I've been carrying my vaccination card with me since April and never had to show it. But now, the JCC is saying I'll have to show the card to get in. But not until October.
Well then, you've got just over a month to run around town contracting a mild dose of covid from everyone who hasn't been vaccinated but gets in without a card. What are you waiting for?
I'm waiting for Friday. Too much work today.
The JCC is just the gym. No place else has asked for proof of vaccination. My employer did ask, but they took me at my word.
Visit to the dentist the other day went ok, he removed the old bridge and I'll have a temporary one tomorrow and the permanent one next week.
My car once again broke down, a few days ago I was making a booze run, first time driving the car since I've been back from the states. After stocking up I went to get gas since it was nearly empty. The gas indicator wasn't moving and then someone pointed out the gas leak under the car. Another $800 down the drain. I need to replace the clutch too. Then I'm going to sell it and buy a new(er) car.
"someone pointed out the gas leak under the car. Another $800 down the drain"
I probably would have stopped the pump once it got to about $75.
5: I have a temporary retainer now while braces correct my lower teeth so they do not damage my coming bridge (upper two front teeth have been removed). Benn that way for nearly a year and just found out that as I feared might happen my dentist (who I like as a dentist and know from the community) is retiring at the end of the month. Someone took over his practice, but I would have preferred the guy I knew. And while I'm first world complaining I am tired of not having the front teeth. Sandwiches in particular are a lot less convenient to eat.
5: I have a temporary retainer now while braces correct my lower teeth so they do not damage my coming bridge (upper two front teeth have been removed). Benn that way for nearly a year and just found out that as I feared might happen my dentist (who I like as a dentist and know from the community) is retiring at the end of the month. Someone took over his practice, but I would have preferred the guy I knew. And while I'm first world complaining I am tired of not having the front teeth. Sandwiches in particular are a lot less convenient to eat.
Covid rates are rising locally, and I'm feeling slightly stressed about deciding what the cut-off point is for asking my boss if I can work remotely.
Small company, I have my own office, not a lot of exposure at work, but still represents a significant chunk of my risk budget. Boss would like to have everybody in person because he feels (with some justification) that during the year of working remotely things fell through the cracks because there was some loss of communication. Nobody else seems too worried about being in the office, so if I try to go remote it will create some friction but should work out okay.
Nobody else seems too worried
I'm not too worried, but it does bother me being around other people who aren't too worried.
Also in elderly health tricks , I had cataract surgery on my left eye on Monday. Seems to have gone well, vision slowly getting less cloudy in the affected eye and seems to be better vision than before in terms of focus. Big thing I sort of glossed over was the restrictions in activities (like lifting things and sports). Was originally going to do it in October or November when that would have been less impactful, but when the earlier date opened up I snapped it up without really thinking it through. I will say that although my eye doctor was pretty good at explaining everything to me I think I let my head get turned a bit by a few people I knew who reported theirs as a breeze with immediately improved vision noticeable coming home from the surgery. I mentioned that to my doctor who said about 10% of cataract surgeries go that way and they are ones done early and not with "dense" cataracts like mine. Cataract development in the other eye is much less far along and surgery not even planned for that one at the moment.
12: You'll have to wait for the clouds to go away before it matters.
The kids are back in school and I'm settling in to my new job, and that's all going pretty well. COVID case rates are skyrocketing locally and we considered postponing the wedding (currently scheduled for November), but we ended up deciding that things are likely to settle down enough by then to move forward, with the option of scaling down to a very small ceremony, followed by a bigger thing in a few months, if it gets bad again right before and we have to pull the plug.
Also last week I came down with some sort of cold and it was nervewracking until I got negative COVID test results back. This sure is a stressful way to live.
Thanks! It's been a stressful experience planning it as you might imagine, but we're feeling good about it at this point.
A week ago my hearing aid stopped working properly. I have needed it for about a decade ever since a bout of Menière's disease knocked out about half the hearing in my right ear. The NHS does a repair and replacement service, but the walk-in clinic has been shut by Covid. You have to post it in and they will post it back. So I did that, on Friday, cursing the fact that I would be half deaf and subject to annoying tinnitus until today at least. On Monday, someone rang to say they'd had a letter from me about my hearing aid. Yes, I said: it was wrapped around the device. "Not when we got it", they replied. "It must have come out in transit. We'll have to make up a new ear mould, and that will take two or three weeks."
So I thought about getting something privately: found a place online which is selling them for about half the price of the high street chains, with a 24 hour turnaround and a 30 day money back guarantee. Only after I had given them my card details did they tell me that supply problems mean it won't reach them before the end of next week.
Reddit suggests (1) that hearing aids are even more expensive in the US but (2) that you can get good ones rebranded at reasonable prices from Costco.
So now Ume will join Costco as the owner of a small business (herself) and I will get into the warehouse, I hope, on a domestic partner's card. But I have to book an appointment first and because she has to join in person, this can't happen until Saturday.
Meanwhile, much back and forth with libel lawyers about a story doing some justice to the victims of a predatory priest; much reading up on another church sex scandal, by the end of which I am cheering on every single suicide among the perpetrators and those who covered them up.
5: Barry, you have such bad luck with cars. If I were you, I would seriously consider something super boring like a Brand new Toyota Matrix/ Camry that's totally reliable.
19 I do, at least here. But I'm also a complete idiot and I'm still looking at Mini Cooper JCWs because I love to drive a stick. Maybe I'll get a Jeep instead.
And Toyota's and other Japanese makes are the way to go here. If they sold the Honda Civic Si here I'd buy it in a minute.
21: Stay away from the Cooper. Does RAV 4 or Honda CRV come in a stick?
22 I'll check if can get that here.
It's the strange interregnum period between Mr 9's camp ending and school starting, so my wife and I are trading off vacation days to hang out with him. Possibly the last bout of normalcy before school makes everything weird again.
I managed to buy a new bike to replace the one that was stolen in May. And then got a parking ticket while I was picking it up; the ticket is bogus and I have to contest it.
It's very hot, but also the day when our cleaners come to the house, so our usual strategy of hiding out in the (poorly insulated) attic/home office space while they're here seems like a bad one. We're contemplating going for a long drive to get ice cream or something, just to spend time in better air-conditioned space.
My friend had a Plymouth Horizon. That was a good car.
I'm having several confounding things which are hard to tease apart. First, it's the first week of classes, and I usually hate the first week because I don't know them yet and it's hot af and I hate August here. But it's just so wonderful to teach in person again and I'm really having a wonderful week.
Separately - but maybe not! - I've now been on wellbutrin for ADHD for almost three weeks. The ADHD symptoms have responded reasonably well. Not quite as well as with stimulants, but definitely putting me into a range that I'm happy with.
However! I'm starting to suspect that I'm a case study of what happens when you give a non-depressed person an anti-depressant. I am starting to wonder if I'm extra euphoric due to the wellbutrin. And if there's any reason to do anything besides enjoy the hell out of it.
23: First thing I do when buying a car (which I just did) is subscribe to Consumer Reports, particularly for their reliability ratings. CR does not like the Mini Cooper: On a scale of 1-5 and starting with the 2020 model, the last 6 years of ratings are: Not Rated, 2,1,2,4,1. (We got a Subaru Forester.)
It's a terrible time to be buying a used car. I bought my first car 40 years ago, and this was the first time I've bought a new car -- used car prices having become so extreme.
We looked at the Forrester, but since there are no lesbians in our household, we figured it was cultural appropriation.
28: you should triage every single depressing thing you have to do or think about for the next 5 years before the effect wears off. Also, watch out for both delusions of grandeur and irritability. A friend quit taking Wellbutrin after the road rage got too vivid.
Teo, congrats! And I hear you on the symptom freakouts. I can't seem to stop with the "abundance of caution," but it sucks.
'grats, Teo!
The Honda HR-V comes in stick, but it's apparently hard to find, given that the dealership I bought mine from called me a couple months ago to ask if I was willing to sell mine back to them; they had a customer request (for trailer-pulling purposes) and there were apparently none to be had in the state of Ohio.
It's Ohio. It was probably a sex thing.
30: The car was my wife's choice, and we had a very serious discussion about it, but she insists on remaining closeted.
(It replaces a minivan that got crushed by a tree a year ago. Who knew that waiting to buy a car would be such an expensive mistake?)
A tree fell on your car, too?!?
That's why you should always park at the grocery store down the block.
A grocery store fell on my parking lot.
Also, watch out for both delusions of grandeur and irritability.
what? Everyone ELSE has to watch out for my irritatibility. In the whole world.
Thanks, everyone! We've had the date set for a few months now, but I guess I never mentioned it here before. Definitely hoping we can still make it happen then, but at least we have a clear fallback option if not.
Your fallback option should happen on Daylight Savings.
35: Yup. Same tree -- this hasn't been an ongoing series of attacks. During the pandemic days with school and work at home, there was no urgency about replacing the car.
You don't think it's a coincidence that this same tree managed to do both?
In a crisis, all the correlations go to 1.
I was told we were supposed to be preserving our neutrality so we could get in to hell.
When a gigantic tree, without warning, smashes everything a few dozen feet from your entire family, you do tend to reflect on the role in life of coincidence, fortune and fate.
I should not have made light. Like the tree in your living room.
I got home from work yesterday and saw in the mirror that my shirt was buttoned wrong and my belt was missing, but I am not having an affair. I first figured "old" but honestly this kind of thing could have happened in any decade of my life about equally likely.
Congrats Teo!!!!
47: Once a flasher, always a flasher.
@politicalfootball
Consider leasing a Kia Niro EV. EVs are super low maintenance, safer than gas cars, cheap to drive, and offer a massively superior driving experience. State-level incentives may cover your down payment and you could probably get a 3-year lease for about $260/month
And your residual will likely be higher than the market value of the car after 3 years.
Last car we bought was a Subaru Forester. Been reasonably pleased with it. Cargo space not quite as large as I would like.
@51
The residual value is the estimated value of the car after the lease is over. Car manufacturers experimenting with EVs (i.e. not Tesla) set artificially inflated residual values for the EVs. The end result is that the consumers pay less for the lease than they "ought" to pay, and the car manufactures lose money. Which they are willing to do, because they are just experimenting at this point.
For example, I leased a Chevy Bolt & my leasing contract assumed the car would be worth about 23K after three years. My payment was based in part on that value. Instead, the Bolt was worth 17K after three years. Had my contract assumed the (easily foreseeable) 17K value, my payment would have about doubled.
31: the interesting thing about Wellbutrin is that different generics/doses/formulations have different known side effects. About a decade ago I had a flash of rage that made me almost punch a mildly-annoying cab driver after I switched from the name brand to the generic; when I picked bupropion up again recently my doctor told me to make sure I didn't get certain specific brand pills as a result. So if you are feeling irritable/euphoric, a different pill at the exact same dose might solve it.
53: Thanks. I've never leased a car. I've owned one since 1990, but it's only my fourth.
I'm saving up because I think my next car will be an electric VW.
I owned a car for a few years once. Weird experience.
Nope gets it exactly right. UNLESS you truly want/need a car for long road trips (in which case, maybe get a plug-in hybrid) at this point in the US there is basically no reason at all, at almost any price point or kind of car, not to lease an EV. Was even in the new electric jeep recently (great and better than a regular jeep and great for just confusing people about what stereotype you are). EVs generally have great lease value, great drive experience, safer, generally easier maintenance, smug factor, just about everything is better.
Except for long road trips, b/c of the annoyance of having to deal with finding charging stations and wait times. With ranges these days you CAN do longer road trips, but it's significantly less easy than a gas car. But if there's another car in the family, or you don't do a lot of road trips or are willing to rent when you do, an EV is a great choice.
If you lease a car, won't the dealer make fun of you for not being able to buy?
And while I'm first world complaining I am tired of not having the front teeth
TBH, an adult not having front teeth seems more like a third world problem than a first world problem.
Weird, I had no idea leasing was ever a good idea.
He could order online and not mention his location until the end to see if they won't just eat the extra shipping cost.
@61
In all seriousness (and at the risk of turning this into an electric car revival meeting) - leasing is the way to go with electric cars right now. The technology is rapidly improving, so any EV you purchase (as opposed to lease) will rapidly become technologically obsolete.
And VW has a very nice new EV out: https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-4.html
Know that the $7,500 Federal Tax Credit applies to leases that are 3 years or longer. But the credit goes to the car manufacturer (and is taken off the cost of the lease, being one of the reasons non-Tesla EV leases are so cheap).
State tax credits often go to the buyer and can be fully refundable (i.e. you get the money even if you don't owe any taxes). They are often large enough to cover the down payment.
Anyway - the cost of Lithium Ion batteries will soon be below $100 per kW*hour, at which point gas cars simply will not be able to compete. And batteries have amazing potential for renewable energy in general!
I'm not saying they don't solve a lot of problems, but I still don't understand where the dragon puts its penis without an exhaust system.
Because there's no engine most EVs have two trunks.
What nope says sounds right to me, too. As a smug urban dweller who could rely on my feet and public transit, I delayed an EV purchase until it didn't matter because long car trips is what cars are for. But I'd strongly consider a lease if I was back in the US. For now, well, feet and public transit will do, but those pedal-assist bikes seem pretty great.
66: You've been misled by exaggerating peers of mine.
I've owned one since 1990, but it's only my fourth.
I'm on my third since 1994.
My first three were purchased used.
I just sold the 1993 Subaru I inherited from my grandmother. Great car, but definitely showing it's age.
(I do have another car; the only one I've purchased-- a 2006 that I bought used in 2015)
"You should ditch your car and get a new one every 2-3 years" is not the most intuitive environmentally-minded advice. What happens to the old car when you lease a new one (sold secondhand?), and how does this turnover rate scale? Genuinely curious. (FWIW, I bought a used Chevy Volt in 2015 and have had no issues that would make me consider a new car, but maybe I'm doing it wrong. Did prioritize buying a plug-in hybrid, which for many years was driven mostly in electric mode, over saving for a house and other stuff -- so I am an electric-car convert, but perhaps not yet to this particular leasing church.)
Given the price of used cars right now, I don't think trading in is likely to be wasteful.
Right, I guess it works if there's a big enough market for the used vehicles. Maybe I'm just not sufficiently able to visualize the current amount of petro-car churn, which I'm sure would make me boggle.
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Huh, the NYT is running an op-ed by Scott Walker touting his legislative accomplishments. There's always some case to be made for viewpoint diversity, but after all those years of Walker, why would anyone want to read an op-ed that he wrote? It's like gluing a quarter to the sidewalk.
|>
I bet you need special glue. I tried Elmer's and it wouldn't even stay put when stepped on.
Of course, worked better than despairing attempts to deny reality by pretending the Republican Party is anything except what it is right now.
61: I think there was a period in the 70's or early where you could lease a BMW for less than a Chevy. BMW prices were rising so quickly (but Chevy not do much) so the BMW held on to mist of its value. Thus the least cost was cheap, since that reflects the list value iver the course if the lease.
I had to show my vax card, at last!
To get on a plane to Amsterdam. No test required to come here, I'll need one to fly home next week.
It's annoying to be driving in traffic -- first in Salt Lake and then here in NL -- after so long.
But not as annoying as having two Mormon missionaries sitting behind me on the plane, lights on (so they could read scripture) and talking loud over the plane noise. I was hoping for a little sleep, but not much luck. Should have more seriously dosed myself with Advil.
80: I'm in Denmark and have also finally gotten some use out of my vax card (actually the State of Cal QR code). I needed it to get on the plane and they also check at restaurants and cafes.
It feels weirdly normal here. No one wears masks, no one cares about social distancing, and aside from the vaccination verifications, you might think the pandemic was entirely over.
I showed my vaccination QR code for the first time to a bouncer at a West Oakland punk bar. They had a home-printed sign outside explaining the need for that plus a stronger-than-average mask rule, as well as calling their owner a "soyboy cuck". (Presumably written by the owner after the flak they got for being "no longer punk" due to the requirement.)
Should have more seriously dosed myself with Advil.
Advil puts you to sleep?
It just makes it impossible to hear LDS.
Fuck. One of my best friend's husband just asked her for a divorce.
In the long run, I personally think she would be better off without him, but there's a long hard slog ahead of her and this is going to be rough for a long time.
I suppose it would be "one of my best friends' husband". One of the husbands of my best friend? One of the husbands belonging to a subset of my best friends has asked the corresponding friend for a divorce.
Was he a traditionalist who asked her father first?
Apparently folk musicians were early bloggers. If you wanted to post a link that would be widely visible you could always write a song . . . http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/MALVINA/mr180.htm
87: her father was already dead.
89: And I suppose you are going to claim there are no Ouija boards in that part of TX.
One of the husbands of my best friend?
How many husbands does she have?
Whoops, I missed 86 when I posted my silly link. That does sound rough.
If posting more feminist folk songs would help, I can do that . . .
89: Sorry. I should have probably responded more seriously.
93/94: I'm truly not fussed. It's hard for her, but I can support her without it actually being my pain.
My pain is due to the fact that I left half my lunch on the kitchen counter, and it was the delicious half, too. I'm hungry and sad. (But only mildly, due to the euphoria mentioned earlier.)
I wonder how many wobbly marriages were broken by lockdown.
89.(): You should read "The Euphio Question" by Vonnegut. Very short and available online here.
And actually not as short as I thought...
100: but will reading that bring my lunch back?
I can recommend something that can bring back the half you did eat.
I bet the next wave of divorces is just starting and people will be going to law offices because their spouse did or did not give the kids horse de-worming medication.
I'm not counting people married to horses.
105: a one-woman human centipede? That's really gross, Apo.
From the link in 100
The noise wasn't much to hear--a wavering hiss, more like a leaking tire
than anything else. It was supposed to be on the air for five seconds.
When the engineer switched it off, Fred and I were inexplicably grinning
like idiots. I felt relaxed and tingling
Kurt Vonnegut discovered ASMR!
I don't know what that is so I'm going assume it's a fart fetish.
"the husband of one of my best friends".... And anecdotally, at least, we know a lot of people whose marriages were strained by COVID-19. It's like the stress of sudden retirement plus pandemic..
111: It was implied she had a poly marriage with both, but not official.
Tonight we're sleeping in a hotel near SFO. Tomorrow morning we're getting a cab (the hotel doesn't have a shuttle) to the airport and flying home to DC. The first day of school for the kid is Monday. I feel like I should be more worried about this.
We can't give you advice if we don't know how worried you are now.
Sure we can. It won't be good advice, but is it ever?
We were right on the money when we advised people not to take horse de-worming medication.
We were ahead of the curve on not ingesting fish tank cleaners or household bleach.
The whole "you can eat oxycontin like Tic Tacs" thread turned out to not have been very forward looking though. Sure seemed like a good idea at the time.
Fair enough. Cyrus, you should be moderately worried and only drink industrial bleach.
The Matrix is on the TV. The ads are for hearing aids and things to deal with incontinence.
Like as a problem, not for a hobby.
89.(): You should read "The Euphio Question" by Vonnegut. Very short and available online here.
I read this and wondered if I had been commenting in my sleep for a second!
83 Not directly, but turning off ordinary aches and pains, and melting away background muscle tension, lets the brain feel like it can drop out as well.
115-120: Thanks, everyone. Two days ago my worries were mostly focused on starting the school year, in these pandemic times, with jet lag. Travel itself was uneventful. As soon as we got home, we found that the fridge door was cracked. (Right after we left home three weeks ago, we told our cat sitter she could have some milk we hadn't used up, so she was the last person in there. I'm not sure if should have done anything differently, but she definitely should have noticed that at some point.) So before unpacking we spent about 2 hours mopping out condensation, scrubbing mold, and throwing away anything that might have been spoiled. There were also some concerning bills in the mail.
It never fails, when something goes wrong, it's always something out of the blue.
126: that is a king-size drag. Makes me feel better about my own failures as a housesitter though. Those mostly involved people's pets being incontinent, not really my fault.
Metabolism, mehitabel is her.
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I don't feel the need for a new Afghanistan thread but as the press continues to run wild in their disbelief and dismay* I wanted to note the following troika of world historical suckage whos thoughts on the matter have been recently published on the matter:
1) Judith Miller (Fox news website) -- on Biden not owning up to his mistakes making things worse.. NMM to Irony.
2) Paul Wolfowitz (Economist? (maybe Guardian)
and , wait for it...
3) Henry Kissinger
*WaPo actually had a relatively decent tick-tock of the day Kabul fell, more details on Ghani's actions/inaction leading up to that day and his sudden departure** for instance. But they chose to subtitle it "The day America lost its longest war" and included this pithy little take "For the United States, the scope of defeat was total." And NYTimes has a Peter Baker "news analysis" where that worthy invokes the usual suspects (Petraeus et al.) and waxes on about middle paths (see next comment).
**I do suspect the unexpectedness of that added to Biden's petulance later that day and harsh assessment of the Afghani; government's performance.
From the insipid baker "analysis":
The unusual confluence of two presidents of rival parties sharing the same goal and same approach has led to second-guessing and finger-pointing that may play out for years to come in history books yet unwritten
As Tom Scocca commented: Having rival parties share the same goal was normal and good for 19 years, when the goal was to never stop the war, but it became unusual and bad when the goal became to stop the war.
How worried should we be about the Old River Control Structure this week? Is it far enough inland that hurricanes aren't the threat to it?
131: I do believe that flooding is much more a threat than hurricanes. And despite locally heavy rains they will not be enough have a significant impact on Mississippi river levels.
Yeah, it looks like hurricanes fortunately are usually when the river is very low and so even if the storm surge causes a big increase in river height (Isaac raised the river 10' at NOLA) it's well below what floods do, and that's even more true way inland.
I have a friend in New Orleans and he's already evacuated.
He must have felt it was a big threat because he went to Houston.
There go my plans for the afternoon.
In the other place, one of you suggested pronouncing "popsicles" like it's a Greek name. I tried it and it improves summer.
131: Not very and yes. Old River is a good 150 miles or so inland, and it's not the kind of structure that wind can do very much to.
The time to worry about the Old River Control Structure is a week or two after massive floods in the Ohio River valley. The bulk of the Mississippi's waters come from the east rather than the west. If there's been weeks of record rain in the Old Northwest, that's the time to worry that the Mississippi is going to make a break for the Atchafalaya.
It's been a really rain week here up a few miles from the start of the Ohio.
I feel like Ed Asner's Wikipedia page should have at least one picture of him before he turned 40.
Here you go: https://twitter.com/theonlyedasner/status/936298896464080896?s=21
I get that Mary Tyler Moore was more famous than Asner before they were on her show, but her page doesn't suggest she was born in middle age.
NMM to the war in Afghanistan. Not that that will stop a lot of beltway types.
Back and survived a week of step-mom's visit. While my wife beat herself up with imagined forthcoming comments and snark, the anticipated criticism didn't manifest. The week involved some walking on eggshells, but a lot of genuinely good time together; both she and her mom seemed pleasantly surprised that they went a week without a fight/hurried separation breaking out.
Monterey was beautiful, and staying in a good resort unit (2 bedrooms, a kitchen, and large living room) did cut down on the number of meals out-- but we did eat indoors in restaurants several times over the week. It was odd to eat indoors again, and odd to see the masked waitstaff/unmasked customers play out again and again. Fingers crossed that we dodged Delta, particularly since we returned home to an announcement that our county transferred ICU patients out due to lack of capacity for the first time in 26+ years.
Just got my third Pfizer jab. Thinking this is the one that will finally make me magnetic.
Does it come with an app to test the mesh network?