ensemble cast includes Vincent Van Patten, Ross McCall, Paul Walter Hauser, Eileen Davidson, James Van Patten, Willie Garson, Lucas Bryant, Don Stark, John O'Hurley, Chad Lowe, Jennifer Tilly, James Kyson, Danny Pardo, Christina Vidal, Aron Eisenberg, and Kara Weinraub. Vincent Van Patten co-wrote the flim along with Steve Alper.

Based on a true story, struggling actor Duke Madson [Vincent Van Patten] creates the biggest underground poker game in Hollywood. Celebrities and eccentric power players bet millions that Duke can't walk from LA to Vegas in seven days.

The film doesn't take itself too seriously. Sharon liked it more than I did. Apparently, Vincent Van Patten actually ran a high stakes poker game and walked to Vegas as part of a bet!

Jack back to DC

Jack flew into Sacramento late on Tuesday, October 20 while we were at Sea Ranch. He spent a weekend and a half working remoting from our house.

During the weekend of October 24, Emily, Drew and Jack went hiking at Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe. Jack and Emily spent a day exploring San Francisco.

Saturday morning while I babysat Lee, Sharon took Jack to the airport. Catching a United Flight to Denver, he was back in Washington DC by 7 pm. He caught an Uber from Dulles to his apartment.

I was very nice to have Jack, Drew and Morgan here at the same time.

Halloween 2020

Saturday morning, Morgan dropped Lee off for a couple of hours while she went to get a haircut. They ended up coming back in the late afternoon. Sharon made a nice dinner of salmon, baked brown rice and green beans.

After dinner, we took Lee trick-or-treating. After Ben and Anna came to our house, we followed them through the neighborhood. We visited five or six houses before calling it a night.

Hackers targeting U.S. hospitals with ransomware attacks

Federal agencies warn hackers targeting U.S. hospitals with ransomware attacks

The FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned Wednesday that cybercriminals were stepping up ransomware attacks on health sector groups as the organizations grappled with a new wave of COVID-19 cases.

"CISA, FBI, and HHS have credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers," the agencies wrote in a joint alert.

The agencies warned that the cybercriminals behind the attacks were deploying Ryuk malware, a ransomware virus that was recently linked to an attack on a German hospital that crashed servers and led to the death of woman who was unable to receive life-saving care.

The virus was also involved in an attack on Pennsylvania-headquartered hospital chain Universal Health Services, with all 250 of its U.S. healthcare facilities negatively impacted by a ransomware attack earlier this month.

Multiple hospitals and healthcare groups in the U.S. have been targeted this week, including three hospitals in New York’s St. Lawrence County and Sky Lakes Medical Center in Oregon, which the medical center confirmed in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

“Sky Lakes retail pharmacies and clinics are all open,” the medical center wrote in a Wednesday post. “With our computer system still compromised by the ransomware attack, business is functioning although slower.”

The three federal agencies noted Wednesday that they were "sharing this information to provide warning to healthcare providers to ensure that they take timely and reasonable precautions to protect their networks from these threats."

Cybersecurity group FireEye released a report Wednesday night detailing the attacks, attributing them to an an Eastern European group known as "UNC1878."

“The operators conducting these campaigns have actively targeted hospitals, retirement communities and medical centers, even in the midst of a global health crisis, demonstrating a clear disregard for human life,” FireEye threat researchers wrote in the report.

Reuters reported that the FBI was probing the recent attacks, while CyberScoop reported that the FBI, HHS, and DHS held a call with private sector groups on Wednesday to discuss the new cyber threats to U.S. hospitals and healthcare groups.

HHS and CISA did not respond to The Hill's request for comment on the call, while a spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment beyond the joint alert.

Charles Carmakal, the senior vice president and chief technology officer of FireEye’s Mandiant Threat Intelligence, said in a statement provided to The Hill that the UNC1878 threat group is “one of the most brazen, heartless, and disruptive threat actors I’ve observed in my career.”

“Ransomware attacks on our healthcare system may be the most dangerous cyber security threat we’ve ever seen in the United States,” Carmakal said. “UNC1878, an Eastern European criminal threat actor, is deliberately targeting and disrupting U.S. hospitals with ransomware, forcing them to divert patients to other healthcare providers. Patients may experience prolonged wait time to receive critical care.”

He noted that “multiple hospitals have already been significantly impacted by Ryuk ransomware and their networks have been taken offline. As hospital capacity becomes more strained by COVID-19, the danger posed by this actor will only increase.”

Ransomware attacks have become an increasing concern to hospitals worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, with hackers looking to take advantage of cyber vulnerabilities at a time when hospitals are particularly desperate to ensure systems remain up and running.

Carmakal said Wednesday that Mandiant was “releasing a significant amount of information about UNC1878 to help organizations defend their networks” and mitigate cyber threats to these critical groups.

Drew is off

After spending two weeks housesitting for us while we were at Sea Ranch, Drew took off for Half Moon Bay to do some recording before heading back to SoCal. He and Shannon are considering moving to the Placerville area.

Family Dinner

With Drew and Jack still staying with us, we invited Morgan and Lee for dinner. Drew said that he thought that it was the first time that the three of them had all been together in this house.

Sharon made a great dinner of cornflake chicken, scalloped potatoes and aspargus. The weather was nice enough that we ate on the back deck.

After dinner, Drew, Jack, Sharon and I took Tiber for a walk looping in through the back gate in the dark. While I did the dishes, Sharon, Jack and Drew played Unstable Unicorns.

Adventist Health earns IT award

Congratulations to Adventist Health IT for earning an award for their meaningful work to improve patient care. The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is pleased to announce that Adventist Health has earned 2020 CHIME Digital Health Most Wired recognition as a certified level 8, receiving the quality award.

The CHIME Digital Health Most Wired program conducts an annual survey to assess how effectively healthcare organizations apply core and advanced technologies into their clinical and business programs to improve health and care in their communities.

This is the second year that Adventist Health has received this award, holding on to our level 8 certification and improving 2.9% from last year’s 2019 submission.

“I’m incredibly proud of our team for this prestigious award,” says Matt Fink, chief information officer. “We continually strive for excellence in digital technology to enhance care for our patients. This award is a shining light during an especially challenging year with COVID-19.”

A total of 30,091 organizations were represented in the 2020 Digital Health Most Wired program, which this year included four separate surveys: domestic, ambulatory, long-term care and international. The surveys assessed the adoption, integration and impact of technologies in healthcare organizations at all stages of development, from early development to industry leading.

2020 Work From Sea Ranch - Day 11

Moving day. Up early, I started loading up the car before 7 am. After a quick breakfast, I did a couple of work meetings.

We rolled from the house before 10 am. With a quick stop in Bogeda Bay, we were at the Artesa Winery before 12:30 pm. We had seen the Artesa Winery featured in the movie Wine Country. I was very impressed with the views from the winery that they showed in the film. Sharon and Liz visited the winery in 2004.

We did a Heritage Flight Tasting with Tapas. I enjoyed the wine, the food and the view. We sat on the patio looking south towards the bay. Unfortunately, it was very windy. To Sharon's dismay, due to the wind, the fountains weren't running.

We were back in Carmichael about 3:30 pm. Both Drew and Jack were there. Drew showed up on October 16 and housesat while we were gone. Jack had flew to Sacramento on Ocotber 20 and has been working remote from Carmichael over the last week.

It is likely that both Sharon and I will be working from home for the foreseeable future. The open question is where will we work from next!

2020 Work From Sea Ranch - Day 10

We had a lazy morning. Sharon had talked about wanting to play golf again. Given the condition of the golf course, I was less enthused; the fairways are dead, hard tabletops. Combined with some cooler weather, we decided to take one last hike in the morning instead. We hiked down to the ocean and along the bluff trail before heading back to the house. We passed Seascape where we stayed with the Sanborns in January of 2019.

We decided to go wine tasting at the Annapolis Winery in the afternoon. More than twenty years ago, we visited the winery on a Sea Ranch vacation in the summer of 1999. We had Drew, Morgan and Jack with us. As I said before, I have to look for some pictures from that trip.

After the tasting, we had a picnic lunch. The place was deserted; we were the only customers.

Heading back towards Gualala, we drove through a couple of The Sea Ranch neighborhoods that Sharon wanted to explore. This included a quick stop to look for a historical marker behind the tennis courts at the Del Mar Center [Del Mar Store Warehouse Circa 1904]. We stopped at the Surf Market to pick a few things to fill out the plan for dinner. I filled up the Volvo for the first time in almost two and a half months!

Back at the house, we hit the hot tub and then started to pack up. We are going to roll early on Monday morning to head back to Carmichael. The weather cleared in the afternoon and we enjoyed one of the best sunsets of the week.

We made a Mexican meal out of leftovers. We finished the night watching episode nine of season four of Downton Abbey. This was an extra long season finale.

2020 Work From Sea Ranch - Day 9

Sharon talked earlier in the week about wanting to do a really long hike on Saturday. Heading out about 9:30 am, Sharon and I hiked along the bluff trail to the Salad Creek Trail through the golf course. From there, we crossed Highway 1 and looped around Northeast corner of The Sea Ranch. We came across a somewhat surprising historical marker [The Sea Ranch Apartments]. We stopped for lunch on the Pomo Creek Trail. In total, we covered just over ten miles in about four and a half hours. A map of the hike is here.

We have seen quite a few whales over the course of the week. Just south of the golf course as we were hiking, we stopped and watched a pair of whales feeding in the kelp beds. Seeing their tails as they dived, it was my best sighting of the week.

We spent a some time in the hot tub in the afternoon. We continue to have some struggles with the hot tub circuit breakers tripping.

We headed to The Vue restaurant for an early dinner. We split appetizers of crab dim sum and rock cod cerviche. For entrees, I had Osso Bucco [a tender pork shank braised in chef’s marinade sauce until “fall of the bone”], while Sharon had Tipsy Sardinian [fish, prawns served in spicy vodka sauce with sun dried tomatoes and saffron cream linguini].

This is the fourth time this year that we have eaten at this restaurant!?! We enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

We finished the night watching episodes seven and eight of season four of Downton Abbey and the beginning of Bill Marr. The house has an Amazon Fire TV. I find it very slow and user unfriendly...

First Birthday Party

2020 Work From Sea Ranch - Day 8 [Work From Home - Day 225]

I started the day with a 2.50 power walk to ocean with the Peleton App. Although we had some fog roll in on Thursday night, it was a beautiful morning.

While I worked, Sharon took a five plus hike along the bulff trail in the morning. Afterwards, she went into town and bought some salmon for dinner.

After work, I went for a 45 minute run/walk up the hill to the Ridge Trail with the Peloton. It is an extremely steep climb from the house up to the trail head. I ended up covering 3.5 miles. This run covered the last two miles of our hike on Saturday.

For dinner, I barbecued a dozen osysters, while Sharon cooked salmon, rice and asgargus. We finished the night watching the movie 7 Days to Vegas on Amazon Prime.

Tiber's Seventh Birthday

Tiber the Corgi is seven years old today!

2020 Work From Sea Ranch - Day 7

Sharon and I took an early morning hike from the Deerfield house to Shell Beach. We covered two miles in just over forty-four minutes.

At lunch, we drove to the One-Eye Jack's picnic area. We parked the car and hiked to the Monarch Glen Interpretive Trail. Although this area is marked on the map that I have, I had never noticed it before. There was a guide for the interpretive trail at the house and it caught our attention. I am glad that we brought the guide from the house because there weren't any in the box at the beginning of the trail. The area is well worth a visit.

After finishing the interpretive trail, we hiked a loop back towards the ocean before heading back to the car. The weather was gorgeous. We have been lucky all week.

At the end of the work day, I did a twenty minute power walk up the hill to the beginning of the Ridge Trail. I used the Peloton app.  Just before I started my walk, the fog started to roll in for the first time since we have been here.

Heading into Gualala to pick up dinner, we stopped for a couple of things at the market. We got a take out pizza from Upper Crust Pizzeria.

We finished the day watching the second Trump Biden Presidential Debate. It wasn't the shitshow that the first debate was. Although I am a California Republican, I do not like Trump.

2020 Work From Sea Ranch - Day 6

I started the day with a 1.90 mile power walk to the bluff trail and a beautiful view of the ocean. Afterwards, I dove into a chaotic work day. We have been working to get on top of an incident since last Thursday morning.

I took a break at lunch and went out for a run. For the first time, I used one of Peloton's outdoor workouts. I covered 5.26 miles in an hour. Running north along the bluff trail, I was surprised to pass Graham View. Sharon and I stayed there in January. I enjoyed the Peloton outdoor workout and will probably start using them more.

After work, Sharon and I spent some time in the hot tub. After some struggles with the hot tub on Sunday, Sharon called and got someone out to reset the system. We have been enjoying the sunsets all week.

I barbecued steaks for dinner. The Gainsleys had bought a couple of extra steaks on Sunday. We finished the day watching The Eleventh Hour with Brian Williams. It is 13 days until Election Day!

Lee's First Birthday

2020 Work From Sea Ranch - Day 5

Up early, I headed across Highway 1 for a quick one mile walk before breakfast. Afterwards, I dove into a heavy work day.

At the end of the work day, Sharon and I hiked across Highway 1 and headed south along the bluffs. We passed Vista Del Mar where Sharon and I stayed for the 20th Anniversary Fall Dinner Party. We turned around and started back just as we reached Kyuka. We stayed at Kyuka with the Sanborns in 2018.

The weather is absolutely gorgeous. Sharon is always excited to come across the sheep!

We had leftover lasagna for dinner. We finished the day watching the Eleventh Hour with Brian Williams.