Last week we got a triple whammy from that storm that crossed the continent…
…but by the time it started making the news in places that newsreaders are aware of the sky here had cleared and the temperature suddenly became unseasonably warm…
…which, along with some wind, melted the snow and then dried the mud to where we could get out and do stuff again.
Yesterday some neighbors wanted me to help them with a dump run, which meant I had to drag out the Jeep trailer. And I took that opportunity for a chore I’d kind of been putting off.
In early January somebody gave me an old small recliner more suitable to the Lair than what I’ve been using for a main chair for several years: A ridiculous, enormously heavy black vinyl electric recliner/massager that pulled so much juice there was no point even plugging it in. I wasn’t crazy about it but it was what I had. Replacing it meant somehow getting rid of it, and since it weighed roughly ten metric tons my first step toward that was wrapping it in a tarp to keep the snow off and leaving it on the porch – possibly until summer meant I wanted to use the porch for something besides old furniture storage.
But if I was going to use the trailer, conscience and warm weather drove me to pull out my tools and dismantle the absurdly heavy and complicated thing until I could get it into the trailer singlehanded. And now I have my porch back. Not that I presently need it for much.
Look what I got!
A friend of the blog who wishes to remain anonymous sent a very generous donation. It came with an admonition to ‘buy something fun’ – and I did so: one of these days a new Official TUAK Game Camera will show up. But I also did something I’ve wanted for a long time but couldn’t afford. I got a pair of Official TUAK Glasses that wasn’t falling apart, with a prescription from this decade.
The freakishly warm weather permitted another luxury, normally reserved for summer:
I could heat up some water and actually use the Lair’s vestpocket bath without freezing my scrawny ass solid. When the outside temp is above freezing, the wind isn’t howling and the sun is shining, that window is the Lair’s principle heat source and the bath stall gets positively hot. I didn’t really intend that benefit when I installed the big window almost six years ago, but I’ll take it.
This morning D&L wanted to go to the Safeway in the biggish town about 35 miles away and asked if I wanted to tag along. I looked at my wallet and then at my stash of frozen meat and decided, ‘Sure. What the hell?”
And I have to say…
I still get a hell of a kick out of a visit to the Palace of Food. It’s a little jarring for the old hermit, a little disturbing even to be around so many people and so much traffic all at one time. But it’s still kind of reassuring to know that – all the apocalyptic news notwithstanding – there’s still a prosperous world out there to be visited. Not very often, please.
And finally, speaking of visits: Guess who’s going to get a Covid vaccination next week?
This was sort of presented to me this morning in a manner I’m tempted to call non-negotiable. I had no interest in getting the vaccine, I feel no special need for it, my chances of getting the disease are almost certainly extremely low and anyway I’m not afraid of it. Plus, frankly, I gather supplies of the vaccine are still low and should go to people with more need than I have. But I get my regular rides from D&L who very much are afraid of the disease. They want me to do it and a refusal seemed rude. So next Tuesday I’ll go to town and get the jab for the same reason I wear a mask when they’re around, just to keep peace. Don’t know yet whether this is the kind that needs two doses.
Sorry to here that. I, for one will not be getting one.
Magnetic clip-ons, very handy and my favorite! Also very easy to lose, so guard them jealously. Consider some sort of case for them. Is there room on your belt?
Also they are possibly not secure enough for high winds and for bike use. When the wind hits the side of your face some can fly off.
I got my first vaccination yesterday. No adverse reaction and all is fine. I know too many people personally, that have died from covid.
We got our first shots two weeks ago. No problems!
I spoke with an acquaintance of retirement age, currently caring for his 90-something YO mom. Both have had the first shots and did fine. He got the Pfizer and she got the Moderna.
Mrs. Freeholder and I are both slightly too young, but she is a teacher, so it’s being offered to her. I don’t think she has decided one way or the other. I’m not taking it until a few hundred million folks have and no one turns into a zombie.
I agree with Paul B, I will not get one,
TeresaSue
That storm which left a little calling card at your place, Joel stopped by here overnight. After I’ve had some morning sustenance, I’ll be going out to deal with the couple of inches it left.
I see some will not get the COVID-19 vaccine. Good for them, it’s their call, and I hope it turns out well.
I understand that no response is perfect and no vaccine is 100% effective. I also know that anytime something is introduced into a body there is always a reaction. I’ve read a few scattered reports of allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine. But, unlike the days when the polio vaccine was delivered, the authorities aren’t trying to hide anything, they’re giving honest and realistic responses epically where multiple doses are concerned.
From my perspective, the question is simple. Do I believe the overwhelming majority of doctors, infectious disease experts, virologists, & epidemiologists who say that COVID19 vaccines have been tested and are safe? Or, do I believe the views of a few people who barely passed high school science who are saying it’s too soon and the vaccines are not safe?
When I get the chance, I’ll be taking a shot to help ward off COVID-19.
I’ve gotten an email from my med insurance network provider saying that I qualify for the vaccine and they’ll let me know to schedule as soon as it’s available here. When the time comes, I’ll get the shots. I’d really like to wait for the one dose one that should be coming out soon, but probably won’t have that option. No vaccine I’ve ever had has killed me, so the odds of it being ok are in my favor.
Neither. In fact, that’s a false dichotomy.
Personally, I believe in full and adequate information. Period.
First of all, science (including medicine) is not achieved by consensus of experts, but only by thorough questioning and testing. There have been many times in history when the most learned experts all believed something — and were dead, flat wrong. Science (including medicine) is a process, not a religion or a popularity contest.
Second, ANY doctors or other experts who say the two current vaccines approved in the U.S. have been adequately tested don’t know what they’re talking about. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been approved ONLY under an emergency authorization; they have NOT been fully tested. They are also an entirely new type of technology, never used to vaccinate humans before, and while their short-term safety has been tested, there exists a the possibility that they will cause long-term autoimmune diseases.
I’m not saying they will. I’m saying nobody knows — not one of those experts you cite can state with confidence that mRNA vaccine technology is safe (or effective) in the long term.
In fact, a lot of them appear simply to be parroting a government-approved narrative — and when that happens, it’s always time to stop and ask questions. Heck, we’ve already seen the Learned Doctor Fauci constantly tell different stories — and even admit that his wildly changing opinions have been at least partly for the purpose of manipulating or conforming to public opinion!
As to all those people you claim are against the vaccine because they barely passed high school science, tell me, do you know these people? Have you talked to them?
Would it interest you to know that some very intelligent folks who spent their careers with a major pharmaceutical company — in vaccine development, yet — have said that they wouldn’t even consider taking an mRNA vaccine until much further testing had been done?
I’m not saying don’t get the shot. That’s indeed a personal choice, as you acknowledge. It’s even possible that mRNA tech will prove to be a boon to mankind. Only time will tell.
I am saying we don’t have adequate information about this new technology, and those who take or don’t take the vaccines should do so based on solid, unfiltered, non-politicized information — not on groupthink, propaganda, consensus, hysteria, or sneering contempt for people whose choices are different than their own.
An additional variable; the J&J vaccine uses a different approach from the Pfizer and Maderna mRNA approach.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/health/johnson-johnson-covid-19-vaccine.html
Possible long term effects of either vaccine if any, can’t yet be fully known, which probably is a bigger factor to the younger population.
“Only time will tell”.
I’m not responding to Mike, because it is a waste of time to talk to people whose gain is less than one, who employ pathetic insults and logical fallacies rather than arguments and facts.
For those who care to think and wish to control their own bodies, the claim that a “majority” of anything in science is a fail-safe giveaway for someone completely ignorant of science. As Claire correctly points out, science is not about consensus.
I’ll gently disagree with Claire on one point: Medicine is not science, and most doctors are not scientists. Ever wonder why it’s usually called the “practice” of medicine? The best medicine is certainly informed by science, but like most things, the “best” is usually quite scarce.
Medicine is a professional service. Doctors are trained and act as technicians. Hopefully well-trained technicians, but that is all. It’s what you want! Scientists do experiments and publish their results. Technicians fix things. Which do you want when your arm is broken? There are a very few doctors who are actually scientists, but they are the exception.
I’ve always advocated for doctors to wear coveralls with their names embroidered above the breast pocket – the better to remind patients that they are at heart no different from auto mechanics. With one important difference – cars rarely get better by themselves.
There is no shortage of genuine scientists, many with quite respectable careers and accomplishments, who question and/or criticize the use of an experimental vaccine based on radical new technology on hundreds of millions of people. Their voices are being systematically excluded from public discourse. The published censorship policies of most big tech platforms explicitly excludes medical information “that contradicts local health authorities.”
Think about that. Content that contradicts authority. Not science, logic, or evidence. Local health authorities are not scientists, they are bureaucrats and/or politicians. They enforce heath regulations, and until now they kept far away from doing experiments on the general public.
If you want to start reading opposing views by genuine scientists and other thoughtful people, they are out there, but you have to look for them. Try a duckduckgo search for “german epidemiologist” and take it from there.
I live near a town of about 800 people. There have been enough local people who officially died of ‘unrelated health issues’ and ‘complications from covid-19’ that I am extremely skeptical of the entire narrative. What the local newspapers are not mentioning is that these community members died within hours of taking their first or second covid-19 vaccine. And those hours were plagued with seizures, headaches, palpitations, etc. By all means- make your own decisions- however please consider that the one thing we know in all of the nonsense going on is that the official narrative is a lie. This has never been about an alleged ‘virus’ and ‘public safety’ this has all been about a test of compliance and control. This is the flexing of totalitarian will-to-power. Do not take their poisons- stop rebreathing your waste air under a face diaper- treat your neighbors with dignity and not as a contagion.