Sunday, August 01, 2021

And suddenly, it's August!



46 comments:

  1. I spent Saturday cleaning house here, feeding birds, cats, and caterpillars, then zooming to Lake Champlain to catch photos of the end of the 41 mile, 6 hour Valcour Race, after which I went to tend Youngest's chickens and clean more of his old house. I'm tired! Planning to sleep in a little, then attend VT*Grand's horse competition, then back over to Youngest's for more of same. (I'm checking the chickens daily because a skunk has a den with babies under the shed that is *right next to* the chicken coop! Hoping I can fill dig-holes faster than Mama Skunk can dig them. The chickens move to NH next weekend.

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    1. Wil, Root*Center*Son and our new neighbour took 2nd for the day! Yay! They were in 3rd place with the finish line in sight, so they popped the spinnaker and overtook the boat ahead of them. It never ceases to amaze me that an all-day race can end with 2 boats so close together!

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    2. I guess the idea of a chase reminds me of it, but I remember the story of the Seeadler [Sea Eagle], the last active sailing warship. It was a full-rigged ship, originally British, captured by the German navy in WWI. There was no place left for German commerce raiders to refuel, but sailing ships don't need coal. [It was fitted with a small diesel engine for supplementary power.] Masquerading as a Norwegian lumber ship, they managed to make their way out through the Straits of Dover. They raised hob with Allied shipping in the Atlantic, then in the Pacific. Needing to have the bottom scraped, they hauled the ship up on the beach of a small island in French Polynesia (it was too big to enter the harbor), where it was wrecked by a tsunami.

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    3. Monarch Butterfly Update: And we now have 6 chrysalises and 2 more caterpillars in position to spin theirs. There are 3 more who will be ready to join them in a day or so and 5 more still chomping away for after that.

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    4. In the classic Patrick O'Brien sailing novels, a British sailing vessel disguised itself as a whaler to sneak up on an enemy and broadside their ship. Apparently, the idea came from a visit to the Galapagos Islands where a small creature was found that disguises itself as a thorn to confound predators.

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    1. Can you now recite the entire movie?

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    2. Not scene by scene--it jumps too much. I'm *still* picking up bits of what Edwin would call "business". . . stunning how much is pscked into those two hours!

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  3. Susan, I lost my whole opening window, which I have re established except for Taniwa's--it's evidently still secret because of that mess in 2013, can you give it to me?

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    1. Susan, thank you, SO MUCH!!! I have put it in an email and mailed to myself as backup.

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  4. Had in bookmarks, and the Firefox changes bookmarks after fifteen years, and mine all disappear. Wish computer hotshots could just stop themselves.

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    1. Not only computer hotshots but ALL OF THEM. I went to buy a box of Equal Thursday. Plain old Equal. But no, now they've ADDED caffeine *and* Vitamin B12. I bought one box in case I can't find the original in other stores, but - damn! I drink decaffeinated tea and I *know* where the drugstore is if I want vitamins. Bored idiots just have to tinker!

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    2. Maybe a production or distribution problem.

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    3. Betcha the guy at the store checked the wrong box. . . .

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  5. The Anti-Vaccine Con Job Is Becoming Untenable [Click] “Why targets of deliberate deception often hesitate to admit they’ve been deceived.” [Sarcastic remarks deleted; mustn’t make the poor dears feel bad.]

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    1. Would it be to our benefit at this point to help some of the people who were duped save face? I mean, if it would get more people vaccinated...

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    2. I don't see how we could do that.

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    3. Well, my inclination is to shake them, but for that I’d have to get within 6 feet and actually touch them. Another option might be some sort of amnesty approach.
      Mind you, I tired this with a friend who voted for DT and, when asked, told me she still supported him even though she didn’t support the insurrection. When I felt I couldn’t remain friends with her, I got mean messages from two of her (white male) relatives.
      So I suppose it all comes down to “you can’t fix stupid.”

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  6. NYT: A New Surge at a Santa Monica I.C.U. [Click] “They thought the worst of the pandemic was behind them. Then a new wave of cases arrived at the I.C.U. at Providence Saint John’s Health Center.”

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    1. Eighty percent local vaccination rate isn't enough? That's nearly enough to make a person try to score a booster shot.

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  7. WaPo: Their neighbors called covid-19 a hoax. Can these ICU nurses forgive them? [Click] “For the nurses in the Appalachian highlands who risked their lives during the pandemic, it is as if they fought in a war no one acknowledges.”

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    1. This one hurt. These are my neighbors. And they're nice enough. Until this.

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  8. GOP Lawmaker Urges People to Take Virus Seriously [Click] Bad man that I am, I feel no sympathy for his travails.

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  10. ‘Grandmas buying shotguns’: US dealers see ammunition shortage following firearms sales surge [Click] I doubt there has been any change in the incidence of inadvertent shootings of family members.

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    1. A shotgun is a good choice for Grandmas. Even if you're shaking like a leaf the person being aimed at *knows* they'll be hit.

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    2. We should have thought of this! What if all the non-violence folks simply buy up all the ammunition?

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    3. Interesting idea--a marketplace solution! I guess we could figure out what to do with the damned stuff when the time comes. But the manufacturers would increase production to meet total demand. [I admit that I am a wet blanket.]

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    4. You would think they would, but here we are with a shortage.
      Just keep buying it and give it to whomever destroys such things…bomb squads?

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  11. Hey Alan! I got that SinuSoothe nasal spray from England, and really like it! It usually makes me sneeze once, but I can soon breathe much more deeply. I love that it’s homeopathic! Thank you so much!!

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    1. In the beginning it does irritate a little, but one gets over that. Glad it works for you. Remember to shake it well before each use. I noticed that they gave a homeopathic description of it, but I think that is simply advertising. I should call it "natural."

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    2. Yes, a homeopathic medication is, by definition, so dilute it is almost pure water. But people seem to throw around the term just because they think it sounds good.

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    3. Whatever you wanna call it, it’s good stuff. 👍

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  12. Two records today. First, my semi feral kitty rescue spent 45 minutes on my lap purring like krezzy. Second, I weighed myself for first time in weeks, and the toll is now 45 pounds! Botta love the Keto god and Dr. Atkins who started it all. None of you will ever have seen me at this weight, it's about twenty pounds below that. Funny, didn't start it for the weigh loss aspects but for the diabetes and fluid retention in my legs. This is just a gift.

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  13. Vox: How much worse can the coronavirus get? [Click] “The virus will keep evolving. Here’s what scientists do and don’t know about the future of Covid-19.”

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  14. Florida breaks two records in two days! [Click] “A day after it recorded the most new daily [Covid-19] cases since the start of the pandemic, Florida on Sunday broke a previous record for current hospitalizations set more than a year ago before vaccines were available.”

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  15. The Atlantic excerpts Alexander Vindman’s new book, Here, Right Matters: An American Story [Click] “I knew the president had clear and straightforward talking points—I’d written them.”

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    1. That's breathtaking, Alan. Glad he was there. . . .

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