Random Photos and No Stockpile

Every morning for the past four years I have awakened and thought to myself, surely it can't get any worse.  Every damn time, I have been wrong - it does get worse.  Before I launch into today's screed I have some attractive photos.  

I took this one in January 2019.  Is it not lovely?  The way the clouds are layered is particularly attractive.  It was in a Facebook memory, so I fetched it up to the blog.

A day or two ago there was a dove on the wall, it's a  Mourning Dove, also known as a turtle dove.  It was chilly, it's puffed up to trap body heat.

Their eyelid skin is blue.  They're pretty birds, and they have a striking note to their wing beats.

This was today.  Hardly any wind, clear skies, and warm enough for shorts and jerseys.  Before leaving, we stood and talked to a neighbor who was pruning a Texas Ranger, and another neighbor who was watching him do work.  It was so unbelievably pleasant.  Remember, all you people living where it's cold, we had weeks of 110 degrees last summer.

 

Some of the nights have been cold - we're low budget so all we do is put a styrofoam cup on our baby cactus.  These people made hats.  Totally cute.

We went to  Costco yesterday.  I spied a five pack of Clorox wipes in someone's basket; feeling like a hound on the scent I ran to the cleaning supply area, but did not find them.  Spotted another five pack in a man's cart, stopped him and asked where he got them.  They were up in the front of the store, we'd walked right by them.  So, now we have a five pack of Covid killing Clorox wipes.  Due to all of our other pandemic shopping, there's no where to put them, but I will not complain about that.  Note the giant rolls of aluminum foil in the background.  Notice that I have not showed the giant pile of toilet paper I've accumulated over time.

This was on twitter today, I find it astonishingly amusing.  American Thinker is a right wing magazine.  They, and many others, have received letters from the lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems.  Apologies have been demanded and tendered for the lies they have been telling.

As you no doubt recall, President Elect Biden announced last week that he would be releasing all of the stockpiled vaccines for immediate deployment.  This was met with resistance from the administration medical talking heads as being short sided and potentially dangerous.  Guess what?  There are no stockpiles - they were released in December.  Azar had to walk back his previous statements about Biden's plans.  From the WAPO we learn:

When Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced this week that the federal government would begin releasing coronavirus vaccine doses held in reserve for second shots, no such reserve existed, according to state and federal officials briefed on distribution plans. The Trump administration had already begun shipping out what was available beginning at the end of December, taking second doses directly off the manufacturing line.

Now, health officials across the country who had anticipated their extremely limited vaccine supply as much as doubling beginning next week are confronting the reality that their allocations will remain largely flat, dashing hopes of dramatically expanding access for millions of elderly people and those with high-risk medical conditions. Health officials in some cities and states were informed in recent days about the reality of the situation, while others are still in the dark.

This is very disheartening, I had dared believe Jim and I would be vaccinated 1Q21, but now I doubt it. 

Secretary of State Pompeo has spent his last week or so burying foreign policy landmines to hurt the Biden administration, so I guess this is another landmine for Mr. Biden courtesy of the orange ectoplasm.  

So, yes, it actually can get worse.