Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

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Reclaim May Day,  set yourself free.

Even as our supposed “betters” are laying in more and more prohibitions, including the disgusting Noisome in California, closing parks and beaches, there are some things we know about COVID-19.

Besides, that is, the fact that it was never as lethal as claimed.  We now know why they stomped so hard on “it’s like the flu.”  Because, essentially?  It’s like the flu.

One thing we’ve found — this has to be the most studied disease in the universe — is that sunlight kills it. So the chances of transmission outside is about zero.  (And no, it doesn’t have wings, or hang suspended outside in midair to get you. Honestly, sometimes I wonder what’s in people’s heads. If this virus could do that, so could EVERY OTHER ONE.  To an extent, sure. They’re everywhere.  If you’ve read H. G. Well’s War of the Worlds, you know that. You also know that unlike something from outer space you evolved on this Earth and have a level of defense against the teeming life of the planet in general. Or maybe you don’t. I found out my kids’ teachers thought if you used water it went away forever, so who knows?)

Anyway, sunlight kills the virus, which didn’t transmit any too well INSIDE the Diamond Princess, in some of the best possible conditions for it, AND with an ideally aged and infirm population.  So you’re pretty safe outside. Closing the parks? Demanding you wear masks outside?  Yeah. It’s just governors getting their fash boots on.

The other thing we’ve found out is that vitamin D deficiency is the greatest predictor of “will need hospitalization.”

So. By trying to tell you that you’re “better at home” they’re actually trying to kill you.

I suggest you hoist the double middle finger, dress in something yellow (snek optional) and get out, get out wherever we are.

Unfortunately today of all days, I can’t work outside as I meant to (long story.)  HOWEVER we have a noon drive planned and we might drive 50 miles away to pick up food for dinner.  Oh, and I’ll almost certainly go for a walk after I write some.  (Even though I tried to remove dye from my hair, having decided that 29 years of coloring my hair is enough and I’m going to stop, and well…. I didn’t have enough or the right remover so my hair is BRIGHT YELLOW.  Yep, I got myself a golden scalp weasel.  The right dye remover is on the way from Amazon. Meanwhile older son refuses to be seen with me, and I’m trying not to shock the neighbors. — grin — but today I’ll go out.)

#Ollyollyoxenfree #reclaimmayday #setyourselffree #theyrenotthebossofyou

 

328 thoughts on “Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are”

  1. Sunlight also elevates mood, which is another reason people tormenting you try to deprive you of it.

    And on the upside, currently you already have something Snek-yellow, so you’re covered?

    *Ducks carp.*

    1. Yeah, all I could think with the hair issue was that surely it counted as really going all in… 😀

      1. It works for me too, but if Sarah considers it unacceptable in public – well, that’s why they invented the hat. Just saying.

    2. Here, during the about a half hour period where we had sun — mostly cloudly, some rain — there were a lot of people walking about the neighborhood.

      1. I don’t know where everybody’s going. #@!! virtual keyboard.

    2. On our playgrounds, it was “olly olly in-come free”. Which made a certain amount of sense: “come in free”. Years later, doing my taxes, I remembered that I once had free income …

      1. We said, “olly, olly, outs are in free,” meaning no one would pretend to have ended the game, then tag you.

        1. I have no idea how much truth it might have or is simply a back-speculation, but “All ye! All ye! All in free!” becoming twisted through time does sound plausible.

  4. May have to drape myself in our Gadsden flag…but it’s going to be warm today, so I’ll figure something out (I don’t really have any yellow as I look jaundiced wearing it).

    1. I own no yellow for the same reason. I currently have on a tiny bit of yellow embroidery on a sea of red fabric, highlighted with white.

    2. I was busy burning slash and excess pine needles. Didn’t bother with the yellow Nomex, more’s the pity.

      West of the Cascades, in April TPTB were shaming people into not burning slash (“think of the poor COVID sufferers”), but today was opening. The edict was “get your burning and/or woodwaste dump runs done. You can do it now.” In the next sentence they said westside burning* will be prohibited May 4th because of an early fire season call. Left unsaid was what the attitude towards huge unburnt piles lingering all summer.

      Kim DuToit’s “Red Curtain of Blood” seems appropriate for those stuck in that situation.

      (*) Generally it’s not cost effective to dump a lot of wood waste, even if it’s a free-dump day. Carbon footprint for the win!

        1. Could be. On the lockdown, Despicable Kate Brown says what she wants for testing/big brother tracing, but nary a word on reopening businesses. Might be some Irish Democracy starting up. Hell, I’d go to a rogue haircutter in a flash.

          Near the People’s Republic of Ashland, they’re freaking out over a few Richter 3.1 earthquakes. To most California transplants, that’s a “who cares”. Trying to facilitate #CaliforniaInvasion, I suppose. And the irony that we left Cali in ’03 isn’t lost on me, but we moved to a conservative red county and help keep it that way. Westside tends to be blue, though SW Oregon isn’t quite so much, with Ashland is the progressive carbuncle. FWIW, the rest of the area got clobbered in the lockdown. They were rebuilding their manufacturing base after the Obama years. Now unemployment is horrendous.

          1. Jackson county is relatively blue – mostly because of Medford. I grew south of Grants Pass, and I would say the attitude there among the N8ives is very red. Unfortunately the Rogue Valley seems to be swamped with damned Californians.

            1. Applegate Valley part of Rogue Valley? Because my Aunt & Uncle relocated from CA on retirement. Liberal they are not.

              1. I tend to view anyone from Cali with suspicion – Once logging was suffocated by Portland there was an exodus of retirees from SoCal (who were closer to 40 rather than 60) and splashed out with big homes, etc since the retirement money was twice what people were making who lived there all their life. Taxes went up everywhere, the City put their boot on the Rurals’ necks… Also, I have only met two Californians so far who have been conservative. *shrugs* Your mileage may vary.

                1. The Californians who make it over to the east side tend to be a) less wealthy and b) considerably more conservative than those landing in the west. We escaped Cali in ’03 (I was perhaps the only Republican voter on my block, alas) to Klamath County, and it’s staying pretty conservative. Klamath Falls tends to be more liberal than the rural portions, but politicians with a ‘D’ after their name tend to remain out of office.

                  We were pleasantly surprised by the couple from Grass Valley who bought the 80 acre miniranch next door. He’d worked for the Cali Parks system, but seems to be quite conservative.

                  (I’m wondering if Medford is going to stay blue after the lockdown. I was there on a medical trip a few weeks before the lockdown started, and I was getting the distinct impression that people were getting fed up with D shenanigans, especially the DA who feels that no Mexican should ever go to jail, no matter what… With major job losses to make Kate happy, I wonder/hope that it’s going to swing pretty red. I think if Medford goes R, the blue cities wouldn’t be able to overwhelm. OTOH, we have votefraud by mail.

                  1. Because it’s a small world– if you knew Erin, my condolences.

                    (If not, disregard; we went to school with my cousin.)

                    1. Erin rings no bells, beyond a lady who ran the front desk at our vetinarian’s practice. The DA in Jackson County is one Beth Heckert. Major SJW.

                    2. Last week, I would’ve said that’s too bad– but she passed away, so at this point it’s just as well.

                2. Well to be fair to my Aunt & Uncle, they are Oregon native born & raised. California is where the jobs took them eventually.

                  1. I was born and raised in the Midwest before spending too many years in the SF Bay area. $SPOUSE was raised in rural Santa Clara county, and we were both thrilled to leave. I’m just glad that my brief thought of moving to Traverse City, MI didn’t go anywhere. My allergies would have near killed me, and Gov Whitless would have finished the job.

                  2. Well, there we go! Ain’t no problem there – that’s why I live in the Portland area.

  6. Sick kid, unfortunately, so I’m going to be inside sitting next to the couch and changing the Llama Llama episode every fifteen minutes. It doesn’t help that she was really looking forward to going to her grandmother’s today and so asks me every two minutes, “Why do I have to stay home?”

  8. My second last day of work in three weeks (we thought the tax office would calm down after the 15th…), so I’m stuck. But I hope to roam tomorrow.

      1. And it’s an absolutely gorgeous day, too. And I do know where everybody’s going, but there are a lot of cars zipping by out there.

  9. We now know why they stomped so hard on “it’s like the flu.” Because, essentially? It’s like the flu.

    Also because that was *THEIR* line, back in January, when a body was a horrible racist for paying attention to infection vectors.

        1. Unfortunately, I do not see that as realistic – they’ve been trying to steal it since 2016.

  10. Orange would have been a good hair color, too.

    My wife and I have been taking an hour long walk every morning here in California, without masks, saying hi to everyone we meet. A good percentage also do not wear masks. But a depressing percentage do.

    1. I wouldn’t look at it as a depressing thing. Masks in this case aren’t worn to protect the wearer. They’re worn to protect the people around the wearer. In essence, someone wearing a mask is acknowledging that there’s a chance that they’re asymptomatic, and making it less likely that they’ll infect someone else.

      So long as the mask wearers don’t start loudly insisting that you wear a mask, there shouldn’t be any reason for complaint.

      There’s also the minor detail that when the pandemic hysteria dies down, masks in public will suddenly be the target of official condemnation. Big Brother prefers that his surveillance targets have visible faces. It makes them easier to identify and track.

      1. I wore one yesterday when the notary came by so that we could sign some mortgage documents for precisely that reason: because we were having him come to do us a favor, it seemed only polite to take some steps to protect him just in case that minor cough I had wasn’t just allergies.

        I tend to agree with you: people wearing masks aren’t a problem. It’s people who scream at others, whether they wear masks or not.

        1. Yeah. I have the Japanese attitude towards mask wearing when sick. It’s considered courteous for you not to share your cause of cough and sneezing, and I rather use the mask to catch the droplets, myself. Not much I can do about hayfever though… ;~;

      2. Been going unmasked the whole time. Today finally got hassled about it. The kid pushed back and got called selfish. I’d kept going down the aisle as I didn’t want a confrontation. We were both really angry, though.

        Which just says the person doesn’t know what the mask is for. If she’s masked and does it properly she’s safe. She was so… why hassle us? I know the answer, of course, but we’re still not going to do it. And she hasn’t followed the reports about casual contacts such as within stores being very low risk.

        What gets to me is the stores adding ‘must be masked’ requirements when all indications are the whole virus thing is improving and we should be loosening up. But we’ve had to drop two stores for adding ‘must be masked’ just in the last week or two.

        1. Again, unless the mask is something like an N95, it’s not for the safety of the wearer. It’s for the safety of those around the wearer. So, no, masking herself properly does not make her safer.

          1. Which is precisely why I don’t wear one. I am not sick, I do not suffer from allergies, and I learned to cover my mouth and nose when I sneezed/coughed when I was five years old.

    2. To be fair, it is spring, which is allergy season.

      You can probably assuage your depression by telling yourself that they are wearing masks to reduce the amount of pollen they inhale.

      1. I’ve been masked the past four weeks going into town, first because I had the “weird flu” at the same time as my allergy season, then as a friendly gesture. Our city is remarkably short of Karens (at least where I go), but I expect to explore that further as it gets hotter. The home-made masks are *warm*, and Pete doesn’t do well with hot recycled air.

    3. Wearing masks is ableist, discriminating against lip readers WHAT KIND if terrible person would want to excommunicate deaf people from participation in American society?

      If you aren’t wearing a mask with a window you hate deaf hearing-impaired people.
      –

        1. People can barely hear me when I don’t wear a mask. I get a lot of “What?” trying to talk through the mask. I end up pulling it down.

          I have a soft voice that doesn’t carry; sounds loud to me … Natural or habit? Probably a little of both. Dad’s voice was relatively soft, but deep so carried. Mom’s voice is pow forcefully loud, even at a whisper it carries.

      2. Like much humor, this is more than a bit of truth to this…. I’ve already had to apologize to people because heck if I can figure out what they’re saying when I can’t use their lips as cues.

  11. The Karens and Kyles yesterday ranting about our “oncoming, slow motion, train wreck, that we can’t do anything to stop” as our state lifted most restrictions today was interesting. We’re all gonna die, or at least the grandmas/grandpas are all gonna die. And my favorite was a former coworker responding to a comment about getting rid of the police state replied, “in past crises it was called “war bonds” and rationing of essential supplies. Coming together for the greater good with equal sacrifice, to maintain the social contract (JFK’s famous quote, for example). I guess some now see that as a police state.” That one had me scratching my head over how voluntarily buying something like war bonds equates to forced shut downs. He’s a smart guy, was a good officer, but is clearly an FDR fan, which puts him pretty close to an actual fascist, regardless of how the media defines it.

    1. > social contract

      Yeah. A unilateral contract with no fixed terms. I was maybe eight years old when I first heard the term, and saw the problem immediately…

      When the Mob did it, it was “an offer you can’t refuse.”

        1. I’d go for the anti-social contract, but the body count is high for those.

          1. How about an anti-socialist contract? Sign up and pay, and your socialist leaders and their media fellow travelers go for helicopter rides on Pinochet Air.

            1. I loves me some Pinochet Air. The takeoff is interesting, but the copter is always a lot lighter for the landing. Funny that.

      2. The one that really makes my blood boil is “giving back”. Like I am doing a kindness because I owe it to you. Screw you. It is called “charity” and I do it because I want to NOT because I am obliged to.

        They want to remove any sense of doing a good deed at your discretion and make it so you have to give back like paying a debt. That way you don’t get to feel good for doing it, it is something you just owe society to do. @sshates…

        1. Because they are virtue thieves. You may not have or practice the virtue of charity. That is the responsibility of government, and they can hand it over and not have to be charitable themselves.

        2. Hijacked cultural habit; ‘giving back’ is like “gifts from Santa”– a way to give a gift without the obligations that come with that.

          A polite fiction, basically, that also recognizes an environment that doesn’t unduly hamper the ability to achieve.

          It is a lot like the “social contract”– they’re both usually used as hammers by people hell bent on exploiting both.

    2. Getting the same slow motion train wreck talk here but because Whitless refuses to not be a petty tyrant.
      She demands we respect her authoritah!
      I have more respect for Cartman.

    3. JFK was ‘elected’ thanks to white supremacist terrorism.

      And conscientious objectors were effectively political opposition to FDR. There’s a reasonable case that FDR’s America counts as a police state from detention of political opponents alone.

        1. FDR put Japanese American citizens in concentration camps.

          Fixed that for ya.

          FDR also took their money and property and gave it to his rich cronies.

    4. Tell the idiot that FDR’s administration rationed a lot of things that were not actually in short supply, to manage the public mood, and promoted a lot of public enterprises like scrap drives that had little or no practical value. The goal – squashing Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan – was worthwhile, but a great deal of government action was bushwa.

      1. Maybe. I won’t contend scrap drives, et al, produced usable metal for the military needs, but practical value, when trying to keep a nation engaged in a war, isn’t just material. It is also keeping people invested in the idea of common action for a common goal that might cost some more than others, especially when the goal is abstract.

        Of course, the left has never forgotten the ability to create a common effort and been trying to find an excuse to get us to do their bidding, which we ignore, out of said common purpose. Much of the COVID bs is that.

        But I will defend the practical value of things without material value. Man does not live by bread alone (which is my long complaint about most politically active people in the upper half of the Pournelle chart, especially the left hand quadrant).

      2. FDR was the closest this country has ever come to electing an actual fascist. Rounding up people because of their ethnicity? check. Telling companies/farmers what they can produce and how much of it? check. Telling companies how much they can pay employees? check.

        I’m not sure what more they would want. An autographed photo with Il Duce himself maybe?

        1. You’re talking about people who think “Fascism” is vastly different from “Communism”.

          IE They don’t understand that “Fascism” and “Communism” are just variations of Socialism.

          1. They get very tired of having to lie — or, as they claim, point out — that Fascism is right-wing.

        2. I disagree. Wilson was far more of a fascist…during the First World War, he actually criminalized any criticism of his regime. FDR never did that. And there’s a good case that Lyndon Johnson was nearly as bad…he brought the Federal Government into EVERYTHING.

            1. The only thing I’ll disagree with you on is the “proto” part. He was as much a fascist as American culture allowed him to be.

              If the left’s worst caricature of Trump and the right’s worst caricature of Obama got together and had a baby, it would look a lot like Woodrow Wilson.

              1. Woodrow Wilson’s not a fascist only because fascism hadn’t been invented yet.

              2. And its government. When you have to actually stand for re-election. . . .

                But Liberal Fascism agrees on the “full fascist.”

        3. I would contend that the only reason FDR outdid Wilson on that scale was that FDR was more generally able. Wilson, in addition to be an authoritarian swine, was an imbecile.

        4. Rounding up people because of their ethnicity? check.

          I seem to remember it was actually immigrants and foreign nationals. That’s why most people don’t know about the Italians and Germans who were locked up and/or restricted– there were a lot higher percentages of first generation folks from Japan than Italy, much less Germany.

          Probably because of the Niʻihau incident plus

          1. Also, there were a lot more Americans of Japanese descent who accompanied their alien parents into the camps. Possibly a legacy of the Asian anti-naturalization clauses in US immigration law?

            1. Probably. It’s also easy to forget that Japanese submarines had been seen off the coast, and fired on Ellwood, CA. That fed into both the hysteria and the credibility of those who claimed that the Japanese-Americans might be assisting the Imperial Japanese government.

              1. The guy who sided with the Japanese, against his long-time neighbors, when one of the dudes who bombed Pearl Harbor crashed on their island was probably Not Helpful for that.

                Not that I don’t recognize the desire to make sure any relatives still in Japan didn’t become known as related to a Traitor. *shudder*

              2. And the fact does remain that all over the far East, resident Japanese threw off their guise of being plain ordinary citizens and resident aliens and revealed themselves as all-in for the New East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. There was good grounds for being suspicious, based on prior form all across the far east. In California, my mother was a kid of eleven at that time, and her best friend in the world was the daughter of one of the Japanese nurserymen who was one of my grandfather’s go-to suppliers. (Grandpa was a long-time estate gardener for a wealthy family in Pasadena.) My mother often said that she overheard such awful things being said about the Issei and Nisei after Pearl Harbor – that she was damn glad that her friend Helen and her family had been interned. As a matter of their own safety, since feelings against the Japanese ran very high at that time. According to Mom, the Japanese didn’t settle in such tightly-defined communities as the Chinese, but were scattered here and there, many on small truck farms and nurseries. Very easy for an outraged mob to attack an isolated Japanese family.
                My grandfather took Mom to the temporary internment camp at the Santa Anita racetrack to see her friend through the barbed wire, at least once. Gramps was a stubborn Scots-Irish bastard, but he was loyal to his friends. He stored all the household stuff that Helen’s family couldn’t take with them and didn’t want to abandon in his garage. Another local nurseryman purchased Helen’s fathers’ business and property, and paid a fair market price for it, too – for which they were so grateful that when they came back, they worked the place for him – don’t know what the terms were, but they were generous ones.

                In Texas, it was a curious situation with the long-time German enclaves. I was told that it was illegal to speak German in public, although most local German-Texans had rather chosen to be bilingual after WWI anyway. There were German-Texans interned at Chrystal City – but the bulk of them for having voiced and demonstrated Nazi sympathies. A local historian, Ken Knopp told us of one of them; he was recruiting openly for the Nazis, to the hideous embarrassment of those whom he approached. He was warned, over and over again … and whoops … after Pearl Harbor – interned.
                Another local internee was a new associate pastor for one of the Fredericksburg churches; a German-speaking Swiss. He kept forgetting about not speaking German in public – and he wound up in Crystal City too – although to hear Mr. Knopp tell it, he didn’t mind much, as he was guaranteed a full house for Sunday services…

                1. Read something interesting about the Chinese in the US during the first half of the century. The anti-Chinese laws meant that new Chinese immigration was banned, nearly all of the Chinese in the US were single men, and American women who married Chinese immigrants would lose their citizenship.

                  Then the San Francisco earthquake happened, and the city burned down. So did a lot of records containing birthplaces. Suddenly there were a lot more second-generation Chinese-American citizens than anyone had realized.

                  *cough*

                  According to the info I was reading, the resulting weddings and baby boom in the community is believed to have a lot to do with why the Chinese-American community had more men per capita in the armed forces (fully integrated) during World War 2 than any other ethnic group.

                  1. Every Chinese woman in the US before that fire gave birth 300 times. They’ve never managed to match that since.

              3. Provoking anti-Japanese sentiment among Anglo-Americans would also have been a handy method of provoking anti-American sentiments (and actions, such as leaving a light on and the curtain open in a seaward-facing window) among Japanese in America.

                Creating a fifth column was likely about their only hope of winning surviving the war.
                –

      1. There’s a nasty part of me that wants a Republican President to say, “You call me ‘Hitler’. So be it.”

        Then remind them that Hitler had his critics killed. No trial required, save for propaganda purposes. Of course, the reminder will be delivered in 9mm doses.

        1. Ever since they started the “Bush is Hitler” nonsense I have been telling anyone stupid enough to repeat it (or transfer it to Trump) “If he was at all like Hitler, you would be far to scared to say so.”

          It seems to insult them

          Good.

        2. Oh, a guy in my current gaming group (who I’ve been gaming with off and on since 1981) just posted on Facebook re the Michigan protests: “Michigan has a vermin problem it needs to solve.”

          Ugly is not the word.

          1. Speaking as a Left Coast Dweller (God have mercy), Whitmer would be an insult to vermin.

            1. Based on the comments he’s been making about re-opening, Whitmer isn’t who he’s talking about.

          2. The general consensus seems to be that anyone out and about without a mask will be in the hospital in a couple of weeks and dead within a month and that all the health care providers are just knocking on heaven’s door because all health care providers are gonna get it sooner or later and everybody who gets it dies.

            I don’t have a clue where they get this stuff.

              1. I was proud of myself this afternoon. I didn’t make fun of the way that people wearing bandannas as masks in my local grocery store made them look like they were wild west desperadoes in the baking supplies aisle.

                No dry active yeast to be found, though. My bread machine test will have to happen a different week.

      2. The Democratic Party and Roosevelt were effusive in their praise for the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and Chancellor Hitler through most of the 1930s. They even bragged about how CCC and WPA were modeled after the very successful labor programs of modern, forward-thinking National Socialist Germany.

        That all unhappened after the Third Reich and the Soviet Union weren’t friends any more. Funny, that…

  12. I’m 81. I smoke, I drink, shuky darn, I even go to super markets and box stores every week or so! My choices,

    I don’t mind if some folks disagree and fault me for them. I don’t really mind if some folks wear tin foil hats and/or wrap themselves in bubble wrap (I know a few that do.), their choice.

    Advice, suggestions, sensible or inane, I’m fine with that, but orders, directives, to huddle in place? Nope.

    Yep, I’ll get out in May, as I did in January, February, March and April.

  13. I was out and about early, joked around with the manager of my local stop-n-rob [well, that’s what convenience stores seem to be in some areas, alas] . . . and then went on the clock from 0800-1500, so I can’t go roaming until later.

    I’m hoping a couple of places have opted to accept the governor’s order and ignore the city council’s request to stay closed. Alas, the city is being very, very, very eager to ask people to keep staying home for at least the next 14 days. Because a packing plant and a prison are having an outbreak, and those people are counted in the city’s total case load.

    1. Bad statistics make for bad decisions.

      And this whole sad affair has been the result of a mess of bad statistics, starting with the Chinese government’s lies, which cost valuable time in which we could’ve been preparing for a more rational, measured response.

  15. Some talk here in Alberta of opening restaurants (at half-capacity) in the next two weeks.

    Me, I’m waiting for the bookstores to open again . . .

    1. I’m waiting for the thrift stores to reopen. Although I do have bookshelves again, courtesy of the kind gift of a good friend, I still need one more filing cabinet and a couple of small items to finish getting my office organized after the home repairs.

      Reopening the libraries would be nice, but at the moment I still have plenty of books to read (I currently have 117 books checked out, including non-fiction for research, and an additional number of uncataloged books). Worst case, I go up to our warehouse and start pulling books from the merchandise to read.

      1. I too would like the libraries to reopen, especially since I work at one.

        2. I keep thinking of the clippers in the bathroom drawer. Usually reserved for when I have to do my quarterly beardectomy, but…

          1. I’ve clipped my own hair for years, and not just shave. My Lady lets me clip hers (she has bad reactions to most grooming products) and professes to like the results.

            Go figure.

            1. Despicable Kate just extended the Oregon lockdown to July 6th, because being the 40th worst state in the nation for Kung Flu deaths was just too much for her tender heart and tyrannical mindset. So, I need a decent hand mirror and a place to use the sheep shears.

    3. I’m agog that you actually *have* bookstores, and that you expect they might be worth going to…

  16. I suspect that the Parents know I would do something that would get me in trouble today, so I’ve been given all sorts of assignments to do today.

    At the very least, I think we’re going to see more of the walls of the garage when we’re done…

  17. I’m working from home, again. For the present, I’m staying in and wearing a mask when I got out. But, as a serving member of the military and a DOD employee, I voluntarily limit my freedom. I fully support everyone else who wants to do otherwise.

    1. Get enough sun for the vitamin D.

      That would, after all, explain both high rates in China (air pollution) and among blacks.

  18. It’s supposed to be 75 and sunny this afternoon so I believe I shall leap upon my trusty steed, a bright yellow Ryobi electric riding mower, and give the yard a much needed trim. I’d wait until the weekend, but temps are supposed to hit low to mid 80s and I purely do hate to sweat.
    And how long before the usual suspects start promoting the “yaller woman bad” meme?

      1. Be time to get even when in July and August every day is 100+ with 97% humidity.
        Almost as bad as Houston, not quite, but almost.

        2. Sounds like Washington DC, minus the civil war era sewer system (that long about August starts smelling like it might be harboring civil war era zombies.).

        1. yeah, yeah, remind me what I moved away from
          Though the large bald eagle flying over the house is a good feature. Saw an even bigger one just north of town coming back from scoping out Ma and Dad’s RV

      3. 96 up here. It was already 68 when I got up at five something. I hatesssss it, my Precious, I hatesss it.

        1. The heat when I was in DFW didn’t bother me as much at it did in NOLA. 80 at 5 am and humidity hovering around 90% . . . they can keep that. The one warehouse I worked in got up to 120 in spots. At the airport is was so much better, 110 and jet exhaust.

            1. We had one hire who learned he was allergic to Jet-A. He was wearing shorts and stood right at the dome cover when filling the truck and got a rash, so he tried to wear only long pants, then one day he walked behind an engine spooling down and got one on his arms and face, but still stuck with it, because he really liked the job.
              Then one day the wind was just right and it wafted the engine fumes over him every time he hooked to a plane.
              He had to leave that day and we told him to go find other work, and avoid diesel, just to be safe.

      4. We had 74 degrees this afternoon. Of course, we had 26 degrees this morning, so normal life in the inter-mountain West.

          1. The last day we had a high in the 40s, the morning low was in the mid teens. One *appreciates* warm weather, at least until we hit the mid 90s. Dry, but damned hot, then the thunderboomies make it far more interesting than we like.

          2. Screwed up something, moderation hell.

            The last day we had a high in the 40s, the morning low was in the mid teens. One *appreciates* warm weather, at least until we hit the mid 90s. Dry, but damned hot, then the thunderboomies make it far more interesting than we like.

    2. Lawns in the Northern Wastes don’t wait for actual growing weather… grass out back was already knee high last week. So it was off to the lawn mower races, and I do surely wish for a rider… figured out I walk 10 to 12 MILES in the course of mowing not quite two acres (this is why I have a collection of worn-out mowers). If doctor ever says “Get more exercise” I am going to tie him behind the defective mower (self-propel won’t turn off) and let it drag him around the pasture. *Before* I mow down the thistles.

      And two days later, the back yard already needs mowing again…

      Outdoors? It’s the indoors I rarely see!

  19. At 3 PM Eastern, the bishops of Canada and the U.S. will be renewing the consecration of both countries to the patron saint of our continent. Under current conditions of violations of religious freedoms, they are appealing to her under the title of Mary, Mother of the Church. The bishops of Italy will consecrate Italy to Mary again, and the bishops of Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America did it Easter Sunday.

    The consecration will be live streamed from various places, and televised on EWTN.

    The U.S. was first consecrated to Mary in 1792.

    2. Our priest is assisting our bishop.

      Which doesn’t sound like it’s very important, unless you know that Father just finished chemo, as in was only doing masses (while medicated to the gils) alone for two or three weeks before everything shut down.

      1. All of them may be supplicated for their prayers on our behalf.

        One may certainly, for instance, ask St. Corona for her prayers even though she’s not traditionally associated with plagues.

        1. St. Roch, St. Sebastian, St. Anthony Abbot, St. George, St. Blaise, St. Apollonia . . ., heck, the Germans have the Fourteen Holy Helpers (Vierzennotheiligen, literally “Fourteen Emergency Saints”). Including St. Barbara, just in case.

  20. Go out and let your freaky hair shine in the sunlight. Nobody really cares anymore. A few years ago my fiancee (now my ex-fiancee – I married her) tried dying her hair auburn and ended up with mauve. Some liked it, some were non-plussed, but nobody was shocked. So get those vitamin D levels up.

    We’ve been getting out in the Florida sunlight nearly every day, playing disc golf and/or attacking the remaining roots near the house from the enormous rubber tree we had taken down last year,
    Beaches open Monday, and so will the swimming pool in our development.

    Given that warm humid sunlight is ideal for killing the virus and that chlorine in the levels found in swimming pools also kills it, Parks, Beaches & Pools are some of the safest places to be (unless you’re snogging with random strangers).

    The ignorance of the some of our panicked officials around the country is disappointing, though not surprising.

    1. If she’s still interested in an auburn, may I suggest henna?

      It looks like you’ve got a cow-pat on your head when you’re putting it on, but it smells nicely herbal for the hour or two it sits there (if you pre-soak it the night before, anyways) and the color is good enough that it took my mom six days to figure out that I hadn’t just been in the sun a lot.

      1. She stopped coloring it. It’s now pure white except in the very back where there’s still a hint of iron grey poking through and she likes it pretty well that way (and we match – mine’s also white by now).
        She is considering putting in a streak at some point but can’t decide what color.

        1. My grandmother-in-law does seasonal– so for Independence Day she had red and blue on her bangs, Valentine’s Day was pink, etc.
          Positioned kind of like Rogue from X-Men.

        2. I’ve gone mostly gray, but it came in in spots, and for a long time I looked rather mangy.

          When I was nine years old I had black hair with silver at the temples. I thought it was rather dashing. Then it turned brown until it finally started going motley gray.

          The barbers are still closed here. My wife is now onboard with the mohawk idea, and has suggested purple.

          I’d worn a mil-spec haircut all my life, maybe it *is* time for a change…

  21. True statement no. 1: Based on what we know, COVID is probably deadlier than the flu.
    True statement no. 2: Based on what we know, it probably isn’t enough deadlier to justify the more radical measures people took, especially once you get out of places like NYC, San Francisco, Detroit, and Chicago.

    1. I’m getting the subversive idea that nobody has actually looked that hard at “the flu” before, and that all of the magical tricks claimed for COVID-19, assuming they exist, apply to the seasonal flus that happen *every year*. The antibodies, the asymptomatic people, the complications with other factors, the lot.

      “Sometime tomorrow morning, a flaming ball of atomic fire will light up the sky, bathing the Earth in hard radiation and light so intense it can burn your skin!”

      “WTF dude! We need to sign some executive orders STAT!”

      1. Ran across a tweet somewhere somebody basically went, “Wait… does anybody really die of the flu?” and was finding doctors saying “no”….

        I have not yet braced myself to dive in and investigate whether the person found anything about, you know, consequent pneumonia.

        1. The CDC “center” The Center for health Statistics, has some very useful information about the “flu”. They track people being seen for “flulike symptoms:
          http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm#ILIMap. The website has a nice chart that shows visits for flulike symptoms. They count each week the number of visits. Their statement this week is:
          “Nationwide during week 17, 1.8% of patient visits reported through the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet) were due to influenza-like illness (ILI). This percentage is below the national baseline of 2.4%.”

          They have a very good description of why counting flu is hard, and why deaths are hard to categorize. There is a flu season, and then for the rest of the year about 3,000 Americans die of pneumonia like stuff every week.

          You get someone who is vulnerable because of underlying causes, it is an example of the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. When you stand next to a cliff, a gentle push in the wrong direction can kill you.

          1. and right now all flu like symptoms and pneumonias leading to a death are being called for WuFlu. Testing not required (especially if testing might show no WuFlu).

        2. If I remember correctly, it is possible, but it’s not very common.

          I am somewhat horrified by how many people think “just like the flu” means it is absolutely nothing– while also being horrified that people think pneumonia is an automatic dire medical situation where you WILL be in the hospital for a month. (Dear Lord, have they never heard of walking pneumonia?)

          1. To be honest with you, I’ve heard of walking pneumonia but the impression I got was always “probably should have been in the hospital but doesn’t know how/when to quit”….

            1. *looks at the variety of folks involved she knows personally*

              Well, I can’t argue with the not knowing how to quit part, but given the reaction of doctors on those occasions when they did go in, sounds like Monday morning quarterbacking.

              I can only think of two cases where someone felt bad enough to go into the doctor, and it was treated seriously, and they discovered the pneumonia; the rest they found out about due to other, unrelated medical checkups. I think old Jack they discovered he’d had it when he was in for a broken leg, which he only got treated AFTER he finished the fence.
              (Took me years to realize the doctor jokes about cowboys coming in with a broken leg wired up because they had to finish the job were supposed to be jokes, not true to life stories. #RuralMyths )
              My mom got chewed out for not updating the doctor that she’d had pneumonia. Because he knows her, he believed her when she said she had no idea she’d HAD it.

              1. When I was a teenager, I had a positive TB test – which resulted in a biannual chest X-ray recommendation on my records. I was in my late 30s when one of those came back, and I had a spot in one lobe. “Huh, you had a mild pneumonia some time in the last two years.” Never knew it.

                About fifteen years later, when going on the med for the psoriatic arthritis, I had another TB test (among others). Negative. Sigh…

              2. I had a chronic sinus infection bloom into pneumonia after 15 months or so. At that point the doctor took my blood sugar, and in addition to antibiotics, I also got a diabetic med (didn’t have much luck until the doc switched me to Metformin). A month or two later and I finally got a CPAP machine and finally started feeling human.

                My dentist’s office is slowly reopening, though my May 12 hygienist appointment won’t do; they’re not restarting until the 18th. I reminded my regular doctor about the echo cardiogram he wants me to get every year. We’ll see how soon I get it. I see the cardio specialist late July. (Maybe, not sure.)

                1. That happened to me a few years ago – felt crummy, kept getting worse, eventually while visiting my folks in S Oregon was dragged to the ER at 3 rivers. Found out I had a sinus infection. Started taking antibiotics, felt betterish, went back to work back in Portland and then just went down hill. Missed Pneumonia by that much. That was also when I shook hands with my wormdrive whilst cutting rafters, so my body was a bit … stressed.

              3. Younger son had walking pneumonia at 16. They gave him antibiotics, and sent him home. He slept for like three days, took his antibiotics, and was fine in two weeks.
                I was near death of pneumonia, so I was in ICU 11 days, three days in regular hospital and took a year to fully recover.

                1. My mom guesses it was the three weeks she spent cussing about people introducing the type of sage brush she’s allergic to into Washington state.

            2. Nope – had it during college – just a cold that moved to the chest and then a croupy cough that didn’t get better, and it felt like someone turned the gravity up. I was still going to classes at all hours. Finally went in and the doc listened – uh oh – and took chest xrays – hey look! – and so I got to walk around with my doctors note and late-drop a bunch of classes, which my doc said do or else.

              It hung on even with the antibiotics for a fair while, but lots and lots of sleep and the drugs and I was young back then and it finally went away.

              I never set one foot in any hospital for that.

              Walking pneumonia is no joke. That was the worst I’ve ever felt – just beat down, dragging with every step. Seriously felt like I was walking around in 1.5 to 2 Gs depending on the day.

              1. Gah. My father said that he had walking pneumonia, the last time that I talked to him. Feeling crappy, unwell … and it turned out later that he had also bashed his head against an almost-closed garage door, and had suffered a creeping brain bleed.
                It still hurts that the very last thing that I said to him when we talked (I called Mom and Dad every Friday, without fail) was “Take care, Dad, you sound like sh*t.” By next Friday, he was in hospital for the brain bleed, they operated for that … and it turned out that he also had an undetected heart condition. He passed away the day after Christmas that year, because all those conditions cascaded into one big fatal fail.

                1. I should note the reason I went in was my Mom was an RN in that doc’s office, and she finally said “I made an appointment for you tomorrow – you will be there.”

                  So I was.

                2. I’ve never had pneumonia. I did once have walking pneumonia, which my doctor emphasized wasn’t actually pneumonia, and is fought with a different antibiotic. It was caught early- I’m not one of those people who wait until they’re at death’s door to visit the doctor. Having suffered through it, I’m exceedingly happy I’ve never had the real thing. And I had my pneumonia vaccine as soon as I was old enough to get it.

                  1. Huh; I wonder what your doctor meant, since ‘pneumonia’ is one of those describe-the-symptoms diseases, like ‘the cold,’ not a specific bug.

                    There’s that you had the symptoms of pneumonia but one or the other symptom wasn’t bad enough for him to call it full on pneumonia; there’s that you had pneumonia symptoms but it was probably one of the bugs that isn’t covered by the pneumonia vaccine; and ‘you have symptoms like pneumonia from a person angle but I don’t see any inflammation’.

              2. Luckily I was taking Fall off anyway. But I woke up one Wednesday with a raw throat. No biggy. It had been cold, dry, & crisp, nice sunny days for working in the woods. Cold in the morning, moving to hot in the afternoon, especially in the canyons we were hiking down into for the work, then working our way out. Thursday, got up, felt worse, but hey, for a cold, didn’t feel that bad … Worked. Someone noted it was really hot in the canyons that day. I think around 105 F. By the time we got back to the district office I felt lousy. Drove home, because had a dog that had to be fed, & checked on. Then got up in the morning, found a phone to call in sick & drove to the emergency room. Strep Throat & Tonsillitis, my “lower” morning temp was running 104 F. XRays & thrown in the hospital. I was “allowed” two calls. First one, my folks, second one was work. They wanted me in the hospital. Mom & sis showed up. Mom got me checked out, with a massive shot of penicillin, and a prescription of penicillin pills. Funny how they caved when mom pointed out I was a college student, not enrolling in fall class, & not sure if folks insurance was going to cover this (it did). We had to drive back to my rental for the dog & pack. We, dog & I, were deposited at grandma & grandpa house, and informed we were confined to bed, for at a minimum of 10 days. At 10 days I had a follow up with my regular GP who stated “You still should be in the hospital. But we’ll just keep you on house arrest”, at my folks. It was another 10 days before I was allowed to go back to work, restricted to the office, for another week. I had enough sick & vacation banked up that I was covered on my time off. Looking back given I was seasonal temp, normally let go by the first of September, in time for school, I’m surprised, they followed through on the season extending through mid December.

          2. I suspect the only place they’ve heard anything close to “the walking pneumonia” was followed by “… and the boogie-woogie flu”.

            1. I have been known to opine on. “The walking pneumonia and the boogie Wuhan flu.”

            2. That’s Rocking pneumonia …

              and the boogie-woogie Flu.

              Yeah, there are many other covers, but in this instance there’s only two that are really appropriate, and the other is by the Grateful Dead
              –

    2. 60Guilders says:
      True statement no. 1: Based on what we know, COVID is probably deadlier than the flu.
      Presuming probably means in a preponderance of cases (51%+) maybe, for some values of flu and deadlier. I think 1918 flu was definitely far more lethal. It looks like 1968 Hong Kong was more lethal too.
      Statement 2 is less disputable. given the data we had when we made the call in early to mid March the precautions we’re on the overkill side. Given data now its definitely overkill for most of the US.

      1. My charitable reading of it was “this virus, on a virgin population” vs “an average seasonal flu.”

        And I just realized that maybe one of the reasons it’s hitting the elderly even harder than usual is that it’s new enough that they don’t have any residual defenses against it, while the seasonal flu has enough variations on the same tune that their body recognizes it.

        1. Ding. You got it. And the thing is, the average seasonal flu kills off between forty-fifty thousand people each year. A bad year kills 60,000.

            1. Fox, until we have an objective standard for identifying Wuhan Flu deaths, every number cited is garbage. You can’t do science without standards. No one has provided one.

              1. I was actually talking about the calculated flu deaths. (which are also garbage, but differently calculated garbage)

                I’m hard core face palming about how openly New York is padding their numbers, and have been since BEFORE they doubled down, at least twice.

                  2. Credit where due: New York did not simply pad by adding in any demise that might have resulted accompanied symptoms of the Woo-Hoo Flu, they insured there would be no deficiency of COVID-19 deaths by not only directing discharged Coronavirus patients be admitted to unprepared eldercare facilities, they also forbade those facilities from discriminating against medical staff testing positive for the virus.

                    Hard to imagine any downside with those policies.
                    –

                2. What did you expect? The Federal Government sends money to Hospitals with high COVID-19 case numbers. There is a decent argument that that’s a good thing to do.
                  But you always get more of what you subsidize.

                  1. Remember at the beginning when Trump was asking were masks going in through the front door of NY Hospitals and out through the back door. Millions evidently.

            2. I’m looking at the Estimated Disease Burden of Influenza page, and the only place I see 95k is the upper bound for 2017-2018–which was an extraordinarily bad year.

              1. Huh, I hadn’t found the 95k for a bad year number, yet.

                I really wish they’d link their specific reports and such for the numbers, I really want to know what is behind the variety of numbers. Was 90K just the worst bad before then and the other mentions of 90K are bad numbers? Different estimate? New calculation method? WHAT?

                1. I have heard discussions that that number may be high, if not quite so high as the Flu Manchu numbers out of NYC.

                  1. Of course it’s not as bad as the high from NYC, the various calculations I’ve seen actually remove other causes of death before they guestimate how many of the “extra” were caused by the flu; NYC put policies in place that resulted in deaths and then attributed any extra deaths to kung flu.

                    1. Has I. Ratel updated the graphs posted here on March 27? ‘Twoud be interesting indeed to see what happened to the observed downtrend during the April Panic.

                      I always thought April Fools was supposed to be just the one day.

                    2. Berenson has up a FB post from CDC that cumulative hospitalization rates are “similar to what has been seen during a comparable time period during a high severity flu season.” Don’t know if FB suppressed CDC since I don’t patronize Zuck the schm-ck.

                      The death rates were always going to be inflated once a premium was to be paid. Hospitalizations are harder to hide.

                      All of this in NYC comes down to negligence by the governor, mayor, health department, and, I’m afraid, hospitals. Don’t sh-t where you eat is old wisdom that the hospitals ignored. Putting sick people back into the homes was negligent homicide. Dem of course so nothing will happen.

                      In other news, it was beautiful here today, Wife and I went out for a drive – more than 10 miles from home – parks are open and there were a good many people taking walks with their kids. No masks in the parks. people are still wearing them while driving and I still don’t get the nitrile glove thing.

          2. Numbers I’ve seen for 1968 Hong Kong was ~100,000. If it came through today and it had the same infection rates and lethality (big ifs) it would be ~168,000 as population is considerably larger.

    3. It’s actually hard to state whether or not the virus is deadlier than the flu for several reasons, the primary one being that its potential vulnerable group is 100% of the world population, as opposed to the fraction vulnerable to the flu. Each year, maybe 20% is vulnerable to the flu, because the rest has full protection (from vaccine or prior infection), partial protection (from vaccine or prior infection close match), or isn’t counted because they died in a previous year.

      So this could be far less deadly overall while killing a much larger number of people, because it’s the equivalent of five consecutive flu seasons dumped on our heads at once. And while immunity to coronaviruses wanes after a couple of years, we don’t die from “trifling little colds” [Pride & Prejudice] because our bodies are used to them. But some of the plagues that swept through North America once there was European contact could well have been cold viruses infecting a novel population.

    4. True fact; the 1918-1920 pandemic MAY have killed as many as 100 Million people, with half that being far more likely ( low estimate is morelike 17 million.). Governments that wielded unchecked power MURDERED more than 100 million people in the 20th century…and that doesn’t count war deaths.

      I am far more concerned with the State ignoring Constitutional rights like freedom of assembly than I am with the Kung-flu.

      1. I read something positing Aspirin being a New Wonder Drug back in that period, and Aspirin exacerbating the cytokine storm response that some posit as why the 1918 Flu was so deadly to younger folks, that those who did not use Aspirin (i.e. homeopathic docs) or use it as much (some docs documented giving it at crazy high doses) ended up with a different disease profile and outcomes.

      2. The Spanish Flu did not target populations, unlike the Turks, Germans, Russians, Chicoms, Khmer Rouge …
        –

    5. Deadlier or worse in critical cases? Those aren’t necessarily the same thing, although the later might create the former in the absence of modern medicine.

      From what I’ve read and shifted through it seems like critical cases skew worse than flu, but given modern treatment have roughly the same death rate. That difference is what original justified locking everyone inside, to not overwhelm treatment.

      1. The problem with aspirin, which wasn’t understood until the 50s, is that when you get enough in you, at some point the rate at which you clear it goes from some-fraction-per-hour (‘first order’ and exponential decay) to constant (‘zero order’, like with alcohol). Adding more in doesn’t speed the clearance, and the dose gets toxic.

        At least that’s what I read in the articles about aspirin in the 1918 ‘flu.

    6. True statement #3: Treatment should be early and aggressive with hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and zinc.

      And , if you’re not already taking Vitamin D supplements, or if it’s not in your daily multivitamin at at least the 400 IU RDA, START taking them. Now. I read something the otehr day that an after the fact study by a doctor showed that the biggest predictor of needing ICU treatment was low Vitamin D blood level.And I’ve got to locate that article….

        1. Joy. You mean they were onto something when they cleaned out Vitamin C and D so thoroughly that I only found some Vitamin C ones after five shops? (I absorb it badly or use a lot — I NEED those supplements.)

      3. D, zinc, C and the B vitamins can help.

        I wonder if that’s why the Thing at Christmas took out most of the rest of the house fairly hard, had my husband down for a week, but I just felt bad lady’s problem sick– I’ve been taking this “stress” B complex stuff, and the prenatal multivitamins I got hooked on when I was preggers all the time. Most days I remember to take at least one of them at morning or noon.

        Both of them contain all of those vitamins.

        Mandatory fussy mommy warning: when you’re combining supplements, remember to double-check if they double up on anything, and if that’s too much of whatever it is.

        1. The only reason I stopped my Vit B complex pill is because they are huge horse pills, and cold temp sore throat punished me for trying by having me taste blood every time I coughed for the rest of the day. Might need to ask darling hubby to get me a resupply of my Vit D though.

          1. Calling any kind of people pill ‘horse pills’ is a shameless exaggeration. I have seen actual horse pills. They are about an inch in diameter and five inches long. Horses and cows hate taking them.

            You are taking the name of Horse Pills in vain.

          2. Em has several pills like that, twice a day. She takes them with applesauce. If that doesn’t work, crush them into it.

        3. Around here, if you want zinc, you need to take it in a combo, like those “stress” B complex. 40 mg is the tipping point into danger — and the zinc only ones are ALL 50 mg. (The danger is copper absorption fails.)

  22. Gonna rain on and off until 9:00 tonight and we’re under a flash-flood watch until 2:00 AM tomorrow, so I’m not goin’ anywhere.

    But since it is May 1, here’s wishing that all Communists will become Good Communists right quick, and may all of the dictators, petty tyrants, Karens, and Kyles of the world have unfortunate encounters with tar, feathers, and rope.

  23. I didn’t have enough or the right remover so my hair is BRIGHT YELLOW.

    Pictures or it didn’t happen.

    1. Ha! While you’re at it, could you upload a sound file of you saying “Moose and Squirrel?”

  24. Today we’re going to the park to walk. Tomorrow I’m taking the business van up to Sam’s Club to get water softener salt, and then Home Depot to get some lawn and garden stuff, as well as some outdoor paint for our new fence (part of the home repairs that ate January and February). Then I’ll be out working in the yard.

    1. If I didn’t get it from the Wisconsin side of the river, Whitless now says I can buy paint for my house.
      I’m running up to see if Ma and Dad’s RV canopy is as bad as my Aunt thinks. (minor collapse last winter, much reinforcement occurred but might have had more damage this winter)

        1. She is trying. The legislature is saying no way. She is replying tough I’m doing it anyway. The legislature is trying to repeal the 1930’s law that gives her emergency powers.

  25. My friend tried to dye her own hair and turned it bright, clown orange.

    It was magical.

    She called a salon and was told it would cost her $400+ to fix it.

    So she called the local beauty school and the instructor said she’d do it for free if my friend would allow her to teach a whole class of students as she fixed it.

    She said yes of course. This was in 2002 so pre cell phone cameras and she didn’t think to take a picture. That’s the only sad part of the story.

    1. I once long ago knew a girl who was a cashier at my prefered grocer. One day she had a torty cat color look to her hair and the lady in her line was berating her for trying to bleach her hair.
      “I’ve been sick and just got well enough for a haircut. This is my natural color, I normally dye it black so it doesn’t look like I got squirted with a squeeze bottle of bleach. If I bleach my hair it is an even worse color of orange.”

  26. I did not wind up going to the protest in Albany. -_- I had said I was willing to give my parents-in-law veto power, given that I needed them to watch the children… and lo, Father-in-Law waited until the very moment we came to drop the children off to say that he doesn’t know why we’re trying to kill him, but he’s not willing to fight about it. Aaaaaagh. *FINE.*

    I still left the children there, we got take out. We took it to a closed park. (Why was I avoiding that park?? Sure, there was an orange mesh fence across the gate–but literally no other barrier, no tape on the equipment, picnic tables still out, everything. It was like the very picture of “We are legally required to tell you not to come.”) We went to the store. We got our blood taken for antibody testing. (Pretty likely–we got sick in the textbook ways just after our friends came back sick from Italy, about a day ahead of the Italian lockdown.) All goes well, I won’t have to listen to that crap again.

    (Now I’m at home for an hour or so scrolling the web because the protest was the only thing I’d really had planned and I’m still irritable, so I’ll get the extra babysitting time. >.>)

    I also didn’t have yellow–so I put on the yellowish-beige and black-with-gold-accents clothes I have, grabbed the gold stole from my graduation gown and wrapped it, with safety pins, around my waist. Even if I didn’t get to use it, I was kinda pleased at being able to pull it together. (I’d been planning on wearing this mask (https://libertyjunkies.com/collections/masks/products/no-step-on-stek-neck-gaiter), but it didn’t arrive in time. Siiiiigh.)

    (We DO have the plague doctor mask my husband ordered. Hopefully we’ll get to use that for something fun.)

    Anyway. That’s… uh, my May Day report.

  28. “this has to be the most studied disease in the universe”

    There is a vast gap between “studied” and “understood.” But there is little question but that sunlight is inimical to the Federal Flu.
    –

    1. Doubtless megabytes of journal papers have been submitted as academics scramble for to increase their publication count. None of it will actually be read, since even the academics no longer trust the “peer review” process.

      The sad part is there probably *is* some accurate, life-saving research in there, but it’s unlikely anyone will be able to spot it among the drivel.

    2. I don’t know . . . the Black Death has a few hundred years head start on being studied. *removes historian’s hat, returns to writing fiction*

      1. Yes, but it was long before publish or perish and before fields where you don’t need to do real research, just write BS. How many of the OpEds about “sure, it kills more men than women, but COVID-19 is harder on women” are going to be paralleled in Women’s Studies journals? Same for various non-whites for race studies other than whites (Whiteness Studies papers will be “Oppressing blacks/women/gays/furry green creatures from Alpha Centauri under the guise of public health: whiteness in the medical profession” or similar)? That “I’m a lesbian but I’m sleeping with my male roommate during lockdown” story will spawn several “Public Harm Masquerading as Public Health: Using COVID-19 for covert conversion therapy” papers.

        However, this might wind up less studied than the Black Death, as any actual science that doesn’t endorse the party line of “we had to shutdown and stopped too soon” won’t be published, or even allowed on YouTube.

    3. I was sure I had clicked the ticky box. I guess I ticked the clicky box instead. At any rate, none of today’s commenting has reached my email inbox.

      Pfui.
      –

  29. Sun came out after intermittent downpours. Birds are singing. Lovely afternoon. Just came back in from an excursion with the wife. We went more than10 miles and purchased non essential things, but don’t tell Colorado Governor. You can tell Gauleiter Murphy since I am entirely out of f—ks to give about him.

    I kinda get the masks, but what’s with the blue nitrile gloves? They say that viruses like smooth surfaces so why we would wear them is beyond me. My wife kicked me when I asked the pushy lady why she believed in magic. In fairness to the wife, if not the pushy lady, I was being bumptious at the time.

    I can’t see the mask thing lasting long once the heat and humidity come in. I had mine on loosely and left where we were because I couldn’t stand it anymore.

    My Gadsden flag is flying.

    1. I do contamination controls for a living, in my case radioactive contamination rather than biological, and all around me are classic examples of people not having the first bloody clue what they’re doing. It’s one of the reasons this whole thing is pissing me off.

      When this first started breaking in the news, they gave the quarterdeck watches on the ship surgical gloves. Every morning I would watch them take a sailor’s ID, look it over, hand it back to the sailor (who would then fumble with it while putting it back in their wallet or pocket) and then grab the next sailor’s ID. Somebody must have said something to them because the gloves went away after a few days, but the hands-on ID check lasted several more weeks.

      If there ever is an outbreak of an infectious disease that is actually deadly, even at Spanish Flu levels, we are well and truly boned.

      1. It is increasingly clear, even to those of us NOT intimately familiar with real, hard-learned protocols that what is going now is, in almost all cases, nothing but theater… or parody. Or yes, yes.

      2. When I read that the Chinese Bio-Level 4 lab had the same protocols as American labs my first thought was, “But how well do they follow them?”

        For that matter, following protocols as well as we do is less than reassuring — after all, our intelligence agencies have protocols about spying o American citizens and how well has that worked out?

        ‘Increasingly concerned’: Spy chief orders review of unmasking policies for intelligence agencies
        The acting director of national intelligence ordered every spy agency to review its policies on the handling and dissemination of sensitive and private identifying information on U.S. persons immediately, saying he has become “increasingly concerned” about unmasking.

        Richard Grenell, who took over as acting spy chief in late February as he concurrently serves as the ambassador to Germany, made his concerns clear in a directive obtained by the Washington Examiner to the heads of U.S. spy agencies dated Wednesday and titled “Protecting the Privacy and Civil Liberties of U.S. Persons.”

        “As the acting director of national intelligence, I serve as the approving official for dissemination of unmasked congressional identity information … I have become increasingly concerned with intelligence reports that inconsistently apply the policies and procedures governing how U.S. person identities are masked,” Grenell wrote. “It is critical that we afford the same rigorous privacy and civil liberties protections to all U.S. persons regardless of whether they are a private citizen, member of Congress, or an official serving within our government’s executive branch.”

        Republicans have alleged since 2017 that Obama-era officials improperly unmasked associates of then-candidate Donald Trump’s presidential campaign during the Russia investigation. Democrats have defended the intelligence-gathering process, arguing that the collection of identifying information is inevitable. …
        –

        1. One of the things that reliably pisses me off at work is when I tell them they can’t do something and they come back with “but we’ve always done it this way.”

        2. Well, if they’re up to the same standards as US labs… (Granted, this was a few years ago.)

          “This was in part due to lab accidents at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in July 2014 that raised questions about biosafety at US high-containment labs.

          At that time, the CDC had closed two labs and halted some biological shipments in the wake of several incidents in which highly pathogenic microbes were mishandled by US government laboratories: an accidental shipment of live anthrax, the discovery of forgotten live smallpox samples and a newly revealed incident in which a dangerous influenza strain was accidentally shipped from the CDC to another lab.

          A CDC internal report described how scientists failed to follow proper procedures to ensure samples were inactivated before they left the lab, and also found “multiple other problems” with operating procedures in the anthrax lab. ”

          https://asiatimes.com/2020/04/why-us-outsourced-bat-virus-research-to-wuhan/

  30. >> “#Ollyollyoxenfree”

    [puzzled look]

    We’re not oxen-free. Orvan’s right here!

  31. What is WRONG with you people??
    How can you NOT go out and celebrate the Glorious 1st of MAY!! THE major holiday of International Communism! Workers of the World unite and throw off the chains of the despicable Government. Chains that keep you shacked in your homes. Rise UP and BREAK those CHAINS, show your solidary against your oppressive Government. Defy them in the name of the WORKERS, demand your RIGHT to WORK!
    MARCH on CITY and State Halls of Government, with the Gadsden Flags flying HIGH.
    MARCH with ALL the Workers on this Glorious 1st of May.

    RISE UP WORKERS AND DEMAND YOUR FREEDOM FROM YOUR OPPRESSORS!!!!

    1. I thought the workers were supposed to boycott today to protest the damage capitalism has done by breaking the economy.

      No, I’m not kidding. Saw it on the Face sucked that pretends its a Book.

  32. Had to work, so been home most of the day (still home), but went out for lunch.

    Drove up to one of my FLGS and found it was open. Browsed for about 20 minutes (all I had) and bought five Magic boosters. I almost took the plunge into Age of Sigmar minis, but they didn’t have the army book for my army of choice.

    That probably saved me $150 🙂

    1. Just found out other game store to the NW is open to 10 and we got finished close to 5pm for the first time in weeks (last night was 8 and 7 is common), so I’m off on another trip.

      If only Half Priced Books was open.

        1. Excellent. I need to glue mine up. Got distracted restoring a plane to clean up the pieces for the top prior to glue up.

          That and building a very poor mallet. Got to start somewhere.

      3. And it turns out it isn’t a game store anymore, but a games showroom where you must wear a mask and use hand sanitizer on entry, with guard at the door enforcing this. He also points out the taped directions arrows you are to follow.

        I resisted pointing out there are no exit paths if I follow that rule.

        That said, whoever I special or mail order the items I found interesting will appreciate the show room was open.

        Apparently they do sell to fellow cowards, but I doubt they want my “I don’t cower in fear” money.

        1. Herb, don’t be too hard on them. I’m hearing more and more stories of liability insurance carriers of all types basically saying “we don’t care what your state government does or says; if you aren’t following social distancing / mask requirements that we set, we won’t honor your policy…. and you know you’ll get sued.”

          1. I guess I just miss an America whose people believed of their heritage “the cowards never left and the weaklings died along the way”.

            2. I disagree. It should only be a defense if the regulations cause the harm such as banning masks. On the other hand there used to be a doctrine of iirc “assumed risk” in other words, if there were no hidden pitfalls, and the store did not assure you that you were safe from apparent harms, you consented to the risk by entering the store and thus could not sue.

          3. Yes. Which is why the POTUS is trying to get legislation preventing WuFlu liability in all except really obviously blatant cases (“I don’t care if you tested positive, come in or get fired!”). And San Fran Nan is refusing. Grrrr.

              1. Alas, the Dem leadership are opposed – holding out for their laundry-list of freedom-destroying demands, like national vote-by-mail.

                1. State governments, such as Texas and Florida, can enact reasonable protections against liability abuse, while California, New York and other Blue states tell employers “Re-open at your own risk!” and we’ll see how that works out.

                  I’m guessing it will not bring U-Haul rental rates from California to Texas and from Texas to California into parity.
                  –

      4. We went to City Park in Denver and walked around the lake. The park was still closed, but people had moved barriers aside, and it was packed. No one was wearing masks.

        We didn’t make it to the Springs because what we were going for was closed.

    2. I interpreted FLGS as “Friendly Local Gun Shop”, so it took a while to decrypt that comment…

  33. Actually got to see a doctor **in person** today. Of course, it took having two of the warning signs of cancer to do it (Apparentely, it’s not even close, whew!!)

    1. Bummer about all the ones lost in the Great Slave Lake last fall during hunting season. Truly a shame . . . Not to mention the ones in the bottom of Lake Superior (but we won’t mention those.)

          1. Lake Ontario will soon be a great source of scrap metal as millions of valuable possessions are tragically lost overboard. Never have so many butter-fingered boaters taken to the waves in such a short time.

    2. If you need character references for your application for US citizenship I’d be happy to provide, as I’m sure everyone else here would.

      1. I tried that already. It seems that due to being A) Canadian and B) white I am not sufficiently holy to be allowed immigration to the USA.

        I considered cutting off a limb to make it in as disabled, but the price was too high.

        But don’t get cocky, Ian. You guys are one DemocRat win in an election away from the same thing. Just take a look at what Karen is doing chasing Jews in Brooklyn today. That’s a possible future.

        1. But don’t get cocky, Ian. You guys are one DemocRat win in an election away from the same thing. Just take a look at what Karen is doing chasing Jews in Brooklyn today. That’s a possible future.

          You are looking at the short term. Within 25 years we will be able to buy machineguns over the counter.

          In the meantime even if everything goes miraculously right in Canada it will still be fundamentally Canada. The place where Britsh failed so hard they became French. No one wants to be associated with that.

        1. Adopt Hell! Claim you as “sister by another mother” or you claim Phantom as “sibling by another parent” and damn them if they attempt to impose their definition of “related” on the pair of you.

          Or claim as spouse without benefits … although that won’t float under the current administration.
          –

    4. I saw they’re even banning shotguns! Don’t Justin Blackface know that the shotgun is THE recommended choice for home defense per the advice of American president-in-waiting* Joe “Fingers” Biden? Is Rastus Trudeau trying to drive our countries further apart?

      *May the wait be very, very, very long.
      –

    6. Just got off the phone with my mom, she asked if I knew anything about that.

      She sent her condolences on the tragic canoe accidents.

  35. Happy Feast of St. Joseph the Worker!

    (Yes, in this case the Church actually did appropriate the pagan holiday for their own.)

    1. Well from the commies. They took it from the US Labor Day but got the date wrong.

      Saint Joseph the Worker was put in 1955 by Pius XII

      We used to light bonfires for Beltane, thought we didn’t call it that, right proper pagans us.

  36. The Daughter Unit and I drove up to Boerne, where the thrift shop supporting the Animal Defense League has reopened! (Hurrah, hurrah) DU had her eye on a vintage purse from Brazil, cream pleather embroidered overall with silk flowers. A bonus – a matching eyeglasses case and a coin purse inside, all apparently unused. Dates from the late 1950s, early 60ies. The Daughter Unit lives for stuff like this, Came back home through what we call “the back way”, from Boerne to Bulverde, down the 281 and to home. Stopped off in the Bulverde HEB to discover that face masks were optional – hurrah! Went into the Bulverde Tractor supply for chicken food – discovered that chicks are sold out, all they had there were baby ducks. The Daughter Unit wistfully wishes for a duck – I say no – we have no damp pond for them. And the yard is small.
    Picked up some trim nails at Lowe’s for the nail gun loaned to us by Neighborhood Handy Guy, and finished cutting and installing shelves and supports for the floor to ceiling bookshelf in the hallway. Yes, we designed it to accommodate paperback books of two sizes. Neighborhood Handy Guy did the rough carpentry, after we did the demo of the plasterboard, after he suggested that we install the shelves between the joists.
    So done to the point where we can paint and replace the books. The fancy trim and the cornice and baseboards will have to wait upon another fat royalty payment, or for client payment…
    A very good May 1. Traffic on the major roads that we encountered seems to be inching back to normal.

  37. On Vitamin D levels- my last measured level was 40 ng/ml, tested on 19 March. It’s going to be higher now- I added a 1000 IU daily dose to my daily supplement regimen. Previously, I only got what was in the multivitamin and milk I drink. When first measured, it was because my VA doctor discovered I was taking 1000 IU daily- and was concerned I might be at risk for Vitamin D intoxication. My level at the time was 60. It was after 2013. The following is on my labs concerning lab results interpretation:

    “NEW Interpretation as of 7/1/13 Vit D deficient 50 ng/mL OLD Interpretation prior to 7/1/13 Vit D deficient 100 ng/mL”

    For some reason in 2013- the powers that be decided that anything above 50 was potentially bad whereas before it was 100. And actual Vitamin D intoxication doesn’t occur until the level is above 150 according to multiple sources. The Mayo Clinic pdf link from 2015 seems to point out that between 50-100 should not be considered potential intoxication. Most website on Vitamin D I see still recommend trying to keep it between 50-100.
    https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(15)00244-X/pdf

    I’m going to mention that my 29 year old had Coivd19 symptoms, bad. He doesn’t, despite my urgings, supplement regularly. My 21 year old had milder symptoms a month earlier. Both isolated at our house. With my wife and I in the high risk group, neither worried about it. She supplements daily, like me. And per her doctor, takes extra Vitamin D. Family history of osteoporosis. Her 3 sisters all diagnosed with it. She’s been taking calcium and multivitamins since we married. She hasn’t, although her doctor wasn’t actually happy with the first DEXA scan. He prescribed Vitamin D2- which apparently is the only allowed prescription form by the powers that be. Vitamin D3, the more common OTC type, is more easily absorbable….

    Examinedotcom (two links in one comment seem to be bad) is my go to source for supplement information that is unbiased. Webmd is my second choice. Examinedotcom recommends 1000-2000 IU D3 daily. Webmd doesn’t recommend a dose, but for adults says <=4000IU a day. And has maximum dosing for various age groups. And a full list of drug interactions. I'm not taking any it interacts with.

    1. I take a fairly high does Vitamin D supplement daily at my doctor’s direction because without out my Vitamin D level is borderline low, something which is apparently fairly common in people with MS.,

    1. That one could get ugly, but notice that the protest was at the state capitol…which is full of legislators trying to pull the plug on Governor Witless. In other words, the protesters (who clearly did not have magazines in their rifles) were telling the legislature, “We’ve got your back.”

      1. I didn’t see the photos, but I’ll bet that the magazines were readily accessible and it may have been more “we’re right behind you, so don’t even think of retreating” than “we’ve got your back”.

        1. ‘Got your back’ can be interpreted in more than one way. It’s all in how you say it.

  39. My cardiologist thinks I likely had covid in late Feb. I had a rotten uri for a couple of weeks, and went into the hospital for a couple of days in the beginning of March. It looked like flu in Feb, but tested negative for flu. I went in the hospital with a bacterial pneumonia, which he said was likely an opportunistic infection. Never got tested, and I was never sick enough to be in any great danger. When I need to go out, I go out. Joke ’em if they can’t take a f#%k!

  40. The authorities at the beginning of the coronapocalypse: “LOL, you don’t need masks.”

    Same authorities now: “FAILURE TO WEAR A MASK SHALL BE PUNISHED.”

    1. Masks are the new “blue mud”. To hell with “blue mud” and I will send anyone there who threatens me for not smearing it in my navel.

    3. Some counties in California are insisting that we wear a “face covering” outdoors as well as in any public area indoors. Some rules even explicitly say “NOT a surgical mask”. So I wear a yellow bandana made out of the thinnest most permeable fabric I could find. My wife asked, “What’s the use of that?” I said, “It conforms to the rule.”

  41. Made it back from surgery yesterday evening … but what I really wanted to say other than my stomach hurts (I have a wound across it… is that D3 is one of the supplements that I was told to take when I had my thyroid taken out two years ago. Then I found that if you have an immune deficiency (I do) that D3 is probably low. So I should have been told to take D3 much earlier. I take it now… daily.

    2. Glad to note you back among the living. Hope this is more than a brief visit.
      –

      2. I think you’ve committed a bit of a misquote there. As I recall, His instruction was, “Go, and Cyn no more.”

        Note – He did not tell her to Cyn any less, either.
        –

      1. The problem with that is if the abused do not play their part it gets deadly VERY fast and while many of the citizens have been well trained to allow the abuse, it only takes a few that haven’t.

  44. So, after work made the dash up to the family land to check on the RV and traffic was still low, but a LOT of the non-trucker traffic was boats on trailers. Cedar River had several folks just fishing (and as the area demands it, were social distanced. Not because Whitless said so), and at Ford River, there were boaters, canoers, and fishermen at the launch park, and very little distancing, but also right across M35 were two DNR F150s sitting driver-sides together chatting and ignoring everyone across the road. If Whitless has lost the DNR . . .
    The state parks were closed, the City parks here were also sorta closed (drives blocked but the walkways open), but the county run “No Camping” parks for Menominee county were not blocked off. The private campgrounds were “closed” but one had some set up. I think those are either snowbirds who live there when not elsewhere, or those like my cousin who used to live in the campground when he worked at the shipyard so his commute wasn’t 70 miles one way.

    1. They opened the city parks yesterday. I suspect the kidlets will be out frolicking today and tomorrow. The new dino park at the science museum is also opening this coming week. (When they asked for sponsors, I said I’d chip in but only if the T.Rex was animatronic and would randomly snap at people over a certain size. Apparently that feature is not available on the options menu.)

    2. So I had to go grocery shopping and was going to go into Menards as well for a few of the wanted items and maybe look at solutions for the issue at the parent’s RV.
      I didn’t bother going into Menards. I don’t go in when it is very busy even if their isn’t an epidemic going on, and it was fullest I’ve seen, maybe since moving here.
      Holy Cow! (Not you Orvan (~_^) ;-p) It does happen like that on the first really nice day of the spring, and we hit 73!
      The grocery store (Jack’s bigger WI store) was actually slow when I got there (everyone was at Menards!), but as often happens to me, got a bit mobbed when I went to check out, though they opened two registers faster than usual to handle the rush. I still haven’t gone to the one on this side (butcher is better, and a few items cheaper, bakery is better).
      TP on the shelf not picked over, but limited to Scott, Charmin, and Everyday Essentials (SuperValue’s store brand), no other brands there. The EE was in the places of the other brands and types, and EE was the only paper towel they had, I think (didn’t need but considered as it was full size sheets and not priced stupidly.
      Eggs were pricey (but not long ago were the same prices basically around xmas) except for mediums which were .89 a dozen. The note apologizing for when it was near bare and higher priced was still there, but no limits, and really it wasn’t that pricey, just higher than usual for May.
      Meat was a touch high, but always seems to be over there, but Ribeyes were the normal sale price for non-Black Angus ($9.99/lb) Chuck Shoulder roast was the cheapest cut at $5.99/lb, and even the burger was $5.49/ for 80/20. except for steaks, all other normal cuts and the 90/10 ground were $6.49 – $6.99/lb. I ended up buying their frozen pre-made patties at $4.29/lb. Pork was up too, $4.29/lb and up
      They had bacon at iirc $3.29/lb, but it was in a monster $40+ sized pack. Small packs of Jack’s regular was $3.99, and they had 2 off brands on sale. One for 2lb for $7, and the other was “Non-uniform Slices” for 2lb for $5. This store doesn’t carry as big a variety of bacon as the Michigan store normally does, anyhow. Red Grapes were “on sale” for $1.99/lb. That’s about the lowest it ever gets up here. The grapes were Chilean.
      For the first time all the workers were in masks, and about half the customers were wearing something, though most were home made and most of those not effective (but I was nice not to point it out) and I didn’t bother with one. I did see cars, one friday and one thursday, being driven by folks wearing a mask.
      oy
      Thus ends JP’s Yooper in Wisconsin land report

  45. Yesterday I noticed my mailbox wasn’t quite closed (too early for the mailman)…. and what did I find inside?

    A homemade “Happy May Day” card (made from a paper bag) evidently from one of the neighborhood kids.

    Awww, how sweet. Haven’t seen a May Day basket since the early 1960s. Made my day.

    1. Yeah, I was thinking about May Day after I got to work. Not that I could have gotten up.

      Another busy day at work. Corporate sent the managers pictures of a new layout and they had to.send phone pics back. People buying meat for the weekend and for the meat shortage news on TV. Lady complaining about “price gouging”, and I told her that if the farmers’ costs go up, their meat prices go up.

      Corporate introduced small deli snack packs to get rid of various things not selling enough. (Specific cracker brand, cut up apples, cheese chunks, cafe pizza pepperonis, a few grapes, that sort of thing.) We were doubtful, but sure enough, they sold. I think people were buying them for their kids to eat out in the car before they got home.

  47. I’ve been out (I’m always out and about), and I can tell you the number of people camping is astronomical. Seems like every wide spot in a logging road has people camped in it. About half of them with Washington plates. Of course Washington tried to shut down camping, shut down the fishing and hunting seasons, and are ticketing people. Idaho finally closed selling nonresident hunting and fishing licenses (which really screwed my spring job of guiding bear hunters, since clients are virtually all out-of-staters) but anybody who already had a license is fine to use it. So all those people from Washington that can’t fish at home and are laid off work (because Washington shut down a lot of jobs and getting the highest unemployment in the nation, plus the federal subsidy equates to more than most people make when working, who would want to go back to work?) they drive fifty miles east and set up camp.

    1. Oh, my, yes. I was at a usually little-used national forest site near the WV-VA border today. i visit rarely, but usually have the place to myself. (As in, nobody else within a mile of me.) Today? Three campsites, a squad of horse riders, two car tours, two birders, a sunbather, and at least two other cars I couldn’t attach to an activity.

  48. Well, the restaurants are startng to reopen round here, so Deb and I have started making the rounds to catch up after two weeks of rotating take-out. Had a nice crawfish boil at a neighbor’s which largely respected the 25% rule. And I’ve been sticking to my usual schedule of feeding a couple of cat colonies around town that Deb worries about, since she can’t take turns in her wheelchair and all. So I haven’t exactly been living the Turkish Prison life…

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