Cooler, and hopefully rain free…
Yesterday never got as warm as predicted, and at least at the Ft Bend Fairgrounds, a gorgeous morning with a fantastic sunrise ended up a gloomy blustery overcast day.
I hope today is dry so that I can work on getting the driveway cleaned up and the hamfest stuff put away for another year. I need to clear space to bring home several tubs from my secondary location. They are far enough away that a local quarantine would put them out of reach.
I still am planning as if we weren’t going to WDW next week. Wife is still planning to go, as of Friday. Our school district sends an email every day that they are cleaning and following official state and city guidance. We’re so fukced. I didn’t prepare for the last 6 years to get this stupid bug now. If this were a book, no one would believe the prepper main character going to a swapmeet ahead of a trip to Disneyworld AT SPRING BREAK during a pandemic outbreak of a deadly disease. One of the most refreshing things about John Ringo’s Black Tide Rising is that when the family gets word, they ACT. Of course they then spend another month F’ing around in NYFC waiting for things to get untenable… unlike them, we don’t have a vaccine.
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Please add hand lotion to your ‘last run’ if you don’t already have a good stock. My hands are RAW. All the wiping, hand washing, and bleach are brutal on hands.
Speaking of bleach, I literally washed my cash from the swapmeet in bleach solution. I’m waiting for it to dry to count it. It left the wash water tinged beige. Just saying. Wife is doing a cookie booth later today. FFS. And I’d like to wash that money too.
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Aesop points out that it’s not just the number of sick people overwhelming the medical system, it’s the lost work time as 10s or 100s of thousands are unable to work for 3-5 weeks or more. That’s a BIG hit to the economy, as china will find out.
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the common AB drug that is unavailable might be doxy… it fits the description. A little birdy told me they are working on getting production up in the US but it will be ‘a while’.
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For some reason, the 5 extra deodorants I thought I had in the cabinet are AWOL. It’s always something you thought was covered.
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Hospitals are already conserving PPEs, and NYFC is conserving firefighters by keeping them off possible Covid calls. EMS is F’d. I guess they hope to keep fighting fires, when they come, but have written off the EMS as a lost cause.
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Consider hospital staffing levels when they lose a whole ER shift to quarantine every time some joker walks in with WuFlu unannounced. Rinse and repeat for a few weeks. Now break your arm in a fall…..
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Did I mention I think we’re F’d? And we have more interlocking dependencies than China, so we have more breakable systems.
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Keep stacking, and turn your clock forward for the time stealers.*
n
*the spring forward part is for real, the time stealing government flunkies part, not so much.
In this household the “some reason” would be that my wife or her mother took them. I haven’t given up on getting supplies laid in, but it’s a matter of constantly checking what we have and getting more, while ignoring my wife’s bitching about wasting money on things we don’t need.
This topic is probably worth an essay or two: If you’re currently unattached but want a spouse and you’re serious about being prepared for trouble, choosing your partner is probably the most important prep you can make. This is, of course, a thin slice of the general topic of picking a spouse to help further your familial and career goals and so on. The other essay would be on getting prepped for disaster or simple hardship in the presence of a spouse who actively thwarts everything you do, whether through malice or through differing priorities.
Oh, and I suppose next you’ll be telling us that most government senior staffers aren’t lizardoids?
I don’t buy his thesis that “lizardoid” is subconscious code for a deep insight, but reasoned, alternative viewpoints are often worth considering just to keep our minds flexible.
Consider hospital staffing levels when they lose a whole ER shift to quarantine every time some joker walks in with WuFlu unannounced. Rinse and repeat for a few weeks. Now break your arm in a fall…..
Whatever happened on Friday at the Austin VA with the Col. Bat Guano type bullying his way into being seen there will doubtless have repercussions for the veterans who depend on that place for care. The providers on that entire end of the building face quarantine.
It isn’t so much a problem that our systems are more interconnected as much as the segment of the population who believes that the rules don’t apply to them.
BTW, virus aside, why is it that so many Col. Bat Guano types seem to be connected with the ongoing deployment in Korea? Does it mess with their heads that the force is not expected to survive the North pouring over the border?
My grandfather, an artillery squad leader, did the complete adventure in Korea with McArthur — up, down, up, down — before the General was fired. He told me once in the 80s that Seoul would be toast in about 15 minutes when the North’s big guns opened up, and that was nearly 40 years ago.
I still am planning as if we weren’t going to WDW next week. Wife is still planning to go, as of Friday
Which hotel?
Ordinarily, I would advise against the All Star “value” properties, but the doors to the rooms open to the outside instead of common hallways if you are concerned. I’ve written before about the likelihood of the McDonald’s around the corner staying open through just about any crisis.
You still get some bus service to the parks, but it isn’t frequent. Maybe you want that, however.
Also, food service isn’t stellar. Regardless of where you stay, Publix will be clean and have stocks of things if anyone does in Central Florida. Publix has taken on the burden of fighting bogus therapy animals for the retail community, and they do not hesitate to close/relocate stores in areas of town as the neighborhoods get too “sporty”.
Chances are, the typical old school Publix manager has more preps than you do.
“Chances are, the typical old school Publix manager has more preps than you do.”
–he probably orders by the pallet, and wholesale.
“The providers on that entire end of the building face quarantine.”
—and that is why we won’t win. They needed to be marched out of the hospital in bunnysuits as soon as the suspicion formed. Then kept isolated (and that doesn’t mean at home to infect their whole families and spread it to church and school) until Bat Guano’s test comes back negative.
–at a minimum, because you don’t actually get it instantly, immediate deconn, change of everything and shower, no contact lenses, glasses get bleach dip, no personal phones on the floor, everything… and then isolated from family, staff, and patients until the test comes back.
anything less will spread thru the patients and staff and their families.
n
@greg, we are DVC and our home resort is Yacht and Beach Club. I’m not certain if we are staying there this time (you can trade around) but we are def not back at the value resorts. (Which are a good value, and we’ve stayed there more than once. But there are indeed tradeoffs.)
n
BTW to see how ridiculous the US response is, my auctions are still full of medical equipment. POSSIBLY less than normal, although it varies. Garland TX is selling off dozens of beds. How do beds expire? they’re gonna wish they had those beds in the tent in the parking lot in about a month.
n
“The unholy crusade against gas appliances”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/03/07/the-unholy-crusade-against-gas-appliances/
“When Berkeley, California last year became the first U.S. city to ban the installation of natural gas lines to new homes, Mayor Jesse Arreguín proudly stated, “We are committed to the Paris Agreement and must take immediate action in order to reach our climate action goals. It’s not radical. It’s necessary.””
“Phasing out natural gas-fired electric power generation by 2030 is bedrock dogma in the Green New Deal. In fact, it’s become an unholy crusade. So it should be no surprise that climate alarmists would jump at the chance to ban new natural gas lines. Many other cities in California have already followed Berkeley’s lead, as has Bellingham, Washington. More gas bans are in the offing nationwide. Connecticut lawmakers actually want a law that would pressure insurers to stop insuring homes that have gas appliances or heating systems!!”
“But Takoma Park, Maryland, which proudly bills itself as “the Berkeley of the East,” wants to go even further. City officials have proposed to ban “all gas appliances, close fossil fuel pipelines, and move gasoline stations that do not convert to electric charging stations outside city limits by 2045.” The Takoma Park proposal also mandates all-LED lighting by 2022 for all buildings, including single-family homes. Composting would also become mandatory.”
These people are nuts !
BTW, virus aside, why is it that so many Col. Bat Guano types seem to be connected with the ongoing deployment in Korea? Does it mess with their heads that the force is not expected to survive the North pouring over the border?
My grandfather, an artillery squad leader, did the complete adventure in Korea with McArthur — up, down, up, down — before the General was fired. He told me once in the 80s that Seoul would be toast in about 15 minutes when the North’s big guns opened up, and that was nearly 40 years ago.
My cousin is an Army JAG paralegal assigned to the deployment in South Korea. He goes over every three months for three weeks at a time. He has been doing this for around ten years now. He told me that most of the USA troops have been redeployed 200 miles south of the DMZ. Trump told the South Koreans that our troops are not cannon fodder.
I’m reading above, that it’s not getting COVID-19 that will end the FUSA, but the total collapse of the financial system when millions are quarantined. I’m officially backing Bernie Sanders for President. Only a Commie can save us. Where do I sign up for the goobermint cheese and soy rations? Or will they just throw a pallet out the back of a BFV (Bradley Fighting Vehicle) and watch the riot.
Connecticut lawmakers actually want a law that would pressure insurers to stop insuring homes that have gas appliances or heating systems!!
Gas is harder to control from a central location than electricity, and the old oil systems have tanks which are filled manually on site. The goal is to be able to adjust the temperature in everyone’s home at will.
What were the asinine government recommendations? 85 Summer, 62 Winter?
In Phoenix we kept our apartment at 83F in the summer. That was the hottest temp that still felt cool. It cost over a thousand dollars a month to cool our apartment even at that temp. Of course, that was the year we got 120F one day. When the hot tub water (at 108F)feels cool, you know it’s hot! (swimming pool water tasted like soup from all the salt sweat)
Gooberment cheese, I loved it. I’d buy it by preference if it was available.
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/fauci-coronavirus-spread-america-not-encouraging-says-americans-should-avoid-large
Spring Break and WDW are by definition large gatherings. I’m F’d.
n
@greg, we are DVC and our home resort is Yacht and Beach Club
You’re probably okay at the EPCOT resorts on the lake which involve walking or the boat to reach the accomodations since they’re not popular with families. Just avoid the boat. The walk isn’t *that* far to either EPCOT or Studios.
The Boardwalk would be better since that’s mostly adult convention business, but the dining options in the hotel itself are extremely cramped -er- cozy.
In Phoenix we kept our apartment at 83F in the summer. That was the hottest temp that still felt cool. It cost over a thousand dollars a month to cool our apartment even at that temp. Of course, that was the year we got 120F one day. When the hot tub water (at 108F)feels cool, you know it’s hot! (swimming pool water tasted like soup from all the salt sweat)
Yikes. My mother in law keeps her AC in Orlando turned off, and the temps in her condo are that warm at night.
For the record, she has plenty of money. Bragging about a $20/mo. electric bill living in Florida 15 minutes from Disney World is one of her You Ain’t Got No Ice Cream games played with the relatives up north.
You are banned from here for life. 🙂 Anyone knows that Hillary will jump in at the last minute and there you should be pledging your allegience.
Oh He!! no. I keep my home at 78 in the summer and 69 in the winter. I only allow the utility to turn off my pool pump and water heater during high demand. Otherwise, stay out of my life. I can quickly rewire the controller for the pump and heater to eliminate that from the system. I am under no contract and can ask that the controller be removed.
My mother used to brag about her electric bill only being $14.00 a month, even in the summer, refrigeration unit, high desert where the outside temperatures reached 110. I could never convince her that since she was living in public house (rent $100.00 a month) that her electric bill was also subsidized. She was adamant she was paying her fair share and was not taking welfare.
I’ve seen the same in a doctor’s office, in which paying a $5 copay (this was years ago) on your free health insurance was considered to be paying for their office visits and not taking welfare.
Connecticut lawmakers actually want a law that would pressure insurers to stop insuring homes that have gas appliances or heating systems!!
Gas is harder to control from a central location than electricity, and the old oil systems have tanks which are filled manually on site. The goal is to be able to adjust the temperature in everyone’s home at will.
What were the asinine government recommendations? 85 Summer, 62 Winter?
That is ok because we will not be able to afford the CO2 taxes anyway. At an initial $0.10/kwh year 1, then $0.20 /kwh year 2, and doubling every year after that.
I’ve seen the same in a doctor’s office, in which paying a $5 copay (this was years ago) on your free health insurance was considered to be paying for their office visits and not taking welfare.
In a typical GP’s office these days, the $40-50 co-pay actually is your fair share, more than the doctor takes home for the visit in most cases after deducting for the lights and supplies. The amount billed to the insurance company pays for the admin people, medical assistants, and, in the case of large multi-specialty groups, the specialist salaries.
This is why, more often than not, you will see a PA or ARNP rather than a doctor when you go in for something standard.
In WA State, my wife was “partner” and used to get sh*t from the PAs and ARNPs over their inability to participate in the equity stake. They never believed her when she told them that, after taxes and payments on the loan to get the equity stake, the net benefit of “partnership” was $100/month. For the hip nitwits who insisted on living in Oregon, partnership was a net negative.
Anymore when we get questions from parents about med school, we recommend the kids going to nursing or PA school. ARNPs and PAs make flat six figure salaries and get all their vacation without penalties.
If they want to help people, chiropractic seems pretty benign and you aren’t seeing really sick people.
n
If you really want to keep people healthy, look at the effect of a good janitor versus that of a good doctor.
If you really want to keep people healthy, look at the effect of a good janitor versus that of a good doctor.
I’ve stated here several times before that grid down in the US would be bad the moment the mops stopped moving in the hospitals. The buildings would become hot zones as soon as the janitorial staff Shrugged in the Rand-ian sense.
The people in the prepper community I’ve encountered who *want* something bad to happen if only to be vindicated for the last 25 years of what they consider ridicule over false alarms really need to get a grip. They have no idea as to what they are asking to happen.
Kharma catches up. I’ve rarely seen it fail. You don’t need a possible extinction level event for humanity to restore the cosmic balance if you feel you’ve been slighted. Give it time.
Kharma even caught up with Johnny Reno. I’ve seen some Waco anniversary stories lately so that one is fresh in my mind.
Summer is approaching. Changed oil, filter, air filter and spark plugs in the mower. Found out when greasing the front wheels that the zerk fittings were not properly installed in the wheel hubs. One came out while greasing. Difficult to get back in so I just cross threaded the thing. I snugged up the fitting for the other wheel that was also not installed fully. Rectum Orifice at the factory.
Put anti-seize on the plugs and dielectric grease inside the plug boots. Keeps the plugs and the boots easy to remove. Air filter just squeezes onto the intake for the dual carburetor, no fasteners. Over the course of the summer I put 19 hours on the mower. Transmissions (there are two) are supposed to have the fluid changed after 1,500 hours. I think I have a few years to wait for that procedure.
Installed a Duracell battery tender and the necessary connections to simply plug or un-plug from the mower. This will keep the battery in good shape over the winter. I had a different battery tender but it was starting to show problems as in not always indicating there was a battery connected.
Grass has been fertilized and weed sprayed. Weeds will be difficult to control this year as owners on both sides of me have let their lawn go to almost 100% weeds. I will be spraying a lot. Waiting for a rainy period to dump about 50 pounds of grass seed.
Our back yard greened up this week. From brown to green, practically overnight.
Front is still tan…
Lots of leaves from the pin oaks/live oaks/ other oaks.
n
If one were worried about contaminated cash (and I’ve handled more cash than anyone else here) would it work to soak the cash in water & then microwave for 60 seconds?
Depends on where you live. From here, I’d have to climb a tall building and use a good pair of binoculars to see it.
We had one day last week in which the temps reached 60 … then that was just a memory and we had a gusty and chilly day. Meh, it’s one of the joys of living here, that and the taxes and the government graft and all the rest.
I run the central @ 80 in the Summer. 70 Winter. If I’m here alone in the Summer I’ll kick the temp up if my feet get cold.
When Mom was here, 80F and she wore a sweater. But she has always been that way.
As for the $20 electric bill, I wish. PEC charges $21 just to have a meter (and you pay via bank debit and get a paper bill in the mail).
Almost all of yesterday was lost in taking my daughter to the NYS MathCounts championships. Her school did surprisingly well in the regional championship last month, coming in first, which was a surprise because it’s such a small school and had to scrape to get enough people for a team. Yesterday, though, almost every upstate school got absolutely creamed by the schools from NYC and Long Island. The winning school not only had more kids in each grade than my daughter’s school has in twelve grades plus kindergarten plus preschool, their admissions is highly selective, with students coming from the top quarter of a percent of NYC’s student population. On top of that, the coach was dedicated and capable and crafted a real powerhouse of a team. Bottom line, the general-admission public schools and the tiny private schools didn’t stand a chance. The kids in my daughter’s team mostly enjoyed it regardless.
I’d expected to bring my daughter there and then hang around for the next seven hours, writing or whatever. As it happens, the guy from our school who was supposed to hand out and collect tests and generally keep an eye on things wasn’t able to make it so that ended up eating my day. It’s also good that I brought lots of semi-nutritious food because the only food available on site was donuts, cupcakes, soda, chips, and vegetarian pita wraps. That wasn’t exactly the best thing to be eating when you needed your brain to be working at its best.
I imagine this is why Col. Bat Guano was pulling strings and being a bully to get seen at the VA on Friday rather than risk quarantine at Fort Hood or in San Antonio. He’s probably got a girlfriend … or boyfriend … in Korea.
https://www.foxnews.com/health/coronavirus-us-army-south-korea-suspends-travel-soldiers
Well CVS is out of stock on my Levemir (insulin) with no projected date for when they will receive some. It took them 6-days to get my Hydrocodone. They are warning that ALL drugs may be experiencing short/no supply.
When you are taking a specific insulin it is not a simple matter to just use another insulin. All insulins are not the same.
I do have an extra 2-months of insulin. It has a limited self-life and of course, with Medi-don’t-Care you are not really allowed to have any stash of any drugs.
Today is National Be Nasty Day and boy I am I up for it.
Now you tell me. After I was nice to a little old lady in a wheelchair with a flat tire. Wasted a nice, tsk, tsk.
Wouldn’t you think that ensuring a reliable supply of the medicines and supplies necessary for the life of American citizens would be a responsibility of the federal government? If billion-dollar handouts to Ukrainian energy companies is in the national interest, surely the subsidy of a domestic pharma company for essential drugs would be as well?
One would think so. But F the peons, let them eat cake.
I handle about $100K in twenties every week filling the ATMs. I have begun using latex gloves to handle the cash and fill the machines. I wipe each one with a Clorox wipe. Just got back from a run to the local dollar general for tomatoes and buns. They still have shelves of Clorox, Lysol, and the only thing missing is the hand sanitizer. I don’t attend gatherings and aside from the dialysis center, about the only other place I go is the bank. Money is some of the filthiest stuff we ever handle.
For messing with cash… when I made it to Cash Control at HEB, there was a thing called WaterBall. It was sort of a dish with a screw on cap that retained a ping pong ball.
I asked Faye why they used glycerin instead of water. “Water dries your skin.” Oh… that explains my cuticles tending to bleed when a checker. Most everyone had a damp folded up paper towel off to the side. Because you don’t want to be licking your fingers, ever. And the plastic bags are “clingy”.
We were depositing about $100K cash average a day. It’s a small HEB. I heard the big stores in Austin, like Lamar and Rundberg did about a million in cash. All that money and where are the effing checkers?
After pulling and resetting tills and making the deposit, your fingers were black. Dirty engine grime black.
Over the years as folks went to debit cards the cash deposit dropped to maybe 30K on a busy day. Before I quit, I also filled the ATM. It was to the point of keeping cash so I could fill the ATM for weekends like Bluebonnet Festival and (go figure) Thomas the Train.
Never tried gloves. Never thought about it, actually.
soaking them in strong bleach solution worked fine for me. I then put the bills in the dryer on Delicate, with some soft fabric balls to keep them agitated.
I had to run about 4 “Less dry” cycles of 5-10 minutes to get them all dry.
They came out clean and crisp.
n
@Nick,
Did bleaching the bills change the color?
I handle some money each week as Treasurer of our church. I have yet to do anything special (I don’t use gloves either). But I always wash my hands after handling the money.
I was curious when I saw your process earlier today, and was wondering what % bleach you used (I don’t want to turn the bills white!).
And as I am not in a hurry, I would probably air dry the bills.
Do you save and reuse the solution?
I dumped them all into a dish pan, put about a gallon of hot water in the pan, then added a cup of bleach. That’s more than the recommended amount for sanitizing.
https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/bleach.html
The bills were unchanged. I was a bit concerned because I’d heard of counterfeiters ‘bleaching’ bills and reprinting them with a higher denomination. Treasury wouldn’t make that easy though. They probably use peroxide or something way stronger.
I agitated them by hand, breaking up clumps, and when I took them out, I made sure each bill was coated on both sides. I then stacked them wet and let them sit for about an hour while I showered. Most of the solution had drained off, so I put them in the clothes dryer. I did have to break up clumps in between the first couple of cycles. I didn’t want to use hot air in case of fire or if the bills stuck across the vent, but I didn’t have any issues.
n
the solution was pretty gross (clear but tan somehow), but I did use it for my glasses and flashlight, because I’d touched them too. I dumped the rest down the kitchen sink.
n
If anyone is curious, I grossed $980, of which $830 was bills, 500 in 20s and the rest smaller, with 60 in ones alone. Paypal accounts for the difference.
I don’t have an idea of my net, because most of what I sold was old enough I forgot the cost, or was part of a bigger lot. I was break even on about 50, but made money on the big tickets, I just don’t know how much.
that gross is in line with the last few years.
n