Whoever lives here has been putting out a different quilt every morning. They vary in size and shape and style. We wonder why this is done.
Is this not a thing of beauty? It's a fully and beautifully restored 1972 VW, he also has a bug in the same color. The guy that owns them is an older hippy, we always flash him a peace sign and he gives us one, too.
The saguaro on the bank is putting out buds. Hopefully it will bloom. It's later than a lot of them are in blooming.
Yesterday we went to Costco around 3:00 or 3:30. It was a good time to go, we did not have to stand in line. They are requiring masks, and limiting people to two family members per card. They had toilet paper, paper towels and kleenex, one per household. There was zero chicken, some cow. Quantities are limited to three per household. They did have a lot of frozen scallops, tiny shrimp and clams. What was disturbing is how empty the second and third tiers of the racks were. Usually they're all stuffed to the gills, but not yesterday. Fifty percent of the nation's meat processing plants are off line so the lack of meat is not surprising.
Well, what do I want to remember from today? Governor Abbott's leaked phone call acknowledging that deaths will go through the roof after reopening business? The orange man going to Phoenix, and getting off the plane with no mask and shaking hands with people? Although this was billed as an official visit from the White House, he treated it as a rally, playing the rally music and being in rally mode. My tax dollars paid for this crap. The news that the Coronavirus task force will be disbanded at the end of the month? Or the Fox news threesome discussing how social distancing doesn't work and no one needs to do it - as if they would know. How about the fact that the orange man has said Fauci can't testify before the house because he's too busy, but he can testify before the senate, presumably because it's full of republicans; and then there is the add on detail of he will only accept oversight from republicans, but not democrats. I'm pretty sure the constitution doesn't contain a provision for the executive branch to decide who does oversight and who doesn't. John Ratcliffe has once again proposed for the DNI position after being previously rejected by the senate. I wonder if his credentials are any more accurate and impressive as they were last time. The orange one has clearly pivoted from being a War Time president to being a campaigning president who will run on the goodness of the stock market (as opposed to the strength of the economy) and he doesn't give a damn who he has to kill to accomplish this.
The fight with Covid-19 is not being won. New York city is doing better, but not the rest of the country. The rural areas are just going to take it in the head.
The thing that has pulled me up short today is the fact that the virus has mutated. Doctors have thought for awhile that there was a bad strain, and then a worse strain, and they were right. The new strain (D614G) has a mutation on the spike that the virus uses to hook onto humans. It's different enough that people who had the first version of Covid-19 from Wuhan will not have immunity to this version. Much of the current vaccine work is being done based on the Wuhan version, which may or may not be effective against the new mutation. The new mutation is increasing in populations. So, this is not good. NBCNY has an article up, as does LA Times. I'm linking to NBCNY, in the text of the article they link to the BioRxiv publication that originally detailed the research.
Update to post 6/29/2020: Looks like the D614G mutation research is gaining traction. WAPO had a good article today.
Did you get your stimulus check? We have not. I went out to the IRS payment status tool. If you're going to do this, have your most recent tax return on hand. You must put your address in exactly as they have it on file. I did it wrong twice and they locked me out until tomorrow. I haven't filed yet this year, and as of 2018 I had a South Dakota address with a weird format and I blew it. Jim did it correctly and the website said they did not have enough information to send money. This, despite the fact that if you receive Social Security, you're not supposed to have to do anything. So we gave it routing and checking numbers. You also have to have your Adjusted Gross Income amount from your most recent return and well as how much money you owed. We don't ever get refunds, I don't file quarterly, so we end up paying at the end of the year. So, if you don't have your money, go check and see what is happening. I don't trust these people to do anything right.
Some days I just can't handle even listening to the news. I get so angry at this insane world of ours. Killing someone over a stupid mask. What the hell is wrong with people.
ReplyDeleteWe did get our stimulus check. Even after 35 years of working for that organization, I still can't believe they can screw things up so badly. So glad I'm retired.
Finally, someone else not receiving the money! No sign of it for us either, same results on the website, locked out, wrong info. not enough information, sheesh!
ReplyDeleteThat sucks you haven't got your stimulus money yet. It's a funny thing about graphs ... everyone seems to use different numbers so you don't know which one to believe. I looked up several and they all show a different result. Sadly, there will never be a vaccination that works for everyone because it will mutate. The only good news is you have a very tiny chance of getting it. We all are just hoping for the best.
ReplyDeleteI had read about the mutated virus. great. I've had to back off from the news but it's impossible to avoid all of it. yeah, Fauci can testify before the Senate but not the House. The Senate won't ask the right or hard questions. I hadn't heard him say he would only accept oversight from Republicans. as if Republicans will provide any. they just rubber stamp whatever he wants because he might give them a nasty nickname.
ReplyDeleteit's getting hot here too. not as hot as where you are but we also have horrible humidity.
I haven't heard that, about the mutation. GREAT.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame we couldn't arrange for this virus to target only the people who refuse to social distance or otherwise don't believe in its severity, while leaving the rest of us alone.
I read about the mutated virus, too. Did you see the speculation that the more virulent version of it hit the east coast, and the so called milder version hit the west, and that helped explain the crazy spread in NYC? It is crazy what out government is doing. The president's ineptitude and moral bankruptcy is staggering. We don't have true numbers about how covid is impacting the rest of the country because in many places they are not testing, or not reporting if they do. Stay safe, my friend.
ReplyDeleteMy hair stylist called yesterday to say she was back in business; did I want an appointment. No - I'm not ready to be out that much specially with someone who is touching many others and then me. I want to see how bad it will get before our governor decides he made an error. I like that quilt square - I may try to copy it for my current cross stitch project.
ReplyDeleteI was a week or more getting through, figuring out the correct combo of keystrokes not be be locked out for another day, and then having enough info to get a meaningful answer. I'll bet it was two weeks of daily tries. Finally, bingo, "Your check will be mailed on Friday!" I went to my box for the mail that day, and pulled out the check that was to be mailed in three more days.
ReplyDeleteI got locked out today on my first try. I failed to notice that the IRS changed my middle initial for me (to Jim's) and thus I typed my name wrong. Maybe tomorrow....
DeleteApparently there's some uncertainty among experts about the story of a mutated virus:
ReplyDeletehttps://nyti.ms/2L7Ng8A
You are right to not trust these people. They are totally incompetent. I did get my incentive money but my sister hasn't yet. I'll let her know to check the site.
ReplyDeleteWe got our stimulus payment -- not check -- it was direct deposited into our account; I guess because we have received tax refunds this way for the past few years. We are not drawing social security. Unfortunately, we didn't get as much as we would have if we hadn't been proactive and filed our 2019 return early. Our income increased dramatically between 2018 and 2019 since we took out extra to buy land this year. If only we'd known, we would have held off on filing our 2019 return. Oh well, there are people who need the money a lot more than we do, so we're not grousing too badly. There are far more important things to grouse about, like the orange child. So frustrating!
ReplyDelete