Lostin76

A thousand times this.

We think they are from the same litter, but Buffy (the female) is definitely bigger. They do like to cuddle up together and they fight like maniacs. Around here hair ties are like your ice cubes. They will play with them for hours. Will have to see if they like ice cubes, Chloe loves them.

I recall seeing the movie poster for the movie, but have never seen it. I love series that you wouldn’t think would be interesting, but they take the subject and the characters and make it something compelling.

It would not be polite or within forum rules to share my thoughts on this doctor or his conclusions.

So, Ruthie the foster kitten went to her furever home about two weeks ago. She really captured our heart in the five days she was with us and it felt good to help get a kitten placed into a home. So, we are fostering two 16-week old kittens currently. They are INSANE and so much fun. They can go from being a purr machine in your lap to attacking each other in an instant. We’ve had them since Saturday and not sure how long they will be here. Otis the cat is not amused by their hijinks. Chloe the dachshund loves them and one of the kittens just adores her. That’s been sweet to see.

Yeah, we don’t either, but I keep hearing so many good things about it. Definitely going on our list. You wouldn’t think it would be compelling, but it kind of reminds me of a manga series I used to read a long time ago about the Japanes board game Go. It was super compelling and often stressful.

Am glad I’m not the only one without a fancy home office. We live in about 500sqft, so one of us is hunched over the coffee table and one of us the kitchen table. The bathroom is super close to both obviously. We have a lot of dueling Zoom calls each day and often, one of us will take our laptop to the bedroom if we have a call that we have to lead/talk a lot on. It’s definitely challenging!

I don’t know how it happened, but it does happen. I stumbled onto a Kelly Willis YouTube video of “Harper Valley PTA” and I’ve been a bit obsessed with it lately. I recall her from the early 90s and loved her “That’ll be Me,” “Heaven’s Just a Sin Away,” and others, I think that’s where it started. But I just love her confidence and spunk on this song while her band mates kind of groove along and then react to her as the song progresses. She’s just cool.

Makes it sound so much better than the sweatpants I’ve been wearing for the last several months. My wife finally made me order another pair. 🤠

It’s crazy! I’ve never even thought of stuff like that, but thank god someone smarter than we are is thinking about things like this. And yes, I’m sure they have studied how different sands have different impact on golf balls. You and I are like, “Whut?” We don’t have any other heavy hitters scheduled in the next month or so, but I will always share with my adopted Hoosier family if we do.

They did, but the people embracing this study aren’t reading it critically or even closely.. I really don’t mean to be a dick here, but I’m tired of people trying to prove that you (or the ones you love) are better off w/o masks during a worldwide pandemic. It kind of lessens the benefit if you wear a mask, and everyone around you is too stupid, insecure, or proud to get the message. This isn’t hard. We all come from different backgrounds and live in different geographical areas, but it seems like we a have all begrudgingly adopted mask wearing to protect those around us. These “studies” just give selfish people ammunition to be selfish.

At the risk of being called Fancy Pants again, which was a first for me, we had a Q&A with Rick Bright today. He was really into the granular details of COVID, our response, and the vaccines. When we asked about PPE shortages, he covered that well by saying that yes we will run into shortages when it comes to administering the vaccine. Not just gowns and masks, but crazy stuff like sand. Yes, sand. He detailed how many vials are needed for these vaccines for how many millions of people and then talked us through what type of sand you need to make these vials. You can’t just go the beach and grab a bunch of sand. It has to be medical grade. Dude was totally in charge of the annoying minor details you need to consider to pull off a vaccination effort for the entire US. Highlights were when she said he would absolutely not take a vaccine from China or Russia right now. He does say that he has high confidence in current US vaccines, but would still like to see more data. Also mentioned that he is worried about later stage human trials for vaccines, b/c people will not want to risk being in the placebo group. Already have people in the early trials that are upset about not being in the vaccine group. He ended with some questions about young doctors going into government service and said that it’s the best thing you can do if you want to help others. He was very positive about his experience in the White House and had no regrets about serving on the new admin’s COVID team. Just seemed like a stand up guy with encyclopedic knowledge of the issues facing us. I’m sure he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way by bringing up these important details, but if I’m the boss I want someone on my team who is thinking of these things.

Is that the one about chess? Looks really good!

We had a good laugh about this one in our faculty meeting this morning. From the study: “The findings, however, should not be used to conclude that a recommendation for everyone to wear masks in the community would not be effective in reducing SARS-CoV-2 infections, because the trial did not test the role of masks in source control of SARS-CoV-2 infection. During the study period, authorities did not recommend face mask use outside hospital settings and mask use was rare in community settings (22). This means that study participants' exposure was overwhelmingly to persons not wearing masks.”

I guess “spread” is a pretty common word when you are talking about feeding at parties, etc. It’s only this year that it became a dirty word.

🤣 Wow, that’s got to be on purpose as a joke?

Thought this was pretty cool. Dolly Parton donated $1M to Moderna vaccine development. They even thanked her in the NEJM article.

Yes, it’s a testament to @Colonialcrester and the mods that we have a place where we can successfully blow off steam and disagree without trolling or attacking each other. And I think it’s totally natural for us all to feel anxiety over things. This has been a CRAZY year.

Ha, yes. Sorry, that was my intention, but realize it wasn’t stated. Friends for sure. And your comments about anger issues really resonates with me. I shouldn’t be as angry as I am lately, but it’s definitely a thing. My wife and I have not been personally impacted by this, but my level of anxiety and anger is definitely up there.

Well damn, this is the last thing you want to see on this thread. Jeff, I hope you and your wife recover quickly. And also my salute to her as a health care worker. Also, want to acknowledge a couple of recent posts. First @IUFLA, totally respect your posts and think of you as a friend also. We can disagree and still get along. Also want to mention that @mrflynn03 and I are as far away as possible on the political spectrum, but I think he and I both let our emotions get the best of us on this thread sometimes.

Nope, I was in the wrong. Just frustrated by how badly this is going. That’s about what we had hoped for. Great news.

Nope, it’s too hard. And the golf links await! Also, the media is mean.

The “terrible policy” would be at the national level. We literally have a leader who thinks we are “turning the corner,” when it’s clear that cases are increasing at a shocking level. The White House is a f#$cking cesspool of COVID infections and inaction, and there are still - miraculously- people willing to defend our woefully inadequate response. In case people have forgot, we are a nation that historically gets things done. We make shit happen. We put people on the moon and defeat facism across the globe. But now we shrug our shoulders about controlling a pandemic that other countries have already vanquished. We have simply give up. It’s too hard. If this is too political, so be it. I just don’t care anymore. I’m over pandering to people who are too ignorant, insensitive, or impatient to deal with this.

Comparing outdoor gatherings with mostly masked attendees and indoor gatherings is ridiculous. We know it’s much more problematic to have indoor gatherings with eating/drinking involved. Our Thanksgiving is just my wife and her parents, but it’s not happening this year. Sure, we would probably be fine, but if everyone says that and thinks that they should be the exception, then we will have a huge spike in cases.

Darker ales tend to give me a bit of a headache, but I do like the flavor of a nice winter ale or barley wine. Of course it could also be the quantity of beer that leads to the headache. 🤠 I just ordered some beer from Burial in Asheville. So glad that they ship nowadays. I think they are in my top five breweries in the US.