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Post by texican on Apr 10, 2020 0:56:13 GMT -6
IF I go to wearing a mask (whether bought or home made), by God, I'm going to not only put a shark or tigers mouth on it, but get some red food dye splatters on it. Walk up to a line, with a shop towel covering my mask/mouth, cough a few times, then let everyone see the "blood" on the mask. This SHOULD shorten the line to get into a store quite a bit, right?
WillC,
You are such a bad guy, no wonder we love your writings.
Scolari's ripping people off. Yeah, they got tp, but individual rolls at 79 cents each?! However, it did have 8 packages of gizzards and being the nice person I am, I only bought 6.
You are such a good guy only taking 6 packages of gizzards. How many other old people will not have gizzards for their dinner?
Be careful out there.
Texican....
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 10, 2020 13:01:41 GMT -6
At the grocery store today around noon. Most aisles are one-way - at least by the arrows on the floor and the announcements on the PA system every 20 minutes or so - not that everyone is following the arrows :-( Lots of things had the "Two item limit" sign at the front of the shelf.
The BOGO bacon was an empty case. They had some ground round (85% lean). The rice and dry beans shelves were mostly bare (two 20lb bags of rice and one 10lb bag but nothing in the smaller sizes, two bags of blackeyed peas). The BOGO pasta and pasta sauce were bare. Not on sale, but no house brand tomato sauce. Lots of holes in the frozen veggies. Holes where certain kinds of pizza should have been - a full stack of Digiorno pepperoni in thin crust and rising crust but none of their cheese pizzas.
No one was buying the BOGO bagels (we didn't either as there are still some in the freezer). Mixed bag in the bread shelves with plenty of some things and none of others (lots of wheat but no pumpernickel). No regular Nilla wafers but plenty of the reduced fat version. They did have Keebler vanilla wafers. Keebler Club crackers were in quantity in multigrain but only two boxes of the originals and I had to squat down to find them at the back of that low shelf - so I took advantage of the BOGO.
No bleach or spray disinfectant/cleaner (they had a little bleach the last time I was there). Most of the dishwashing liquid was gone. Lots of empty space in the vitamins.
Less than half the shoppers were in masks - none of the store personnel. Those masked ran the full age range from 20-something to us old people ;-) Saw one kid - boy maybe 8 with his mom. Possibly not yet mature enough to stay home alone so she dragged him along? Neither masked. We had the only "fun" masks (cloth, with print superheroes male & female of the current century). Saw a few N95 masks on people leaving as we went in.
Lucked up when I took the buggy to the last checkout. Hadn't been in line a minute when they opened the next checkout and we were zipped right through. I told the checker that we were wearing matching masks so we didn't take the wrong spouse home from the grocery store. Yes, being masked is serious but there's no reason we can't find a little fun in it.
Grocery shopping is expensive when you're not going often and you also hit the comfort food: Ruffles (but they were BOGO), one pack of chocolate covered marshmallow topped cookies (yes, they're decadent ;-) plus the fresh strawberries and blueberries. We were there almost an hour and it cost $149.
That could have bought two decent tickets to a Braves games and some hotdogs - possibly even covered the parking ;-) Maybe next year? My better half really likes baseball and one of my prep items got a positive review the last time the Braves were in the playoffs. Our power went off about 20 minutes before the end of the deciding game. The room went dark but the pure sine wave UPS kept the cable box and the plasma TV playing along happily and there are flashlights in every room. The plasma TV was more $$ than the same size LCD version but the plasma screen has a wider viewing angle so you see a decent picture from anywhere in the room.
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Post by texican on Apr 10, 2020 23:54:11 GMT -6
We had the only "fun" masks (cloth, with print superheroes male & female of the current century.PP2, Guess you found a couple of pair of the grandkids old underwear to make the masks.  I told the checker that we were wearing matching masks so we didn't take the wrong spouse home from the grocery store. As if your spouse would allow that.  When shopping in Sherman last Friday, I bought a grab box of Cheezits, two boxes of Nabisco Crackers, a double box of Wheat Thins and a very large box of Ritz Crackers. Have the cracker munchies fixed for a while. Also bought 8 bottles of Peter Pan peanut butter so now have nine bottles of Peter Pan and a box of single serve Jeff peanut butter. The dogs and I like peanut butter and crackers. Should last for a while. Sams had no peanut butter. On line, I bought three very large bags of chocolate and eight bags of sugar free chocolate. The dear wife will eat the sugar free chocolate, but prefers her chocolate with sugar. Also ordered 18 bottles of sugar free chocolate creamer for my one 3 cup coffee insulated tumbler each morning that lasts several hours. The dear wife asked why I did not get any hazelnut creamer that she likes and told her that it was not available. Skirted that problem, but will find some hazelnut creamer somewhere for her to keep peace in the family. She will use the chocolate creamer occasionally. Isn't shopping so much fun with the lockdowns. Be careful out there. Texican....
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 11, 2020 0:22:29 GMT -6
We had the only "fun" masks (cloth, with print superheroes male & female of the current century.PP2, Guess you found a couple of pair of the grandkids old underwear to make the masks. Actually, someone I know online is a quilter and had a number of "fun" fabrics - even the BatSignal - when I told her what I wanted. I'd guess the selection is now very limited as she mentioned that some of the fabric, when gone, could not be replaced. Guess I got my request in just in time ;-) |
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Post by willc453 on Apr 11, 2020 16:14:58 GMT -6
First off, will change the meme's I posted a couple of days ago in another few days. So long for 'em in that older post. As for Scolari's, they get a LIMITED amount of gizzards in each time. They won't order more simply because I was told they actually had to throw them away a few months ago because no one was buyin' 'em.?! WinCo has gizzards, but they're nasty. Foster Farms for chicken or NOTHING. Scolari's a mile away, WinCo is at least 15-20 minutes to get to and there's NEVER been a line into Scolari's since this all started. And already ate 2 packages of gizzards and got another out defrosting for tonights meal. So will run down there in a bit just to see if they got any more in.
As to Dads estate, that got f*cked up by H&R Block. AF sent him Dads w-2 or whatever form, brother takes it and his own tax paperwork to H&R Block so everything could be done in one swoop. Filer puts Dads paperwork as 2019 instead of 2018?! Brother found out and he chewed big chunks of a$$ from this guy. Guy has refiled the paperwork, but figure it's going to be a month, maybe 2 before Dads money is free to distribute. Apparently this can be done as the house has to be sold separately and he says the housing bubble has busted due to the virus. Eventually, there will be A LOT of money coming my way and giving serious thought about using part of it to buy Dads place. Just want to keep it in the family as our place we had at Homestead was sold to one of Dads wife boys. So in a way, it was kept in the family....though I've never met or been in contact with either of her 2 boys. There'll be more than enough money to stash for years to come and buy a used class A motorhome. With someone messing around Dads place, thinking of either driving or flying out there and just living in his place. If I fly, I can pack what I think I might need as I have a airline approved case for this. Just gotta see what the airlines are doing flight wise. Usually it's changing in Denver or Dallas/Ft. Worth, then to Tampa where brother can pick me up. And if I don't pack, he's got enough for me. Oh...he's worried about squatters which is why his youngest will stay there for awhile.
As for motorhomes, what's for sale on Craigslist is too expensive and I ain't buyin' at those prices. Hit Facebook marketplace for Reno/Inverness and there's a lot to chose from price wise. However, the biggest problem with motorhomes is the roof leaking or the tires rotting. Tires I can deal with, but NOT a leaking roof as that can lead to roof rot and even that black fungus sh*t if the water's been there long enough. Reno and places around Sacramento have motorhome at reasonable prices, but mulling over how to get there, buy one and get my truck back at the same time without having to rent a trailer for it via
Uhaul. Cousin owes me so thinking get her to take me in her car with me paying gas/food. Cheaper than Uhaul...I hope.
As to this virus, got the feeling it's going to come back if everything opens again on the 30th. But if everything does open as sorta, kind of normal, will be stocking up on things just to be safe. And my make human pc program came in yesterday!!!
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 11, 2020 18:18:27 GMT -6
I'm giving serious consideration to staying status quo for 30 days after things are opened back up. Masks for grocery and other shopping, etc. No point in exposing this old body to any more bad things than absolutely necessary.
The grocery store did have yeast when we were there so I'll be working on some yeast-raised bread in the next day or so.
The Easter Sunday meal is already planned, with some slices from the Christmas ham out to thaw, sweet potatoes in the pantry and we picked up a slice of carrot cake at the grocery's deli.
Happy Easter to all!
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Post by texican on Apr 11, 2020 19:44:27 GMT -6
Did manage to order Hazelnut coffee creamer last night for the dear wife and some cokes and stomach pills from Walmart. No problems until the next one arises.
Happy Easter and remember why. All glory to God.
God bless all.
Be careful out there.
Texican....
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Post by texican on Apr 11, 2020 19:45:53 GMT -6
Bret,
Didn't you say something about a couple of three chapters on the Smokes and the twins?
Your fans are chomping at the bits.
Texican....
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Post by willc453 on Apr 12, 2020 16:08:56 GMT -6
The Virus: 30 days staying at home
Days 9 and 10
As for supper last night, it was shrimp scampi with me microwaving some of the rice I had made earlier. Daryll had NO problem in wanting some when I called out to him what I was going to make. Still kind of weird to me how we get along now that we're living next to each other, something I NEVER expected to happen. More cold rice, cinnamon and sugar for breakfast, though not this much this time. Drank one of my orange juices with a glass of milk, then time to go to work. Got my 5 pound thumper out of my drivers bag and started driving those garden stakes into the ground on Daryll's little strip of land in the patio area. Thought of doing the same on mine, but figured let's go for flowers to add color to the area. Figured Mom would of liked to have had some-thing like that when she lived here. F*ck, wish I'd been a better son during those years.
Kind of surprised when Daryll came out of his den to see what was going on as usually he doesn't get up until much later after playing World of Tanks most of the night. Hmm...
wonder if he'd like to have some 1/35th scale tank models to actually look at instead of those virtual ones in his WoT garage? God knows I got a sh*t load of them in the big shed. Maybe even do some small dioramas with a figure or two next to them so he understands how big they were. But have a lot to do and it'd be awhile before I started any of that.
Anyway, told him I was going to plant a bunch of raspberry bushes on his strip of land and I could see his eye light up with him gobbling down a bunch of them once they got big enough to bear fruit. Not that he offered to give me a hand with the posts or stringing (hanging?) the left over chicken wire I bought over 10 years ago. Or paying for anything, but before that got hung, had to get rid of the grass growing there which took me around 2 hours? Then maybe an hour getting the plants planted. Figure it's going to be a few years before I can really get them winding thru the chicken wire and bearing fruit, but it was a nice thought.....about 20 feet of raspberry bushes covering 4 feet of chicken wire. Checked my strawberry planters and soil is till damp, no watering needed. Grow you f*ckers, GROW! Be nice to have a bunch of 'em in a bowl of oatmeal or rice for breakfast. Watched the hoop video again, then to back yard with my tools. Of course, the first one is ALWAYS a b*tch, but I had EVERYTHING I needed to get the job done. However, made sure EVERYTHING was right/perfect on it BEFORE starting the next one. Must be a pi**er when You can't give me a wedgie hunh God? Didn't realize I'd spent so much time in getting these covers in place and working on making the other beds when Daryll tells me he hit KFC for a 20 piece bucket. Took 2 legs and 2 breasts, along with getting a large container of mashed potatoes and gravy while he kept his mac and cheese. Put my lunch on the telephone spool as my table, grabbed a couple of dr peppers, some paper plates and a big spoon for the taters and gravy and proceeded to chow down with me in one of the folding chairs. Really nice to have such a lunch under the trees shade. Afterwards, took my pills and said it's nap time with me resting my feet on the telephone spool. Fell asleep with no problem, waking up about 2 hours later with some daylight left to work on the beds. Once it started getting dark, said enough, searched the net, etc. as normal.
Things seem to be getting worse with the number of people getting sick and now dying in larger numbers. One thing NONE of the news people have been covering in any way is how there seems to be NO MORE drive by shootings in L.A., murders in Chicago, NYC, etc. Of course, these deaths don't mean jack sh*t compared to those who were killed last year in those cities, along with traffic accidents, suicides, drunk drivers, etc. However, on YouTube downloaded a video about the Spanish Flu of 1918. Watched part of it, where the f*cker actually mutated THREE times, becoming more deadly each time, with the 3rd one being a real mother f*cking killer. As in more Americans died from it than ALL the troops we lost in WW 1, WW 2, Korea, Vietnam and now, the Gulf War bullsh*t. So now I'm thinking really BAD thoughts....what if this coronavirus mutates just like the Spanish flu? Thing is, the world is having the same trouble with this virus as those did back in 1918....people getting sick/dying, not enough medical equipment (gowns, masks, etc.), medical personnel, then doctors/nurses getting sick and dying. And back then people got around either by train or ship for mass transit. A sh*t load different than today, but at least the stay at home quarantine SEEMS to be helping, something they didn't do back then. Why think bad thoughts? China's ordered 200,000 body bags from 2 countries, along with them buying a sh*t load of medical equipment and food from Australia starting in December of last year which was when the virus is suppose to have started then. And now there's suppose to be a SECOND virus infection in China with it denying it, along with lying about the number of dead that's already occurred.
Next morning I'm at WinCo around 06:30 and 8th in line waiting for it to open with grocery cart ready to go. Actually got a pack of 24 roll of toilet paper, 4 pack of paper towels and paper napkins. Figure I can use the napkins as a$$ wipe as I've done it before I started prepping. Two cases each of cream of mushroom soup, tomato and chicken noodle soup. Twelve boxes of that spiced apple cider mix, then 12 more of the sugarless variety which isn't as good but still better something than nothing. Twelve boxes of instant gravy, 10 packets of instant potatoes, then lettuce, celery, green onions and radishes. About 2 pounds of walnuts, though I'd of loved to have hazelnuts, but at those prices for them vs walnuts..... A family pack of porkchops and about screamed at the price of their steaks. Try $12 for a pack of 2 per pack EACH? Motherf*cker. It's not like I'm going to eat Elsie the cow. Back to get about a pound of mushrooms and 3 large bottles of garlic salt powder and 2 pounds of garlic powder from the bulk item section. Six containers of regular salt, then bought 5, 1 pound boxes of fine ocean salt which was actually cheaper than regular salt, though it doesn't have iodine in it. This was along with 3 cans of coffee and 4 boxes of tea bags. Still have those 3 pickle jars Dan got me a few years ago and figure why not make some sun tea some time this week? After loading everything in the back of the truck, decided to cover it with the tarp I'd used to cover the horse sh*t awhile back. But I flopped the tarp so the sh*t side was face up, then tied tarp to bed. Good thing too as I found out later on. Hit Del Taco for 6 green bean burritos, then to Dollar Tree to see what they had. Got some stuff and while it was being rung up, happened to see a guy next to my truck and trying to lift up that tarp?! I was out of the store in a heartbeat, telling that guy to get his d*ck beaters off my tarp and away from my truck. He took off running down the street empty handed. Went back inside, apologized to those in line and the cashier who understood why I took off like I did. Get home, unload everything, stacking the canned goods and paper products in the 2nd bedroom. Daryll was happy for the 3 green bean burritos.
After supper, dicked around my dioramas, then surfed the net for a bit. Uh oh.... on Youtube, caught a video about rats and the homeless. Seems L.A. And the rest of California can afford money for illegal aliens, but NOT cleaning the TONS of garbage generated by the homeless OR dealing with the rat problem. You know you're in a world of shit when you seen DOZENS of them scurrying for cover or going thru the trash in open sight. Got the feeling this might bite people on the a$$ if they don't get a handle on it asap.
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 12, 2020 19:36:25 GMT -6
Some of us see debt as a load not to carry. 11 more payments on the wife's SUV and we'll only be dealing with month-to-month expenses. Can't complain much as the SUV replaced her 20-year-old Camry - definitely got our nickel's worth out of that vehicle. If I didn't see having 6 months' expenses cushion as important, we could pay the SUV off now. I do need to swing by the ATM and get a few $$ to have cash in hand if needed. Does anyone else remember the satellite that died a number of years ago and many credit cards stopped working because there was no satellite link back to the banks? The Galaxy IV satellite failed on 21 May 1998, taking out credit cards, ATMs, pagers and who knows how much else - article here: www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-05-21-9805210138-story.htmlWhat if something similar happened now, with possibly limited crews to bypass the failed satellite and switch the load to other satellites? How many dish antennas on gas stations, grocery stores, etc, etc might need to be aimed at the new satellite to restore service? How many field techs are available now? Another $200 or more in cash might be a very good thing to have. Paranoid? Nah, just aware of history and that history repeats itself. Will Covid-19 have a version 2.0 and 3.0? I don't know but it seems prudent to make allowances for that. I'm aware that another 90 days of this will have some people in similar straights to some in The Great Depression but without the CCC and the like for other employment and even with cheap gas, those who did a Tom Joad load of everything tied to the truck really don't have a place to go to find work. The entire country is a Dust Bowl right now. The Smithsonian Channel has a good special on the Spanish Flu, even covering some of the mass graves that have little to no markings on them, such as Europeans who came to work on new US railway projects and died of the flu before anyone learned where their families were - men who went to America and disappeared into unmarked graves. Remember that most people carried little ID in those days so identifying them and contacting family in Europe would have been hit-or-miss. If we needed to do serious cutbacks in expenses, cable TV is one of the less essential things but I would miss the Smithsonian Channel and some things on Discovery Channel and a few others. However, some (not all) of that content is available on Youtube so we'd likely drop cable TV and keep the internet. Our weather forecast is for "Strong Storms" to come in around 9PM and run until about 5AM - sounds like backup power weather to me, even more so when there have been reports of a tornado on the ground in Birmingham which tells me just how "strong" those storms might be :-( I did check the solar backup system late yesterday and it was fully charged and ready to go. It's been cloudy most of the day today but cloudy skies can maintain a full charge on the battery bank when it's not being used so it should be fine if needed. The little gen is full of gas so it's ready to go and there are 15+ gallons of treated gas if we have an extended outage (the 1600 watt inverter gen runs 4-6 hours/gallon at half load - which is our typical "Wait until daylight" load). Yes, I have a spreadsheet for that ;-) Also have a spreadsheet that lists the peak power of fridge, freezer, garage door opener, etc and turns cells from green to pink if the 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter is approaching overload so I know how much can be run if needed. |
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 12, 2020 22:01:43 GMT -6
Just got the first of what I expect to be a series of alerts on the Weather Radio - Tornado Watch for us and surrounding counties (5 or 6 counties deep in all directions) until 7AM. We've had a little rain and some thunder loud enough to be felt. Close to half the state is under a watch or warning of some type, as the weather map overlays for that entire area are mostly yellow but with some orange and red plus we now have some serious wind making noises with the chimney caps.
March is a little late making its exit "like a lion" ;-)
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 12, 2020 22:45:44 GMT -6
poweroutage.us/ is showing about 500,000 outages from Texas to Virginia. This is a strong storm and it is causing lots of damage wherever it travels. I'll be up a while longer so I can shut off the main breaker to protect everything in the house if things get squirrelly during the heavier parts of the storm. Winds here are 15 to 25 and gusting to 35 so a good chance of trees losing limbs. The thunder is rolling, sometimes going on for a minute or more but it's still mostly distant as I'm hearing it and not feeling it. Possibly more cloud-to-cloud lightning than cloud-to-ground as I'm not seeing flashes out the windows. Meanwhile, I'm reading some old PAW stories...
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 12, 2020 23:17:43 GMT -6
We're under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the next hour or so - winds to 60MPH. Looks like most of the threat will be past by 4AM or so, based on the current storm movement - just need to skate through the next couple of hours...
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Post by texican on Apr 13, 2020 0:04:26 GMT -6
Earlier this evening we had a viscous thunderstorm blow thru with lots of rain that caught me out in the barn. The dear wife told me to get her umbrella out of her vehicle, but being a man that I am I didn't. Once the storm let up I grabbed an old broken umbrella off one of the rabbit cages and made it back to the house without getting too wet. Sometimes acting like a man does have it's down side.
Winds blew thru after the main storm went thru and blew stuff off the table set up under the carport. Winds were estimated at 35 mph gusts not what PP2 is reporting at 60 mph predicted. PP2, hope y'all are ok.
The winds reminded me of when I was in college in west Texas and the winds would hit and one day as I walked bent over across the campus there was a young college girl that could not walk against the wind so I wrapped an arm around her and got her to the next building out of the wind.
Be safe and careful out there.
Texican....
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 13, 2020 6:21:19 GMT -6
Even with 4 or 5 Weather Radio alerts for severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches, there was just one close (radar confirmed) tornado which was about 20 miles from us but it doesn't yet have feet-on-the-ground confirmation from the NWS. Trees down elsewhere in our county and the surrounding counties but no branches bigger than my thumb on the ground near us.
There was one lightning flash visible out the window I could see and the thunder was 6 seconds behind it so that strike was over a mile away (sound travels ~1100 feet/second).
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Post by texican on Apr 13, 2020 11:50:52 GMT -6
Even with 4 or 5 Weather Radio alerts for severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches, there was just one close (radar confirmed) tornado which was about 20 miles from us but it doesn't yet have feet-on-the-ground confirmation from the NWS. Trees down elsewhere in our county and the surrounding counties but no branches bigger than my thumb on the ground near us. There was one lightning flash visible out the window I could see and the thunder was 6 seconds behind it so that strike was over a mile away (sound travels ~1100 feet/second). PP2, It is good that the violent weather did not causes y'all damage. Texican.... |
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 13, 2020 16:57:18 GMT -6
There's a cousin up in the Fort Oglethorpe area who hasn't answered either cell or landline or returned a call. Having seen some of the wind damage up there (county newspaper website has pictures of a paint store that's now mostly a hole in the shopping center wall), I'd not be surprised if power is out at their house and/or the cell towers or a cell tower was lost to the wind. When a line of power poles is leaning at about 15 degrees and a McDonald's sign looks like it's doubled over from a punch to the text area - and those two things are at 90 degrees to each other, you know something powerful and possibly spinning was pushing them around. Remember that Uverse, FIOS and Xfinity all-in-one communications packages need power at the house and at the local high speed data terminal. Uverse has very little backup in our area and I don't expect to be any better elsewhere. We'll be checking with someone else in that area who might know actual status.
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Post by willc453 on Apr 13, 2020 17:17:47 GMT -6
papaof2: Will Covid-19 have a version 2.0 and 3.0?
------------
There's a YouTube channel called China in the news with a Indian or Pakistani lady giving the news. Now their news run 4-5 minutes to as long as 25, with the later basically combing a lot of the shorter news stories. There are THREE forms of coronavirus in case no one knew. A, B & C. A is the one we got from those returning from China. B is what Europe got from their people returning from China and China now has the C version which is a mutation of the B version. China's government is lying like a mo fo. Wuhan was opened for travel and it's estimated FIFTY-FIVE THOUSAND people have fled the city, with everyone in China now stocking up big time on rice and other essentials. Scaring the government because the shelves can be emptied really quick and of course, going to take time to get them restocked. So they tell the people everything's fine, don't panic/hoard food. When the government tells you NOT to panic, you know you're in DEEP kimchee. If we go back to "normal" at the end of the month, wonder when/if our A virus will mutate. Italy and some other country is already suing China for future repatriations or whatever it's called. Japan has found out with China producing a lot of their goods for Japan, suddenly they weren't getting 'em. So the Japanese govt. is offering financial incentives to move back to Japan so their supply chain won't be disrupted like this again. At least, hopefully. As far as dish antennae's go, only see some on people's home...everyone else has gone to cable, whether Charter or AT&T. Craigslist has some for free and thinking of picking up some to make bird baths out of.
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 13, 2020 17:37:13 GMT -6
I'm aware of at least two versions of Covid-19 but I'm more concerned about a mutation six months later as the 1918 Spanish Flu presented. Some of the Spanish Flu reports are truly scary with an apparently healthy person dead less than a day after first showing symptoms.
Will, you might also consider making solar cookers out of them. There's probably a Youtube video or 20 about that ;-)
They can also be used as part of a wifi extender. If we lived close enough to our county library branch, I'd have a Yagi wifi antenna up on the roof and aimed at that building ;-)
For those that don't have internet at home and now can't sit in Mickey D's to get wifi, the library's wifi service is up so people can park in the lot and access the internet.
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Post by 9idrr on Apr 13, 2020 21:05:26 GMT -6
Thanks for updatin' us, guys. Good to know that folks are doin' okay.
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Post by willc453 on Apr 18, 2020 13:53:20 GMT -6
Well, it may be awhile before I post another chapter(?) on this thread as some things have changed and figure it'd be a bit more interesting. And yeah, thinking of going to the dark side with it. Like China's now saying oops, there were a few more deaths due to the virus than we originally stated. Checked and found out several meat plants have closed because of workers getting the virus and I think 1 of them died at home because of it. And when I went to Home Depot on Wednesday, found it had a line of 15-20 people to get in...meaning a customer leaves, a new one could enter. Same story on Thursday. Which is another reason for me to changing my story a bit. Winco is now open, no lines along with about 98% of their shelves (including meat) is back in stock, along with tp, etc. Grabbed a 12 pack of tp in case brother, aunt, etc. would need some. Brother hit Dollar Tree yesterday, grabbing 2 of their 4 packs of tp. Asked if I needed any which I thought was nice of him. And looking over via Youtube what other diseases could occur, maybe mutating with the coronavirus. What's REALLY p*ssed me off is when I went to the Indian reservation for my monthly supply of smokes. (6-7 cartons per month) ALL their smoke shops are closed until further notice?! WTF?! Had to pay an extra $8 for a carton at a smoke shop near Scolari's. Thing is, the liquor stores are open. But got about a pound of tobacco (2 flavors) for when I smoke a pipe. Screw that guy and his prices down the street. Ended up hitting Winco Wednesday/Thursday for groceries as I had forgotten some stuff...$180 worth for both trips. Usually it's like $80 for the month. 10 boxes of spiced apple cider (10 packets per box, $1.89 each), along with another can of coffee and if Dollar Tree has 'em, tea.
Curious...anyone know of seniors getting mugged for their food in the beginning stages of the virus? Gas is (I think) $2.03 a gallon, though many of the brand names want to rip you off from $2.39 to $2.45 a gallon. Thing is, ALL gas for Reno, Sparks, etc. come from the SAME fuel farm which is located at the trains switching yard in Sparks. And anyone get their stimulus check yet? Wells Fargo says it's receiving them now. That's if for now.
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Post by 9idrr on Apr 18, 2020 20:18:22 GMT -6
Haven't bothered to see if the check has hit the bank yet. May have to go do some shopping tomorrow so might go tap the ATM at my bank. No excitement in our little town.
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 18, 2020 20:32:10 GMT -6
Cut the grass around the house yesterday but got a late start and didn't have the energy to use the string trimmer after the riding mower put-put-putted to a halt with a clogged gas line. Got it to an area that slopes and coasted down behind the house. Got about halfway to the equipment shed when the pushing suddenly got easier - my somewhat younger neighbor had seen me pushing the mower and came over to help. He asked if I needed help with the problem but as I told him the gas line is only a foot long and I can easily clear it. Got some tools, turned off the gas valve from the tank, put a shop rag under the carb end of the hose and disconnected the line. Got some dribbles - as expected with the valve off. Turned the gas valve back on briefly and the gas flowed freely so I'd managed to dislodge the problem. Connected the carb back and it fired right up. Finished the yard and then got the backpack blower to clean the walks, the drive and the grass blown in the road (I don't want to see backups on the side of the road that I caused) then the mower and then everything back in the shed. The solar powered lights in that shed still work fine after more than a year so my design seems to be what was needed for the occasional 15-20 minute lighting needs out there. Using a windup timer as the switch means I never forget and leave the lights on ;-) Planned to do the trimming today but the TV weatherman's "maybe an hour of rain overnight but most of you probably won't have any" was just so much smoke - enough rain for the road to be wet at 4:30AM and it was pounding on the chimney caps before 7AM. Maybe tomorrow? We'll be doing the every-two-weeks grocery + Costco trip this week, plus getting some spring flowers and some grass seed (but the seed doesn't go down until the storms pass). "Two to five inches of rain with locally heavier amounts" would wash away seed if it had an entire haystack over it :-( Plus the thunderstorms with the chance of tornadoes. The storm map (tornado probability) for the Southeast this week looks like a battle plan for taking out the major cities... Since the truck is getting 3 weeks to the gallon, we have plenty of fuel for the generator in the power goes out. The lights never flickered during the Easter weekend of tornadoes but there are no guarantees about the path of the next storm until the day after it happens. Re-reading some old PAW fiction and occasionally trying to add to the multiple stories in progress on the computer. I might have added 100 words to one of them today... Lots of seniors being robbed but this one taking groceries and wallet was in March: mynews4.com/news/local/south-lake-tahoe-woman-suffers-serious-injuries-after-being-robbed-of-groceries-and-walletsearch for senior grocery robbery 2020 If you don't include the 2020, you'll get things for multiple years. |
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 18, 2020 21:55:36 GMT -6
I like the TV weather explanation of the NWS storm warning for our area:
"For this area, high winds, heavy rain, brief tornado."
I think they need to define "brief". Is that in time, width or distance traveled? ;-)
As long as that "brief tornado" misses us, I'll be back.
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And yes, I can see wheels turning in certain minds with a totally different explanation of "brief tornado". ;-)
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Post by texican on Apr 18, 2020 22:10:30 GMT -6
Guys,
Fuel north of us is $1.02 per gallon, 72 mile drive. Locally fuel is $1.28 per gallon.
Food supply is still fair, but the cost at the local little grocery store have gone up. 10# bag of potatoes went from $4 to $6.25 per bag. Most all items were up in price except snacks which people can remember the price.
The store did have a limit of 10 persons inside at a time and probably around 10. Three of us were wearing gloves and masks. None of the staff were wearing gloves or masks, but had sneeze shields installed at the checkouts.
Still have to go after fuel, down to half a can of regular.
Be careful out there.
Texican....
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