Supposed to be raining today, as well as cold.
Monday was pretty overcast all day long, but cleared long enough for a gorgeous sunset sky.
I ran my errands in the morning. Took a couple of hundred pounds of scrap out of the driveway and took home $86. Not gonna buy ammo, or send the kids to college, but it beats $0, and for the time involved, it’s a pretty good hourly rate.
Didn’t get a ton done after that. The afternoon was really broken up by getting both kids from school, one at 2:45 and one at 4:15… and yeah that means a bunch of dead time and driving in between. Both schools are 15 minutes in opposite directions from the house too. Kid one normally rides the bus home but she had ‘garden club’ today. She and the teacher are planning a flower bed and a veggie bed. There weren’t any other kids interested, so they have the budget and the plan to themselves.
More of everything to do today. Just like every day Pinky…
It does seem to be sorta quiet out on the webs. My usual suspects are still posting, and people are saying some small things. But there seems to be a sense of regrouping, recouping, retrenching. I definitely feel like people are pulling back. Don’t know why. Have a few thoughts. I know I think bad stuff is coming and getting ready for that takes time, and might not be something that everyone wants to trumpet to the skies. Or it could be fatigue. Or it could be depression. I’m not going to spend much time on it, but I did think it was worth mentioning.
I should be doing more for my own preps at this point too, but I’m not feeling it. I still miss my little furry buddy every day and it catches me at the oddest times. So I know I’m altered and I need to consciously compensate. I haven’t been doing a great job of that. But I need to get back to stacking needful things. And you do too.
nick
Yes.
https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/7000-reimbursement-for-covid-19-funerals-who-its-for-how-to-apply-what-to-know/
Ah, so it’s nothing new, really. I’m trying to remember what my mother’s funeral cost. It’s all kind of lost in a fog, that was such a stressful time, but I vaguely recall it being around $5k. That included the casket – with the agreement of my kids, I went for the absolute cheapest one that didn’t look like crap. I mean, it’s a box, it’s going to be looked at for a couple of hours, and then buried.
I found all the upselling annoying. Yes, we could buy a solid copper coffin for $30k. Yes, we could spend money on truckloads of cut flowers. Yes we could spend money on X, Y and Z. I understand it’s their business, but – jeezum – it’s borderline unethical playing on people’s grief to get them to spend money on stupid shit.
$7k for a funeral is actually a lot. If you’re short on money, you have the reception/wake/whatever in someone’s house. Take the cheapest coffin, because who cares. Save the burial plot and go with a crematorium. Actual expenses ought to be under $2k.
“viva la raza!”
The slogan of one of our radio stations. On bumper stickers and signs. and the slogan of the Reconquista movement. Imagine a country radio station with the same slogan in english, and using a catch phrase of the KKK …
ClearChannel station? Or whatever they call themselves these days. The same company eager to inflict a 2017-style “gas shortage” on Texas with the next major storm?
Always putting the public interests first.
I’ve noted here before about seeing a Spanish phrase stencil-painted everywhere when I first hit San Francisco in the mid-90s. I asked friends what it meant, and they said that the translation was, roughly, “Excuse us, but it (California) is ours.”
I don’t even remember the exact phrase.
For those of you new to Texas or unfamiliar with La Raza, one of the co-founders of the movement is the mother of the Castro brothers out of San Antonio. Keep that in mind when you see one of them on your TV screen.
The idiot brother (okay, they’re both idiots TM) always teases about running for Senate or Governor, but the problem is that the boys were raised No Se Habla. The Univision debate with either Governor Abbott — speaks Spanish fluently — or Senator Rafael Edward Cruz — Cuban upper class Spanish but still fluent — would be embarrassing for either Castro.
Even Robert Francis speaks passable Spanish from what I understand. Of course, being a fourth-generation pure Irish-American white male, The Mexican Bobby Kennedy (another TM), gets him a pass from the community.
That is so cool! Your daughter might also get a friendly lesson in being the Little Red Hen if they have a good harvest. I hope she really takes to it, and wants to continue gardening at home.
I offered to let her help me with the raised beds 😉
She was actually excited.
n
(not that it takes much work, being easy is kinda part of the point of doing it that way)
Taxes done. Not filed. Have to wait for the IRS to open the flood gates. I expect the refund withing five days of filing. File on Sunday, refund by Friday. Been that way for the last five years.
Really despise the taxes this year as a lot of money is being sent to worthless countries. Countries that hate the U.S. As long as the US has problems then no money should be leaving country for any other country.
I feel the same way about churches. If a church is having trouble paying their bills they should not be sending any money to missionaries or other charitable organizations. My view gets scorned looks at my church.
–um no. In a just world, she’d be sued for the damage her public stupidity caused the company. Seriously, wtf is wrong with people?
n
Taxes done. Not filed. Have to wait for the IRS to open the flood gates. I expect the refund withing five days of filing. File on Sunday, refund by Friday. Been that way for the last five years.
They start processing on … the 15th … IIRC? Austin has a big IRS compound (for lack of a better word), and a lot of the employees are Vets who see my wife. I’m sure the processing start date is available online, but, if not, my wife will know. Her next televisit week working from home isn’t until after the tax deadline.
(And, yes, she *works* from home. 10 hour days minimum non stop televisits. The VA gets their money’s worth.)
I filed an amended return for 2019 recently so I’m not in a big hurry to spend another weekend buried in paper.
They don’t have to suffer consequences for bad decisions.
–um no. In a just world, she’d be sued for the damage her public stupidity caused the company. Seriously, wtf is wrong with people?
Why isn’t she suing the hospital? That’s who is liable for using the acetone.
Your Nurse Practitioner will see you now. If you’re lucky, the Masters didn’t come from an online program. If you’re unlucky, you get acetone applied to your scalp.
Wait until Medicaid For All kicks in.
We noted the other day that my wife’s old job in Vantucky finally managed to con -er- recruit a couple of newbie doctors to replace her … nearly seven years later. We’ll see how long they last under the Prog associate-turned-partner who is lead in the office now.
It was a balmy -15°F (-26°C) at 7:30 AM here today. 🙂 Actually, there’s absolutely NO wind at all, so despite the temp it’s not that bad to be outside. Though, a deep inhale through your nose and you’ll feel your mucous freeze.
We have a lot of businesses around here hiding behind mandates that don’t even apply to them. They’re outside city limits but have a sign on the door that says, “In accordance with City of Smallville mandate face masks are required.” They know they’re not in the city limits and they know the mandate doesn’t apply to them. They’re just too damn weak to say, “We’re a private business, it’s our prerogative to require masks, and we require our customers wear masks.” If it’s store policy then the manage may have to explain it to a customer. If you blame it on a law then it’s out of the manager’s hands. Man the f*ck up and stop hiding behind laws that don’t even apply.
I believe those people are called democrats. They don’t consider who put them in that situation, but instead vote for whoever promises to bail them out. If your constituency is the poor and downtrodden then the trick is to create as many poor and downtrodden as you can so they can vote you into office. Remember, it’s the 1%’ers fault they’re poor.
LOL
Shepherd hard at work at his remote job
H/T Revolver
64F when I went to bed, 64F when I got up, 66F now. Heavy low fog this morning though. Very eerie and strange. Despite our normally high humidity, we don’t get fog that often.
n
Leftists are Neo-Racists:
John McWhorter: The Neoracists
The 10 tenets sum up ProgLibTurds very nicely.
Ruh, Roh:
Is Apple About To Announce A $5 Billion Bitcoin Purchase? One Bank Thinks So
Bitcoin goin’ to $50K
Tesla and Apple both buying 10-digits worth of bitcoin? That bodes well for their faith in the dollar.
Had to cancel the wife’s doctor’s appointment for this afternoon as the road conditions are reported as “severe” by the highway patrol. It’s a 40 mile drive and I don’t want to take any chances. That’s one of the disadvantages of living in rural Indian country.
Bitter cold has caused freezing drizzle to ice most of the states roads.
So I’m taking a rare day off. First time in ages we aren’t going anywhere.
The disadvantage of a modern house: The house is so airtight that turning on the kitchen vent sucks smoke *down* the chimney. *cough* *cough* We didn’t pay for a fresh air conduit to the stove – that may have been a mistake. If I light a fire while my wife is cooking dinner, my solution is to prop open the cat door.
Brad, consider a fresh air intake for the wood stove. That will eliminate the stove causing negative pressure in the house, and make it more effective. This might be physically easier than fresh air for the kitchen exhaust fan. You probably run the woodstove more hours per year than the kitchen fan, but you can decide. I am a little surprised that your wood stove doesn’t have a provision for a combustion air intake from the outside.
We get some of our heat from wood using a sealed combustion fireplace. I installed a firebox air intake to the outside when it was being built. Works great. Fireplaces are notoriously inefficient, especially because they draw on the house. Ours has glass doors that are closed all the time except when stoking. Makes a big difference.
The FP also has a big heat exchanger, so it operates like a stove. It can put out large amounts of heat quickly, but is not so good at maintaining a low fire all night. I considered redoing it with a stove insert, but those are more expensive than their benefit to me. Instead, I will install a solar assisted heat pump, which will cost less and be more effective. I already have the solar part. I will not miss feeding a fire and cutting wood.
The modern, skirt-like kilt is a recent innovation, dating to the early 18th century. So, Braveheart was not really accurate. (How amazing, a Hollywood pic is inaccurate!)
You wouldn’t see the heaving thews if they were covered in loose fitting trews…
n
Nope. The pressurized water reactor, the kind that the Navy designed and almost all plants around the world are, is probably the worst design for small and local reactors. The failure modes are terrible, they are about as far from fail safe as you can imagine, and require expensive containment vessels. PWRs are only used because the manufacturers of the naval designs were able to cheaply scale up the design for commercial use. (Cheap design that is. Construction is another problem.)
There are a lot of new designs that are better for power generation, both for large plants and local plants. Pebble bed, molten salt, and others have better safety built in and are under research in various places.
Brad, I this week installed one of these wood-burning stoves. https://bk-ofenbau.de/produkt/kaminofen-bk-kamin/ We ordered it with the option to draw combustion air from behind or below. We put a hole in the floor and set the stove atop it, and it draws cool air from the not-very-heated garage below. Works beautifully, and there is no cool draft at floor level to chill one’s feet. The stove instructions do say not to run a kitchen extractor nearby while it is burning, but I did it briefly out of curiosity, and noticed no draw-back of smoke into the room. I recommend supplying the stove with independent air if you can…
@Chad
Well if someone doesn’t want to wear a mask, then they don’t have to shop at that store. If I am the owner/manager, I don’t have all day to argue policy with someone who wants to convince me to take down the sign since requiring a mask it must be my idea (and I must be wrong). If I am just the store clerk, I care to argue even less. So, why not save everyone time and aggravation by posting a sign saying it’s the law (even if only down the street). Dare I say that in exchange for entering to shop the customer “man-up” and put on a mask?
The disadvantage of a modern house: The house is so airtight that turning on the kitchen vent sucks smoke *down* the chimney. *cough* *cough* We didn’t pay for a fresh air conduit to the stove – that may have been a mistake. If I light a fire while my wife is cooking dinner, my solution is to prop open the cat door.
Our rental house in WA State had the exhaust for the range vent hidden above the cabinet above the cooktop, *inside* the house. The female half of the landlord couple, who lived in the house for five years post divorce from the first husband, never noticed since she didn’t do any real cooking beyond warming soups.
I don’t know if that exhaust design is a WA State code violation.
Regardless of legality, we lived with the ventilation issue for four years, but the landlords dinged us for, among other things in the kitchen, the *stains on the ceiling* near the vent exhaust when we moved out.
Half our deposit disappeared. $800.
Lesson learned, but the bigger take away from that experience is never rent a divorced woman’s settlement house, especially if she is a newbie landlord.
And before anyone comments, $800 is what it would have cost me in plane tickets, rental car, and hotel room to challenge the landlords in the WA State county’s rental issues arbitration process seven years ago. They knew that as well as I did.
I *did* file a report with the IRS informing the agency about the $800 pocketed by the landlords … just in case. They probably spent $20 in cleanup of the issues noted in the letter informing us of the deposit amount kept.
https://www.joinipsa.org/IPSA-Blog/9155833
–not one mention of antifa, or Not F#cking Around Coalition , or New Black Panther Party, or Nation of Islam, who are actually out there DOING THE THINGS they’re shaking in their tactical boots about white people doing.
n
–not one mention of antifa, or Not F#cking Around Coalition , or New Black Panther Party, or Nation of Islam, who are actually out there DOING THE THINGS they’re shaking in their tactical boots about white people doing.
A “mortuary affairs” officer? I guess she’s ordered the body bags for the last eight years of “war”.
Don’t lose sleep over that organization. Membership is probably that woman and friends doing it as part of a class or thesis project. Something smells.
Some rough numbers…
US adult (>18) population: 209M
US adult yearly flu vaccinations: 45% = 94M
Assume 75% want the Covid vaccination which is 157M people (assuming the yearly shot is just one dose per person)
So we can reasonably vaccinate close to half the US adult population without hours-long lines or allocating doses by population types. How many years until we can dispense the booster shots with some similar degree of normalcy?
Exactly my point. Let business owners be business owners and let customers be customers and let them both decide the issue.
I would argue that is part of being a retail business owner. If dealing with customers is such an imposition then they seriously need to reconsider their choices.
Because it’s BS? Because it’s misleading? Because it’s flat out not true? Are none of those valid reasons?
I think we can all agree that standing behind your policies would be “manning up” more so than simply following a sign on the door. Otherwise, wearing a shirt and shoes when the sign says shirt and shoes required would be considered “manning up and wearing a shirt and shoes” and I think we both know that’s ridiculous. However, making a policy and standing behind your policy despite its popularity would be most in keeping with the traditional definition of “manning up.” Nice try though. 🙂
TV, I get the feeling you’re part of the “we’re all going to die!” face mask zealot crowd.
We do the flu vaccine without any issues, plenty of room to do another at the same time.
Except the whole bit about having a resuscitation team available where ever you do the covid shot… that is going to limit distribution a bit.
n
I still miss my little furry buddy every day and it catches me at the oddest times.
It has been two years since Lady passed and I still miss her. Even though I had to pull her in a wagon for the last year she was with us.
Lily just turned two on Feb 1 and we are enjoying the heck out of her. And she has no clue what the word HEEL ! means. And that is ok.
Arlo and Janis: Neanderthals
https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2021/02/09
Hey, we men are what we are.
The wife is currently planning on going to her uncle’s funeral on Saturday. It is going to be in Plainview, TX instead of Tulia. Her 97 year old uncle was living in Plainview with his oldest son who is only 74. And then he was spending a month with each of his eight grandkids, doing the round robin thing. Gonna be very cold in Plainview on Saturday, 20 F / 2 F. The snow is forecasted on Monday so she will have to hurry home on Sunday.
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/tx/plainview
I topped off her windshield washer bottle with 0 F fluid this morning. It did not have much room so I may come back and empty it out. I have broken a windshield washer bottle in west Texas before when we lived in Sweetwater.
Taxes done. Not filed. Have to wait for the IRS to open the flood gates. I expect the refund withing five days of filing. File on Sunday, refund by Friday. Been that way for the last five years.
I started the corporate taxes two weeks ago for my “big” business. The tax accountant came in and got all the info. We had a big loss in 2020, maybe I will get to shelter some of my real estate income.
“Beyoncé’s hairstylist offers to help woman who used Gorilla glue in place of hairspray”
https://www.chron.com/culture/article/Gorilla-Glue-girl-Beyonce-stylist-GoFundMe-page-15936329.php
“More than 15 wash attempts, various recommendations and treatments and an emergency room visit later, Brown’s hair is still stiff as a rock — and TMZ reported that she’s now considering taking legal action.”
She is considering legal action against the Gorilla Glue manufacturer ??? Are you freaking kidding me ? They did not force her to be an idiot. They even responded to her plight:
““We are very sorry to hear about the unfortunate incident that Miss Brown experienced using our Spray Adhesive on her hair,” the company said. “This product is not indicated for use in or on hair as it is considered permanent. … It is used for craft, home, auto or office projects to mount things to surfaces…””
I had to reboot both of my office file servers this morning. The LAN backup failed last night to my office PC. My problem child had been up for ten days, the normally responsive one for 27 days. They both run Windows 7 x64 Pro with 16 GB of ram.
I tried to move a spare pc to the problem child file server last week. I put a new 500 GB SSD and a fresh copy of Windows 7 x64 Pro on it. It is having some sort of weird networking issue that I could not diagnose yet. Sigh.
“$15 an hour minimum wage may hammer these big retailers — here are the numbers”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/15-an-hour-minimum-wage-may-hammer-these-big-retailers-here-are-the-numbers-135516348.html
Gonna be the Two Dollar Tree.
Ah, so it’s nothing new, really. I’m trying to remember what my mother’s funeral cost. It’s all kind of lost in a fog, that was such a stressful time, but I vaguely recall it being around $5k. That included the casket – with the agreement of my kids, I went for the absolute cheapest one that didn’t look like crap. I mean, it’s a box, it’s going to be looked at for a couple of hours, and then buried.
I found all the upselling annoying. Yes, we could buy a solid copper coffin for $30k. Yes, we could spend money on truckloads of cut flowers. Yes we could spend money on X, Y and Z. I understand it’s their business, but – jeezum – it’s borderline unethical playing on people’s grief to get them to spend money on stupid shit.
$7k for a funeral is actually a lot. If you’re short on money, you have the reception/wake/whatever in someone’s house. Take the cheapest coffin, because who cares. Save the burial plot and go with a crematorium. Actual expenses ought to be under $2k.
My father-in-law saved us the misery and pre-bought his funeral back in 1998 or 2000. He had a casket, the funeral home rental, the plot, everything was all selected and paid for. The plot was next to his first wife and his son who was murdered in 1982. Also his first wife’s parents and her older sister, six plots in all. They bought the six plots in 1982 on an a very sad basis.
64F when I went to bed, 64F when I got up, 66F now. Heavy low fog this morning though. Very eerie and strange. Despite our normally high humidity, we don’t get fog that often.
Houston has been very foggy since we moved here in 1972. There used to be a popular bumper sticker in the 1980s, “Onward Thru The Fog !”.
I also wonder why the ER visit. She should “man up” and just shave her head. Wear a wig. Make it out of pubic hair. Problem solved. Just don’t glue on the wig.
So what does the owner do when ‘Karen’ walks in and starts a hissy-fit and insists she’s not wearing a mask? Call the cops, who might be busy with some real crimes? Pull your 12 gauge out from behind the counter and rack it and see if that gets her to leave? Let things escalate further? And what if it’s a business open 24 hours? Can’t expect the owner to always be there, so thenit becomes the manager on duty’s responsibility? Of course all this could be avoided if we all acted with civil decency, but as most here can attest, those days are for the most part gone.
Maybe not quite the best messenger but otherwise I liked the commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2XYH-IEvhI
(Disclaimer: long-time Bruce fan)
Gonna be the Two Dollar Tree.
I don’t know about Dollar Tree/Family Dollar, but Dollar General stores are already dependent on state and local tax breaks to operate in a lot of remote areas. Their store *managers* average $15-20 an hour.
Are they planning to have these teams available when they start jabbing people at CVS and Walgreens?
Btw, heard that the average CVS will be able to do all of 20 jabs per day.
So what does the owner do when ‘Karen’ walks in and starts a hissy-fit and insists she’s not wearing a mask?
Karens have hissy fits when anyone in the store is *not* wearing a mask despite a sign on the door indicating that a mask is required. They get off on enforcing the rules, making everyone sheeple, not independent thinking.
Church Ladies without churches.
Numbers are on the way down in Texas, below the post July 4th peaks for both “new” cases and deaths.
The local Faux News pulled their special Covid 19 page, and I haven’t seen Marin Austin’s (I swear to God that is the reporter’s name) Fear Porn Burlesque act in a while during the 10 PM broadcast, flashing cleavage in her way too pink living room while delivering doom and gloom.
Both Family Dollar and Dollar General sell plenty of items for more that one dollar, while Dollar Tree is all only a buck. Have found some good bargains now and then at the latter.
Yeah I hate when he puts on the BS in BS. Dress like a cowboy, drive an open jeep in the snow. When I saw that on Sunday I was thinking well, whatever, but when it said ReUnited States of America I really hated it. Total progressive bovine manure. Yeah I’m a fan too (seen him about 50 times) but I’ll skip his politics, and Jeep’s too.
@JimB: The stove does have the provision, and the builders asked us if we wanted an air pipe in the floor, run to the stove. For the price, we decided not. There’s enough air coming in, normally, for the stove to work – for example, the cat door isn’t exactly air tight. But turn on the kitchen vent, and…well, that was unexpected.
Anyway, it’s too late now. Our floors – even this one, which is the ceiling of the level below – are poured concrete, with floor-heating on top (in another poured layer). I don’t really want to know what it would cost to retrofit a fresh air pipe into that…
That’s hilarious. What was she thinking? Oops, wrong word. Anyway, the answer is really quite obvious: bald is beautiful. At least in her case, stupidity will grow out again…
Gonna be the Two Dollar Tree.
I don’t know about Dollar Tree/Family Dollar, but Dollar General stores are already dependent on state and local tax breaks to operate in a lot of remote areas. Their store *managers* average $15-20 an hour.
Every small town in Texas over 100 people that does not have a Walmart has a Dollar General. They are an important part of supporting the small towns. And I would say at least half the stuff is over a dollar.
Dollar Tree is everything in the store is a dollar, no more, no less. 15,288 Dollar Tree stores across the USA.
Except the whole bit about having a resuscitation team available where ever you do the covid shot… that is going to limit distribution a bit.
Are they planning to have these teams available when they start jabbing people at CVS and Walgreens?
Btw, heard that the average CVS will be able to do all of 20 jabs per day.
I get most of my vaccinations at Walgreens. First, it has to be one of their pharmacists who have a license I guess. Second, it takes about 15 minutes to gather the paperwork and get the stuff ready. That does not bode well for doing Covid shots.
She should see if Gorilla Glue will use her story and pix for a sticky commercial. Royalties would be more profitable than lawsuit. 🙂
@JimB: The stove does have the provision, and the builders asked us if we wanted an air pipe in the floor, run to the stove. For the price, we decided not. There’s enough air coming in, normally, for the stove to work – for example, the cat door isn’t exactly air tight. But turn on the kitchen vent, and…well, that was unexpected.
Anyway, it’s too late now. Our floors – even this one, which is the ceiling of the level below – are poured concrete, with floor-heating on top (in another poured layer). I don’t really want to know what it would cost to retrofit a fresh air pipe into that…
Put an air exchanger in the wall.
https://www.buildwithrise.com/stories/ductless-heat-recovery
I finally finished, for now, the thing with the thermostat and the little space heater. I have the thermostat set at 50F. Why? I don’t know how accurate the dial is to actual temperature. Have to start somewhere.
Tonight’s low is forecast to be 40F. Tomorrow night 37F. If this is all a waste of time, I’ll just turn the clamp-on lights on… and be sad.
From the site:
Ah, no. I’ll just open a window a little bit. When needed.
With the new windows the house is tight enough that I can smell the attic when the clothes dryer is running. I need to rig a way to seal the louvers for the whole house fan or just remove it. But, opening the window in the laundry room door a couple of inches seems to be enough.
“Good. F**k her, I hope her sentence is long and miserable”
https://gunfreezone.net/good-fk-her-i-hope-her-sentence-is-long-and-miserable/
“May I remind you at this point that there is a protocol against using blinding laser weapons in war.”
“This wasn’t a college kid with a cat toy. This was a rioter attempting to maim a police officer with a directed energy weapon.”
“That deserves a felony charge and a felony conviction.”
“If a police officer is struck in the eye with a brick and loses vision that is a felony. It is no different if a police officer is struck in the eye with coherent radiation which destroyed his photoreceptors and he loses vision.”
I am thinking that ten years in a federal prison might help her to think about her actions. Had I been the officer I probably would have shot her. Directed energy weapons are weapons.
That will go away in a while when they figure out the allergic reaction rate. It seems to be low and only affects those with previous allergy problems. Have an epipen available and that’s all you need.
I am thinking that ten years in a federal prison might help her to think about her actions. Had I been the officer I probably would have shot her. Directed energy weapons are weapons.
Antifa and BLM want a pretty white co-ed shot by cops. That would pretty much be “Game Over” for Republicans for at least a decade if not longer.
The progs learned from the Kavanaugh hearings. The schtick from the Blasey-Ford woman almost made most conservatives stop and think long enough to kill the nomination. “That could be my daughter/granddaughter!”
Fifth of weekly posts on COVID vaccinations in Texas. Texas is still at Phase 1a and 1b, which is
1a – Health Care Workers, Long Term Care Residents (nursing and assisted living homes)
1b – Those over 65 and those over 16 with a comorbidity
As of the 2/9/2021 update (i.e. as of 2/8/2021), Texas had:
Allocated 5,225,050 doses to providers
Shipped 4,472,800 of the allocated doses out
Total persons with 1 dose of the vaccine: 2,549,120
Total persons with 2 doses of the vaccine: 842,870
So for the past week:
Shipped: 108,307
1st dose administered: 550,592
2nd dose administered: 316,294
Shots/day: 123,841
As of now, 2.89% of the state population (29.1 million) has had their second shot. And 8.74% are at one shot. The number of shots/day is higher than the amount shipped per day. About 76% of shipped doses have been used, vs 68% last week. The week had five days with over 100k shots given, last week averaged 93,787 /day continuing a ramp of 30k per day more.
Note: These numbers don’t include 487,500 doses allocated to a program for long term care institutions. Data from:
https://tabexternal.dshs.texas.gov/t/THD/views/COVID-19VaccineinTexasDashboard/Summary?:isGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&:embed=y
Instead, we DID think “That could be my son or grandson being railroaded!” The people who append special provisions for “women and girls” onto every white paper or bill or grant they write don’t seem to realize that China isn’t the only country where there are more baby boys than girls. Or that mothers of sons may be even more fiercely protective of sons than of daughters.
I go to Dollar General first for any kind of OTC medicine, vitamins, health stuff. They are likely to have it, and at a much better price than CVS or Walmart. They have a new store just outside city limits of the town we shop in, looks like the middle of nowhere, but it saves me 10 miles round trip, because it is 5 miles closer than the grocery store. I’ve discovered their frozen and refrigerated products are pretty good, esp in a pinch: bacon, sausage, cottage cheese, sour cream. If they would just put in a water kiosk, it would be perfect.
Dollar Tree is worth going into and just walking up and down every aisle to see what they have. It will amaze you. I wear readers rather than prescription glasses, and they always have a great selection … $1 a pair. A huge selection of toys for the grands. They are better than Hallmark (which we do not have) for party decorations & gift wrap.
My thoughts, but the wife wants something “nice”, that means hardwood and brass furniture. When we buried number one son 25 years ago the casket cost ~ $9,000.
The cemetery where we have our plots also requires a concrete or steel vault to bury the casket in. All in it was about $15k and I’m sure its gone up in the last quarter century. I keep wanting to take the wife and pre-arrange & pre-pay for our services but she just doesn’t have the strength or interest right now. Everything is about remediation of the pain.
This is something that should have happened ages ago…
https://www.thurrott.com/cloud/microsoft-365/247108/microsoft-is-testing-a-new-dark-mode-for-word
and just a reminder, it is Patch Tuesday:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-releases-windows-10-builds-19042804-183631377—heres-whats-new
Mainly security issues if you are on the latest Win10 but there is also this one that is interesting:
Addresses an issue that might damage the file system of some devices and prevent them from starting up after running chkdsk /f.
Everything is about remediation of the pain.
I am sorry to hear that as she sounds like my daughter. Everything is about minimization of her pain. She was suppose to get an iron infusion last Friday but begged off since her pain level was so high. It is very difficult for us to help her.
A New Dark Mode for Word
they need to turn the ribbon into a rope and use it on most of their programmers…
after extensive beta-testing on management
A New Dark Mode for Word
they need to turn the ribbon into a rope and use it on most of their programmers…
after extensive beta-testing on management
I see that I am not the only one who hates the ribbon.
“Covid-19 Diary : Sunday 7 February, 2021”
https://blog.thetravelinsider.info/2021/02/covid-19-diary-sunday-7-february-2021.html
“On Thursday, I said I’d like to open with some good news for a change. Now, three days later, I’d like to repeat that good news. The number of new virus cases, both world-wide, and within the US, continues to steeply drop.”
“This drop remains puzzling, all the more so because of the growing number of new virus variants that are more infectious, and their growing share of total cases. This article reports that in the US, a more infectious virus variant is doubling in case numbers every 9.8 days. Nevertheless, in the US, new cases (on a rolling seven day average) are now at less than half the number of three weeks ago.”
“Every extra day this delightful trend continues is a huge bonus to us all. Its inexplicable nature and underlying cause means it could stop at any moment, but for now, every extra day of decline is making a huge difference to hospital loads and now we’re starting to see a gentle easing of daily deaths too, although that number is declining at a much less spectacular rate.”
There are some nice graphs there also.
Part of it is easily explained- they changed the way the most common test works. It was giving too many false positives. Now that they don’t need the positives, they tightened up the test.
Hospitalization rates can be fudged too. If you have capacity, you admit so as long as you can add capacity, you add hospitalizations. If you run out, or decide to decrease capacity, then your hospitalization rate goes down. Many people have said they are sending people home that they would have admitted earlier.
The deaths number has always been subject to manipulation as many here have pointed out. Watch for deaths from other causes to increase as covid deaths decrease.
n
“I see that I am not the only one who hates the ribbon. ”
–the ribbon and the ‘customized’ menus. WHO IN THE EVERLOVING HELL thought it was a good idea to take commands that people use infrequently but are aware of, and HIDE THEM so that when you go searching for that one command you kinda remember where it was and how to get it to work, ITS NOT THERE. That has to be one of the dumbest conceptual mistakes in UI design ever.
n
“I see that I am not the only one who hates the ribbon. ”
–the ribbon and the ‘customized’ menus. WHO IN THE EVERLOVING HELL thought it was a good idea to take commands that people use infrequently but are aware of, and HIDE THEM so that when you go searching for that one command you kinda remember where it was and how to get it to work, ITS NOT THERE. That has to be one of the dumbest conceptual mistakes in UI design ever.
The Monkey Boy Ballmer as CEO era.
I was reading through the list of shiite that is blocked by Firefox release 85.
We’ve had state and federal laws against wiretapping for a century. Wasn’t long ago a federal warrant was required to put a pen register on a phone line and record telephone numbers called.
Yet not one company has been prosecuted for putting taps on your computer.
If they used the existing laws to prosecute Facebook and opened their files so that people could see how their privacy has been invaded, the civil suits would bankrupt the company and send a bunch of sweaty pale skinned executives down to the bus station with their kneepads looking for work.
My father’s funeral in 2008 was $18K. We did choose the cheapest vault, but we got a nice solid hardwood casket (cherry, I think) as he was into woodworking and appreciated craftsmanship and so, at the time, it just seemed like a nice thing to do for him. I suppose my mom did splurge on a few things. We had limo rides from the church to the graveyard service, but as I recall, that was actually one of the cheaper line items. He was retired military (26 years – USAF) and I was going to put an obit for him in the Air Force Times, but IIRC that was $500 so we passed. We did have them run one in his hometown paper as well as the local paper, of course.
My MIL was a high school English teacher, loved to read, and loved to write. So, she had written her own obituary and it was VERY lengthy. She wanted it run in like 3 different papers (local one, one where she had lived for many years, and her hometown). That all cost a fortune to do, but ignoring a dying person’s last wishes when their estate will more than cover the cost is a dick move.
Was driving through the Southwest a few years ago and was amused that at a couple of exits off of I10 in the middle of the barren desert was a run-down gas station, a McDonalds and brightly lit Dollar General.
@Harold; @lynn; if you haven’t already heard about it / tried it, look into off-label low dose Naltrexone for chronic pain management. Has done wonders for my wife. Some side effects while determining the right dosage and requires a compounding pharmacy to dispense. About $30/month on a Medicare Part D plan.
(Random Google search reference article below and IANAD disclaimer)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.practicalpainmanagement.com/amp/36799
Getting a bit crowded at the end of the line…best to ask @nick to save us some seats…
https://www.pharmacist.com/article/few-covid-vaccine-recipients-developed-rare-blood-disorder
I too hated it when it first came out. Went as far as to find and install a utility that reverted to the legacy menus. All was good until corporate removed everyone’s admin rights and cleaned up all the offending software which forced me back to the Ribbon. Eventually got used to it and now don’t mind it.
Yeah but it makes for a good sound bite for Jabbin’ Joe ™.
65F and 70%RH at the moment. That’s about the same temp as all day but a tiny bit drier.
And I’m tired tonight. My shoulders and neck are sore from the moving and organizing I did.
After I did my errands today, I hit the Goodwill outlet, and bought about 75 pounds of vintage vinyl LPs. Lots of obscure spanish french and italian rock and jazz from the 60s and 70s. Some random titles were asking $75 or more. That could be a good score, I’ll have to go thru them a bit more carefully and get pix so I can get values. I also got 5 cast iron bbq grill replacement grills, about 15 pounds of ELFA wall/ shelf /organizer parts, and 10 pounds of lego… That was a good whack.
n
Just got back from CA (home in Olympic Peninsula, WA, for those that are curious). A 14 hour drive, but good roads and light traffic, except through Portland OR, but that’s normal.
It is 32F outside the house now. Inside it was 55F – what I set the thermostat to when I am out of town.
Have this fancy remote control t-stat (Nexia) that came with the new heating system (high efficiancy Trane heat pump, fan blower). Forgot to turn on the heat ahead of time, so the house is still cold – but slowly warming up.
Weather here is predicted to get snow on the ground at sea level (my house is at 90′ above mean sea level), due to cold air coming out of the Frasier River (Canada) and hitting the moisture from the next round of storms.
Weather dweebs are predicting 4-8 inches at my place. This same time two years ago, we got a snowstorm that left 14″ on the ground at my place. Very unusual to get that much; we might get an inch or two all winter. Daily temps (highs and lows) are forecasted to hover around 30-32F. Storm is set to appear on Thurs.
So, a trip to the grocery store tomorrow for milk and bread – which would have been needed anyway, since we were gone for a week. All other preps are in order: FLASHLIGHTS (many!), generator with spare gas (10 gal), and full tanks in the car.
I’ll just hunker down and enjoy it. Retired, so don’t need to go anywhere.
Sounds good Rick!
We were talking about the supreme court tonight at dinner (yes really) and the kids were OUTRAGED that some of the judges were not strict Constitutionalists. “The founding fathers were really smart, and if they wanted something to be in there they would have put it in.” I couldn’t have argued it better. call me #proudpapa
n
my house is at 90′ above mean sea level
Ah, you are 9 ft above my house and my office. Both of mine are at 81 ft above sea level.
@Harold: I’m really sorry. Is there any way that you can take care of at least part of the arrangments by yourself? Done is done, even if not needed just now.
Tests are only _so_ accurate, and you can shift the errors so that you have more false positives or more false negatives. That decision could be political, but it could also be a genuine health-care based decision. While still hoping to be able to contain an outbreak, it is better to have false positives. Once you give up on containment, the test is more about record keeping and establishing appropriate treatment. I distrust the politicians as much as anyone, but I’m not sure they have their hand in here…
Yes, please. Don’t forget to include Google, Twitter and most of the advertising industry, while you’re at it…
Lowlanders.