Still cooler, but possibility of rain.
Yesterday was another gorgeous day. Blue sky, high wispy clouds, cool breeze, and very moderate temps.
I bundled up the last of my tree pruning and got that out for trash pickup. Watered the gardens. Added dirt to the potato towers (which are going nuts). Moved some minor stuff around. Not nearly as productive as I should have been.
One reason was I spent some time on the phone with an old friend and mentor. He’s in LA and doing fine, ready to wait this thing out. I found out that one other friend had passed away last year and another work acquaintance too. Getting old isn’t any easier if you beat the hell out of yourself when you were younger, and especially if you KEEP beating the hell out of yourself as you get older.
This might be a good time to take up some stretching and light exercise, if you haven’t been doing either of those. Old and flexible and strong beats the snot out of old and frail and stiff.
Plan for today is more of the same.
Dinner was pork chops cut from a bulk pork roast and seasoned and vac sealed before freezing. Canned BBQ beans, and canned peas. I tried sauteing some cuttings from my broccoli, but they were bitter and tough. Oh well. Ice cream with the last of the cherry pie filling on top for dessert.
Stay in, stay safe.
n
The Swiss Statistical Office has two really nice graphs showing the statistical impact of COVID-19. It’s even in English.
Scroll down to the graphs: They show the total number of deaths in recent weeks, regardless of reason, as compared to historical averages.
The numbers should start to drop now, because we seem to have things more-or-less under control. The first relaxation measures take effect in 10 days, allowing selected businesses to re-open. The schools will re-open in mid-May. Based on how numbers develop, further relaxations may or may not happen in June.
– – – – –
Well, actually, they *are* equivalent. A human life does, in fact, have a price. Ask any insurance company. You wouldn’t bring the economy to a standstill to save a single life. You certainly would, to save millions of lives.
A generous estimate puts that price at around 3 times the average person’s lifetime earnings. Let us also generously assume that any job lost comes back in 12 months. Result: If the average working life to be 40 years, then each life saved is worth the temporary loss of 120 jobs.
How many lives are being saved by the lockdown?
This is the kind of cold-blooded, big-picture calculation that a government needs to do, without ever admitting that it is doing so. Snowflakes freak at the idea that their lives are not of infinite value.
How many lives will be lost by the economic shutdown? Not only the suicides from the fear or isolation — they obviously already had problems and likely would have either killed themselves at some point anyway or else needed lots of expensive therapy. I don’t even mean the loss of quality of life and actual life because people can’t get non-emergency surgery and have difficulty getting some “non-essential” material goods.
No, I’m talking about the loss of life because we Americans can’t afford the medical care we had up to January. It was very good — rich dictators came to the US when they found they had cancer, not to Sweden despite the latter appearing higher in the rankings — but very, very expensive. The US economy took something like a 25% hit for March, probably more in April, and probably continuing for months because of ripples and ongoing disruption even if it’s allowed to reopen in May. The excess wealth is no longer there to pay for the level of service we had in 2019. How many lives will that costs? As insurance companies restrict even more what they’ll pay for, how much will quality of life decline? How much drug research won’t be done because the profit margins aren’t there? How many medical devices won’t be invented or improved because the grants have dried up because the tax money isn’t there?
It’s even worse. “710 jobs per confirmed Chinese Flu death” almost certainly overcounts the deaths. See the CDC guidelines. See the reports of death certificates being changed by hospital administrators. See the astonishing decline in deaths due to heart failure, stroke, and cancer in recent months. Tales of undercounting are speculation, so far as I know, and likely at most a transient phenomenon given the avidity with which every possible death is attributed to the Chinese Flu. Once we take out the ailing or old people who likely would have died this year, we’re up to thousands of jobs lost per Chinese Flu death.
Is it worth it? No.
On the subject of the level of ignorance and failure of critical thought among members of a certain political leaning, here’s another example: Yesterday, as a result of going out to buy food* I had a few snarky comments about everyone being required to stay home where possible, businesses being shut down, and so on. I got bitched at by a 20-something, left-leaning man because Trump shut down the economy and ordered the lock-ins and caused all this disruption and inconvenience, so I’m getting exactly what I voted for. (Presumably he assumed I’d voted for Trump on the basis of my being a white man in my 50s.)
No, stupid boy. Trump didn’t order the house arrests and the shutdowns. That was all on the governors, mayors, and sometimes legislatures. Don’t you remember from just a couple weeks ago, in which Trump was being roasted because he hadn’t shut everything down? I guess leftards really want their dictators, even if the only one they can get isn’t the one they’d have chosen.
This level of ignorance or denial of responsibility is consistent with lefties. In 2015, when many, many shortcomings of Obamacare were becoming undeniable, a man in his late 40s confidently asserted that the Affordable Care Act was a Republican measure, passed over Democrat opposition. I’d guess it’s because so many people still get their information from the MSM, whether directly or filtered through Facebook.
* While I still have the calories to feed The Brat and myself for at least another month, Her Obnoxiousness was getting upset with the change in diet. I made essentially a junk food run — Pot-Tarts, chips, sweet breakfast cereal, cookies. While I was out I also picked up eggs and fresh milk, which I’d been missing, and butter, which somehow I’d run out of, and, er, about 50 pounds of meat, mostly beef. The chest freezer had been getting distressingly low but is once again full to the brim.
I remember reading about various ways paper ballots were altered a hundred years ago. Voting fraud has been with us since our beginning. Electronic voting makes it much easier. There are ways to make voting secure, but we will never do that. What a country!
We had the Vote-o-matic which worked well to prevent fraud. The problem with the punch cards was that they were only accurate to three digits of precision in the percentages — 51.1 vs 49.9 was the closest race they could decide — and despite warnings in the form of hand counted elections in the late 80s, notably Florida’s 1988 Senate race decided by less than 200 votes, the elections officials remained “penny wise, pound foolish”, refusing to upgrade to the cards and counting machines which, arguably, could have prevented the 2000 election mess by possessing five digits of precision and a cleaner punched hole free of “hanging chads”.
Of course, we all know the history. Never letting a crisis go to waste, the Progs used the 2000 election to discredit all of the punch card systems and the machines became collectors items on EBay.
Leftists want to be the dictators. Of course, so do many on the right. Lots of people want power over others, to make their own lives seem more meaningful.
Anyhow, yes, the US health system can provide outstanding care. No question. OTOH, Obamacare thoroughly screwed up an already bad insurance system. It’s really the worst of both worlds: profit oriented companies combined with a massive governmental bureaucracy. Y’all would be better of going in either direction. Sitting square on a barbed wire fence is not very comfortable…
Mind, we don’t have a lot of room to talk. Our system is less corrupt, but nearly as inefficient. The only two advantages we have: (1) we don’t have is the “in network”/”out of network” crap that Ray has discussed. Basically any qualified doctor is “in network”. And (2) charges for procedures come out of a book, sort of like mechanics. Oil change, 20 minutes. X-ray, 15 minutes. Brake job 3 hours. Fix a broken arm, 2 hours.
Yes, as soon as the goobermint got involved, we no longer had a real insurance system. Obola’s “no prior health conditions” ensured that. At least tRump got rid of the penalty (a “tax” according to Roberts, fuck you very much). Even the architects of ObolaCare concede it was just a step to “single payer” MedicareForAll. Until that happens health care in the FUSA sucks.
Yesterday:
Except that it’s very difficult to prove the identity of the person voting. I can buy your info from a “dark web” site for a few dollars.
One solution is that everybody has something like a bitcoin address to sign the vote with. Many people wouldn’t participate due to complexity.
My first several votes were in states that had mechanical voting machines. I didn’t like the lack of transparancy, and the ability to pull one lever to vote for a party.
California was my first state that used a punch card system, but it was not the IBM style. I liked that I could verify my vote before turning in the card. It seemed the best designed system I could imagine. It also did not offer the party vote, instead forcing a vote for each candidate or initiative, something I liked. The absentee card design is very similar, but marked with a pen.
I have never voted on an electronic machine, but helped set them up. My wife was a volunteer poll worker for three elections, but quit. She said, and I observed, a few clueless idiots were involved. The people who ran the polling place were competent, but the idiots were not, and were annoying. They made security challenging. Was this by design? Hey, it’s just an election.
What if they threw a pandemic and nobody came?
https://www.boston25news.com/news/cdc-reviewing-stunning-universal-testing-results-boston-homeless-shelter/Z253TFBO6RG4HCUAARBO4YWO64/?outputType=amp
*****
Day 27: How Bad is It?
It’s so bad that in the Emerald City of Oz, the munchkins are required to stay at least 3 feet apart.
Day 27: How Bad is It?
It’s so bad that even in the Emerald City of Oz, the munchkins are required to stay at least 3 feet apart.
I agree with you on the exercising. I bought a BowFlex machine a few years ago after my joints started having problems, and even with using it only two or three times a week I’ve noticed better health overall. I’m 63 years old, so definitely closer to the end than to the beginning. Exercise may or may not extend that, but it should make life more comfortable as the end nears.
What if they threw a pandemic and nobody came?
H1N1 had 60 million *infections* (not cases) according to my wife. This situation will probably result in similar numbers if not higher.
H1N1 hit my neighborhood in Florida through one family’s membership in a weird Pentecostal church with a childcare facility using questionable sanitation practices. We haven’t seen Coronavirus in the immediate vicinity of our house.
Video of the week is Pelosi standing in front of her *two* giant fridges (Sub Zero’s I think), stuffed with ice cream. Just like us. I bet Mr. Nick has several SZ’s in his garage. This hack gets goobermint flights to “The City of Gays” every weekend, security, and has probably not shopped for groceries in 40 years. Really, just like us.
Roger Ritter, I don’t disagree with exercise, but IMO all of us should work on having a positive outlook. In the absence of life threatening conditions, 63 is young. I know 80+ year olds who still do stuff many of us never could. I used to think they were wearing themselves out, but maybe I am wrong. Rock on!
I would like to be just like Nancy. Well, maybe not, but we can dream, can’t we?
I can’t believe my last post. Must have been a passing cosmic ray. I don’t even like ice cream.
LSD flashback? CIA went in and modified your comment?
Thank you, thank you very much.
Obviously you have never had Blue Bell ice cream. Shame.
Interesting detail from this story: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52311877 about the Smithfield port processing plant. Out of 3700 workers, 644 are confirmed positive for Covid-19. That’s 17.4%
19.6% of people tested in the US were positive.
17% of the Diamond Princess passengers tested positive.
That looks like a pattern. Is it something real or just a quirk?
Video of the week is Pelosi standing in front of her *two* giant fridges (Sub Zero’s I think), stuffed with ice cream. Just like us. I bet Mr. Nick has several SZ’s in his garage. This hack gets goobermint flights to “The City of Gays” every weekend, security, and has probably not shopped for groceries in 40 years. Really, just like us.
When Stretch was first sworn in as Speaker in 2007, she demanded that Bush provide her with an Air Force 757/767 for trips back to California since the G2 which Dennis Hastert and John Baynor had used as the House Speaker’s aircraft since 9/11, was not adequate to accomodate her staff.
Even an DC9/MD-9x like Air Force Two which Pence flies to Indiana and Fort Myers was not deemed sufficient.
Prior to 9/11, House Speakers flew commercial.
Yes, the remaining half of a gallon is Blue Bell. If you’re making your “last run” there’s no point in buying generic….
I don’t know what MS screwed up in that last update to my win10 machine, but my NVR software was bombproof until the update. Now it’s flakey as 4377. It loses comms with the cameras, not all, but some, and sometimes will reestablish sometimes not. It lost its ‘schedule’ list, stopped recording video every 15 minutes, and who knows what else.
No update from the software site.
what the F did they do?
n
I don’t know what MS screwed up in that last update to my win10 machine, but my NVR software was bombproof until the update. Now it’s flakey as 4377. It loses comms with the cameras, not all, but some, and sometimes will reestablish sometimes not. It lost its ‘schedule’ list, stopped recording video every 15 minutes, and who knows what else.
No update from the software site.
what the F did they do?
Do you have a VPN or third-party firewall driver installed?
Nope, wife has the stupid net nanny Circle thing on the network but I just checked and all my devices are set to “unmanaged” so it shouldn’t be messing with the NVR.
Unless MS is now doing something inthe background when it sees ARPcache poisoning.
Which is how I think the Circle device works.
n
I used to travel a lot, so have voted absentee in CA for many years without trouble. Nowadays, I take our ballots to a special box at the polls instead of mailing them. There is a web site where I can verify that my ballot was received and registered. Each ballot has a serial number. Seems OK to me.
I remember reading about various ways paper ballots were altered a hundred years ago. Voting fraud has been with us since our beginning. Electronic voting makes it much easier. There are ways to make voting secure, but we will never do that. What a country!
Joseph Stalin said at one point, it does not matter who the people vote for, it matters who counts the votes.
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/joseph_stalin_390697
Clear as mud:
FEMA update
We are now about to end the third week that the Benton Franklin (our two counties that cooperate) Health Department has not done their weekly Health Inspections of places that prepare and serve food. So far there have been no massive outbreaks of foodborne illnesses but that may be because people who get food poisoning are not running to the ER.
My daughter (the Medical Coder) mentioned that the “specialist” doctors are getting antsy. They are “non-essential” so they do not have any patients and therefore no income to support their lavish lifestyle. While our area has a lot of WuHuFlu cases and deaths the ERs are ghost towns and entire wings of the hospitals have had to shut down and layoff staff. There is however a shortage of ICU beds and people qualified to work in ICU. They are so desperate for ICU qualified nurses that my wife (who has been retired for 2-years) has been getting calls. She has not maintained her license (because she doesn’t want to put up with the “management”) or malpractice insurance. The last call was so desperate that they said that no current license of insurance is no problem. Maybe not for them but it sure would be for her.
Can things get any crazier? Sure.
The Dumbo’s, led by Stretch, say:
…no lockdown may end until the Trump administration can “guarantee” a “safe” world in which people return to “normal.”
That is just crazy. Da tRump can’t *guarantee* shit. Tell me this isn’t a total push for Commie Pinko control of the FUSA. This isn’t even tinfoil hat territory.
Election Day this year is going to be a game changer. The Dumbo’s are going to use every illegal trick they can to rule the FUSA. Don’t let them! Shoot a Liberal today!
All members of government should travel on commercial transport. If they feel like they cannot, then they have identified a serious problem that they, as the government, need to solve.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/care-for-someone.html
Caring for someone at home. Very useful list of symptoms for when to go to the hospital.
n
“California Agents Seize 50,000 Medical Masks From Business Owner Allegedly Selling Them To Nonprofits”
https://www.newsweek.com/california-agents-seize-50000-medical-masks-business-owner-allegedly-selling-them-nonprofits-1496804
Yup, violation of the fifth amendment. But, who cares nowadays in these troubled days ?
Hat tip to:
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/who-wants-to-separate-families-in-a-safe-and-dignified-manner-27665/
Interesting interview and perspective from a ‘retired’ National Swedish Epidemiologist – as he says, come back in a year and see if I am right.
https://youtu.be/bfN2JWifLCY
This is the kind of cold-blooded, big-picture calculation that a government needs to do, without ever admitting that it is doing so. Snowflakes freak at the idea that their lives are not of infinite value.
If I remember correctly (IIRC), the EPA in the USA values human lives at $10 million each.
“Prior to 9/11, House Speakers flew commercial.”
All members of government should travel on commercial transport. If they feel like they cannot, then they have identified a serious problem that they, as the government, need to solve.
Dennis Hastert reluctantly accepted the jet IIRC. The Speaker is third in line for the Presidency, and I imagine they have a Secret Service detail post-9/11.
Uncle Joe makes a big deal about taking the train home to Delaware every weekend, but he neglects to mention the special amenities he had with Amtrak, including the ability to have the train held if he was running late to board.
What if they threw a pandemic and nobody came?
H1N1 had 60 million *infections* (not cases) according to my wife. This situation will probably result in similar numbers if not higher.
I believe that number is the USA alone ? But I cannot find the total infections number. Maybe nobody knows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic_H1N1/09_virus
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus_subtype_H1N1
“In June 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the new strain of swine-origin H1N1 as a pandemic. This novel virus spread worldwide and had caused 18,500 laboratory-confirmed deaths with an estimated 151,700 to 575,400 deaths total[3][4] by August of 2010. On 10 August 2010, the World Health Organization declared the H1N1 influenza pandemic over, saying worldwide flu activity had returned to typical seasonal patterns.[5]”
If the Demotards want everything on hold until safety is guaranteed, I think that Trump should suspend the 2020 elections. He’ll stay in office until everyone agrees that no one will ever again die of the Chinese Flu.
The classical Greeks — think Athens of Socrates’s time — defined a tyrant as a leader who was so unpopular that he needed a bodyguard.
I guess you never read the Bill of Rights’s fine print: All of the above is suspended if people are scared.
Yup, violation of the fifth amendment. But, who cares nowadays in these troubled days ?
Sooner or later, this will get settled in court, but, as things currently stand, masks are not supposed to be resold like a Nintendo Switch on Ebay.
I just saw an article this morning about the extremely sophisticated software tools the resellers use to buy and subsequently goose the price on resales of the rare Nintendo bundles. The trade is extremely profitable for anyone willing to hustle and invest the time to learn the tools.
Yesterday:
Electronic voting makes it much easier.
Except that it’s very difficult to prove the identity of the person voting. I can buy your info from a “dark web” site for a few dollars.
One solution is that everybody has something like a bitcoin address to sign the vote with. Many people wouldn’t participate due to complexity.
The IRS is dealing with this problem with fake income tax returns with huge refunds going to a new address / bank account. They have dealt with it by having people enter their state drivers number, issue date, and expiration dates. I have no idea how well that is working but it does sound like a step in the right direction.
And (2) charges for procedures come out of a book, sort of like mechanics. Oil change, 20 minutes. X-ray, 15 minutes. Brake job 3 hours. Fix a broken arm, 2 hours.
Medicare has this book also. There are 15,000 procedures in it IIRC.
Interesting detail from this story: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52311877 about the Smithfield port processing plant. Out of 3700 workers, 644 are confirmed positive for Covid-19. That’s 17.4%
19.6% of people tested in the US were positive.
17% of the Diamond Princess passengers tested positive.
That looks like a pattern. Is it something real or just a quirk?
I have noticed the 15+% infection rate also. New York City also.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/nyc-stark-contrast-covid-19-infection-rates-based/story?id=69920706
Can things get any crazier? Sure.
Watch the first two episodes of “The Walking Dead” on Netflix. Now that is a pandemic where you are locking the infected into a hallway of a hospital and writing “do not open – dead inside” on the door.
I believe that number is the USA alone ? But I cannot find the total infections number. Maybe nobody knows.
US, yes. I believe I got the number from Fox or Limbaugh. I know, I know, but I’ve seen it repeated elsewhere.
H1N1 was botched by Obama, who didn’t want to create a public health crisis while “fixing” healthcare over the course of that year after passing Porkulus. The Dems knew the House was done for in 2010 by mid-2009.
Watch the first two episodes of “The Walking Dead” on Netflix. Now that is a pandemic where you are locking the infected into a hallway of a hospital and writing “do not open – dead inside” on the door.
The Walking Dead attraction at Universal Hollywood recreated that set piece with the door, complete with moving arms and moans from behind the threshold. It was the only scene you are allowed to film before going on to the rest of the exhibit.
Universal pulled the attraction recently, but they promised it would be back for the annual Horror Nights event.
I have my video footage of it somewhere. The attraction and set pieces inside actually weren’t that scary … except for the sweaty security goons Universal had inside to make sure you didn’t film anything.
Do something opposed by more than half of the country and then have trouble in popular elections. Go figure.
However, they were smart and played the long game. Bill Quick pointed out recently (either here or at Daily Pundit; details blur, especially when I squeeze checking the sites and (commenting in during brief breaks during work) that while the Dingleberrycrats lost power briefly, they won long-term in their goal of pushing communism onto the US. Obuttsuckcare is still on the books. The already-broken US medical system was more broken by Obuttsuckcare and this has led to increased calls for full-on socialized medicine. (I don’t know whether popular support for it has grown or if the voices are louder.)
This level of ignorance or denial of responsibility is consistent with lefties. In 2015, when many, many shortcomings of Obamacare were becoming undeniable, a man in his late 40s confidently asserted that the Affordable Care Act was a Republican measure, passed over Democrat opposition. I’d guess it’s because so many people still get their information from the MSM, whether directly or filtered through Facebook.
I don’t know if the argument will go mainstream, but the argument my wife heard several times in Portland was that, after the 2010 election victory, the Republicans were supposed to use the Reconciliation process and their regained power of control over the spending in the House to “fix” the flaws in Doh-bamacare while preserving the will of the people in electing The Anointed One. I imagine that argument would be amended today with Trump’s failure to get a bill past The Maverick, a member of his own party, while the Reconciliation window was still open.
I know, far fetched, but unless the Dems broom Plugs and his cabal, they have to run on making everything the Republicans’ fault. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that argument coming from Carville or another ex-Clinton staffer on Good Morning America before November. Maybe even George Snuffleupagus himself. “We knew how to work together in the 90s … budget surplus … blah blah blah”.
On the Dangers of Performative Authoritarianism
Such was the title of an OrangeManBad screed I unwittingly came across earlier, to which link I will omit. The title alone has my head shaking worse than Katharine Hepburn’s on a bad hair day. What the hell does it mean? Is it an inelelegant elequotation? Or a lugubrious circumlocution?
Reminds me of the time a friend asked me to copy-edit his PhD thesis. The title began, _An Intertextual Analysis of… _. I can’t remember how I put it politely, but in essence I told him to come up with something less nonsensical and I’d consider it. Well, you guessed it, he’s now an English professor.
Tell me I’m not alone!
******
Deep Thoughts:
How do blind people go about social distancing?
However, they were smart and played the long game. Bill Quick pointed out recently (either here or at Daily Pundit; details blur, especially when I squeeze checking the sites and (commenting in during brief breaks during work) that while the Dingleberrycrats lost power briefly, they won long-term in their goal of pushing communism onto the US. Obuttsuckcare is still on the books. The already-broken US medical system was more broken by Obuttsuckcare and this has led to increased calls for full-on socialized medicine. (I don’t know whether popular support for it has grown or if the voices are louder.)
Mittens is the one to thank for the Obamacare mess still sitting on the books. Obama was reelected with fewer people voting combined in 2012 than did in 2010. The evangelical Republicans stayed home, suspicious of electing a Mormon Elder who repeatedly failed to make a clear statement that he would repeal a healthcare plan which mirrored the one he installed in Massachusetts using some of the same advisors.
I underestimated the amount of carpet in the house. Easily done until one starts removing the carpet ones-self. Cutting into manageable chunks, loading into the truck, removing the pad and folding into the truck, removing the staples (tedious). It has been a long four days and we are almost done. One section under the bed remains.
Moving the California King memory foam mattress is going to require some help. The frame is a converted water bed frame that can be easily taken apart into manageable pieces. We will be sleeping downstairs once that process is complete.
Found a lot of dirt under the carpet in the bedroom. Original when we bought the house. Found one section in the closet where they apparently ran out of padding. So they just nailed a piece of carpet down with the backing facing up. That was difficult to remove.
Install of the new carpet starts on Thursday. They will do the living room, den and hallway on Thursday. Thursday night we move the furniture from the two bedrooms into the completed area so the installers can finish the rest of the house, basically the bedrooms and part of one bathroom.
Then we have to start the process of getting everything back into place. Currently there is stuff stacked in the kitchen and some stuff stored downstairs. We can take our time doing that part of the project.
I also have to move a cable connection into the wall and install a wall plate. A phone connection also needs to be moved into the wall and a wall plate installed. I have two outlets that need fixing.
We are also replacing all the baseboards during this process. Need to get them, prime them, then paint them, and install. Nailing is easy as we have an air nailer that works really well for that process.
@Ray:
Why not PVC baseboard? Like this https://www.homedepot.com/s/pvc%2520baseboard?NCNI-5 ? Pre-primed wooden baseboard also available. That would reduce painting needs. Just cut and nail either type.
Found a lot of dirt under the carpet in the bedroom. Original when we bought the house. Found one section in the closet where they apparently ran out of padding. So they just nailed a piece of carpet down with the backing facing up. That was difficult to remove.
I always suspected that the crew who did our house in FL left some kind of cellophane wrapper underneath the padding in the middle of our living room floor. Every now and then, I would walk through that room and hear/feel something crunch.
Before we put furniture in, we had a rep from the contractor, Bob’s Carpet Mart, out to look at the problem, but he wouldn’t do anything and pretended the situation was our imagination.
In retrospect, I should have called and told them to repossess if it couldn’t get fixed. That may have received some action with regard to the living room. I dated a girl once whose mother let her carpet go back to Sears, back in the day when Sears had that power on their card accounts. They didn’t take the tack strips.
Ask the wife. She demands wood and likes to paint stuff. She only asks my opinion so she can tell me I am wrong.
Got the yard mowed. It was a day or two early but we are supposed to be getting rain for the next couple of days, and Monday or Tuesday would have been too long. Shipped a couple of packages. UPS is really shooting themselves in the foot requiring a $25 fee for pickup. Their drivers are here anyway, and they are losing shipping to USPS who will do porch pickup for free.
It’s overcast, ominous, and very humid. Oppressive even.
n
I had a SmithField smoked pork chop last night. So far …. so good!
No stimulus money for me so far. I doubt that we will get any since I made good money two years ago, but not last year and not this year so far. I’ve worked too hard and invested my money wisely to make it work for me. I’m no grasshopper !
I hope you irradiated it well first? IR counts.
I always suspected that the crew who did our house in FL left some kind of cellophane wrapper underneath the padding in the middle of our living room floor. Every now and then, I would walk through that room and hear/feel something crunch.
Cockroaches.
Shipped a couple of packages. UPS is really shooting themselves in the foot requiring a $25 fee for pickup. Their drivers are here anyway, and they are losing shipping to USPS who will do porch pickup for free.
UPS views their competition to be FedEx, not USPS. They were charging us a daily $10 pickup fee when I nixed it a couple of years ago. Now we take stuff to the Mailbox store around the corner. At 5pm that place looks like a receiving station for a box factory.
UPS really got us on a couple of deliveries to Greece. We have to get forms in triplicate from the IRS for our customers in Greece to avoid 25% tax withholding. The IRS charges us $66 each for the forms. USPS loses the forms so we have to use UPS who charges us $120 each for delivery of paperwork. Excessive if you ask me. In fact, the entire bureaucratic system of Greece is excessive too.
Such was the title of an OrangeManBad screed I unwittingly came across earlier, to which link I will omit. The title alone has my head shaking worse than Katharine Hepburn’s on a bad hair day. What the hell does it mean? Is it an inelelegant elequotation? Or a lugubrious circumlocution?
TDS. Trump Derangement Syndrome. It gradually takes over all the threads in a human brain so they can think of nothing else. I heard that electroshock therapy works to stop it but nothing else seems to affect it.
“We’re Heading for a Self-Inflicted Great Depression”
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/04/16/were-heading-for-a-self-inflicted-great-depression/
“How can anybody sane be anything less than scared and outraged and mortified that 22 million people have been thrown out of work over something that may end up killing fewer than 50,000 people? It is unprecedented. And yet there are people who want to maintain the circumstances we are in. And it boggles the mind.”
My whatever money hit savings on Wednesday. I’ll let it sit for a while. Might use it to have the a/c on the truck fixed and have beer money left. It was about $1100 for the heater core job. I suppose replacing the evaporator is just as much work. Plus freon. And shop rags.
I think my Mom qualifies for the “free” money. She doesn’t file but does get SS via direct deposit. If she doesn’t qualify, oh well. If she does that will cover the electric and water and property tax bills on her house. And having the yard somewhat mowed when the neighbor thinks it needs mowing. For a couple of years. I’ll just see what happens and not worry about it.
The battery charger JimB recommended arrived. One for the Stupid Ford Van and one for the Mighty Dodge truck. Both batteries have enough charge that pressing the maintenance button enables that mode. But I’m going to leave them alone and let the automatic happen uh, automatically.
They seem well made. To me. Nice battery clamps. The charger is sized for a transformer but weighs not much more than the plastic case. I would open one but nah, too lazy.
If this works out for the van and truck, I might get one for each tractor. What “might”? I will.
As for Stupid Ford Van, the power locks have decided that nothing works but un-locking the driver’s door. It all worked last week. And of course, someone drove the van today and locked the doors from habit. If the tailgate had a key lock I would just be annoyed. On the bright side it gives me something to gripe about.
The truck with the new to it instrument cluster has been interesting. I had to change the setting for the horn tooting when cycling the locks with the remote. I don’t like the horn chirp, too loud.
The auto locking of doors at 15 MPH was turned off. Same for auto un-locking of doors. Un-locking is still off, it’s going to annoy when unloading groceries but I wasn’t a fan of having all doors unlocked if for instance I parked in a sketchy parking lot. Auto lock, I like. If they lock on my way to the paved road, I’m going too dang fast.
The directions for programing that feature, while correct in the owner’s manual, could use an extra word. You buckle the seat belt to shut that chime off. Then insert key and go from Off to On and back to Off. Don’t go to Start. Repeat four times within 15 seconds. Press the door lock button within 30 seconds. Same routine for auto lock or un-lock.
No, it’s not do this four times and hit the lock button on the door but repeat four times. Four more times. AKA “do this five times”. Yeah, I think someone should embrace the word “more”.
The new trucks let you do this through the TV screen in the dash. I’ll pass, thank you.
If this works out for the van and truck, I might get one for each tractor. What “might”? I will.
Hey, that is not fair ! I want a tractor and you’ve got two ! The wife says that I cannot have one because I am irresponsible. And apparently the swinging on the broken branch last weekend just confirmed that for her.
I did break off several branches on the broken branch Wednesday night and stuff them into the trash can. We are limited to one trash can for the moment and no bulk trash and no recycle since the mighty WCA has sick driver issues. I plan to try cutting up the 20 ft long branch with my bow saw over the weekend since my chainsaw is dead.
Er, somewhere I said that this whole quarantine event is a cover…. crash the economy (finally, because they are out of tricks) to bail the banks out again and blame OrangeManBad.
I’m not seeing much to prove me wrong.
“I always suspected that the crew who did our house in FL left some kind of cellophane wrapper underneath the padding in the middle of our living room floor. Every now and then, I would walk through that room and hear/feel something crunch.”
Cockroaches.
Nah. I’m from Florida. I’ve stepped on more than a few of those in my time, and we flea bombed the house twice a year. The sound was plastic-y. I wondered if it was a chip bag.
The new owners tore out all the flooring, including real oak floors in our kitchen and breakfast nook, running some kind of laminate throughout the house. I wonder what they found when they pulled up the living room carpet.
“SpaceX, NASA target May 27 for 1st Crew Dragon test flight with astronauts”
https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-nasa-astronauts-demo-2-launch-date.html
“The first flight of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil in nearly nine years finally has a launch date: May 27.”
“The mission will launch astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft in a final test flight for NASA. The mission, Demo-2, will mark NASA’s first crew launch from American soil since the agency’s space shuttle fleet retired in July 2011.”
Finally !
One tractor is an “old” if tractors get old, Yanmar that was built in 1982 or so. Diesel, 3 cylinder. Has enough PTO speed to run the Bearcat chipper. <<< scary thing, will jerk the branch you are feeding it right out of your hands.
The other is a Mahindra. Diesel. Three cylinder Mitsubishi engine. And a bucket on the front. Bucket is cool. Fun tractor. Has 4WD.
If I had to guess which will still be running in 30 years, I'm voting for the Yanmar. The old mule will still be able to run a shredder and the tiller and pull stuff like trailers around. The Mahindra? Hydraulic hoses will be a problem.
Have you considered having the cams and NVR system(s) on a Windows 7 device? That OS has not received updates for a couple of months and will not receive future updates. That should make it a stable platform.
Had the carpet replaced on Space Lane. Black/White/Gray shag. The only dirt I noticed was in a path from the laundry room to the kitchen. Maybe 30 pounds (think granulated sugar) of fine silt across 23 feet. It was a big living room.
Marcelo has a good idea. Or push the box to some kind of Linux. ?
[snip] and despite warnings in the form of hand counted elections in the late 80s, notably Florida’s 1988 Senate race decided by less than 200 votes, the elections officials remained “penny wise, pound foolish”, refusing to upgrade to the cards and counting machines [snip]
True in the three metropolitan counties of SE Florida (Democrat fiefdoms, all). Untrue in much of the rest of Florida. Our Supervisor of Elections spent the next four years testing various systems, having told the County Commissioners “I’m going to fix it, and you’re going to fund it.” During all of the chaos with all of the recounts in 2000, we had not a single tally changed.
[snip] And (2) charges for procedures come out of a book, sort of like mechanics. Oil change, 20 minutes. X-ray, 15 minutes. Brake job 3 hours. Fix a broken arm, 2 hours. [snip]
That’s exactly how the US Medicare system does it. The only variables are regional – an EKG in San Francisco gets paid a different amount than one in El Dorado, Arkansas. (And this being the US government, there are a few other exceptions. Doctors don’t have to take Medicare, for example, and the “Medicare Advantage” plans change the rules. I worked in a Medicare call center for a while.)
Get an EGO battery chainsaw. Excellent for small jobs. Not going to cut down a forest but it can just fine on a six inch, 14 foot tree, on a single battery charge. Battery charges quickly, gives you time (and excuse) to take a break. Surprisingly powerful. No messing with gas, oil mixture, starting, fumes, storage, etc. I got one when my old gas chainsaw developed problems. I filled it up, set it down for 15 minutes, came back and it was out of gas. All the gaskets destroyed. Probably due to ethanol on a saw made pre-ethanol.
“but my NVR software was bombproof until the update.”
Have you considered having the cams and NVR system(s) on a Windows 7 device? That OS has not received updates for a couple of months and will not receive future updates. That should make it a stable platform.
Windows 8 also has the setting to restrict updates to the time of your choice.
I run Windows 8 on the Boot Camp partition of my MacBook Pro. It hasn’t reached the end of support yet and is usable with Classic Shell.
Yes, I know, Ballmer the Monkey Boy’s crowning achievement, but I don’t have a problem with it as the auxiliary OS on my Mac through Boot Camp or VMware Fusion.
True in the three metropolitan counties of SE Florida (Democrat fiefdoms, all). Untrue in much of the rest of Florida. Our Supervisor of Elections spent the next four years testing various systems, having told the County Commissioners “I’m going to fix it, and you’re going to fund it.” During all of the chaos with all of the recounts in 2000, we had not a single tally changed.
Hillsborough ran at least two recounts the night after the 2000 election without a significant change in result or significant undercount using the old cards/counting machines. Pinellas was similar. Orlando was Scantron IIRC, and even more accurate.
Broward was a people problem, not a technical problem. Nothing has changed in 20 years.
Get an EGO battery chainsaw. Excellent for small jobs. Not going to cut down a forest but it can just fine on a six inch, 14 foot tree, on a single battery charge. Battery charges quickly, gives you time (and excuse) to take a break. Surprisingly powerful. No messing with gas, oil mixture, starting, fumes, storage, etc. I got one when my old gas chainsaw developed problems. I filled it up, set it down for 15 minutes, came back and it was out of gas. All the gaskets destroyed. Probably due to ethanol on a saw made pre-ethanol.
14 inch, 16 inch, or 18 inch ?
Yeek, $415 for the 18 inch ! ! ! !
https://www.amazon.com/EGO-Power-Chainsaw-Battery-Charger/dp/B07YLXDK5K/?tag=ttgnet-20
or $350 at Home Depot:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/EGO-18-in-56-Volt-Lithium-Ion-Cordless-Electric-Chainsaw-5-0-Ah-Battery-and-Charger-Included-CS1804/310355292
This makes my bow saw look really nice. Of course, I could use my reciprocating saw but that disappeared during the old house fixup. Somebody wanted it more than I did.
In fact, I may go buy a new reciprocating saw. Less than $100. Did you know that I am cheap XXXXX frugal ?
14 inch. You start cutting down trees that are larger than a foot across and you are getting into real effort. And a dangerous situation if you don’t watch yourself. Anything more than 12 inches across needs to be left to a pro.
I cut down some really large trees when I was younger, biggest was 28 inches across. I had a big saw, 30″ bar, powerful and heavy. I also had the wedges, ropes, and other items to help in the process. Still scared the crap out of me and lost 50 feet of fence when the tree fell in the wrong direction.
Have you priced the costs of a gasoline saw, including fuel and oil, over several uses, years? Electric will come out cheaper. Quieter, safer (relative), no maintenance, starts operating immediately. Safer because the saw will stop under too much load. You still have to use bar oil.
I don’t need a saw often enough that I can keep a gas saw working without fuel issues from storage. When I had a working gas saw getting it to start after not being used for a year was always an adventure in frustration and a few choice words.
I was originally running the iSpy software on my main machine, a win8.2 version. When I decided I needed a dedicated machine, it came with win10. IIRC there were a number of issues, I was running the 64bit version on win8 with no problems but it wouldn’t run on the new dell, so I dropped back to the 32bit version and it ran great. Has been running great too until last week when win10 had rebooted to install updates.
I guess it’s possible that it was the graceless shutdown that caused the issues and not the update per se but either way, it was running fine, now it’s not. No word from the iSpy guys about any issues or new versions either.
There might be a free NVR for linux but I don’t know any. There are a couple of other windows choices and I might be forced to explore them again.
I didn’t want to install win7 on the ‘new’ dell, but I might mess around with it if I have time on my hands. (unlikely)
What kills me is that that machine is behind my NAT router, has the windows firewall, and isn’t used for surfing or any other internet nonsense. There is no reason to worry about 99% of the possible exploits, but I gotta be updated….
n
>”You wouldn’t bring the economy to a standstill to save a single life.”
We repeatedly ask our military to risk their lives for the good of our economy. The civilians should be willing to risk theirs, too.
Um, only 50K deaths? What’s he smoking. We’re at 37K today with no sign this is anywhere near over. We’ll be at over 40K by MONDAY with well over 600K active cases that will all need to resolve before we’re done, even if there were no new cases ever.
We’re not even 2:1 recovered to dead for serious cases, and we’ve got 13.5K of those at the moment. that’s another 4K dead right there, just with current cases, barring a miracle.
n
But deaths from cancer and heart attack and stroke are waaaay down. In fact, overall deaths in the US in March were 10-15% down from overall deaths a year before. Some of that delta is surely from reduced traffic and workplace accidents resulting from people being out less, but that explanation doesn’t cover the entire drop. Sorry, don’t recall the specifics of the article I read a few days ago. Non-Chinese Flu “Sickness” deaths are greatly down. “Mishap” deaths are down, but it wasn’t that large a fraction of the total. “Homicide” deaths were down fractionally IIRC, and again the baseline wasn’t that large a slice of US deaths. “Medical mistake” deaths (#3 cause in the US, by some counts) were not mentioned.
Anyway, with cancer etc being waaaay down even as Chinese Flu deaths allegedly creep closer to 50k, I have to wonder whether Covid-19 cures cancer and heart attacks and all the rest. That’s much more likely than Chinese Flu deaths being deliberately overcounted, right?
We need a comparison of deaths from flu vs WuFlu for those people in the “will make it” range and in the “gonna die” range.
Mr. SteveF is on to something. “This guy had a massive heart attack. Yeah, but he tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, so let’s mark him as a COVID death. $$$”
It’s straight out of the CDC guidelines: Cause of death is to be marked as COVID-19 (more precisely, the ICD code which means COVID-19) if the patient has been tested and the results came back positive, or if the results are pending, or if the results are inconclusive; if the patient hasn’t been tested but Chinese Flu is deemed to be likely; if the patient hasn’t been tested but Chinese Flu is suspected and may have caused or contributed to the death.
So, as the jokes have been going, if a guy is driving his wife to the hospital because she’s having trouble breathing and they’re killed in a car accident, they’re both COVID-19 deaths because he’s presumed to have gotten it from her.
As for money, the claims are made that the hospitals are losing money with every Chinese Flu death. I’m not sure I much believe that; it’s probably like the way Hollywood movies never make any money, authors and musicians hardly ever earn past their advances, general contractors always say they’re not making any money on a job but they stay in business, and so on.
I notice that you say I’m on to something about the counting but don’t say that about my “Chinese Flu cures cancer” theory. I has a sad.
On the plus side, you said I’m on to something, not that I’m on something, so I’ll consider it a limited win.
In NYFC anyway, the drop in cardiac events could be included in the extra 180 ‘home’ deaths per day, either from longer response times, bystanders unwilling to do CPR, or an unwillingness to call for help when the pain starts. Also if people are home alone instead of out at work or in public, a sudden cardiac event is not going to attract attention and get a 911 call.
Still more daily ‘at home’ deaths than normal by a factor of 5 at least….
n
As for money, the claims are made that the hospitals are losing money with every Chinese Flu death. I’m not sure I much believe that; it’s probably like the way Hollywood movies never make any money, authors and musicians hardly ever earn past their advances, general contractors always say they’re not making any money on a job but they stay in business, and so on.
All of the hospital day surgery operating rooms are empty. They make their money on the O/Rs. They lose money if you have to spend more than one night there.
When I had my heart surgery in 2018, I was not suppose to spend the night. But he cauterized both sides of my heart (twice !) and went three+ hours in the O/R. I got out of recovery at about 4 pm or so. For a day that started at 4 am. They put me in a room which is when I found out I was staying the night. Good thing as one of the bandages came loose while I was peeing and I lost another pint of blood on the gown and the floor. In fact, they tried to give me a pint of blood at 4 am which I refused. I left at noon and life was good. Except I could not walk a straight line to save my life.
In NYFC anyway, the drop in cardiac events could be included in the extra 180 ‘home’ deaths per day, either from longer response times, bystanders unwilling to do CPR, or an unwillingness to call for help when the pain starts. Also if people are home alone instead of out at work or in public, a sudden cardiac event is not going to attract attention and get a 911 call.
I am afraid to ask what NYFC stands for …
And would you voluntarily go into a hospital right now ??? There are sick people there ! I’d rather die at home.
Being in a hospital sucks. I’ve spent two weeks in various hospitals in the last 15 years. They won’t leave you alone, the food is tasteless, the noise is continuous and peaking, and the prices are simply amazing.
Anyway, with cancer etc being waaaay down even as Chinese Flu deaths allegedly creep closer to 50k, I have to wonder whether Covid-19 cures cancer and heart attacks and all the rest. That’s much more likely than Chinese Flu deaths being deliberately overcounted, right?
I am more and more convinced that I had SARS-2 on Feb 28 to Mar 3 or so. Worst cold that I ever had. I am amazed that the wife and daughter did not get it from me. The wife did go to Fort Worth for her BFF’s husband’s funeral on Feb 28. But she came back on Mar 1 when I was blowing more snot than ever before. The wife maintains that her one year of chemo 15 years ago gave her super powers of not getting the flu, colds, etc, etc, etc. And I wonder if the daughter’s Lyme disease protected her from my germs ? I doubt it but …
No going outside without your assmasks!
Anyway, with cancer etc being waaaay down even as Chinese Flu deaths allegedly creep closer to 50k, I have to wonder whether Covid-19 cures cancer and heart attacks and all the rest. That’s much more likely than Chinese Flu deaths being deliberately overcounted, right?
BTW, everyone is going to get SARS-2 at some point until we get a vaccine. And the vaccine is 12 months to 10 years off. All we are doing now with the social distancing is flattening the curve. At the end of 18 months, the results will be the same. Until we get a vaccine.
https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-flatten-the-curve.html
We cannot shut down the country for 18 months. We cannot hide in our homes for 18 months. At some point we need to plant new crops (that is a metaphor). We need to fertilize those crops. We need to water those crops. And we need to harvest those crops. Crops being the operative word for whatever business you are in. And if you are in business, you need to interact with other people. Your coworkers, your customers, your suppliers, etc, etc, etc.
No going outside without your assmasks!
I see that and will raise you this: “Vet urgently warns ‘don’t let anyone pat your dog’ amid coronavirus link to pets”
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/coronavirus-vet-urgently-warns-dont-21851284
I had a five ? six ? year boy want to pet Lily last Friday while we were out walking. I had to tell him no and that he needed to be with mom whom he had left behind when he saw Lily. Lily wanted to give him doggy kisses too, she was very upset.
Ok, the Paycheck Protection Protection is kinda like that excellent movie that Richard Pryor made, “Brewster’s Millions”. Somebody just gave you a lot of money, if you do not spend ALL of it in 60 days according to THEIR rules, they are going to take it back.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088850/
and
https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonynitti/2020/04/15/ten-things-we-need-to-know-about-paycheck-protection-program-loan-forgiveness/#27fefada3291
PPP. The moment Wells Fargo accepted forms, we submitted. Yesterday we get an email: “Sorry, too late, no funds left.” The PPP was crippled by the Dumbos. The Redumblicans wanted another 250 billion, but it was killed by the Dumbos, who wanted a ton of pork (also Stretch saying why do we need more?). It’s clear loans were prioritized and not FCFS.
Not likely unless you encountered someone from the Nile cruise that seems to be the origin in Houston area.
WRT WuHuFlu case and death counts, whatever you are seeing from any source are manufactured to the purpose of the moment. How “things” are being coded is a moving criterion that has been changing daily (sometimes several times in a day) that is providing jobs for the Medical Coders as they have to re-do codes.
I can’t help but believe that there is a sinister plan at work here.