Re: Check Ins, Reassurances, and Concerns, 9/23

1

I actually had a rough 2019, and spent that year dealing with stressful situations, at work and in my personal life, that literally kept me up at night. In comparison, 2020 is kind of nice, on a personal level.

In 2020, I like working from home. I like having my kids around (both of their schools have gone remote and they seem to be handling it well.) My work situation has calmed down substantially from 2019. Issues in my personal life that were making me crazy have been resolved.

I mean, yeah, a tree fell on my house and the insurance company is dragging its feet. (We just signed a paper that commits the contractor to get our house fixed by the end of February.) But the little house we are staying in now is actually pretty nice. My son likes it better than our actual home. And the smallness of it means I interact more with my family than I otherwise would, which I find to be pretty much all upside.

And yet, I'm constantly on edge. Why? The ongoing collapse of Western Civilization. I can see why people -- especially privileged people like me -- just tune the fuck out of this stuff.


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 5:36 AM
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Until the Lorax pushes a tree at you.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 6:06 AM
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I had a terrible year personally to help take my mind off the terrible year globally. When I say I was in the hospital, I say "I was in the hospital. Not for COVID", just to stop the immediate fear reaction.

I had an old job in one country. My wife hated that country, and couldn't find a job. So I got a new job in a new country. It was terrible, and then they told me "We might fire because of COVID. Legally we can, because it's been less than a year, despite what we told you when we hired you." So I went contacted my old job, and they offered to hire me back. My new job said, three weeks before my contract ran out "We decided not to fire you." But I was pissed off and decided to go back to the old job anyway. My new job said, "LOL, why did you think we wouldn't keep you, even though we told you we might not. How unreasonable of you."

At the same time, my wife got a job in the new country, so now I'm supposed to commute. (Europe is like the size of Pennsylvania, so it's not as bad as it sounds.) But with COVID I have to quarantine each time I cross the border, so that plan is right out.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 6:07 AM
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Pennsylvania is the size of Pennsylvania and there are no quarantine restrictions, but I still never go anywhere.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 6:10 AM
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What a massive pain in the ass, Walt.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 6:31 AM
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5 is correct. So, what are you doing, Walt? Can you work remotely at the old job?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 6:37 AM
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Third and final interview for a new job tomorrow. If that comes through we will be moving back north where there is some nice scenery for the Selkie to paint and lots of space for Crom to run around in.

(Crom is the dog. We acquired Crom during lockdown and Crom is now five months old and extremely active. Crom's preferred pronoun is "Crom".)


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 6:46 AM
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You can't mention a dog and not describe it more fully than that. Small, large? Recognizable breed or appealing mutt? Well trained or hapless idiot?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 6:49 AM
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Crom is nine kilos in weight and a whippet-terrier cross. Extremely appealling, to the point where one could track Crom blindfold through a crowd by listening for the noises of "oooo", but the training has so far only got as far as not relieving Cromself in the house. Crom will sit and come to heel on command only as long as there is nothing more interesting going on such as small children, other dogs, or sticks.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 6:53 AM
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Scary headline on the Google feed yesterday: Vigilante Fights Voter Suppression in Gloucester County

https://www.bobandsteve.com/blog/2020/9/18/vigilante-fights-voter-suppression-in-gloucester-county

But, not so bad. The fight is just a lawsuit, and the vigilante is the Chair of the County Republican Party, Jacquelyn Vigilante.
(She wants ballot drop boxes in the Republican parts of the county, can't argue with that).

Otherwise we are all ok. Current peeve: Familial events that I would reasonably have skipped when they required in-person attendance, but don't have a good excuse to avoid over zoom. E.g. a gravestone unveiling honoring an uncle I barely knew, on the opposite coast.


Posted by: unimaginative | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 6:54 AM
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Our 7 day positive rate finally dropped below 3% last week. We're currently at 2.6%.


Posted by: AcademicLurker | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 7:06 AM
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I saw Pola for the last time yesterday afternoon when I went to pick her up at a mutual friends' place who she sold her car to (but still doesn't have her license) so I could drop her off home. She texted me from the very empty airport this morning.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 7:10 AM
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Thinking of her for lunch I made the Polish pancakes she makes and managed to both grate off a piece of my hand and burn the other hand with hot oil, and the pancakes came out a bit on the soggy side. I wish I'd had time to actually seen her make them, or instruct me.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 7:12 AM
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Wielkie sympaties, Barry. The pancakes mainly take practice and maybe a little less oil. The main thing in the first three years of Polish instruction is getting the hang of perfect vs imperfect verbs. The consonants are not nearly as tricky as they first appear.


Posted by: Doug | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 7:24 AM
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I'm looking for places to visit on the other side of Maryland for a short vacation. Sad to go to all these websites that say events are happening, and then go to the place's Facebook page and see that the events have been cancelled. (Is the person who updates the actual website not able to log in from home? Why is it only Facebook that can be updated more than once a year?) These are outdoor events! There aren't going to be heaving throngs of people at the Tilghman Island Oyster Jam! Maryland is doing OK!


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 7:26 AM
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Maybe the oysters aren't?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 7:29 AM
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Anyway, I've been to St. Michaels. That was nice.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 7:30 AM
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Thanks, Doug.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 7:36 AM
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Is it like blueberry pancakes where you make the regular batter and then drop in the additive when the batter is in the pan?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 7:39 AM
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We did so well at early Covid. Now we're just falling apart.

A young woman I know (part of my son's crowd at HS & early uni) who's always been an active Dem texted late yesterday afternoon to see if I could fill in for her on a thing: she's part of the statewide voter protection team this time, and they wanted someone to observe the vote counting yesterday of a single precinct school election. She was going to do it, but has to quarantine -- she insta-tested negative but has to wait for confirmation. Apparently someone tested positive in another county 100+ miles away, and some people who'd been exposed came down for a regional training of some kind.

We'll all be knocking on doors -- masked and standing back before they open -- for the rest of the time.

Anyway, the county election admin was very welcoming, and the whole staff enjoyed explaining everything to me. They really have the system down, I think. They are also going to knock off counting at midnight on Election Day -- they all stayed til 5 am for the primary.

I'm still kind of wrestling with what to do with the anniversary of my son's death.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 7:45 AM
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("We" in 20 refers to the state. "We" as in wife and I are fine.)


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 8:09 AM
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Stay safe. I don't know if there will be door knocking here. I'm kind of slacking off as a volunteer because phone banking was getting stressful.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 8:16 AM
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29 last- Charley, that sounds so hard.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 8:40 AM
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Apparently, I can't type zero properly, because that's the second time I've tapped 9 instead of 0.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 8:41 AM
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20.last My sympathies, Charley.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 9:06 AM
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I have started pushing myself through a naturally slow, lazy, meandering midlife crisis at maxed-out-outboard-motor speeds. What could go wrong?

Can Biden win this?


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 10:26 AM
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Can Biden win this?

I don't know if it's possible. Most of the Republicans in the state legislature in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, etc spend all day watching Fox News like their constituents, so they are probably going to be convinced by the media campaign that voting by mail means tons and tons of voter fraud, so they can feel morally justified in just appointing a slate of Republican electors no matter what the results say.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 10:34 AM
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26.2: Yes. He's a competent politician and he's solidly ahead in the polls.

I'm not telling you to be complacent, Trump could pull all kinds of insane shit and any of it might work. And the voters could lose their collective minds. So anything could happen.

But it is incontrovertibly true that Biden can win. An election-day clean victory for Biden is still probably the likeliest single outcome.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 10:43 AM
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On the plus side, I guess, "Newsom calls for fracking ban". Tiny step in the right direction.


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 10:46 AM
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Now I'm beset by drama (semi-online, but local), and what's worse, it's progressive-political and not in fact ridiculous - whether a subgroup of people including me has done something wrong or foolish, potentially reflecting badly on the larger group.

It's a frustrating aspect of myself I'm just noticing that, on policy matters, I take my stand and let the world be damned, but when it's about more qualitative political matters like who we will support on what basis and what different kinds of support look like to the general public, I keep ricocheting back and forth depending who I've heard from last, which is not fun.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 10:47 AM
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27: um, how are you coping with this belief?


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 11:00 AM
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Hoping people in power share the belief and have some plan to counteract it?


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 11:02 AM
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People keep emailing me to ask why I haven't done things that I said I would do. This is a source of stress I always have, but now it's the Trump-Covid era, and everything is amplified.


Posted by: Rob Helpy-Chalk | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 11:18 AM
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Also, I feel like "I haven't posted the test yet because I've been focused on fighting the fascist takeover and actually moving a paper test online is more time consuming than you think" should be an excuse, but I don't think my students will accept it.


Posted by: Rob Helpy-Chalk | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 11:22 AM
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34: Everyone thinks students are so cold and strict, but you shouldn't assume that. Students are humans too.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 11:28 AM
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We're still doing fine here. I'm starting to look for a new job; there's nothing wrong with my current one, but I've kind of hit a plateau in terms of both the work and the pay, which is fine but I'm at a point where I think I could find something significantly more rewarding in both respects. I applied to two jobs yesterday, so we'll see how that goes.

We're also considering buying a new house. Our current one is ideal for our current situation, but looking to the future we will eventually need something bigger, and there's a house around the corner that we've been keeping an eye on for a while that recently became available semi-unexpectedly. (We had talked to the owner before and expressed interest but he was unsure if he was actually going to sell at this point.) We're grappling with the decision, which has a lot of different aspects to weigh against each other. Not sure how it'll go.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 11:35 AM
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Good luck. Be careful of bears.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 11:37 AM
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Our current one is ideal for our current situation, but looking to the future we will eventually need something bigger

Are you two planning to do your part to make Saiselgy's vision come true?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 11:43 AM
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37: Thanks. At least we aren't alpacas.

38: We'll see. I definitely did preorder his book though it hasn't arrived yet.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 11:47 AM
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There was an unfortunate moose hunter also.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 12:01 PM
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I am looking forward to the Allie Brosh book arriving.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 12:04 PM
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41: Yes, I was happy to see she had another book coming out.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 12:18 PM
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We mostly have black bears in our neighborhood, so they're more a nuisance than a danger.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 12:19 PM
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41: Read it all in one epic binge yesterday. It's great.


Posted by: J, Robot | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 12:38 PM
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You all seem nice and calm. I'm not super calm right now.


Posted by: lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 12:51 PM
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I'm not calm at all.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 12:54 PM
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Last week I would have agreed with 28.last.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 12:59 PM
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You all seem nice and calm. I'm not super calm right now.

I'm not calm right now.


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 1:05 PM
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I haven't stopped slightly shaking since Friday evening, except when I'm not sober.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 1:16 PM
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I know folks have been sitting on the edges of their chairs waiting for this, but the Montana Supreme Court has now issued its opinion in the Green party case. Everyone thought it was going to be about when and how petition signers can withdraw their signatures -- which I briefly cared a lot about because there was an effort [which failed] to get signatures removed from a petition relevant to a case I had. No, they decided the case on an issue that wasn't briefed or argued, or ruled on below, or really asserted in a meaningful way in the pleasings. But so obviously correct, that that all stuff is just lawyer bullshit: they decided that Republican organizations can't submit petitions the qualify Green Party candidates. Only the party whose candidates would appear on the ballot can submit a petition to get them put there. And since the Green party had no involvement in the petitions, the supposed Green candidates won't appear on the ballot.

I'm not seeing four votes for cert here . . .

Another example of judicial review curtailing self-interested executive overreach.

|>


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 1:22 PM
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That's reassuring. What about the Pennsylvania case?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 1:23 PM
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This is why I'm calm about the election when I'm calm. Our election law has elaborate systems for resolving the exact kinds of disputes that the President and his cabal can be expected to assert, and the deadline for states to resolve disputes about the results of the Presidential election is December 8, 2020. Not election day.

Bush v. Gore was wrongly decided, yes, but the ultimate result was caused, in part, by the Gore campaign not understanding and asserting their strongest argument right off the bat: that sufficient overvoted ballots in Duval county showed clear voter intent, and if properly counted, moot all other disputed ballot issues. (This is purely faith-based on my part, but I've never seen anything that would more me off it.)

One thing that was learned from 2000 on the Democratic side is that you need to find all the issues asap, and have folks on the ground anywhere there's any funny business ready to deal with it immediately.

Pennsylvania may have a shit legislature, but they have a functioning court system, and I really do not expect that supreme court to choose dictatorship. I have less confidence in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, I guess, but still there's a limit to how far groups of judges can be pushed, and the Republicans are going to need more than just whiny rhetoric to overturn results certified at the county level.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 1:34 PM
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51 If you're referring to the 'naked' ballot issue, I don't find that portion of the Pa Supreme Court opinion surprising at all. The statute says that voters 'shall' use the secrecy envelope. The court is trying to decide whether this is mandatory, rather than directory, which is apparently how they roll.

So, there's a voter education issue here. There's time to help people get this right. Mail in ballots are always going to be rejected at a higher rate, and I guess people who don't live in Missoula Montana don't have an election administrator who is going to call them on the phone before invalidating their ballot, so people have to do it right. Some won't.

The systems are set up so that voters' identifying information, and the content of their ballots, are kept as separate as can be done. One would expect any court to defer to a legislature that's expressed a preference about how that should be done -- especially here, where every voter is provided all the tools they need to comply.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 2:03 PM
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Can the clerk's office in the County of Philadelphia, or whoever else gets the mail, contact anyone who has submitted a naked ballot ahead of election day? They'd need to hire some temps, I suppose. Or is fascism (ie being outnumbered by the goddam Alabam parts of the state) the better answer?


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 2:11 PM
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I had it all lined up for us to go to my father's cabin for the entire months of September and October. On September 2nd, the day before we were supposed to go, they evacuated several of the tiny mountain communities for the Castle Fire. We went to my dad's house in LA instead. On September 13th, the inholding with our cabin burned. Forty out of the fifty cabins burned, including my dad's. (This is kindof a mixed feeling for me. I didn't like his renovations and it was too far to go to often and it broke my dad's heart every time we declined to drive 5.5 hours for a weekend trip. There's a fair bit of relief in losing the cabin, so no condolences please.)

Anyway, it looks like I'll get to have the quintessential Californian experience of standing in the rubble of your wildfire-destroyed property in the next few weeks.

Anyway, no two solid months at the cabin with no internet and no knowledge of the news. I was extremely curious about how I was going to react to that.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 2:44 PM
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55: Just curious, was there insurance? My guess is no, but sometimes there are legacy policies that haven't been cancelled or made unaffordable yet? (I know your feelings on insurance in fire zones and mostly share them.)


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 2:51 PM
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Fully insured. Two months ago, my dad's insurance agent called him and asked if he wanted to increase his insurance over his old (fully insured) policy and my dad snapped at it. He also took the inventory pictures in August. My dad loves insurance; he's up for his lifetime by a lot, after the Northridge quake and a valve failure and flood at the cabin. I asked him if they could price fire insurance so high that he wouldn't buy it and he immediately said "No.". We got the damage assessment pictures from the county (pile of rubble) and my Dad's insurance will write him a check shortly. The kids are all trying to convince him not to re-build. We don't live close enough to it to use it.

Ridiculously, his insurance told him that they would not be insuring anyone new but for longtime clients, they would re-insure. They should not. One of the striking things about the pictures (which I could direct you to, if you care) is that there are still a ton of standing dead trees, now half-burned. The fire burned most of those cabins to the ground, but didn't clear out enough of the fuel load to prevent another fire in the near term.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 3:01 PM
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Anyway, no two solid months at the cabin with no internet and no knowledge of the news. I was extremely curious about how I was going to react to that.

I don't know if it would have been good or bad to leave for two months come back and (potentially) find out that RBG had died and the Judiciary committee was in the middle of hearings for a new justice. On one hand you would have missed a month of stress and terror, on the other hand, you would have been going through the shock without having the shared experience of everyone else going through it at the same time.

Now that I write that, I expect that somebody would have texted you, so you would have had a month of knowing that the court was likely to swing without following the day-to-day news (and, again, missing out on some of the sense of shared panic).

Just an odd, "the world changed more than I expected while I was away" scenario.

Nice to hear that the insurance on the cabin is so easy.


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 3:09 PM
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Ridiculously, his insurance told him that they would not be insuring anyone new but for longtime clients, they would re-insure. They should not.

Wow. And it's not even a primary residence?


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 3:29 PM
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Speaking of voting, I requested a mail in ballot, but I saw Laurence Tribe tweeting to say it was better to vote in person early, because those votes will get counted the same day and Trump won't be able to claim that he won. Anyone buy this? I'm still free to vote in person, and town hall is only a 10 minute walk. That's where the drop box for mail in ballots is.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 3:32 PM
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52, 53: Thanks. I wasn't worried about the naked ballot issue. I am worried that they will stop or cut places to send in your mail-in ballot. It will not take many discouraged voters.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 3:34 PM
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Nope. I can't imagine why they're willing to go anywhere near that mountain.

NickS, I've been extremely fatalistic all year and resigned to fixing things in the next administration (preferably a pendulum swing far past the old normal). My attitude to every piece of bad news has been 'put it on the pile'. So losing RBG would have been a shock, but maybe less of one than you are describing.

My main hope is that we'll use the Trump model (flood the zone and dgaf about bipartisan) to start correcting stuff.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 3:34 PM
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I've been told (non-authoritatively) the latest a ballot gets counted is if you drop it in the box on election day. But conceivably, if you drop it in a box three weeks before election day, that will come earlier than most of the mail ballots, and be counted around the same time.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 3:54 PM
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Oh, this was for California, not your state.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 3:55 PM
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Alive and doing pretty well. A steady trickle of birthday gifts has brightened my week, and a haircut today has really improved my wife's mood. I'm looking forward to a very zoom-y next couple of nights; tonight the Monterey Aquarium is doing Otter night, tomorrow night is a zoom comedy hour for supporting Planned Parenthood, then Friday off for a long weekend. (No hiking as originally planned for Friday -- fires have closed Yosemite and Sequoia.)

All in all, a decent place to be for another week of pandemic. National politics is terrible, save the upswell of people quoting RBG. There's no leverage to move the current senate, so I don't have to beat myself up about being unable to act to change their minds. (As a Californian, my senators have said the right things already.)


Posted by: Mooseking | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 4:13 PM
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My main hope is that we'll use the Trump model (flood the zone and dgaf about bipartisan) to start correcting stuff.

To flaunt the analogy ban that sounds to me like thinking, "we just need to start hitting shots" and that may be true, but the possibility of a comeback is very different from down 10 or down 20.

I don't think it's hopeless; I'm temperamentally an optimist, and I think there is a lot of room for good news. But I can't shake the feeling that the RBG death & replacement justice will make the next 10-20 years notably worse almost regardless of whatever good news may happen next.


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 4:39 PM
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Well, yes.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 4:47 PM
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63: well, there was some weird thing here in a very close primary where the Secretary of State had to go to Court to get permission to continue counting a day or 2 later, because all of the ballots are supposed to be counted on election night. I'm not sure if it was because they weren't supposed to start counting until Election Day?


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 4:53 PM
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For the record, I believe Megan is doing much more than I am to help Democrats win elections, so I don't mean to accuse her of being unresponsive to the current state of American politics.


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 6:32 PM
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65: Happy Birthday, Mooseking!


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 6:43 PM
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I'm looking for places to visit on the other side of Maryland for a short vacation.

Delaware, in my opinion, is technically part of Maryland, so I would recommend Lewes, Delaware or better yet, Broadkill Beach.

If you are looking for more of a creepy-swamp vibe, Snow Hill is nice. I was there on my honeymoon.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 09-23-20 8:02 PM
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Ajay, is the job in Edinburgh, if that's not a nosy question? Because I do entirely see how that would be better than London in almost all the ways that matter.


Posted by: NW | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 1:03 AM
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72: it isn't, but it is fully remote, at least after the first few months, except for the occasional trip down south. So I could do it from Edinburgh or indeed anywhere in Scotland. One of the other guys at the company does exactly that already (I asked).


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 1:05 AM
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Perhaps I should send you my hardback copies of the The Trout and Salmon Lochs/Rivers of Scotland -- an example of the kind of book which will never be printed again.

(The "compact" OED, the one in two volumes with a magnifying glass, which I got decades ago as a book club sign-on goodie, is now £400)


Posted by: NW | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 2:25 AM
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74: We had a 2-volume version that was abridged and did not have a magnifying glass. I loved that so much growing up.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 4:59 AM
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I had the 2 volume compact OED with magnifying glass that was a gift to me from my parents when I started grad school but the ex took it in the divorce.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 6:01 AM
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76: NO!!


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 7:32 AM
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77 There was a lot of that that went on, though it's over 15 years now. I had wanted to set the ground rules for dividing stuff when she moved out was that we both be present and agreed who got what and if there was any dispute we'd set it aside for a bit, she objected that this was me wanting to paw through her underwear. I remember there were some final boxes and I just went and opened them and found some things of mine, including this painted snake thing that a good friend gave me as a gift from her crazy travels in Guatemala and Mexico and when I pointed this out she belittled its importance. I still have it and it sits on my bookshelf here. Those were bad times.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 7:54 AM
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Oh Barry - that sounds horrible.


Posted by: NW | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 8:08 AM
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It took me about five years to dig myself out of the hole that entire episode put me in but against very steep odds I did it. I barely think about it anymore.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 8:19 AM
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78 is depressing; 80 is very welcome reassurance. Glad to hear that.


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 8:32 AM
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This is the first day in over 6 months now that she's back home that I've not been messaging with Pola or seeing her, it feels very weird and empty.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 9:08 AM
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Though she definitely made the right move. And I will too if I get the job I interviewed for a month ago (they said they'd let me know by the end of September).


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 9:10 AM
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We have a one volume compact OED with magnifying glass that was a wedding gift from, among other people, Oudemia. Molly uses it routinely when editing to U.K. style.


Posted by: Rob Helpy-Chalk | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 9:25 AM
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Any OED can be one volume if you don't use words that start with 'P' and later.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 10:28 AM
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Or with enough glue.

I like my series shelved right-to-left so that the pages are in order.


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 11:48 AM
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I loved the 2-volume OED with magnifying glass growing up, I later was gifted a 1-volume version which I still have (with a weird hemispherical magnifying glass, not nearly as good), but honestly I only use the online version these days.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 2:34 PM
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We sent our Webster unabridged out with the recycling because we're monsters and we needed room in the basement for stuff.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 2:35 PM
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Also, every paper journal volume in the house that didn't have one of us as an author or editor. Gone to the pulpery.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 2:40 PM
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And replaced with the strategic toilet paper reserve.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 2:44 PM
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Seems like you could have saved a step there.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 3:50 PM
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We have flush toilets now.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 4:07 PM
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93

politico reporting a huge GOP voter registration surge in FL; seems significant.


Posted by: Lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 09-24-20 6:14 PM
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Well, I think the interview yesterday went OK and they said they'd let me know by early next week...


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 2:58 AM
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93 is frightening. It's giving me shades of Wisconsin and Michigan begging the Clinton campaign to come set foot there.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 5:11 AM
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94: Good luck.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 5:23 AM
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94 fingers crossed. I'm also waiting to hear back from the job I interviewed for last month (they said I'd hear one way or the other by the end of September).


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 5:31 AM
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Good luck to you also.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 5:32 AM
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Thanks very much.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 5:35 AM
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Best of luck to all job seekers.

Writing from home, sitting in my own living room, looking out at my own back yard for the first time in nine weeks.

LB, how's your mother?


Posted by: Chris Y | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 7:39 AM
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Back on her feet, but being incautious about it. She's decided the walking boot she's supposed to be in for a couple of more weeks is just holding her back, so she's walking without it. Long walks she's still using the scooter.

I am breathing deeply and calmly and reminding myself that she's a competent adult and I have no authority over her decisions to disregard medical advice.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 8:06 AM
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My fucking doctor didn't tell me that they had switched back to in-person visits. It truly isn't a big deal. But it felt like I was balancing ten spinning plates to swing this telemed appointment, and we had telemed appointments in July and in April, so I just assumed this one was too. Eventually I talked to them on the phone, and they said, "Didn't you notice that the confirmation text didn't have a link to the telemed website?!"

No? I didn't? All our docs are using the same telemed Doxy website, and it remembers their name. But that's how you're telling people that it's changed back to in person?! (But no one else has made this mistake! they answer.)

It's FINE. It's just a thing that happens. It's just demoralizing when you feel like you've barely got the house of cards together. Now I'll either run out of my meds before my appointment or they'll come up with some workaround, but it's an unresolved thread to manage instead of a resolved thread to tie up.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 8:13 AM
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(And of course the reason that it's in person is so that they can test my pee and make sure I'm not dealing my ADHD meds.)


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 8:17 AM
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It's truly fine. I was just frazzled.


Posted by: heebie | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 8:26 AM
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My new favorite song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1FCJr1HOio

May provide some calm to the frazzled.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 8:52 AM
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102-104: They test pee for ADHD meds? No one has ever mentioned testing my son. Another thing to worry about. And that sounds really really frazzling; I would have to work SO hard to get to an in-person medical appointment, and flat out wouldn't be able to without a fair bit of notice.


Posted by: Sand | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 8:54 AM
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They actually test your peeing. If you aren't taking the ADHD meds you'll lose focus halfway through and it'll go all over the floor.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 8:58 AM
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They see how far you can pee.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 8:58 AM
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That was a strange thing to be pwned about.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 8:59 AM
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Thanks. I needed the laugh...


Posted by: Sand | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 9:09 AM
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On the topic of not going to in-person medical appointments, I haven't had my blood tested since January. I was being tested every 3 months. For a while there was no choice, and since then I've just been saying that I prefer not to. I think I'm going to break down and go in for my next scheduled appointment in November.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 9:25 AM
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106: I think it depends on where you are. I haven't heard of that from anyone other than heebie - except for doctors who have reasons to be suspicious about a particular patient.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 10:34 AM
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101. She has my sympathy. Nobody who hasn't been in a walking boot can imagine what a PITA they are. Apart from taking about five minutes to get on or off, and that's when you're well practiced, they're all made with a rounded sole, so that unless your natural gait matches the way the boot rolls forward, it forces you to walk unnaturally. I know they're all made like that because my physio spent a whole morning looking for one that wasn't.

Fortunately she advised me to wean myself off the boot ASAP, which matches your mother's instincts. She had me walking about ten metres without the boot within ten days of having the cast off. Sorry to go on about this, but your mother's instincts are right. As long as she doesn't overdo it she needs to start walking short distances without the damn thing as soon as she can, and build it up as quickly as she feels safe with.


Posted by: Chris Y | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 10:52 AM
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It all comes down to "as long as she doesn't overdo it." I am breathing deeply and keeping my fingers crossed.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:11 AM
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She's always been a big strong athletic brute, which has been terrific for her as she's gotten older. At eighty she walks for hours, bikes around Manhattan, moves heavy furniture, all sorts of stuff. I just worry that she's going to overestimate her capacity now when she's injured.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:15 AM
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Me, obviously.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:16 AM
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Does she drive into things? That was our problem.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:16 AM
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Somewhat of an update on my unending fretting: I had a good conversation with the caretaker just now. She basically said, "I love the kids, but I also know they do better in school, so whichever way you go is good with me. I'll be here if you decide to pull them out....unless we go to Hawaii. My husband was notified over the summer that we're being re-stationed to Hawaii. But the army delays things, so I don't count on it until they give you a firm date. Originally they said August. Then they called him this past weekend. We still don't have a date, but it could happen."

Which in a way is a good outcome. It lessens my sense of emotional dependence on her. If she's not here and we pull our kids out, then it's not because I made the wrong choice. We'd just have to find someone else.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:19 AM
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It's now a two-generation trend in my family, getting old and driving into stationary objects. Three if my neighbor had noticed the mark on his retaining wall.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:19 AM
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She voluntarily stopped driving a while back. Not nominally out of concern about her skills, but I figure that must have been what she was thinking. Biking, I dunno, I figure she thinks if she screws up probably she's the only one who gets badly hurt.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:19 AM
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My grandmother did the driving into things very aggressively. They took her license away, with her berating the judge for it, and she stole her car keys back from my aunt repeatedly and kept driving without a license. She was a real piece of work. Didn't hurt anyone, but that was just luck, she did a bunch of property damage.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:22 AM
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When my grandmother kept driving, there was an incident where she drove through a red light and got into a (minor) accident. She convinced the judge that she did not deserve a ticket because the light had skipped orange, and gone directly from green to red. I have to imagine that what convinced him was the sense that he would never be able to politely end the conversation, so he either had to capitulate to her, or forcefully tell her to bug off and pay her ticket. My grandmother was masterful at exploiting rules of politeness to her own benefit.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:22 AM
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Being an entitled middle class old lady works great that way. Grandma was less exploiting the rules of politeness and more summoning lightning from the heavens to strike her victims down, but it worked better because people she was abusing felt inhibited about going nuclear in response.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:29 AM
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My grandma just drove off, never mentioned it, and let my dad deal with the aftermath.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:32 AM
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Like, she picked up pieces of the car, put them in the backseat, and left it at that.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:33 AM
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I tell my students that my plan is to exploit their natural politeness and cooperativeness to get them to learn calculus. Ie the class is so interactive, and they're basically nice, cooperative people, that they can't help but learn.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:33 AM
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125: I do like the idea of some day being able to do that to my own kids and know they'll clean up after me!


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:34 AM
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That's not the main reason I miss her, but it's one of them.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 11:34 AM
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So apparently if your kid gets the sniffles they aren't allowed back into school without a covid-19 test, which, ok, but if you are one one of those Bronze plans with the high deductible that's going to cost you $290 out-of-pocket so WTF?


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 12:45 PM
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Is there free testing available anywhere? Or the $15 15-minute tests? Those have come to our area.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 12:52 PM
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If you give them $15, they'll tell you when 15 minutes are up.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 12:53 PM
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I think you can get a cheaper test if you drive over to Vermont, because obviously having the ability to shop around is how we control prices in our medical system.

Still, I do not feel this is an optimal solution.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 12:57 PM
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132. I've heard that tests are cheaper out in western MA.


Posted by: DaveLMA | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 1:06 PM
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129: I thought COVID testing if no treatment was needed was supposed to be covered at 100% and did not count toward the deductible. You need to have them code it as potential exposure. If it's for travel, you pay, but she has a COVID symptom, so the insurance should pay.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 1:14 PM
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105: Bandcamp is featuring a new record by Beverly Glenn Copeland today with a version of that song on it:

https://beverlyglenn-copeland.bandcamp.com/album/transmissions-the-music-of-beverly-glenn-copeland-2

I've been in a bit of a music rut lately, waiting for the next record that will excite me. I had hopes for the new Ly/dia Love/less record, out today, but found it disappointing, turgid and bleak. I did enjoy the recent cover of Big Star's "Thirteen" by Bedouine, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and Waxahatchee, but it's just a cover and just one song:

https://bedouine.bandcamp.com/track/thirteen

Still a good one, though.


Posted by: JL | Link to this comment | 09-25-20 2:05 PM
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It's been so long I clearly lost the ability to navigate the website and commented on the previous thread.
http://www.unfogged.com/archives/comments_17402.html#2091187
(And embarrassingly have forgotten how to embed the link.)
Hello /waves/


Posted by: asilon | Link to this comment | 09-26-20 5:41 AM
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136: Awesome to hear from you, asilon. Would love to hear more tales from inside the NHS.

Sorry work has been miserable.

When you say that one of your kids had been at school with no PPE, do you mean they aren't wearing masks?


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 09-26-20 8:09 AM
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Yup, no one has to wear a mask in primary school (4-11), kids or staff. The children are encouraged not to have too much physical contact (they know they're not supposed to hug each other), but social distancing is not enforced or even possible really. Lots of hand washing. She's really enjoying it so far though, if she's still enjoying it by the end of the year she is thinking of applying for primary teacher training.

Older schoolchildren are supposed to wear masks when moving around communal areas of the school, but not in classrooms.


Posted by: asilon | Link to this comment | 09-26-20 2:20 PM
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130:

New York (state) has free testing for everyone, and you don't need to be symptomatic or have been exposed.


Posted by: Ponder Stibbons | Link to this comment | 09-26-20 4:17 PM
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