Cool and damp.
Rain threatened all day yesterday, and even came down in fits and starts in different parts of the city. If it was snow, I’d have said it fell but didn’t stick. Concrete showed the damp but nothing else did.
I was hoping for some actual rain overnight to water everything and save me the time. No such luck.
Today I’ve got a couple of errands to run. Maybe a haircut. Better now than almost every day hence. The odds get worse for casual contact with every passing day. It kills me to not be able to pull back and do what I know is the right thing.
Meanwhile, the laws of math are going to be teaching some people some hard truths. I REALLY wanted to avoid that.
Lots to do, and I’m feeling blue…
n
Stack, stack, and stack some more.
Off to the local dentist to get my fangs polished. Been using him for 33 years. Old school, believes less is best. No fancy denture recommendations, delay some treatment until really necessary. Office is a small converted house. Price is reasonable. He has been driving a 20 year old Jeep wagoneer for the last 15 years. Money is not his driving motivation.
Not everyone is blind to the danger posed by Central Florida, although his concern is the opposite of mine- he’s worried we’ll all contaminate his FL constituents.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/close-down-theme-parks-amid-coronavirus-panic-in-florida-paramedic-and-state-attorney-candidate-calls-for-park-closings/
n
FEMA added Covid back to their daily opereations brief as a ‘significant threat’. It’s been a couple of weeks since they dropped it.
n
Ray, I had a dentist like yours, but he retired at an early age. When I asked him his plans, he made it clear he didn’t need much in retirement. He was around for many years, then I lost track of him. Can’t still be alive.
I lost one other to retirement, but now go to a family practice. The whole family is involved. The son is also a dentist, and will take over when the father retires. Hoping for the best. Hope you can keep yours.
Not everyone is blind to the danger posed by Central Florida, although his concern is the opposite of mine- he’s worried we’ll all contaminate his FL constituents.
On the Disney property, you won’t encounter a lot of locals outside of the workers, who are carefully screened when they show up for their shift. Blackout dates are in effect for many categories of annual passes, and Florida resident specials are suspended.
Per capita income in Orlando is extremely low compared to the cost of living. The situation is similar to San Antonio. Unlike LA, the parks don’t make much of an attempt to attract locals during off season times because the money isn’t there.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8095835/Overwhelmed-Italian-hospitals-running-200-cent-capacity.html
“Doctor reveals horrors Italian medics are facing in ‘overwhelmed’ hospitals where staff must choose who to save [triage], as experts warn UK is ‘two weeks behind Italy’ and the public are not SCARED enough [math, normalcy bias]
An intensive care doctor in northern Italy has described the scale of the crisis
The medic said colleagues were becoming ‘sick and emotionally overwhelmed’
Also issued a warning for the UK that the Italian chaos could come to Britain
Experts have warned that UK outbreak may be around two weeks behind Italy’s”
—-
“Non-coronavirus cases are being sidelined with some medics being given a ‘leaflet’ and told to perform specialist tasks for which they are not qualified, while some patients over 65 are not even being assessed, the doctor said. ” [triage, and unavailability of treatment, as predicted]
—–
“Our hospitals are overwhelmed by Covid-19 [the disease caused by coronavirus], they are running 200 per cent capacity.
‘We’ve stopped all routine, all operating rooms have been converted to intensive care units and they are now diverting or not treating all other emergencies like trauma or strokes. [not the flu bro]
‘There are hundreds of patients with severe respiratory failure and many of them do not have access to anything above a reservoir mask. [rationing]
‘Patients above 65, or younger with comorbidities, are not even assessed by [intensive care], I am not saying not tubed, I’m saying not assessed.’ ” [triage]
THIS IS WHAT IS COMING HERE. YMMnotV.
nick
“Angry Joe Biden Tells Detroit Worker ‘You’re Full Of Sh**’ [VIDEO]”
https://wwjnewsradio.radio.com/articles/angry-joe-biden-tells-detroit-worker-youre-full-of-sh
“”You’re gonna take away our guns,” the worker tells Biden as he walks by in close quarters, surrounded by workers and the media.”
“Biden misses no beat before responding, “You’re full of sh**.””
Joe Biden is a liar and a jerk. And hopefully the union workers in Michigan see the dumbocrat party for what it really is, a party of elitist dictator wannabees.
Hat tip to Rush Limbaugh and
http://drudgereport.com/
Yesterday’s closing price on crude oil and natural gas:
BRENT (north sea of UK) $33.45
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) $30.21
Henry Hub Natural Gas $1.822
An article describing the fall:
https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2020/03/coronavirus-shock-and-oil-price-fall-pummel-world-stocks
“There’s always something to worry about… ”
–au contraire mon frere… I don’t worry about astronomical disasters because there is nothing I can do about them. My library exists, and will help rebuild society no matter the calamity but that’s the extent of it. And earth killing asteroids weren’t even the fourth or fifth reason for creating my library.
Library ? Such as
https://www.amazon.com/Where-There-No-Doctor-Handbook/dp/0942364155/?tag=ttgnet-20
and
https://www.amazon.com/Where-There-Dentist-Murray-Dickson/dp/0942364058/?tag=ttgnet-20
???
Just heard Harvard is shutting down. Students told not to return after Spring Break. Classes are going to be done remotely.
This is getting real.
That’s at most partially true. It’s something like not building a fallout shelter because there’s no way to survive a direct hit by an H-bomb.
A gamma ray burst will put a hurt on land and littoral life on the side of the planet the burst hits. Because these bursts are very short lived, much less than one Earth rotation, there’s a 50% chance you wouldn’t be affected. Directly affected, that is. You’d certainly be affected by supply chain disruption and panic. That’s where prepping comes in.
An Earth-splitter asteroid would be an extinction event. They’re stupendously rare, not having happened since the Moon was split off. Dinosaur killers would not be a global killer event, as evidenced by the fact that life continued after the big saurians were killed off. Being ready for food shortages, loss of technology, and probably a drop in global temperature will help you be in the fraction which survives. That’s where prepping comes in.
And so on.
Just heard Harvard is shutting down. Students told not to return after Spring Break. Classes are going to be done remotely.
This is getting real.
Since when did students actually show up for class in large numbers at this point in the academic year?
library like this
https://zerogov.com/2015/03/16/rekindling-the-flame-after-the-collapse-by-bill-buppert/
n
“That’s where prepping comes in.”
Yep, my general prepping covers the world killer asteroid under “rare but world killer events” as well as I can.
I note that the dinosaurs didn’t make it thru their TEOTWAWKI event. (‘cuz birds aren’t the same, nor lizards, nor sh!t in the deep ocean…..)
n
Almost exactly 2 years ago I wrote a post about the CDC guidelines to health care providers about Pandemic Flu. If you want to see what they thought was important to providers, https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2018/02/16/fri-feb-16-2018-pandemic-flu-preparedness/
———–
worldometers is down.
n
One week ago in the US
My how far we’ve come.
The United States as of the end of March. 3 (GMT) had a total of 124 cases: 76 domestic and 48 repatriated (45 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, and 3 from Wuhan, China). Domestic cases by state:
27 in Washington State (including 9 deaths and 1 recovered)
24 in California (including 2 recovered)
4 in Illinois (including 2 recovered)
3 in Florida
3 in Oregon
2 in Arizona (including 1 recovered)
2 in Georgia
2 in Massachusetts (including 1 recovered)
2 in New York
2 in Rhode Island
2 in New Hampshire
1 in North Carolina
1 in Texas
1 in Wisconsin (including 1 recovered)
And I’d like to remind everyone that in a little over 2 1/2 weeks Italy went from NO cases, to over 10K cases, the whole country in lockdown, and the total destruction of medical care for anyone but wuflu cases… history says they’ll lose 10% or more of their front line medical staff too.
WA is putting financial measures in place prior to locking down the whole state. When they get the money sorted, you can be certain they are planning to move forward. State employees get leave, and state unemployment covers any wuflu missed days due to lockdown.
NY is rolling the Army National Guard into New Rochelle to “keep order”. I wonder what their muster will be like and how many guardsmen will get sick.
FL and NC both declared state of emergencies to alter their stance and free up money.
It’s real, and nothing will stop it short of China like measures.
We have a little bit of time left, get your sh!t together. Stop denying that it’s happening. Even if you don’t get sick the knock on effects are going to be UGLY.
nick
No denying something is happening and some gooberment(s) are helping it along.
This is not a drill.
What are the oligarchs going to do when there are too few serfs?
What are the oligarchs going to do when there are too few serfs?
Reputedly, too many serfs IS the problem according to the conspiracy theory. China would like to reduce their population by 250 million to 400 million. Especially all of those young men without wives.
I try real hard to avoid conspiracy theories, but some patterns do make themselves evident. For instance, in every even-numbered year there’s some We’re All Gonna Diiieeee! health scare which is hyped to hell and gone by the US media amidst calls for increased government involvement in healthcare.
And so convenient for “vote for me!”.
Yep, the convenient use for politicians of one party is what fuels the conspiracy theory.
As I say, I try not to buy into conspiracy theories, but I have no response to those who push this one. We have potentially dangerous disease outbreaks fairly often, but only those in the first half of the even-numbered years get pushed as We’re All Gonna Diiieee!
And so convenient for “vote for me!”.
Jay Inslee, Governor of WA State, is up for reelection this year, having failed to make much traction with his Presidential campaign. When we lived in WA, we joked that he was fairly useless as Governor beyond being Costco’s chore boy on liquor deregulation.
For some reason I didn’t notice the title to today’s entry until now. It also happens that my birthday is this week. Gonna be 54 (to heck with the hex conversion, not in the mood). That’s the official jump from “early 50s” to “mid 50s”. I think that allows me to be more ornery.
Cost overruns? “Poor performance” by Boeing. I’m shocked. Shocked!
One flight and done.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/space/os-bz-sls-cost-audit-20200310-txqawhgh3je37fqnx3nwjbdd5u-story.html
Happy Birthday to Nick and JLP.
Who needs an excuse to be ornery? I don’t.
For some reason I didn’t notice the title to today’s entry until now. It also happens that my birthday is this week. Gonna be 54 (to heck with the hex conversion, not in the mood). That’s the official jump from “early 50s” to “mid 50s”. I think that allows me to be more ornery.
Congrats to you and Nick both this week. I will be 60 in a couple of months. I was grouchy all Sunday. I got a verbal warning from the wife who said that she would give me a pass for now.
The wife is turning 62 in a couple of weeks. Yup, she can quit and take early Social Security. And yes, she is thinking about it.
Yep, the convenient use for politicians of one party is what fuels the conspiracy theory.
As I say, I try not to buy into conspiracy theories, but I have no response to those who push this one. We have potentially dangerous disease outbreaks fairly often, but only those in the first half of the even-numbered years get pushed as We’re All Gonna Diiieee!
I am beginning to hate Presidential election years. They are full of such made-up drama and my customers tend to freakout and curtail their purchases until everything is resolved. I am not even sure that it matters what the resolution is !
Don’t, just don’t, if possible. A big hit on the monthly income, forever. Additionally any income may impact the amount paid if she earns over a certain amount until she turns 66.5.
There are some valid reasons for taking early but, in my opinion, the reasons don’t outweigh the downsides.
Ultimately it’s your decision and my thoughts ain’t worth shirt(-r).
QFT
Yah. Businesses and bureaucrats hate uncertainty. Very annoying for those of us who get caught up in others’ angst, especially when they don’t sign a contract until things settle out or cancel a contract or, and this is the best one, don’t pay for work already done under contract because they need to hang onto cash because they don’t know what will happen in a few months.
“Bernie: Real Socialism Has Never Been Tried”
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/bernie-real-socialism-has-never-been-tried/
Yeah Bernie, pull the other leg, it has a bell on it.
Hat tip to:
http://drudgereport.com/
No true Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge.
This could be a preview of MedicareNOTforAll.
I anxiously await to see if China beat the WuFlu as headlines are reporting. Another lie I bet.
And Plugs, what a piece of work. Yet let the MSM publish article after article on how mean tRump is.
she can quit and take early Social Security
Don’t, just don’t, if possible. A big hit on the monthly income, forever. Additionally any income may impact the amount paid if she earns over a certain amount until she turns 66.5.
There are some valid reasons for taking early but, in my opinion, the reasons don’t outweigh the downsides.
Ultimately it’s your decision and my thoughts ain’t worth shirt(-r).
Yup, you know it and I know it. But taking care of me and the daughter and working 30 hours per week is taking a toll on her. I keep on telling her to wait until she gets on Medicare so she does not have to worry about health insurance if I kick off early.
BTW, her BFF whose husband just passed away is getting some harsh reality. She retired last year at 61 after being a dental hygienist for almost 40 years. She had two carpal tunnel surgeries on each wrist and gave up when that did not fix her problems. She just found out that her health insurance on her husband’s account will run out in August, two years before she hits 65. So she is looking around for health insurance from late 62 to 65. I am becoming fairly sure that a large number of people are working after 60 just to get health insurance.
You have to run the math.
I’ve poked at it and it seems the break even is about 82 between starting at 62.5 and waiting to 65. So, get it while it can be gotten is my plan.
Market Ticker or somewhere (maybe here?) said you have to watch out because the ObamaCouldn’tCareLess stuff will mess you up. As in start your SS at 62.5 and there goes your “subsidy”.
I don’t know. I’m not quite there. Do I go without? I don’t use what I’m paying for. But I might need it. I’m on nothing. An aspirin once in a while and a Tums most nights.
You have to make the decision that is best for you. I have heard compelling arguments for early, waiting until full retirement, and waiting until 70. No correct answer. What swung it for me was the reduction in payments if one continues working and drawing a paycheck. I did start the wife at 62 because I was also starting. The reduction in hers was not a huge amount.
I did, sort of. I liked my work, not necessarily the job. When I retired I had to put my wife on the health exchange. Crappy policy for her payment share of $450.00 a month on a $1200.00 a month policy. If your wife’s BFF does not have a significant source of income the price will be a lot lower. But the policies are crappy. A $4K deductible with an $8K maximum out of pocket. Anything beyond the deductible was only paid at 50% until the maximum out of pocket was reached. Thus your wife’s friend could be looking at paying $8K maximum for medical, not counting the premiums.
That seems close. I ran the number for waiting until 70 to start and the break even was 87.
Nope. My wife started at 62 and the subsidy was not affected at all. Only affect was the SS was counted as income for calculating the subsidy.
Bad idea, in my opinion. It does not take much to swamp, and it can be sudden. Wife got kidney stones, $20K for the whole process. I still wound up paying $6K due to policy limits. Better than the $20K. But with premiums and the $6K I paid I was still out $10K for the year. Her treatment did not require a hospital stay.
When she had her hip replaced I was under insurance at my job. That entire procedure was close to $50K paid by insurance, almost $90K billed by the hospital and surgeon before insurance reductions.There was a four day hospital stay required.
Insurance was evil in the entire process. Wife needed the hip replaced in August. Already met the deductible and close to maximum out of pocket for the year. Insurance kept demanding therapy, more tests, more therapy, more MRI’s, etc. until the procedure was finally approved in January. That put her in another deductible year. I knew exactly what they were doing along with the surgeon. Said he had seen this multiple times. Insurance delays to gain another deductible year.
Yeah Bernie, pull the other leg, it has a bell on it.
Mrs. Bernie wants to stay in until they bank mid-8 figures from the media buy slush fund.
I heard Limbaugh the other day talk about Bernie wanting a Gulfstream V as his reward for keeping quiet this time. Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Bernie will get a house in Florida next to John Travolta at Jumbolair, where Travolta parks his 707 and G-II when he travels to Clearwater for auditing at the Flag Building.
Thanks for the birthday wishes. I’ll be 54 as well.
Got gas and hit Costco. No TP, bleach, wipes. Very little rice. One pallet Kirkland paper towel. Lots of gloves, flour. OTC meds had holes but there were most items. Bought batteries, coffee, nuts, stuff for the kids to eat.
Also got bins to keep stuff in. Wine for the Mrs.
N
[snip] Just heard Harvard is shutting down. [snip]
Be still my heart. From your lips to God’s ears.
[snip] Classes are going to be done remotely. [snip]
There you go ruining it. Seriously, if the Left in this country wants to dismember the centers of wealth & power, why don’t they start with the Ivy League, especially the law schools?
I am becoming fairly sure that a large number of people are working after 60 just to get health insurance.
My wife’s uncle, Big Acoo (sp), who works as a janitor at the high school across from the “ground zero” old folks home in Kirkland does it for the benefits.
Interestingly, he sold off his state retirement healthcare benefits for a lump sum when he needed to buy Number Two son a UW MBA. Not that it did much good — at Number Two’s first job after graduation, the company walked him to the door at lunchtime on day one.
The US Social Security Site has an estimator that might help with determining when to retire: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/estimator.html .
In my case, I did it a bit early (63), since I retired from my local government job. Wife was able to get full disability SS benefits due to her lung issues.
I might have been able to get a bit more monthly if I waited until I was 65 (or later), but the pension benefits plus SS was sufficient for our needs. Medical monthly costs were a bit larger then, which is why I went back to work after one year – mainly for the paid medical, which saved me about $500/month.
Rhetorical question, surely. It’s because they speak the proper shibboleths.
Got gas and hit Costco. No TP, bleach, wipes. Very little rice. One pallet Kirkland paper towel. Lots of gloves, flour. OTC meds had holes but there were most items. Bought batteries, coffee, nuts, stuff for the kids to eat.
Try an Asian market if you really want bulk rice. Costco’s Jasmine develops bugs quickly.
The North Austin store seemed normal when I went by yesterday to cash out my Visa rewards certificate for the year. Strangely, they didn’t give my any hassle about asking for the currency instead of taking the gift card.
The Houston-born Chinese guy who works with us indicated today that the city’s virus cases related to the Egypt cruise were all Taiwanese. Kinda concerning because my in-laws are from the island, and all of them believe that separate rules apply to Americans.
Seattle/King County won’t be able to enforce a mandatory quarantine. They’ll have to hope this thing burns itself out with raised awareness and scaring the sh*t out of people.
My 68th circuit of the sun was last Saturday. Not much different from my 67th. Don’t have the stamina or strength I used to but at least I don’t have covid-19. Dealing this week with multiple conflicting priorities. Wife wants shopping, great granddaughter wants to play, businesses want bookkeeping, and I want a nap.
My 68th circuit of the sun was last Saturday. Not much different from my 67th. Don’t have the stamina or strength I used to but at least I don’t have covid-19. Dealing this week with multiple conflicting priorities. Wife wants shopping, great granddaughter wants to play, businesses want bookkeeping, and I want a nap.
Congrats ! And I know about the stamina problem.
FL announced 8 new cases confirmed tonight. Right on schedule.
— one of my errands was getting poked and prodded by MD to get some ‘scrips refilled. Very thorough poking. Doc knew nothing of current state of wuflu. And the building we were in was where the Nile joker walked into the office. Fortunately they went to the suite upstairs and not the first floor suite. But damn, that’s one at church, one at my Dr’s office building. It’s time to pull in the family and shut the doors.
n
Current speculation at work is Alaska will see their first official case tomorrow or thereabouts.
I was sorely tempted to start a pool a la due date pools but (fortunately) realized that would be tacky and potentially a resume generating opportunity. So didn’t.
We are building out an interesting tech solution for work at home w/your own device that’s not VPN. It’s been a lot of fun and a project that’s been sitting on a back burner.
I heard Alaska has 400 test kits, the local rag states two labs are available for testing and have a capacity of 120 / day. I believe we have tested fewer than 50 people. I wonder if the towns off the road system will fare better when this breaks loose.
Anchorage is completely screwed.
I have a friend that has been working in Italy for the last couple of years. Spends a lot of time gallivanting to nearby countries. The quarantine caught said friend out of country, gallivanting. Now other friends are collaborating to sneak the person back in like some bizarre take on Sound of Music.
Self quarantine. Pah. Who needs it.
Happy birthday, Nick. I hope you will find yourself celebrating it at home and not in the disaster that FL will soon be.
I hit 50 later this year. Kinda looking forward to it. 40 was just about my best year ever. Maybe 50 will be a repeat of awesomeness.
Here’s an article a savvy friend wrote. Ex military. Retired. Has pretty good vision and well in touch with Alaska and politics.
https://www.apeonline.org/2020/03/07/preparing-for-corona-in-anchorage/
People being people it is bound to fail. Efforts should be put into more effective measures. Self quarantine is a knee jerk reaction. Applies to everyone but “me” ‘cause I’m special.
Congratulations Mr. Harold. I made my 69th journey and am about 1/10 into trip number 70. Never imagined myself this old. I don’t feel like my grandparents looked at this age.
I was sorely tempted to start a pool a la due date pools but (fortunately) realized that would be tacky and potentially a resume generating opportunity. So didn’t.
In the early days of the web in Tampa, back in the 90s, someone put up a Sunshine Skyway Bridge Jumper Pool site. That would never fly today.
We are building out an interesting tech solution for work at home w/your own device that’s not VPN. It’s been a lot of fun and a project that’s been sitting on a back burner.
Beaglebone Black has some interesting features which would make it a good device for a work-at-home gateway.
Some of my IPSec code runs on AT&T’s Netgate devices so I’m familiar with the concept.
EBay has Netgate boxes, but don’t buy one out of curiosity. Those are either disabled or will be within a few minutes of connecting to the Internet.