Cool, damp, overcast. That’s my best guess for the day.
Sunday was nice. A bit on the damp side, but shirtsleeves and sunglasses weather.
So naturally I was at my secondary cutting up shipping crates and throwing out obsolete trade show booth parts. I got there and my neighbor had a huge commercial style grill set up and was getting meat ready… For the next 4 hours my brain was marinaded in the smell of grilling meat. Neighbor had some sort of party/family get together that involved a dozen kids, a whole lot of chicken, really loud tejano music, and a tiny bouncy house, with appropriate numbers of adults. Looked like a parole meeting for the parents honestly. Not a mask anywhere to be seen, not even worn badly. It was in a space open to the outside, but it was typical hispanic get together. They are not, in general, stand offish or ‘reserved’ when in family groups.
On my drive home I saw several other large groups having outdoor parties.
I made a bunch of space but still have a long way to go. Forklift could fit if I had to move it today. There is still a lot to be gone through and gotten rid of, and there is a whole bunch of shuffling around that needs to be done, but progress was made.
Progress being made is good. Groups gathering is bad. Yes, I’m saying that flat out. Take the time to read Aesop’s report from the front line. He’s ground truth/boots on the ground in Cali. Yes, he can be an alarmist. Yes, his language is ‘salty’ and he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. But you can either believe he’s making the whole thing up (which doesn’t fit with the previous 6-7 years I’ve been reading him) or he’s telling the truth and it’s grim. Not seeing it where you are? Awesome. Hope that continues to be true. Remember though back a few months when all the rural and semi-rural areas were saying it was a nothing burger? Most of those same areas are seeing plenty of cases now. Sooner or later, it does get to where you are. I don’t usually put pull quotes in my actual post but here are a couple…
“Nameless SoCal Hospital is full, bottom to top, wall to wall. “
“ER is holding ICU patients, now for multiple days. Entire ER is now set up for COVID isolation, which is running 75-90% of patients seen, 24/7. And those are only the ones too sick to send home. “
“Morgue overflow conex cold storage is now full of corpses. “
“We ran out of body bags day before yesterday, so until we got more, deceased patients had to stay in occupied rooms. Even with getting decedents out, new dead are piling up faster than we’re getting old ones off to coroner or mortuaries. “
“Between staff shortages and actual sick staff, we’re starting the day with 50% staffing in some units, and it’s virtually impossible to get hired guns to come in. Everyone is over this, and all they get by picking up registry work or extra shifts where they work, is more sh*t sandwich, every day, into infinity. And you can’t spend bonuses if you’re dead.
And in L.A. County, everything I just wrote? Worse. Squared.”
“We’re all dreading what happens when we get the Christmas/New Year’s Stupidity Surge, 3-5 weeks from now, but it’s definitely coming.
Things are spiffy where you are? Outstanding. Goody for you. No, really. Hope your luck holds.
Meanwhile, I’m hearing from nurses who blog in other states, e.g. Texas, that they’re getting, now, what we had here in Apr-July, and hospital manglement (not a typo. -A.) there learned nothing from what happened in NYFS, NJ, Atlanta, Nawlins, or CA, and accordingly planned for no such thing.”
Ordinary care is not available at his hospital anymore. They are one step away from disaster triage and rationing care.
Say whatever about whatever. Masks, Fauci, overreach, lies, models, whatever. For SoCal at least, the disaster is HERE. All the other stuff no longer matters. Once the hurricane arrives, all the models, storm tracks, colored charts, mean nothing. All that matters is getting through and then the recovery. That’s where SoCal (LA and probably Riverside) is right now. Everyone else is probably going to get there sooner or later. Knowing what we know from round one, even if it happened only to ‘other people’ and not you, what are you doing to be ready when the storm gets to your area?
I hope everyone here has been using the hiatus to build up their stocks. There is zero reason to be caught short again. It’s time to be ready to pull back in, limit your exposure, and get ready to ride out the next wave. Cali is leading the way- and not in a good way. There is very little reason to think your zip code will protect you.
Avoid crowds. And keep stacking.
n