Google maps says the drive takes 15 hours, 5 minutes. We made it in 15 hours, 30 minutes, with four geeblets. I've never seen Jammies so pleased with our family before. The kids literally only stepped foot outside the car twice, at two different rest stops, to use the bathroom.
You should get a conversion van to make it easier to do long road trips. That's what we did, back before seatbelts were required. We had one more adult in the car than you because grandma was always with us.
"total cases are still doubling about every two weeks"
Some days it feels weird to be one of the people who still has a job, because my job doesn't accomplish much and doesn't require much of me, and yet here I am still able to pay my rent.
I've lost a lot of my ability to concentrate on any long media (movies, books) since the pandemic but I just rewatched The Limey and Sexy Beast back to back. Great double-bill. I'd add The Hit to it to make a great Knifeorganizedcrime Island night of it but I rewatched it recently just before the pandemic. I think my concentration is back.
2: I like to call those "maxivans".
Sexy Beast felt to me as if it didn't have a third act. Or second act, maybe. A lot of fun nonetheless.
|| Oh, hey, I just won a case. Know who isn't a king? Ben Carson. |>
What the actual fuck is going on in the Flynn case?
We have hair clippers now. I'm not sure how this will turn out.
6: Loved The Limey. Haven't seen Sexy Beast. Maybe I'll check it out.
14 I was growing a Grizzly Adams coronavirus beard but Pola picked up some clippers for me and now I'm rocking a goatee Dutch Burgher stylee. Gonna keep it a few days and pare it down, then do a biker handlebar mustache and finally end up with a pornstache before I shave it all off. And then start over again because this ain't ending up anytime soon.
15 Do it. Great film. Ben Kingsley is fucking frightening.
I still shave. I learned, or relearned, that shaving every week takes way more time than shaving every other day.
17: yes, the break-even point is more like 3 weeks.
The highs here are in the 70s and 80s. Way too warm for a beard.
1,993 new cases reported here today. Fuck fuck fuck. Good news is that testing is close to 6,000 a day.
19 lol. Dude, it's in the low 80s at 4am when I'm stepping out for my walks. One learns to suffer.
16 last is true. 16 first is inexplicably complicated.
1855 cases in Texas yesterday. 18K tests. (I hope this isn't obnoxious. Texas isn't in anywhere as bad shape as Arrakis. I'm just playing on the similarity of numbers.)
21 last is definitely going native.
I think Sexy Beast is one of the movies that made me think, "Maybe I'm just not a person who likes movies at all, because this is long and boring and everyone else seems really into it, and I have no idea what's going on because I can't pay attention continuously to it."
Sexy Beast, despite abovementioned flaws, is neither long nor boring.
Most movies that people who really like movies like are long and boring.
I keep on hearing that Koyaanisqatsi is good, but I can't follow the plot.
Sexy Beast, apparently, is an exception.
Also In Bruges is in that same category. These action-movies-for-thinkers. Ugh.
Alive and well in Fresno.
Today is my wife's 50th birthday; she began campaigning a month ago to defer the actual celebration to next year. So that's been the plan, with a lot of joking about how this year is going to be 49'. She's getting IOUs for a theme park visit when things are better from my family. And she did at least take the day off.
Fortunately, I did find a few things for her to enjoy today, including getting her car repaired and picking it up yesterday, so it's back and working again for her birthday. Plus some friends brought her a cake before she left work yesterday, so the remaining half is nice, even if that does cut out the birthday cake I was going to bake for her. But there's not much to unwrap; pre-plague we'd planned on a Chicago trip, so that's still something to look ahead to when non-essential travel resumes. And I did find some new releases from some of her favorite bands that she hadn't already picked up...
So, it's a birthday filled with "when things are better" promises, which seems particularly ironic as she reads snippets of the news about the country going up in flames.
In Bruges is fucking great. Seven Psychopaths almost as good.
Ripley's Game super good. Edge of Darkness (the movie) super good. Ray Winstone is in fact a sexy beast.
Another upvote for In Bruges.
Seven Psychopaths was fun. There are sometimes single movies/performances that make me like everything an actor is in. Seven Psychopaths made me a fan of Sam Rockwell.
It's like 89 minutes long. How is it too long. That's like one of the two canonically perfect lengths for a film (the other being 3+ hours long)
Edge of Darkness (the movie) super good.
I've only seen the BBC TV series which is superb.
Seven Psychopaths made me a fan of Sam Rockwell.
Have you seen Moon? Double the pleasure.
IIRC you haven't seen Confessions of a Dangerous Mind? There's your reason.
Still doing fine here. The weather has been very nice the past couple of days, so I've been able to get some sanding done, but it's supposed to rain this weekend so I probably won't be able to finish for another week or so. Amadea went down to Homer with her parents to fish; yesterday she caught a king salmon. She'll probably be back tonight or tomorrow. My nonprofit board had a brief Zoom meeting this morning to take care of the business we didn't get to in the last meeting, so I took the morning off of work but I'm still going to work this afternoon.
Not yet, but there are worrying signs.
These blazes, known as "zombie fires" or "holdover fires," can burrow into the rich organic material beneath the surface, such as the vast peatlands that ring the Arctic, and smolder under the snowpack throughout the frigid winter
I've been watching all of Game of Thrones for the first time at an alarming pace. I am, probably mostly spuriously, seeing a lot of the political pathologies of the 2010s as extractable from it: for the right, an enjoyment of lawlessness and suffering for its own sake; for the left, white saviorism out the wazoo.
8 new cases today, 4 yesterday. Last time we had more than 7 was April 15. 6 of the new cases today are in Big Horn County, and I think 3 were yesterday, so probably either in or associated with the Crow Nation. One of the new cases today was here, which is pretty alarming.
Only two active hospitalizations. 28 active cases right now: 15 are in Big Horn, and 8 are in Ravalli, just south of me, associated with the zillionaire gated community I told y'all about a few days ago. We started the pandemic all in it together -- I'm hoping we can keep that up as it becomes ever clearer that the incidence of the disease is falling quite heavily on people of color.
Not a bad turnout at the BLM rally this morning. The Native health center was giving out masks to the people -- mostly younger men -- who didn't bring them. Speakers shared a bullhorn, and didn't wipe it between uses. I think they were too overwhelmed with the import of the cause to remember this about the pandemic.
and happy birthday to alces regina. You can tell that some imaginary guy on the internet says 'it's the new 30.'
I have a job, which I guess is good. Bad side is that I am working harder and more than I ever should be (especially given how shitty my pay is) just to make more money for the super rich, which, at this precise moment, feels like a fucking waste of time. I mean, it always does, but it REALLY does now.
I am so tired of being so stressed out, and being given the "reward" of time off when I can't actually take the time and still complete everything I am being asked to. It's completely small potatoes in terms of everyone else's problems and stress right now, I know.
Anyway. Still alive! It's the weekend! I have a drink and dinner incoming.
As I tried to post earlier and then had internet issues and now am reposting because it is so fascinating and important, I think my QBHD (Quarantine Bad Hair Decision) is going to be trying out the bald/beard look. I am a little nervous about shaving down to actual baldness. Bleeding from head wound is not a look admired by many.
I think Martin McDonough is brilliant based on two plays I saw on Broadway but am too fazed by realistic violence to want to see a movie he wrote. (He wrote In Bruges, right?) I'm looking for a series to watch and deciding if Rectify seems serious in a boring way.
I got the official notification that Nia will have to do summer school. There still hasn't been any resolution about her IEP. The outgoing superintendent keeps posting his recommendation that parents enroll kids in the online/hybrid school within the district if there's not a vaccine by fall. I think it would be better for her than being home with just me but not as good as getting professional support in a school building when school reopens. I think flipping back and forth should be easy, but I do need to figure that out. Mara would also be eligible and I'll presumably do the same thing for both just to make things easy. We picked up Mara's iPad today so she can restart school stuff on Monday.
Odile wants to go to one of the rallies on Sunday maybe. I talked to Mara about it and she's maybe interested "but I don't want to get killed." Nia is still sleeping (15 hours or so straight, I think, which is not outside the norm for her. These times are weird.) and I haven't spoken to her yet. Selah will be with Lee, so if I can get her to stay longer and feel certain-ish that the protest will be safe for kids, we may do their first more intense action. I think being socially distanced may make it easier on them.
My breathing is still not great, partly because I've been ripping the last of the carpet out of my room. There's a tiny bit more of that to do and then we have to replace one huge broken subfloor board with several regular-sized ones that will stay put. And we're installing a door tomorrow. Everything takes longer than it should these days. I'm so tired and having some trouble breathing still, but nothing like it was. The air quality is just gross and I don't think I ever recovered fully. Last night I just rested. Today I may do some more of that.
Is the air quality constant in your area, or something to do with your house?
50: For what it's worth, the odds of having a vaccine by fall are vanishingly small.
51: It's seasonal allergies here, plus probably anxiety. I mean, there's definitely anxiety, but I think it's the anxiety making it harder for me to fill my lungs. Ripping out carpet is making things worse for me in terms of direct dust and allergies, but that's almost done. Mostly it's just hot and the air is full of cottonwood fluff and everyone is gaspy and grumpy.
And yeah, to 52, I don't think there's any way schools are reopening in the fall. I'm just not sure what that should mean for me or my kids. I'm also not sure whether I'd be able to take advantage of the national policy that gives people time off work if they're doing childcare if/when the yarn shop reopens. I'm not actively worrying about that, but everything feels like a burden right now.
https://apnews.com/a53bec31c16bc642bae0c7b106e88400
I also loved In Bruges. I tried to watch The Irishman, Amanda it was just too long for me. I should find a Spencer Tracy movie or something.
50 and 52: I have heard ID docs say that we will be wearing masks for a couple of years
Up again at 3 am for my walk with Pola. Last one for the week we had off for Eid. We may go back to the marina for a walk or two during the work week since we're getting back around 6-6:30 am and certainly for the weekend.
Everybody's walking for the weekend.
My kids are packing for my move, graciously allowing me to crash after getting two hours of sleep last night. I mean, I'm a seriously lucky dad.
As an update to the non-binary kiddo and telling my family and friends, it was honestly pretty easy. Lots of positive supportive reactions to bass back to them. I bit the bullet and called my mom, and I was just upfront that she needed to respect their pronouns. It's ok to slip, but you will be called on it, and the response to being called on it should be to acknowledge the mistake and keep trying. I got some pushback, but I think I got through more successfully than I anticipated.
I had a nice time at one of the protests this afternoon. I went with a young black woman from Lex who posted asking where the protests were (and a friend of hers) and it was her first ever protest!! I felt honored to be able to be supportive presence. She expressed a lot of anxiety beforehand, and also said, "I'm not looking to be shot or killed," but then when she was there she seemed totally confident. In fact, I had to remind her a couple times, "you said you didn't want to be arrested, and people are getting arrested right now for being in the street, so if we don't want to be arrested, we should get out of the street." Afterwards her friend asked me, "do you have an insta?" and it wasn't the first time a twenty-something has asked me that and I feel all sheepish and old when I say that I don't. They are both MFA students and we talked about maybe having Zoom art night. I think I might have gotten old enough that I enjoy hanging out with very young people again. There was this time when I was just old enough that I had enough distance from young people to not identify with them and feel alienated when I was surrounded by them, but even then I observed/predicted that I would probably get over some hump where I was far enough away from their life stage that I just found them sweet and charming and maybe I'm there.
I have gotten off on the right foot in summer orgo! In fact relative to the people I see uploading their work in recitation I'm looking like star student. I think it may be because the summer students are people like me who had a lot of trouble and I have comparatively gotten my act together? I dunno but it's looking good for my place on the curve, like if I basically hold it together it would be hard to be too far from the top of the class. Maybe it's all thanks to ydneW's tutoring. Also I got my bio grade today, and I got an A+. Like to see those pluses--I feel like they cancel out some of the less great moments on my transcript. Got to get those grades if I want to get into med school.
60:. Congrats, Tia! Nice to hear some good news!
It's like 89 minutes long. How is it too long. That's like one of the two canonically perfect lengths for a film
I think this may be the most fun way possible to troll Barry.
I don't think there's any way schools are reopening in the fall. I'm just not sure what that should mean for me or my kids.
Are k-12 schools really not opening everywhere in the fall, at least partially? Here there seems to be intense scrutiny on how to recover the lost learning due to shutting down - ie extra days/hours/etc - and not yet a peep about how they're going to handle safety in the fall. It is making me feel wildly uneasy.
I'm also not sure whether I'd be able to take advantage of the national policy that gives people time off work if they're doing childcare if/when the yarn shop reopens.
There's a national policy that gives people time off work if they're doing childcare?
Thanks, peep! (Looks at news -- in fact, I told my companion I thought the scene at Barclay's was going to get rougher and it has, so I'm glad I recommended Foley Square. Works out for both of us we got to support the protests without getting too caught up.)
63.2: There is! But it's complicated, unsurprisingly. 58.3 is why I think I won't qualify if it comes to that. (Also my children's daycare may reopen, so I wouldn't qualify anyway. We'll see!)
And back again, another 5 miles. We have work starting tomorrow so we'll probably only do this once during the work week and then back again for the weekend. I dread when we'll have to stop because of the heat.
That's great Tia and Chopper too.
62 made me laugh
My son had a lifeguard job in NJ lined up for the summer, but that job has now fallen through, thanks to COVID-19.
If he comes up to Canada, he will qualify for the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) of $1250 per month, from May through August, just for being an unemployed college student. And he's like, Really? the Canadian government will give me money just for not having a summer job?
Yep. Come up to Canada, boyo, and collect pogey all summer long, as is your birthright as a Canadian.
He's now thinking seriously about heading north, and my anxiety level is decreasingly accordingly.
59: Chopper, is this move a good thing that you wanted?
16.1 Someone offblog mentioned someone with a Fu Manchu so I may add that to the sequence. I figure I can whittle it down from the biker handlebar but that would mean foregoing the pornstache. Pola likes Tom Selleck so maybe I won't do that.
70: yes, very much so, although the timing sucks. My lease at a decent but not great large 2br apt was ending, and I was planning to renew until older kiddo told me to look at CL and there was a 3br house for rent inside the bussing zone for my kids' schools--extremely rare in my suburb, especially at the price. I think my new landlord is likely a bit of a dickhead, but my contact with him should be minimal. Overall I'm thrilled, just wish it was not mid-pandemic during a super-busy time at work and an uprising.
I understand that Canada is a great place to get a girlfriend.
"We are opening new wards daily but they get filled by end of day with Covid-19 patients. It is pretty bad right now," said Saad Ahmed, a resident doctor at state-run King Edward Memorial Hospital in central Mumbai. "All wards are now Covid-19 wards and they are full to the capacity."
We were recently talking about Satie's Vexations, right? Igor Levit has been livestreaming a performance for hours and will be livestreaming hours more, on the grounds that this is how everyone feels right now.
i debated putting that on .... i enjoy levit but think i enjoy even more how he manages to be "controversial" with my better half. 🤣🤣🤣 i don't know why levit gets under his skin but that doesn't stop me taking juvenile delight in it. but alas bh is not home & the vexes are ... vexing.
I'm going to go to a car-based graduation. Hopefully, I'll get in some time at the Pokemon gym while things are setting up.
Still okay here, to some extent. Lots of spontaneous and organized community support happening. Trying to figure out if/when/how we might decamp. Really no idea what might happen tonight, making it hard to have a solid plan.
Why the fuck didn't the people in power just LISTEN? Half a billion for a new stadium, but a pittance for the Northside after the double whammy of the financial crisis and the tornado. More homeless camps after they swore to us that it wouldn't happen again. Bus fares go up, rampant wage theft, suppression of unions, evil gentrifying landlords, and over and over again, the physical brutality against communities of color. The rot runs pretty deep here, even though it's readily observable by anyone who cares to look.
Now the grandees are finally waking up a little bit, but it's too late for so many good people. Sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under.
In non-apocalypse content, Vexations is almost over. 15 hours in and the performer seems pretty spaced, but under the windowshades it looks like sunrise in Berlin.
15 hours is way more than a vexation.
I forgot to check the numbers here yesterday and we've broken 2,000. Over 2,300 cases reported yesterday. Holy shit. At least they've also broken 5,000 tests.
Are the tests remotely meaningful? The ones here apparently give about 30% false negatives.
85 I honestly have no idea. I'm sure they will say they are reliable and the healthcare system here is pretty good but their is no free press here and no way to know except to take their word.
1,648 new cases reported here today. Tests around 4,000. Too early to tell if there is a trend but I was really afraid we'd see 2,000+ numbers again.
Two restaurants that have been sites of Boston meetups have closed.
88: Deep Ellen had delicious, affordable cocktails. I haven't been in a long time, but I'm sad. What's the other one?
Cuchi cuchi where Knecht kept buying everyone expensive salmon appetizers.
79: Why the fuck didn't the people in power just LISTEN?
Occams razor suggest these things are proceeding basically in a way the people in power are happy with, or at least don't' object to enough to do anything about. Far more plausible that ignorance, anyway.
Some days you get the giant umbrella, some days the giant umbrella gets you.
91: oh my God I loved that place. One of my medical directors went there for her med school classmate# mini reunion. Unpleasant ate us out of house and home when we took him there for his going away party. We had to go somewhere else to feed him. I think that was when he has the "tapeworm" that was causing him to lose weight.
I just saw two people walk by a dollar bill, point at it, say something and chuckle, and kept going without picking it up. I can't tell if I'm living in an econ experiment or a new yorker cartoon.
Sounds like a caption contest to me.
Further to 93: NMM to Herbert Stempel.
In other news, NASA no longer needs to hitch rides with the goddamn Russians.
Has the whole country just decided that the pandemic is over? I'm still seeing masks, but I'm just not seeing any signaling of caution. It's like (maybe CCarp?) said - everyone is acting like we weathered the storm and can come out and celebrate.
We're getting really good, as a country, at living in denial.
99: Basically, yes. The most restrictive part of the shutdown was not going to be sustainable for very long.
In other words, what 100 said.
Too bad we didn't try to make the most restrictive part of the shutdown restrictive, like they did in all those European countries.
It's ok though, leaving the WHO will solve everything, right?
We went out for burgers and beer on Friday, same place we went before (Ninepipes!) but this time, the servers were not masked. I have no idea if they are still wiping tables and menus -- maybe not. People still have to sit at a distance, and we ate on the patio, so I don't feel like we took a huge risk. But, yeah, it does seem like we're just going to ignore it until our tourists start arriving next month.
Also on Friday, as noted, I went to the BLM protest, and anyone not wearing a mask got (a) some side-eye and (b) a mask given to them by the local Native health outfit.
Is this only the difference between Missoula and Lake counties? Maybe. New cases today were mostly at the jail in Billings. Another on the Crow Nation, another in Ravalli (related to that zillionaire enclave? Maybe.)
County offices are re-opening Monday, though.
I want to work out a turn of phrase combining the Nile and A River Runs Through It, but my brain is turned to mush. Sorry, just imagine a clever line here.
99: The same thing is happening here.
Lots of California county-level data is showing increasing case rates in the past two weeks. Some tied to particular events, like a couple of churches, but a lot of apparently untraced community spread. I've had a hard time trying to understand the data being reported because there seems to have been a switch in some counties from showing test results when they come in to showing test results by date the test was given. For counties that made that switch, it means that the most recent days' numbers will start out low and then increase each time you check the site. Also some counties have decided that it's not important to report daily anymore. I've been too lazy to download data and do my own analysis, though I'd likely learn some useful skills that way.
Testing has certainly increased, so there's hope that more cases just means a higher percent of reality is being captured, and that more mild cases are being captured, and that the death toll won't increase. Hospitalization data doesn't seem to be showing huge jumps so far, but I don't look at that as closely as I probably should. But the death toll doesn't appear to be decreasing either.
To their credit, some of the rural counties with small numbers of cases have been following up with contact tracing and isolation strategies that have seemed effective so far, and one even shut things back down. The more populated areas might have more to worry about, especially if they have re-open protestors with political influence who are not themselves at as high risk as others in their communities. But maybe I'm wrong and a big county would be as quick to clamp down on re-opening as a small one.
My family has decided to act like nothing significant has changed, wear masks when out, go to enclosed spaces only for essential purposes, etc.
No one (except my husband) is wearing masks here although the level of mask-wearing has been low all along. I feel too self conscious to wear one but comfort myself that we're trapped on an island with no new cases in days or weeks. They're actually turning people back at the bridge. However, the seasonal residents are coming. They're supposed to apply for written permission to enter the province and provide proof of? Probably the ability to self quarantine for 2 weeks.
The next province over had been doing great and had full recovery of their cases even. But then some male doctor went to Quebec for personal reasons, lied at the border, and worked for two weeks. So they have a bunch of cases and the guy is suspended.
That means NB, PEI, and NL are closed to no essential travel and practically NS is too since you can only get there via one of the other provinces. But everything is opening up within the provinces for good or ill.
Someone is suing NL for preventing her from entering because she missed her mother's funeral so we'll find out soon whether all of this is constitutional.
Oh and I'm doing worse. I barely leave the house because what is even the point.
Between the baby, nothing being open, bugs being back, and everything else - why bother?
I mean I'm fine. I shouldn't complain. I'm living an extremely privileged life right now. But it's just really really small.
Up for my walk with Pola. I almost called it off because I hurt my knee sitting cross-legged on my couch while remote working all day yesterday. See if I can't walk it off.
Our attempt to pass a mask ordinance seems to have been thwarted. I'm hoping this means I won't be getting any more belligerent phone calls at 6:30 AM.
We didn't really get enough air support from our allies on this - everybody got distracted by BLM. Meanwhile, the libertarian asshole contingent really seemed to have their shit together.
I just got my first at home haircut. It went better than expected.
I may ask my barber to defend in a civil lawsuit just to see if there's a receptions reciprocal thing going.
Back from another early morning walk with Pola. Another 5 mile one, I measured the boardwalk around the marina with my walking app and it's 2.4 miles long.
A bit over 1,500 new cases reported here today. Testing has dropped below 4,000.
Oh good, it sounds like the knee thing just needed to be worked out.
We had a new high number of cases reported statewide yesterday (27), but about half of that was at a single extended-care facility so hopefully it doesn't indicate a widespread outbreak now that things are reopening. Luckily the overall numbers are still low enough that they're able to do robust contact tracing.
Who are they testing? In my mom's place, they're supposed to test everybody (residents and employees) every week or two. Which is good, but testing the same people relatedly will make the raw denomination useless.
Here? I think only symptomatic people.
Apparently the CDC released guidelines for higher ed on Friday, and one of them was that entry-testing for all students and employees in the fall isn't necessary. It's hard for me to fathom why that is the case, unless they mean, "There won't be tests available, so don't beat yourself up about it."
Just found out I got donated to the state's contact tracing efforts. I hear it is hours of cold calling every day to find out who sick people talked to.
Each agency had to give up 5% of its staff for the next many? months, and I got picked from my group. This is what happens when you comment on the internet all day long.
122: That sounds terrible.
There was a period of time here when many of the city services were closed, and parks were partially open -- playgrounds we closed, but trails and open spaces were open, and park bathrooms were open and would be cleaned twice a day. I remember joking with a friend about whether they would be reassigning people who's offices were closed to cleaning park bathrooms. But, as an introvert, cold calling people to trace contacts sounds significantly worse than cleaning park bathrooms.
If your day goes slowly, try implying the tracing is for syphilis.
Well, it isn't started yet and these things take forever to ramp up, and I don't know what the daily quota will be, or how long the assignment will last.
I am mostly stung that my bosses have identified me as the one that isn't doing much work. But they're not wrong.
oh man. I'm sorry. That does sound terrible.
I haven't decided that it is terrible yet. I'll find out when I do it how it is.
The family store of an acquaintance of mine got looted and torched. His dad was murdered there when we were younger.
127: There was an article about the PIH program here. A retired civil rights lawyer applied and agreed to work for free. He said that he felt hopeless sitting at home watching the news, and he wanted to feel useful. According to the article, the PIH tracers also help people get the resources that will allow COVID patients to isolate safely.
In "The Last Witch Hunter", the role of New York City is very clearly played by downtown Pittsburgh. I didn't even know going in.
Considering you have to let teenagers pick the movie some times, it's not that bad.
The weirdest part is Frodo the Warrior-Priest.
They put a "Brooklyn" sign in the pedestrian way under Kaufman's.
I'm sorry, jms. There are so many compounded traumas in these times.
One more voice mail today from another surly white dude. Apparently coronavirus is a hoax and I can go fuck myself.
I'm starting to worry that at some point I'm going to get my ass kicked.
It's America. Carry a fucking BAR.
On the bright side, our response to COVID is so fucked up that there's probably a better than even chance the surly white did will get COVID himself.
A fucking KA-BAR may be more practical.
There was a guy I saw getting into a mat-black, 1980s Chrysler sedan with Confederate flag bumper stickers today. He had a hell of a cough. These dudes are are going to be the vanguard of the second wave.
Anyway, I'd suggest Hawkeye report these things, but I fear that would make him guilty of tone policing.
Alas, there have been harsh tones, anger, delusion, and some f-bombs, but nothing that would cross the line into explicit verbal threat. These guys may have been coached so that it only feels threatening.
There are other people sending me angry emails, but in generally more respectful tones. Those I can engage with and sometimes even have a worthwhile discussion. But I won't be picking up calls from unknown numbers for a while.
I've gotten three calls today from unknown numbers. Every one of them as a social security-relalated scam.
Sorry to hear that, jms, such awful times.
143, 141 Why choose when you can have both?
143 was a straight line that someone didn't catch.
Eh, what did I miss? I actually have my dad's Ka-Bar though I did not bring it to Arrakis.
One of my colleagues reports getting the calls too. Our names probably got announced on some podcast.
The handlebar mustache didn't quite work out so I went with a horseshoe. I look like a biker now.
And we've hit the hot (long) part of the summer, it's just before noon and already 111 degrees out. Maybe that will do something to stop the spread.
104.last: In a pandemic, all the world is one place, and denial runs through it.
154: Cannot believe that Barry has just raced through this whole process without taking the chance to get himself a set of cavalry whiskers. Tart-catchers, Barry! Irresistible!
157 Next time around I'll go for it. I think I can whittle this one down to a fine Emiliano Zapata before I do the pornstache. Probably best to skip the toothbrush though and just shave it off entirely after that.
We're doing fine here personally, and Austria seems to be reopening fairly smoothly -- no new cases in most states, some stuff here in Vienna but seems limited to clusters of exploited workers and they seem to be on top of testing & tracing.
Now that the Infanta is back in daycare I should be getting teaching degree stuff done, but find myself just sort of paralyzed. I'm not sure how much it's the world (& America in particular) going to hell, and how much I'm using staring at the trainwreck all day as an excuse.
Over 1,800 new cases reported today. Testing is back over 5,000.
Things opened more here today -- older kids are going back to school two days a week, and outdoor seating at restaurants is open. My big concern is not so much what they've reopened, but whether people will take it as a signal that it's all over.
||
So I'm cataloging these news maps of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 and let me tell you there have been a lot of Russo-Turkish wars.
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