Well…I learned something this morning…bleach solution of 2 tablespoons in a quart of water hurts much less than 91% rubbing alcohol on your hands…so, I’m going back to the bleach starting today…just got back from doing a grocery run and it was pretty much painless…not too busy and got everything on my list…spent about 80 bucks at two stores but I’m in and eating from my freezer for the next month…even got bird food so the birds will be okay, too….I guess it was far enough from the panic of Monday that things have settled down a bunch…still some limits on a few items and they didn’t have any flour of any kind but I can live with that…I did bleach everything coming in the house again and I think that may be the plan for a while….more later…
March 26th
Well….that was a little better…didn’t get up til 5:20 this morning and that was with getting to bed early so that was progress…and I don’t feel too bad this morning other than the normal aches and pains….I did get a few things done yesterday but that leaves me with not much to do today so I am going to make a swing out to see if I can get some groceries today….don’t have a lot of hope that the stores will be re stocked after the panic Monday and the debacle of the old folks hour but I’m good for a few weeks anyway so no big deal…I may even put gas in the car just to say I took advantage of the low prices….I may gt started on the outside of the house today but I need to sharpen up my hatchet first…I do need some hedge clippers to do what’s left of the shrubs out front and get started trying to shape them…don’t really want to do all the work of removing them and starting from scratch….but they have been left so long I don’t think I can salvage them…we’ll see…there is clean up to do, too so I might just ease into working on the outside…I do need to make a raised border for the garden in the back yard so I can get the dirt tilled and ready for the end of frost and planting…I did notice that the leaves that were a huge pile behind the garage have composted down to about half of what they were and I need to turn them so I can use them for the sunflowers and garden later in the year…and I need to plant the seeds in pots today so I can get ahead of my garden and be ready in a month or so…but I need to have coffee and lots of it right now….along with the news…more later….oh, as a note…my domain had expired this morning and my son had to renew it so this one is late….
A busy day….
Well…what started out as a pretty easy day has turned into a busy one even though I didn’t plan it that way…after getting up a little after 5…I vegged and read the news for a while and then got after the downstairs project by 6:30 and that took until around 9 to finish up and it isn’t really done yet…have to clean up but I’ll do that tomorrow after I get the veggie seeds planted…watched Perry Mason for a while and then dug the ham out of the freezer and got it thawing out under pressure in the instant pot and then worked on making soup for the next hour or so…okay, I know I say this every time I make ham soup but this batch is the best one yet…I’d pay 2 bucks a can for it since it came out so good….and I think part of it is that I used a Cook’s spiral sliced ham that I put the brown sugar glaze on when I cooked it and that just added some depth to the flavor…it has a sweetness on the front end and then the tomato and other vegs come out with the ham…and it has a brightness to it when you’d think with all that ham and potatoes it would be heavy….and I have 3 full 2 quart containers of it to enjoy over the next few weeks…if they ever lift this quarantine, I need to save one of these for Tom since it is the best one yet…after lunch, I got out for a bike ride and did 12 hard miles that I just got back from….so, working from 6:30 til 1:30 is enough for the day and I am taking the rest of the day off….maybe….
This is too funny….
Well…it appears that the senate is going to vote on a stimulus package by the end of the day tomorrow that includes 2+ trillion dollars to be injected into the economy and to support our healthcare system in this time of extreme crisis….after that, it will need to go over to the House where I’m sure Nancy will tweak it some to make it even more fair and that all that money will help people and not just corporations as moscow mitch wanted it to do…one thing that came up that is written into the bill made me laugh out loud even as trump and his grifter family were drooling at the prospect of scamming millions of dollars for US taxpayers…it is specifically written into it that no one that is in government or related to them or in-laws or any other way related is eligible for a dime of the money…no bailouts for trump’s properties at all…now, that should not have had to be written in since the existing ethics rules should have prevented it…if trump and his family had any ethics or the repub party would enforce those rules…but they are just as bad as him so Schumer had to write it into the bill to make sure that they can’t grift…you know, I can see the smoke rolling out of idiot boys ears right now and we can expect a tweetstorm about how he won’t sign the bill because something, something…and will make up fake reasons why…that tantrum will be something to behold and should be coming at any minute…other than that, it appears that Schumer also got oversight of any money going out to corporations so the repubs don’t get their 500 billion secret slush fund, either…sound like Chuck did a good job and I think some cridit goes to Steve Mnuchin, too…we’ll see…
Good job, Michiganders…
Well…with the second day of stay at home here in Michigan, there is a company who is using location data and other things to track how effectively the tactic is working…and the report they put out this morning says that, so far, Michiganders are taking this order very seriously and are doing the best job of isolating in the country…so, I say good job, Michganders! Now if we can just work on the whole hoarding thing and realize that you don’t need to go to the grocery store every day and you don’t need 10 gallons of milk or 200 rolls of toilet paper…as an old guy, I thank you all for not exposing me to this damn virus and I say keep it up…we can beat this if we just pay attention and keep doing what our health experts are asking us to…
March 25th
Well…that was a little bit weird of a night last night…just sitting here vegging and watching some tv and noticed that I wasn’t coughing at all and my head was clear…and that hasn’t happened since last year and it has me a little confused since even when I take my allergy meds, it’s never that good…so, I decided to wing it last night and not take any allergy stuff or ibuprofen since I am trying to make the allergy stuff last without being able to get more right now…and I’m not too bad right now so I have hope that it will continue all day…and I got almost 5 hours of sleep last night which is an improvement over the past few days…okay, I’m coughing now and my head is plugged up again…damn…I did get a nice ride in yesterday but there are too damn many people out on the trails who have no damn idea that there are other people out there, too…I can’t count how many times I had to slow down and wait as they had their dogs and leashes spread across the trail…aargh…I have been watching a new nest that is being built along the trail and it is pretty huge….must be some kind of raptor like a hawk or kestrel and I can’t wait to keep watching it to see if their are hatchlings over the next couple of weeks….didn’t get a lot done yesterday without much energy but I do have lots to do on the downstairs project today that will keep me busy all morning…need to make room for planting my veggies to get them started and ready for the final frost so I can plant them outside…I think I’ll do two of everything in pots and then add more as I can plant outside so I’ll have veggies right through the summer…bought some sunflower seeds that are supposed to give me plants that are 15 feet tall and I can’t wait to see that…and, reading the packages, both types I have yield edible seed so that will be cool when they finish….more later…
The real “death panels”
Well….I wonder if everyone has as short a memory as the repubs think we do…I sure remember the lies when the ACA was being worked on with the repubs shouting every damn day that there were things called “death panels” that would condemn the old folks in this country to death after they reached a certain age or started to need more care…all of it a blatant lie to scare people into hating the bill…but that didn’t happen and the ACA is more popular than ever, especially in these pandemic days. But just yesterday, and I think I mentioned this a little, the new repub trial balloon that is being floated is that we are going to have to sacrifice older people to the virus to get the economy going again by removing the measures that are in place across the country to keep people isolated and prevent the virus spread…the idiot trump started it the other day when he said that he will “open” the economy in 15 days if the damage that closures are doing too much for the economy…and one of trump’s parrots, Lt gov Dan Patrick of Texas (of course) said that killing hundreds of thousands of seniors could be “worth it” if it got the economy going again…asking what kind of country would be left for his grandkids if we wait until the virus is controlled…yep, the “pro-life” party is just perfectly fine killing lots of seniors if his rich buddies need to steal even more money from the rest of us and they can’t do it when the economy is shut down. We know one of the reasons the idiot boy trump wants the economy going again no matter the cost is that it is costing him money with his hotels shut down….and nothing else matters except him and the world’s effect on him….the one thing that idiot boy doesn’t understand that he didn’t do anything to “close down” the states that are trying to stop the spread of the virus by isolation so there isn’t a damn thing he can do to “open” them…do you think Cuomo or Whitmer are going to listen to anything that the big orange moron says? They are going to do what the science says, what the experts say to protect the people and not corporations….so bloviate as much as you want moron, we in Michigan are going to do what’s right for us and you can just go right to hell….
They made it worse…
Well…just got back from Meijers with no groceries after trying the senior hour shopping…and it they think that this is a good idea, they are nuts…there was a line of over an hour long outside the store since they were only letting a few people in the store at a time…but, in the line outside, people were standing next to each other with no semblance of the 6 foot distancing that is necessary to prevent spread of the virus…so, I said the hell with that nonsense and just got back in the car and came home…I have enough supplies to last a month or so here but the birds are going to be out of luck next week…this segregated hour sounded like a good idea at the time but with the execution, they made it worse for everyone involved….oh, well…
March 24th
Well….that really sucked…again…tried to go to sleep at the normal time last night at 11 but after an hour I gave up and got back up til almost 1….and then up again at 4:30 for a grand total of 3 1/2 hours for the night…and I am feeling it right now…going to use up all my energy doing the grocery run here at 7 for senior hour and then I’ll be back here for the next 3 weeks….not sure how long I can sustain this insomnia, though…will probably have to take a nap later today but don’t want to impinge on the ability to sleep tonight so I may have to just power through the day…I do want to get out on the bike today since the temp is going to over 50…but I won’t be in shorts no matter how warm it gets….since I’ll be out early enough that it won’t be that warm….didn’t get a lot done yesterday but I am going to try to finish up cleaning the kitchen and putting the rest of the materials and tools away…it has started to look good with much less clutter everywhere and I do need to extend that to the rest of the house….need to get the trash out and the box that the new bike came in is still sitting in the living room so that will be done today…I did get some dusting done yesterday with a microfiber cloth I got at HF and that worked like a champ and I’m glad I got a bunch more of them the last time I was there…..I think today is going to be a low key one after no sleep last night and I am not going to beat up on myself if I take the day off….more later…
Just made it under the wire…
Well….things got even more real here in Michigan today when our governor ordered everyone to stay home for the next 3 weeks and closed all non-essential businesses…that basically leaves only grocery stores operating and health and food are the only two reasons you can go out…I am going to test that tomorrow morning when I am going to take advantage of Meijer’s 7 am old folks grocery hour to see what will be there after the panic buying that I’m sure is happening right now…at least they will have all night to stock the store and we old folks will get first crack at it in the morning…but, I’m sure there won’t be much there to buy…I have a few things to get but then I will be in for the three weeks…have plenty of food and maybe enough for cocktails for a couple of weeks so I’ll be okay…I did make it under the wire to get out to get stamps and all of my vegetable seeds for the garden that I am putting in after the last frost…but, I am going to start them downstairs in the next couple of days so I can get early tomatoes and peppers…and I got two varieties of huge sunflowers to plant along the fence just to get some seed for the birds…and maybe to eat if they are any good…and I got two varieties of big tomatoes along with cherry tomatoes and green onions, green peppers, and jalapenos…I forgot to get beans but I can try at Meijers tomorrow…the whole bunch of seed packets only cost 9 bucks so that was pretty cool…so now, I keep doing what I was doing anyway…not going anywhere or doing anything…but, I can still ride my bike so I can cope easily….oh, and I’ll go over 600 miles for the year tomorrow so I did make it before April…yay!