February 16th

Well….running pretty late today with not getting out of bed until after 7 and I wonder why that would be? I think I slept okay but feel pretty slow right now…I wonder if it could be from the vaccine? My arm almost doesn’t hurt and the slight fever seems to be gone, too, so I guess it’s about over….man, got 4 more inches of snow last night but I’m going to wait a while to get out and shovel…can’t remember being so sore from shoveling, shoveling, shoveling….at least it’s almost over with getting toward March and next week is going to be in the upper 30′s to around 40 on moving day….so, I think we’ve survived another Michigan winter….not going anywhere today and all I’m going to do is pack…have two totes done already and have 6 more here to pack today…should have the kitchen and all of my car stuff done today and then I need to start getting my tools packed but it’s too damn cold to work out in the garage so I’m going to let that wait til later…not much to do today…just packing and cooking and getting the move organized in my head…after much more coffee that is….more later….

Some good virus news…

Well…yeah, I’m writing a lot today but I’m getting other stuff done too…got the first two totes packed in the kitchen after I ran errands…even got some salt to put on the ice outside the door so keep my old butt from falling…but, that’s not what this one is about…just read an article from an epidemiologist that had a bit of good news on the virus in it…in his calculations using the amount of Americans infected, along with the pace of vaccinations, he estimated that we could reach herd immunity with 75% of the US population with some amount of immunity to the virus by the 4th of July….and that is with the current rate of vaccinations at the already doable 2 million per day…and that rate should go up as competent people take charge of the vaccination efforts. So, this could be the biggest damn 4th of July celebration in the history of the country if we achieve it…but there is still a long way to go…so, keep wearing your masks and social distancing…we can do that for 4 more months if the reward is a maskless summer and getting to see our family and friends again….

A president for all Americans…

Well…damn, it feels good to have a president for all Americans again and who doesn’t think people in states that didn’t vote for him can just go to hell. Just today, Joe Biden authorized emergency fund for the state of Texas that is getting battered by the worst snow storm there in the past century…2.5 million people are without power and travel has essentially halted since they don’t have the type of equipment that we in the snow belt states have…and they really shouldn’t have it for a once in a century event. Here’s the thing, Texas is part of the US and Joe understands that and it was one of his best campaign slogans that he would be president for the whole country…and he is not “thinking” about getting them aid or putting conditions on it like the idiot boy did for states that didn’t vote for him…nope, it’s just all hands on deck with FEMA taking control of the relief efforts and Joe pouring in whatever is necessary to help our fellow Americans….just as it should be. This is what a real president looks and acts like…no bitching, no bluster, just getting to work to help people…it’s just a damn shame that the folks in Texas will still hate all dems no matter what happens or how much is done for them…we’ll still know what a real president is and be thankful that Joe is in charge…

Don’t know what it is…

Well…have been wracking my brain over the past few hours to try to come up with a topic in politics without much luck…hmmm…I could talk about the small fissures that are starting to appear in the repub party as the never trumpers are starting to actually do something to rid themselves of the great orangeĀ  blob of hate…a year ago, there would never have been 7 senators who would have voted to convict trump or meetings with a couple of hundred old school conservatives trying to figure out how to wrest the party from the grasp of the Qanon morons who are running the show there now. But, there are still the cynical hypocrites who are still attached to idiot boy’s ass with superglue and 44 senators who think that inciting attacks on them is just peachy and perfect behavior for a president….so, the task is going to be a hard one that has to start now with all of the corporations that are turning off the money taps for repubs across the country…damn, they’ve even lost the chamber of commerce in the past couple of weeks because of the widespread support repubs in the house and senate had for the attack on our elections….so, who knows what is going to happen…you know what I want…and that is for every damn repub that was involved in this illegal attack on our country to rot in jail for a few years….there has to be consequences or they may just succeed next time…

Vaccine remorse…

Well…no, I’m not having remorse about getting the vaccine…I believe in the science behind them and would do it again in a minute…my remorse is the fact that there may have been someone else that needed it more than me and now can’t get it because it’s in my arm. When I was at the clinic yesterday, I really didn’t fit in since most of the people there were leaning on canes or in wheel chairs and the ones who weren’t didn’t move too well….and here I go striding through the place with my normal fast walk like I’m twenty years younger than anyone there…and that is still bugging me a bit…I probably could have waited til later but I guess I’m still part of the process of getting to herd immunity that everyone who gets the vaccine is part of…I try to not be selfish but I guess this is one time that it is warranted and I really don’t want to die from this damn virus or even get sick since it would cost me 5K in what medicare doesn’t cover….so, I guess I’ll just live with the idea that I may not have deserved to get the vaccine yet…but, there’s nothing I can do about that now….but that won’t stop me from thinking about it…

February 15th

Well…man, I’m sore just about everywhere and I wonder if it’s the vaccine or that I didn’t take any ibuprofen before bed last night? Or any allergy meds and my nose is running like crazy and my head hurts from the congestion…other than that, I feel okay…ha,ha….I did sleep okay last night but had weird dreams about an apartment I never lived in and people I never knew…but it was a dream and I’ll take any of those I can get…I did get started on the kitchen yesterday and I need to get out to Menard’s today to get some totes to pack all my dishes and the rest of my stuff in…I can get 18 gallon ones for only 4 bucks and that is only a buck more than u-hual wanted for boxes so I think that’s a good deal…I wonder if the 8 I need will fit in the car? I guess we’ll see when I go out to get them….didn’t get much else done but the vaccine yesterday but I do need to get started packing more today…and I need to dig the trash bin out so I can put it out Friday if I fill it by then….but, with how sore my shoulder is from the shot, I may wait to do that until tomorrow….more later….

Got my second vaccine dose….

Well…got my second vaccine dose today and that is a major relief and takes a load off my head…but, the side effects seem to be a little worse this time with soreness in my arm and a general feeling of being off and not feeling right…it hasn’t gotten worse over the last hour or so and I think this is perfectly tolerable for the results that have been reported for the Pfizer vaccine that I got…in a new study out of Israel where they compared the vaccinated population to their remaining unvaccinated people that had 600,000 people in it, they showed that a week after the second dose the vaccine was 95% effective and that grew to almost 97% after two weeks…and many in the vaccinated group who did contract the virus didn’t even know it the symptoms were so mild. So, there is hope and light at the end of the tunnel….I just hope that the Moderna and J&J vaccine is as good and people get vaccinated as soon as they can….I still worry about my kids and my friends who are not eligible yet…sure hope they get it figured out soon…

This is scary…

Well…you’ve all read about my real estate saga that played out over the past 7 months or so, but new statistics emphasize just how lucky I was to find and buy a house in this market. Just yesterday as I was doing my normal reading, I was astonished to see that the stock of available housing for sale is down almost 50% from last spring…and that is one factor in how screwed up the market is….when I was talking to my brother the realtor the other day, his new reality is the asking price has nothing to do with how much a house will sell for….in my case, I immediately bid 10K over the asking since I knew it was the best house I had seen and had everything I wanted and I didn’t want to lose it….in the cases my brother talked about, he is selling houses for 30 to 40K over asking and has 20 or more bids in on all of them….and the days of it taking months to sell you house is long gone unless it is a dump like all of the houses I looked at before I found mine. I guess what I have to say is that, as time goes on, I feel more and more lucky to almost have the whole thing behind me and to have a place to live that I’ll be in two weeks from yesterday…phew…

February 14th

Well…running a little late today with not getting out of bed until after 6 and then reading the paper….as I always do on Sunday…I wonder if I can keep that habit up after I move? Haven’t checked if I can get the press delivered out in Muskegon, or any paper for that matter…when I was young it was easy…every city had at least one newspaper and even two or three….but for some reason, the local news is not important anymore or it has gone online and that is just not the same….slept okay last night but wasn’t good so I’m feeling it today and will just ease into the day today…don’t have much to do but go out and get my second vaccine shot at 4:15 and continue to pack…I am going out to get some totes to use instead of boxes since I do need storage at the new house…and I can get 18 gallon ones for 5 bucks each but I wonder if I can fit them in the car? Going to get 6 of them tomorrow and then see if I need more….I did make progress on the kitchen yesterday but I’m not sure how much I’ll do today….Man U plays at 9 and I want to see that and I need more coffee and to read the news…I am going to have to widen out the driveway here to get the truck into it but I’m not motivated to do that right now…still have a couple of weeks until the move so I have plenty of time….more later….

We didn’t cave…

Well…look, I understand all the hand wringing here on the left when the house impeachment managers agreed to not call any witnesses in the senate trial today, but to call it caving is just a knee jerk reaction to wanting to get trump at any costs….we were never going to get 17 repubs to do their duty in the senate to convict the traitor in chief so the lead manager decided to take what he could get for nothing…and he got the statement of a repub congressperson that confirmed that idiot boy could have called off his thugs but didn’t…and that will be important in the following investigations of the roles of the rest of the co-conspirators in the congress and I defer to these brilliant managers on what the best way forward is…and it was even mentioned that the justice department is going to look at what idiot boy knew and when he knew it, so this isn’t over…not by a long shot…so, let’s stop the bitching for a change and just say thank you to Jamie Raskin and his team for putting together an airtight case that would have convicted trump if we didn’t have so many chickenshit repubs….and 57 out of a hundred senators voted to convict…and the 43 repubs will pay for letting trump off…again….