It's Cold

The weather just sucked today.  The HOA is having all of the roads in the neighborhood sealed.  This consists of spraying hot black goo on the roads to seal the asphalt.  Our day was to have been today.  They had to cancel BECAUSE IT IS TOO COLD.  It's March!  We just put the hat on the new cactus, and threw a flannel blankie over the bougainvillea because it will be cold tonight.  That bougainvillea is just covered in new growth and I'm going to hate it a lot if it's damaged.

Yesterday was warmer, but the clouds were really thick all day.  It actually was ok because we spent the day smearing spar varnish on the viga poles and some of the headers over the gate, garage and a window.  It's tiring, up and down the ladder, move the ladder, paint over your head, and like that.  The western sun pretty much toasts everything.

This was the sunset last night.  It was pretty good.

For some time, Jim and I have wondered who the president would blame when things went to hell in a hand basket.  Originally we thought it would be the vice president, but it's looking as if it will be the Democratic governors.  He's already lit into Washington and New York's governors because they have not been suitably deferential and grateful.  Now he's after the governor of Michigan.  Currently Michigan has the fifth highest death rate in the country, and they're not getting any help from the feds.  They're trying to buy from domestic and international vendors, but with no success.  The president was on Hannity last night and opined that the new governor, the woman, was difficult to work with.  Later in the show, he allowed as how Governor Cuomo is overstating his need for ventilators.  He's just not buying it, his gut tells him that.  He's going to kill us all.

Oddly enough, today he said he activated the Defense Procurement Act to order GM to make ventilators.  What he doesn't seem to grasp is that ventilators are made from a lot of parts that come from pretty much everywhere.  It takes a while to get your supply chain in place.  They also have tens of thousands of lines of code running them.  They're very sophisticated machines, they force air in, they remove CO2.  It's a non trivial task to stand up a factory.  It's going to take more than a few tweets in all caps.  Currently Medtronic makes them in Ireland, and there is a factory in Washington state whose name escapes me.  The time to have begun this effort was in January.  We can't blame the virus on the president, but blame for the crappy response sits squarely on his shoulders.  Here's an interesting article.

The whole situation is just amazing.  The president gets on a podium everyday at 5:30 and tells lies and attacks reporters.  A previously credible scientist, Dr. Birx, is now standing up and downplaying the severity of the virus.  Data modelers send in best (unlikely) case, and probable case forecasts.  Dr. Birx is presenting the best (unlikely) case as gospel.  How do you get people to stay at home when the criticality of this is being undercut everyday?  People are sending Dr. Fauci death threats.

Daniel Dale is live tweeting and fact checking the daily presser.  Once again the great gut over rules science.

And there was also this.

I could go on, but I think I won't.  This is giving me a headache.