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!
Not sure about politics today…
Well…not sure if I’m going to talk about politics or not today…haven’t found anything yet that I want to comment on..oh, yeah, there is one thing…have you seen the trial balloons being floated by the idiot trump and his minions that they are about done with doing anything about the virus since it is harming the economy too much to protect people? Yep, they and their propaganda arm, fox news, have started to say that protecting people from the virus can’t be done cheaply so they are going to give up in a week or so and just let everybody get the virus with the prospect that millions will die just to get his precious frickin stock market to go up again and protect his re-election campaign. I think there is more to it than that, though and it has to do with trump’s mental illness and the fact that he just doesn’t have the capacity to focus for the months necessary to manage this crisis…and he is getting bored with the whole thing so he is just going to declare victory and let people die as he reopens factories, restaurants, and bars…letting the chips fall where they may…and they will fall with millions dead just so he can go golfing again. These millions of dead could have been avoided if the repub party hadn’t turned into a cult and had removed the criminal trump from office in December…but they couldn’t be bothered with doing their jobs or thinking ahead….the blood is on your hands, repubs….
March 23rd
Well…damn…woke up to snow on the ground for I hope the last time this morning but I am a realist and remember when I was young that we had snow days in April so we’ll see…and my allergies are really bad this morning so I am miserable and will probably be that way all day…but, I did sleep okay for a few hours and this feels like a normal start to the day…I did do some cooking yesterday so that won’t have to be done today…the turkey soup came out good but I used black olives on the pizza that don’t taste like anything and that was a little disappointing…I think I’ll put some green olives on top when I heat the pizza later and see if that helps…and maybe some parmesan, too….I think I’ll probably go back to regular flour, too since bread flour is more expensive and I don’t notice any difference…it did come off the pizza pan easier without sticking but that may have been that I let it bake longer to ensure that the crust was done….I think I’ll make ham soup after this turkey container is done just to get the freezer filled again…I do have chicken that needs to be frozen but that will mean that I can’t buy any protein this week even though Aldi’s has chicken for 49 cents a pound again….oh, well…not much to do today…I think I’ll just wing it this morning as I wait for the temp to come up enough to go out on the bike….think I’ll probably have to make more coffee with the way I feel right now….I really wish they had jump starters for people…I could sure use one right now…more later….
Good on ya, Harbor Freight…
Well….as you know, I talk about Harbor Freight quite a bit here since I buy lots of cheap stuff from them to work on the house…and I also signed up to get their catalogs since that saves me money and it’s fun to just pass the time looking at them…and sometimes I find things that I didn’t even know I needed…and I get e-mails from them sometimes…and today, I got an e-mail from the founder with this remarkable action in it…they are going to donate every respirator and every box of gloves they have in their stores and warehouses to hospitals across the country…and all the hospitals have to do is ask…and he lays out the process for the asks in the e-mail in clear terms…and then explains to customers this is why they won’t find any of those items in the stores and ask for people to understand that we’re all in this together and everyone needs to do their part to help. I wish that we had a competent government so this wasn’t necessary but as it is, Good on Ya, Harbor Freight…nice damn job…
They just don’t know how…
Well…I’ve come to a realization after watching the idiot trump and the entire federal government fail at the response to the deadly virus that is going to kill many, many Americans….they just don’t know how to respond…this is what you get when you purge the entire government of expertise and replace it with political appointees that have no experience or desire to do their jobs…none of them, starting with idiot boy, even care that they are in way over their heads…they just go out and lie to make the moron in chief feel better…as the head of FEMA did today when asked why they haven’t invoked the Defense Production Act to commandeer factories to make medical supplies that are necessary…and his answer was that they didn’t need to since companies were phoning him to volunteer to do stuff…what stuff he wouldn’t say…and then went on to say that it would be worse to have leftover supplies in warehouses than people dying from not having protective equipment….so things that should have been done months ago like asking doctors and hospitals what they need and getting every damn factory started on making respirators, masks, shields and the rest of the PPE’s needed just wasn’t done because the entire repub party believed that the virus was a hoax…or because trump believed it was and not one of these assholes had the guts to tell the moron that he was wrong and was going to get people killed. Now, it’s left up to governors to try to save their states since idiot boy just stated “we’ll step in when you fail” to the governors who are asking for something that the federal government has always done….and I’m sure the problem is that the states that are asking are blue states as I’ve said before…watch for the response when it’s Florida or Mississippi asking…you can bet the incompetent in chief will fall all over himself to help them since their governors will kiss his ass and tell him he’s doing just the bestest job…we’re all gonna die….