BIG BIG news on the Covid19

Last day of the month and the blog will go over the 5000 pages read mark and

Pageviews all time history

1,035,431

   good lord people are bored.   for some reason Bing was sending all sort of people to this place the last few days

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BIG BIG news on the Covid19 front - Dr Fauci was almost giddy!  For the very very first time there is good news.  SOMETHING WORKS.  Not much but it's the very first time ANYTHING slowed down the virus.  It seems one drug blocks one enzyme that Covid19 needs and in a large test group hospitalization went from 15 days to 10 days.

Now he says they have a base of operations that they can grow on.  Before they still had absolutely nothing to go on at all. Now like a jigsaw puzzle they found that very first piece that fit. 

Dr. Fauci said it reminded him of 30 years ago with AIDS.  Nothing could stop or slow it down but then they found one tiny bit of information and from that they could grow a knowledge base.

I had never seen him so happy!

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SO - a few months ago we hired a business to clean our ducts and vents for the first time in 14 years.  Got a text 2 days ago saying they were coming Tuesday and not to worry as they would be wearing full hasmat suits = WELL - THAT WILL BE INTERESTING.

then a few hours later we got another text saying maybe we could postpone until May 27th?  Yea - I guess the guys DOING the job did not love the idea of full hasmat suits.  LOL 

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STILL waiting for our stimulus check.  Not that we really need it as it will go towards large tips and helping small business.  But still . . . . waiting.

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Went to Pic n Save in Sun Prairie yesterday. The PnS in Columbus does not have Onion Bagels so I went to Sun Prairie.  Purchased about $90 in groceries, got home and . . . forgot the Onion Bagels  DAMN IT! 

90% of the customers were wearing masks.  A few had no masks BUT had gloves.  Not sure what good that would do.  And of course the customers NOT wearing masks OR gloves were handling everything it seemed.  Not that I am anal and too worried but geez. 

Speaking of Covid19. 

I was sent 15 graphs about how Wisconsin is doing with Covide19 which included breaking down where the virus is and isn't'.  Milwaukee, State line, and so forth.  

My take is that Evers is doing an outstanding job so far and doing everything right.  

I had to BLOCK a friend/acquaintance last night. A former councilmen and commissioner who insisted Covid19 was a mammoth hospital hoax and the pandemic was a made up emergency.

I don't need conspiracy theorist in my life even if he is a nice guy.  He just knows how to press my buttons. 

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I finished season 2 of Black Sails  - WOW  - Epic.  I'm still reading Republic of Pirates but found that Steven Speilberg has always wanted to do a pirate movie and is using Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton as a base for a movie. 

Since I love almost everything Michael Crichton has written I ordered the book.

S2S10 of Black Sails, the finale, was rated 9.5 out of 10 by 3000 IMDB people.   I had goosebumps watching it.  Now I have to wait for season 3 to arrive on Blu Ray.  If I stream it I do not get the extras which are really good,  and it's cheaper just buying the Blu Ray season.

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Had gusts up to 32 mph last night but JUST NOW my weather station alarms went off with a gust to 38.  Don't come a knockin if the house is rockin.

Warm weather is coming - maybe not a LOT of sun but warm  73 on Saturday and 70 on Sunday,  back in teh50s next week

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Avoid following too closely. We are detecting a quick rise in the bullishness of investors as the hopeful virus news is spurring an interest in stocks now that the indexes have moved up over 30% from their lows of six weeks ago. The bottoming pattern is thus far a “V” shape that we believe will develop into more of a range that could hold the indexes for the next few months and may be around 15% in size over this period.

We think it is important investors not get caught up in the short-term moves of the market that can cause swings in emotion between optimism and pessimism and instead take a more tactical approach of being more conservative after a rally and use pullbacks to add to positions. We see the likelihood of swings in both directions over the next few months leading to a more sustained uptrend eventually

Bob Dickey – Technical Strategist

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Trumps approval rating has been dropping off a cliff this month.  From 45.8 on April 10th to 42.1 today.

In Wisconsin Biden leads Trump by 5%
Michigan Biden leas by 6%
Pennsylvania Biden leads by 7%

In the Senate Democrats have a good chance of winning enough seats to take the Senate  and in the House the Dems will add seats.

The blue wave is growing every time Donny speaks.

OK - helping Elwood with filing for Social Security - almost done.

Cheers 

Essential Liberty OR "Let the Weak Die" is the new far right mantra

Ever since moving to Columbus my biggest windmill to chase has been the Auditorium and every year I put the word out of its existence.  ALMOST worked a few years ago when a woman spotted images of the auditorium on this blog and a group made large headways into developing a viable venue . . . but it fell apart.

Then a few days ago I put an image of my mom and her brother on a facebook page and now has over 850 likes and a large number of comments.

SO - last night someone had photos of our historical bank and  BLINK!!  a light bulb went on over my head (I was told - I can see what is going on up there).

I put a few images of the abandoned auditorium above City Hall.

The result was spontaneous.

540 likes in less then 8 hours and comments from all over Wisconsin hoping someone can do good and take on this project.

I have chased many windmills in my life but this is the #1 windmill.

There are so many comments about NEEDING to get this done but I keep reminding people that SOMEBODY has to actually do it. Not just talk about it.

MAYBE the word will get out and I can make city government another quagmire of issues with this project.  I feel out government NOW can deal with it as before there was a roadblock nobody could get past.  That problem is now gone.

I have contacted Matt the Econ Dude and we are on the same page and maybe some tours once this little virus goes away. 

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Had to order Season 3 of Black Sails.  SO SO amazing good and keeps getting better.  My plan was to keep getting teh cheap DVDs from that used DVD store in Madison . . NOPE!!  FAIL.  So I had to order it and I am ON A CLIFF!!!!!!

https://youtu.be/BXxazufM0x8

Why shooting a man-of-war in the ass with your weaker ship is not a good idea.




ODDLY when I first started this series I did not like any of the characters - now I LOVE everyone

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I was having a "conversation" with a 2 guys (that had a tag team) who was anti-business closing because of a little virus.

They commented that the revolutionary war was fought with small pox going around and no cure so why are we closing NOW, it's just the flu.

WRONG - John Adams said small pox was worse then ALL armys put together. One out of every 3 die from small pox and there WAS a cure.

I was forced to block both brothers.

"Let the Weak Die" so we can live our lives normally. 

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What happened to Micheal Moore - what a raving lunatic he has turned into.

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Cumulative streams on Spotify are down 28% in the last 3 months 

The LA Lakers received millions from the small business loans  . . meant for small business

Nuff said

Packers vs Pats in live simulations to watch

Two months ago today - Donald Trump - "One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear".  

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Hey you guys (or girls)  from Turkmenistan - say hello in the comments.  If you can.

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I'm on this facebook page called Forgotten Wisconsin and posted this photo Friday.

It's of my mom and her brother working the land . . . or something.    800 "likes"  29 "shares" and 80 comments.  I think this was taken in the early 1930s on their turnip farm.

My plan is to put all of moms stories in a blog for all to read about the past - for instance

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Pa once had an opportunity to join a county crew for a few days work on the roads. Naturally he grabbed a chance to make a few extra dollars. When the job was finished the crew was offered the right to help themselves to all they wanted of a barrel of red clover seed. Pa took a generous share, knowing that red clover would improve our poor soil. He broadcast it liberally over an area that was to become a field after the stumps were pulled.

Either the foreman had brought the wrong barrel or Pa had misunderstood. He had broadcast turnip seed the whole field area came up packed shoulder to shoulder with turnips.

That year Pa sold our potatoes, which were a salable crop, and we lived out the year on a staple diet of turnips.

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Meanwhile Gus and I went to Sassy Cow Creamery to get some milk and I did a drive around coming home and drove right past this . . .

WAIT - what did I just see?   

I turn around and stop a short ways away not wanting to be invasive.   I pick-up stops and I get this look that says "what are you doing can I help you stranger" .  

I point and say "WHAT ARE THOSE" and the guy lightens up a little.  Scottish Highland cattle.  

I put the word out that I would love to talk to the owners for real photos and that happens so now we have a date to go to their farm in Fall River as the have MANY MANY more with babies coming in June.  

Actually they look like Gus now who really needs a haircut.  Looks like a big puff ball. 

Golf courses are open and that whole social distancing thing is pretty much absent until groups break apart 100 yards off the tee to go to their ball. Watched all weekend where 75% of golfers just stood next to each other on the tee.  

3 of the four would be grouped together and one actually 6 feet away.  

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Strat-o-matic baseball - 18-9 and 1 game in first place. 

SOM365 - last place - dead last  30-51   OUCH   Well - it was a drafting n experiment gone bad.  SO MANY injuries.  I guess I'll have to pay more attention in 4 weeks when I try again. 

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If you have not watched BROKE - check it out.  It's not as bad as the trailers - actually it's very good show and deeper then you would think -  we love ALL the characters 

https://youtu.be/9mWl0JzfCTg

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Bob Dickey – Technical Strategist

Bottoming and basing. The markets are continuing to draw out what we expect to be a bottoming process and range for the next few months that could see the volatility remain high but perhaps not as high as it was a month ago. The market rally of the past month has created a short-term overbought condition that we see leading to a pullback of about half of the move, but we also see the high level of bearish opinion as an indication the sentiment is already at market-bottom levels. The net effect of this bullish-bearish split could be a market that remains in an overall range that does not satisfy either view as the markets continue to trade in a way we think fools the majority

 
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Warren is down to +500 becoming the VP.  Now bet $5 to win $25   When I put in my bet it was $5 to win $47.50

OH - I mentioned you can bet on "Madden football" games simulations - yo ucan eve watch the games and bet during the game  NOT THAT I EVER WOULD   no no - that would be silly - I only bet on the weather and after I called them out no morn weather bets.

Packers are +3 underdogs vs. Baltimore

You can watch the game here - packers play at 5PM but unsure if its Eastern ot Central time

If you wan to see the Packers last game vs. the Pats go here - it's a fun game to watch - I see there were 1200 people watching the game   these games are all coached by the AI so there is no human in charge.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/602717688?filter=archives&sort=time

HELP - I CAN'T STOP WATCHING LOL 

OH - Brady throws a pick 6 - LOVE IT 

for all games go here

https://www.twitch.tv/livefootballsims    

Trump is FINALLY in serious trouble

This comes from a friend of mine a political scientists at the UW 

While there is nothing to celebrate about the current pandemic, it is finally beginning to shift politics and the direction is away from Trump. He is finally in serious trouble.

For his entire Presidency Trump has enjoyed the strongest levels of support from the age 65+ cohort.  Back in early March Trump was +19% with the senior electorate.

 Seniors are becoming aware now that the Republicans basically want them to hurry up and die already and golly gee, that bothers them.  Trump's support among seniors fell 20 points since early March (basically a single month).  Seniors went from his strongest base of support to rejecting his presidency once they realized the GOP wants them to die and get out of the way so they can restart the economy. 

Guess good old GOP messaging that they should die already so we can open up our economy again doesn’t sit too well.  Imagine that.  Trump has become aware of his falling levels of support among seniors because he put out three ridiculous tweets the past 48 hours that he thought would make everything copasetic with the 65+ age  and Republicans since these four recent polls detected his crashing support amongst seniors.

But Trump likely solved all his troubles today when he suggested at his daily lies briefing on COVID-19 that perhaps people could ingest or inject bleach to clean out their systems of COVID-19.

Words fail me on this one.  I have always known the man is of limited intelligence (truly intelligent people do not label themselves a “very stable genius”), but if a 71 year old man does not know ingesting bleach in any manner is toxic then he truly knows nothing useful. 

Ingesting bleach is something a 5 year old might do.  The man is a bloody idiot and the electorate is waking up to the fact as his daily briefings are beginning to backfire on him badly.  His ego needs to replace his love of campaign rallies he can’t hold at the moment with his daily COVID-19 press briefings filled with evermore nonsense, attacks, and lies during a time of generational crisis.

The problem for Trump is since COVID-19 hit people, especially Seniors, are paying a lot closer attention to what Trump and Senate Republicans are up to and his ratings are falling fast because of it.

And all this was before Mitch McConnell said the Senate was not going to bail out BLUE STATES from the impact of coronavirus.  He simply cannot turn off the partisanship, even in the face of the greatest challenge Americans have faced since WW II. 

There is no clearer sign of the moral collapse of Conservatives and Republicans due to run away partisanship than this remark.  Or, of course, Wisconsin’s pandemic Spring primary the GOP forced the state to hold against unified medical advice.  They are the party of soulless ghouls lusting for death (of urban blacks especially).

 Amongst the findings of the four distinct surveys were:

1) Biden leads 49%-43% in 11 battleground states

2) Biden is at 42% with white votes - +3 better than Obama & +5 better than Clinton

3) Biden leads 60-10 with voters who dislike both candidates.

4) Biden “holds a 60%-30% lead over Trump among likely voters ages 18 to 29 years old, the poll found, only one point below a 62%-31% lead Sanders, the Vermont senator, would have among young voters if he were the nominee.”

So much for the Sanders campaigns insistence that he was the most popular amongst the youth vote and activating the youth vote was the key to his success.  If Biden is within a point of Sanders already amongst our youngest age cohort then it is clearly part of the reason his campaign crumbled, his support amongst the cohort Sanders was counting on was a mile wide and only an inch deep and he needed the youth cohort to buttress his campaign yet their turnout levels failed to budge much from recent elections.  Not exactly the buttressing effect Sanders was counting on in the long run I fear.

The latest Morning Consult poll found that 65-and-older voters prioritized defeating the coronavirus over healing the economy by nearly a 6-to-1 ratio. And over the past month, they’ve become the group most disenchanted with Trump’s handling of the crisis. In mid-March, seniors were more supportive of Trump than any other age group (plus-19 net approval). Now, their net approval of the president has dropped 20 points and is lower than any age group outside of the youngest Americans.

All I can say is “Sadness”

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BACK THE ME!

You know you are in a strange time when you flip around TV and hear sound bites like "100,000 DEATHS"  and "THESE TRYING TIMES"  as you change channels 

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Fear not - the guy in charge of Trump's Pandemic task force has spent the last 6 years as a labradoodle breeder ( no really he has) .  Harrison has no formal education in public health, management, or medicine.   It's all good. He did work for Cheney in the DOD a long while ago. 

SPECIAL REPORT-Former Labradoodle breeder tapped to lead U.S. pandemic task force

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"how shall I infuriate people today."

Fun Facts for this blog - Looking at total page views 606,000 from America - 2nd place is France with 101,000 page views, then Russia with 77,000, Germany (who just canceled Octoberfest for the first time since WWII) 27,000, Ukrain 15,000, UK 14,000 and  then Turkmeinistan  with 8,000.

Weird.

WELL - "how shall I infuriate people today." That is always my first thought when I wake up.  Prednisone makes me such a little bitch on the internet. I can't wait to get off it.

Yesterday I called some morons that are going "protest" Friday  "Terrorists!"

Terrorists = a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims. 

 OH - I was told - you can't take it "literally". 

Sure I can dumbass. Of course their argument is it is all Tony Evers fault.   DO NOT GET ME STARTED!!

I have a very good golfing buddy who's 23 year old son had done EVERYTHING right , staying at home - social distancing and the only thing he did wrong was vote.   The Wisconsin GOP VOTE AND RISK DYING strategy is doing it's damage.

He is VERY sick and told to stay home - no tests are available so just stay home.  Meanwhile in Milwaukee 7 cases traced back to voting plus a poll worker have been infected thanks to the corrupt Wisconsin GOP.     

Total tests in America is down 20,000 from a week ago but the number of daily infections keep rising.

Did I mention that for the first time Germany canceled Octoberfest?  Yea Germany with 5.000 deaths, think September is WAY too soon to open things up.  MEANWHILE the Wisconsin GOP is going to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to open up Wisconsin as deaths spike and more people become infected.

YUP - THAT, is leveling off in the GOP eyes

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I had to get a new credit card after someone tried to buy $877 in beauty products with mine.  So I call up the bank and everything is good.  2 days later I get the card AND I get an email from Amazon saying my order was halted and my account is locked because my Credit card was declined.

ODDLY - I had not ordered anything.  Oh look the email has some bozo return address.

Yea - yet another scam.

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I don't know about you guys in other countries but in the States we now tahe 4,500 different Apples and 2 kinds of Mangos

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It's my moms birthday - it's awesome that it's also Earth Day so I get a reminder every year - My dads birthday is July 5th which is also a big help.

Happy Birthday mom.  miss miss miss you

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Still looking for Weather bets on Bovada since I am one for one. No luck.  However

Which Party Will Win The Popular Vote In The 2020 Presidential Election?

-275 democrats

Who will VP is no off the board - yesterday Warren was down to a +550

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My buddy Elweed is going to "retire" this weekend.  He's been working as a cleaner for decades making 8-$10 an hour but is getting some hours cut.  He looked into Social Security (he is 65) and found that he can get MORE money retiring and get $1,001 a month.  Getting SS early will give him $75 a month less but as most financial people say - GET SS EARLY.   

Plus he will not have to ride the petri dish called Madison Metro where nobody understands social distancing.  At least until the fall of 2021 when this is over.

I have nothing else.

Astroturfing / A epiphanKnee

They say crude oil is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to the world economy and watching crude oil yesterday was like stumbling over a a HUGE pile of dead canaries.

I noticed the price of a barrell when it was about the $5 mark yesterday and was SHOCKED  FIVE DOLLARS?  That is INSANE!  Then it kept going down   A DOLLAR THIRTY TWO??

SEVENTY NINE CENTS?

NINE CENTS?

A FREAKING NICKEL?  and then it stopped at a nickel.  BUT WAIT, it kept going down all the way to NEGATIVE THIRTY TWO DOLLARS.   Oil companies were PAYING people to take their oil.   That ain't good.

The stock market in normal times is a very good predictor of the American economy, at least when things are normal and buy and sells are done on actual fundamentals and not emotions like now.

Oil is the same but longer term and it's the world economy. 

Even as  Tucker Carlson and Fox Propaganda News persuade Trump to open the economy it's not goign to really help.  Car companies can't get parts to complete a car, heck we can't even get enough cotton swabs for testing (down another 14,000 test yesterday in America).

That is the real problem now.  Manufacturing cannot get parts to complete orders.  They need a widget from Honduras - too bad.  They need a chemical from South Korea, too bad.  NOBODY is working worldwide.

and yea - there were no protests about opening things up until a day after Tucker and Fox Propaganda news realized there was an opening to blast democrats.  Heath care was not working - how about putting  "Liberty AND Death" into the cult followers tiny little brains.

YUP - worked like a charm.  Confederate flags, AR-15s and anti government all egged on by our President who ODDLY  is telling them to protest against HIS very own orders!

Seems responsible to me!!

Remember when Biden was Obama's attack dog?  he would say things a President could not say (that has changed hasn't it)

HE's Back!  The BEST thing for Biden is Trump's campaign misinformation pressers. 




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Started selling masks on my website

https://rod-melotte.pixels.com/

I can take any of my images and put it on a mask

$15 and I make a whopping $3. Not trying to get rich as there are MANY people making masks and giving them away - BUT - will they go up in price with outstanding artwork?  A collectors item for 50 years from now? 

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WHO WANTS PORK!!   Well make sure you cook it before you eat it as 7 of the countries largest pork plants are STILL open but missing 1000+ workers who all are infected. However - the  plants are still open with workers working side by side with no masks.  The GOP governors don't want to shut down their economy. Who cares about their citizens.

The Mayor of Atlanta is FURIOUS that her governor is opening up Georgia.  And this is not some grass roots movement at all. 

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-Brett Smith

There is a TON of astroturfing (coordinated faking of a movement to make it look grassroots, when it's actually not) going on behind the scenes with these protests in various states.

If you look at the Facebook groups for "Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine" (over 55k members) and "Minnesotans Against Excessive Quarantine" (over 18k members), these two group descriptions have the EXACT same "About" section description, just the name of the governor changed for each state.

Weird, but maybe just a coincidence? Look at the sites each group links to, the Pennsylvania Firearms Association (reopenpa.com) and Minnesota Gun Rights (reopenmn.com). Their site layouts are IDENTICAL, again with only the state-specific content changed. Go a little further and do a whois lookup on each of those sites, to see who the sites were registered under and when they were registered. Oh look, they were registered under the same registrar on the same day, less than 2 minutes apart.    

So all of these groups get created, with identical websites and identical domains and identical registrars, within a few seconds of each other on April 17th.

You know what else happens on the night of the 17th? Trump starts tweeting "LIBERATE MINNESOTA", "LIBERATE VIRGINIA", "LIBERATE MICHIGAN".

and then you wonder why all of the pro economy anti health care workers all carry firearms?

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Not leveling off yet in Wisconsin

Pretty steady.

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There is so much sex going on under our bird feeder it's disgusting. Sorry I have a view of our feeder from this seat.  Freaking bird porno.   The worst kind

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My knee - YUP - it's been doing very well.  I mowed the lawn with 2600 steps and that was it.  If I really wanted to I would not get a knee operation but then I would go the rest of my life knowing I had a good 2600 steps in me before I had to stop for the day.  No hikes, no bike rides, no golf. 

That's not me.  I want to walk 9 holes (or 18) of golf. I want to work out in a gym, I want to take vacations and walk and take hikes.  Staying in shape with only one good knee seems REALLY hard. 

So yea - I THINK I still have an appointment for a CT scan in Columbus (Comfortis knee) in preparation for a total knee replacement in the fall.   I've been struggling for a while . . . should I? Should I not?  I should.

Case closed.  Let's get'r done this year so NEXT summer I'll be whole again         

Unintended consequences Part Dos - who can read this whole blog

YUP - seems all of this clean air do to Corvid19 is having scientists warn you that this summer could be a prime time for melanomas as the sun is no longer being filtered by garbage in the air and more sunburns are predicted.

I mean look at Las Angeles before and after Corvid19 hit.  AMAZING  Look at how clean the air is now

Meanwhile an unintended consequences was our deck that faces due south.  When the wind is from the north and it's sunny our corner is 20-25 degrees warmer then the air 10 feet away.  Yesterday it was about 53 and our corner was hitting 79.  AWESOME 

Of course when it's 85 in the summer it about 105 (thus the screen in porch).   Gus was very very happy 

OH - gotta say hi to the readers from Turkmenistan who SEEM to have zero cases of Corvid19.  hmmmmmmm   be VERY careful my friends - Corvid19 knows no boundaries.  It's in your country.

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MEANWHILE the Corvid10 deniers are protesting to open up the economy which is like jumping out of a plane and saying the parachute has slowed you down enough, lets get rid if it 

It's like this piece from the really good adult space comedy on HBO,  Avenue 5.

The the people on the space cruise believe being stuck on a space cruiser for 8 years is a hoax and it's only a reality show.  DJ and I love this dark comedy.

https://youtu.be/skXaeucDYHo

  

and THAT is America right now and the ignorant protesters that will ascend on Wisconsin's capitol Friday.  Freaking morons

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By buddy Elweed all of a sudden has more money then he has ever had before.  WHY?  40 years ago he was an LTE for the State and they were taking out $$ every check for retirement which infuriated him.  "I needed money for shoes not some "retirement"  50 years from now.

But he never did anything.  He would get mail and toss it out as fake news for 40+ years.  Well, all of a sudden he decided to become a grown-up and actually looked at the mail.  He called me last week when he actually looked at the mail.  WHAT?    THAT MUCH?   Over 10K?  Which is a lot ofr somebody 200% below poverty for decades.

Then he finally did his taxes for the last 3 years (200% below poverty so he gets a LOT back)  AND he is getting a stimulus check.  Plus he is going to retire to get social security so he will not have to ride the infected bus to work every day . . . his job only paid him $8 an hour to clean other peoples filth for 25 hours work.

I had to take him to the bank Saturday as he got his VERY FIRST debit card.  I had to show him how to use it.

This was East Wash in Madison at 11:00 in the morning on Saturday. 

OH - we both wore masks.  I believe he is the most sterile person I know.  A germ-a-phob to begin with.

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Saturday night I broke open a new vodka I got from Door County last year. Fieldnotes.

I was making a dirty martini (it's a quick and dirty drunk  LOL) and before I made the drink had a taste testing.  WOW - curious.  Both are potato vodkas which I like more then corn vodka.

Luksusowa is crisp and sharp while Fieldnotes was . .  hmmmmmm   interesting . . . smooth, buttery and an good taste of . . . what is that?  Pine?  Spruce? 

It was HORRIBLE in a dirty martini.  OMG I tossed it out and wasted good olive juice (hard to come by).  Great for shots but in a drink?   not so much.

Oh  a relative suggested that instead of Captain Morgan Spice Rum I try Appleton Estate Signature Blend Rum. 

It's REALLY good and NO - we are not becoming alcoholics . . . . .  at least not any more then we were before. Actually I believe liqueur sales are way up in America doing these trying times.

BTW - happy 420.

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And then there is the hair cut issue during Corvid19.   We are one episode away from completing all 7 seasons on Parks and Recreation.   I mention this as in the penultimate episode Sam Elliot has a saying that I can totally live my life too.

"When my hair feels it's journey is over, it sheds itself. 

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Want to have fun watching Trumps misleading and confusing campaign pressers?  

   

And seriously - when has an American President every actually backed protesters of State government.  He tells governors that Covid19 is NOT a federal government problem and it 's all a State problem  Not HIS problem.  The Federal Government is not here to help in National Disasters, it's a State issue.

THEN he eggs on protesters who are anti State Government.  He is NOT the President of the United States.  He is the President of his BRAIN. 

The blue wave will spank him in the ass.

OH - one last thing - I was looking at online sports book to see what they were offering, if anything.

Of course politics

Th Democrats party is the odds on Favorite to win the White house

Democrats -105
Republicans -125

Bidens VP
Harris  +200
Klobucher +300
Whitmer +500
Warren +700  (I got +950 Friday) I bet $5 to win $47.50
Abrams +1000

Which Party Will Win The Popular Vote In The 2020 Presidential Election?
Democrats -275

And The left winning the White House, Senate AND House is not out of the realm of possibility  +150.   Thank you Donald.

HOWEVER - the big news was that I spotted a weather bet.

I looked last Tuesday and it was "will the temperature at Chicago O'hare be above or below 43 degrees at 5:51 on Thursday".  WELL - being a weather geek with all sorts of information at my hands I could not turn this down.

I looked and said YES - OVER.  I looked at the wind from the west so no breeze off the lake and a stable air mass.   Easy money   $2!!!

Thursday comes and I see I will win.  I log on about 8:00 and  I LOST!  WHAT?   I look at NOAA Chicago O'hare at 5:51PM and it was 45 degrees.

I contact the sports book and show them links to NOAA and it took about 15 minutes.  I apologized that I was taking their time with a $2 bet but it was the principle of the thing.

YUP - I DID win and got my money . . . . . and the weather bets are no longer available.

You CAN bet on simulated NFL games and Darts.  WOW. 

    Nuff said today

 

Friday post about rats starving

Seems rats are having a harder time then humans during these trying times.

For decades rats have had a free lunch (literally) in many communities as they feast on restaurant garbage.  NOW - no restaurants and they are starving.  This is causing huge turf wars between starving populations of rats all around the nation.

Do not try to pet a rat if you see one.

On one had I feel sad . . . . on the other hand . . not so much.

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Columbus is getting a new fire truck it seems.  This one comes with a retractable picnic table.  THAT is thinking ahead.

all we need now is a fire station that it will fit into.

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in other news Columbus is getting a new park that has been a vision of Mayor Thom for years.  I remember him talking about this even before he was elected.

AND there is a naming contest  and I submitted my proposed name.

Parky McParkPark

WINNER WINNER I say!  Look, you can save the city money, you only have to buy 7 letters and then use some over!!  BAM!!  Saving money! 

New Park/Natural Area Naming Contest

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Remember that GOP voter disenfranchised voting disaster where the GOP forced people to risk their lives to vote 10 days ago?  and remember how the virus takes 7-10 days to show up in humans as infected?

Well here we are 10 days out and Wisconsin has seen a spike in infections.  The most 2 day total of infections since, oddly, April 7th. Deaths are up 7%.  The curve is NOT leveling in Wisconsin.

At least NOW with the United States of the Midwest happening MAYBE we can stop this thing.  Trump decided this is not a Federal Government problem at all and blamed the slow response on the States governors.  NOT HIM!

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Got gas yesterday for 0.99.  Missed the cheap stuff by a day (0.95).  We took a ride and OMG - so many houses in a section I had never driven in before just past Costco.  mile after mile of brand new HUGE homes.

I mean I knew there were houses but OMG 

 to get your baring? (bearings?)  that is the round a bout near the new Manards.  The houses go all way up past Gus's Diner.

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All right - multi tasking now - my brother is writing a western and needs to info on beer brewing in the 1870s


Cheers

Taking a cue from Avenue 5

The Common Gray Squirrel 

Pageviews all time

1,033,159   SERIOUSLY???

Rant of the day - We can send a god damn a man to the moon but STILL cannot get a split screen on the TV.

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The big difference between H1N1 The Spanish Flu and Covid19 is that H1N1 when infected you got sick VERY fast and died in a week.  You infected maybe 2 people.

Covide19 there is a 7 to 14 day incubation period where you feel great and infect many many people in those 7-14 days and then it's a slow sickness where it takes 10 days to pass away if you get it really bad.

Covid19 is a FAST spreader that does not kill but it does overwhelm health care facilities.

Want to get back to normal?  Not going to happen until a vaccine is created which is still 8 to 18 months away.   OH!  you will hear it's been created sooner but the long part is clinical tests which are 4-6 months.  You really can't start injecting millions and millions of people with an untested vaccine until you know you will not kill millions and millions of people .

There is a very very good space comedy on HBO called Avenue 5.  A space cruise that goes horribly wrong and instead of a 2 month cruise it accidentally turns in to a 8 year cruise instead.

However what they did was tell everybody it was going to be 8 years when it will REALLY be only 4 years and everybody was so happy.  Sort of like Trumps Art of the Deal.  Tell America 200,000 will die and then when it's only 100,000 because of his incompetence everybody is happy.

One of the leading vaccine people in the world was being interviewed and he believes the world is about 18 months away from a vaccine.  He was told of one company that said they were 6 months and he said 6 months to create a vaccine and another 4 months to test it.

The GOOD news is that the entire world is working on this problem so who knows what will transpire.  Just DO NOT listen to politicians that talk about miracle drugs coming out soon. Not goign to happen and it's just telling you want you want to hear.

This virus was a complete surprise and there is NOTHING like it in the world which is why it is in control of the entire world.  Different then all other viruses.  It's sticky and attaches itself to water molecules.

This is THE BIG ONE and people really need to take it seriously - not like the morons who want to gather at the capitol to force Evers to open up the State.  Evers can only have SStay in Place until May 21.  The the GOP take over. . . . and we all know how they are completely inept an just about everything that has "health" in it's name.     
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Remember how Wisconsin forced people to risk their lives to vote and became the laughing stock of the Nation? It's happening again in northern Wisconsin with a special election - however this time no mail in voting.  The GOP is forcing a vote in person on May 12.   WHO CARES ABOUT LIFE AND DEATH when a judge seat is up for grabs.   Better to have a low turnout and risk lives.

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Watch out for your meat supply.  The main meat packing industries are all in GOP run states that do not believe in a stay at home and many processing plants are closing because to many workers are infected.  One place has over 475 infected workers.  YET - the South Dakota GOP governor refuses to put in a Stay Put order, it's just the flu and they have large quantities of that malaria drug that they feel will be the cure.  The President (who owns stock in the company that produces it)  said it was good to go so they are going with it. 

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The one industry that is thriving in these trying times?  cannabis and I assume liqueur stores.  `

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39,000 pubs were shut down in the UK.   That means that since ale lasts about 6 -9 weeks and lagers 3-4 months, there are 50 million pints of beer are at risk.         

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Tequilas Grill in Columbus has a new sign.  I'll have to get some photos when ever it warms up LOL

 ***

Watched RUN on HBO last night - a bit . . . . odd but interesting.  A couple that broke up 15 years earlier and have not been in touch made a pact.  In the future if one texted RUN and the other texted RUN back. They would drop everything immediately and meet up in NY for a cross country train adventure.

half hour interesting  rom-com-adventure that looks odd but has our interested peaked for at least 1 more show.

https://youtu.be/x9gnW8TAP2U


 


 

HELLO Turkmenistan

HELLO Turkmenistan

For some reason Turkmenistan (the crossroads of civilizations) is interested in this little mindless blog with 810 views yesterday.

Here in our little spot in the world a majority if people are celebrating as the party that tried to suppress our voting rights REALLY pissed people off and "we" won in many many contests.

You see the Republican Party knew they had a good chance of losing so they decided that even with a global pandemic and even though the citizens were told to NOT GO OUT, they decided that in order to vote you needed to risk your life.

It was a stupid strategy as most Republicans are older white people which are the most vulnerable. SO - they wanted their base to REALLY risk their lives and at the same time they REALLY pissed off the Democrats that came out in big numbers.

The Democrats would have come out anyway as the are fired up with the blatant corruption and misinformation being spewed out of the Federal governments total lack of usefulness in a global pandemic but then the Republican party decided to not wait like 16 other states and make their older demographic risk their lives.   FAIL!

Meanwhile #1 in our little town of 5000 for the first time since 2007 we voted to fix our schools by not only voting to fund the fix but also to change over the School board that makes decisions about our schools. 

Meanwhile #2 is that we had a cronie Governor for 8 years and a good number of his local judges that he put in place were booted out of office.   At least here in Wisconsin what we call the blue wave is a real thing.

I know you guys in Turkmenistan have your issues with Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, your president. For one thing just saying his name hurts my mouth. From what I have read (or actually skimmed a majority of a few paragraphs) the guy is good AND bad.  Our President is bad AND bad.  We call him the gaslight President.

gas lighting = manipulate (someone) by psychological means into questioning their own sanity   

10 signs someone is gas lighting you

They tell blatant lies.
They deny they ever said something, even though you have proof.
They use what is near and dear to you as ammunition.
They wear you down over time.
Their actions do not match their words.
They throw in positive reinforcement to confuse you.
They know confusion weakens people.
They try to align people against you.
They tell you or others that you are crazy.
They tell you everyone else is a liar.

Remember when Trump said a Ford plant was making ventilators?  NOPE - not true at all

Remember when Trump said Google had 1,700 people working on cure for the virus?  NOPE - not true at all

Remember when Trump said he was sending ventilators to a state (can't think which one)  NOPE - never happened

Remember when Trump said ventilators and masks were a State issue and not a federal government problem?  And now he is saying he has total 100% control over states? Basically throwing out the 10th Amendment?

In America the blue wave is growing and the Republican party is growing smaller and smaller because the people they keep electing are corrupt.  If REAL Republicans would vote for REAL Republicans instead of the people they have been choosing they might have a chance.

But I feel the Democrats will take the House AND Senate AND White House and they only have themselves to blame.  It's not like the Democrats have any real people with personalities to take charge but even milk toast is better then blatant corruption. 

NUFF SAID

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Look who is back - a male Northern Flicker - all puffed up because it's FREAKING COLD!

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A new Nighwish "album" dropped and it is the literal definition of Symphonic Metal.  People are loving the album or they hate it because there is to much "symphonic"   HELLO!!!  Symphonic.
 Metal  KNOCK KNOCK ANYONE HOME?

You have a classically trained vocalist and a keyboardist that literally composes classical music. In-fact the last 6 tracks are 100% classical.

Two videos - the first is VERY operatic and it's about Eugene Shoemaker.  The second one is called Treble - you will see why and it's pure drums and metal and in between these two songs is an entire range of music.  BRAVO

Shoemaker was the founder of modern planetary science. He studied craters on Earth and Moon, and realized that they were created by asteroid impacts. Shoemaker was the geology principal investigator for Apollo missions, and he also helped to train the Apollo astronauts that went to the Moon. He himself was a candidate for an Apollo Moon flight but was disqualified after being diagnosed with Addison's disease. Later in life, he said, "Not going to the Moon and banging on it with my own hammer has been the biggest disappointment in life."

this shows of Floor's amazing vocal talents

https://youtu.be/rwz7-h9LCDU    mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm


https://youtu.be/K8gs0ryrwgE



The LAST I will mention Nightwish!

Gotta run  cheers

And this is only the first wave.

I saw some fascinating shows on CoVid19 this past weekend that really brings things into focus.

What is amazing and hard to wrap my head around is that while our family stays home and while most Americans are in a weak quarantine and while Americas economy crashes and burns to a halt . . it's is like this in the entire world.

80% of the world is at home . . . waiting just like you and me. 100% of the worlds economy is crashing and burning and every aspect of human life in the entire world is effected.  Think about that for a few seconds.  EVERYWHERE.

In January on Facebook Americans that were living in Italy, one of  the worlds most up to date healthcare systems, kept telling us - THIS IS THE BIG ONE, take this seriously - pleading with Americans to prepare, "look, look at what is happening over here".  That was in January.

In 2000 a HUGE report from the NSA stating that not IF but WHEN a global pandemic would happen, this was the #1 National Security issue.  Then 911 happened and the report was forgotten about.

In 2012 another report from the NSA.  A global pandemic is coming PREPARE this is no joke.

This is exactly what federal governments are for - protecting its citizens, preparing for the worst, this is something you CAN NOT LOSE!   This was when Obama created The National Pandemic Response team to alert the Nation BEFORE it happens.  Might not stop it but we would be prepared, we would have tests available or at least we would have 2 or 3 months head start on creating a cure. 

When I was working for the State we have many failed business plans.  One was called Six Sigma and was designed for businesses such as airlines that could not afford to lose.   A government can not afford to let it's guard down for one second on national security.

In many countries you can't even get on a bus without having your temperature taken.  Many countries have 2 step testing.  The first is to see if you have a tempurture - if you do you get the clinical test. In America there is one test, one clinical test that many people cannot even get and if they do, it's normally too late. 

 America has been one of the slowest to understand testing is the number one key to fixing this mess.

THIS IS THE BIG ONE THAT CHANGES LIFE AS WE KNOW IT.

The American economy will never be the same.  It will come back but in a slightly different form.

Many businesses will go bankrupt never to come back.  Brick and mortar stores will never be the same, nothing will ever really be the same.  Shaking hands will never be the same.  Restaurants will have less seating.   

The worldwide supply chain is totally screwed up for years. 

And this is only the first wave.

As with all global pandemics the key is surviving the first wave.  There will be more waves coming as people loosen up and go out.

Covid19 is a very fast spreader.  On average one infected human will infect 3 other humans and those 3 will infect 9 more . . . . and so it goes.  The good thing is it's not a huge killer but what it does do is overwhelm hospitals.  In Madison they are converting The Coliseum into a hospital in preparation.

The ONLY way to stop a pandemic is to crush the economy and quarantine the population.  This has been proven time and time and time again though out history.  Global pandemics are not rare  but every one changes the world as we knew it.

The first quarantine was in the 14th century and comes from the Italian word quaranta giorni which mean 40 days. 

SO - while Presidents in the past did not do EVERYTHING they needed too the Federal Government in charge now actually got rid of the protections that were in place to protect our economy and the health of it's citizens.  America literally went backwards on preparing for a pandemic. 

MANY MANY warnings were completely ignored. The key CDC scientist embedded in China was fired for giving bad news as he was trying to warn America of the coming pandemic.  The National Pandemic Response team created specifically to warn us . . . disbanded in 2018.  Not needed it was deemed. 

The good news is that the world and humanity will survive and thrive.  Maybe not next year as more waves hit us as we become lax again but everything will work out. 

it will just be a little different.   

COBOL Programmers needed!!!

We were watching Survivor last night (really good season)  and a commercial came on which started with "During these trying times" and blah blah blah. . . . . .the next ad comes on "during the current health crisis" blah blah blah and then the third ad "In these uncertain times" and then  "during these unprecedented times"

GOOD GRIEF WHAT IS GOING ON OUT THERE

DJ and I have been binging Modern Family for 3 week (there are 250 freaking episodes). Is the cold going around or something?

For those curious - this is the daily NEW daily Corvid19 cases that are reported in America. It's misleading as testing is not really available in most places in America UNLESS you are REALLY sick and by then it's too late.  If you are a little sick - no test for you unless you are REALLY sick.  TOO LATE.

Testing and masks are STILL a huge HUGE issue which the fed (we are not here to help Americans it's not our job it's the States job not my fault - Trump).   And of course Trump refuses to use the War Powers Act to make more masks . . . we have enough.

I know a person that works at UW, he wears a mask until it LITERALLY falls apart, (about 40 hours). Normally it's one use and its contaminated - toss it.  YEA - TRUMP - we have enough masks!   Not your problem right?  Is that what Ike said in WWII,  Not the feds problem?

War time President my ass.

Looks like my prediction will be wrong for tomorrow - last Friday I said 420,000 total infections - we are way over that already.  America have more then doubled since last Thursday. 

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Highlights of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act: 

• $1,200 checks to many Americans plus $500/child that will be phased out based on income of more than $75,000

• Waiver of 2020 required minimum distributions from qualified retirement plan and IRAs

• Delayed IRS 2019 filing dates and payment dates to July 15th, 2020

• Retirement plan and IRA penalty-free distributions—with repayment plans over several years

• Retirement plan loan expansion and relief

• Delayed deadlines for IRA and retirement plan contributions for 2019

• New charitable tax break of $300 above-the-line deduction and up to 100% of adjusted gross income (AGI) for qualified distributions

• Federal student aid and federal student loan payment extension through September 30, 2020

• Additional $600 a week in emergency unemployment relief and greater inclusion of workers not typically covered

• A massive emergency Small Business Administration nonrecourse loan program for small businesses, with generous forgiveness provisions

• Significant delay for employers to pay employment taxes

• Employment tax credits to finance sick leave for small businesses

• Extension of net operating loss carrybacks and carryforwards

• 461(l) excess loss limitation relief • Deductible business interest expense relief

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as the number of total new cases of Corvid19 keeps rising at about a 10% per day rate Wisconsin Republicans made people with serious health issues to get out and vote because they NEED a conservative judge.

risking their lives to vote - a 2.5 hour line

Meanwhile in Milwaukee 4 bins of absentee votes were found but cannot be counted by law as they were not post marked in time. The GOP is 100% responsible for all the people that catch Corvid19 that were either forced to stand in line or the thousands of poll workers who risked their lives (no mask were available at one polling place in Beloit).  It's blood on every Republicans  hands who NEEDED a vote just to retain power.  

The health of Wisconsin citizens was not a big priority for Republicans.  AND DO NOT give my that bull shit saying "it was both sides fault"  because it 100% was not.  

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I read an article yesterday and was talking to an economic adviser and both said that the stock market is always 2 months ahead and that we MIGHT have seen the bottom.  Just looking now to see what Bob Dickey – Technical Strategist  (insert echo) said in today's commentary and he confirms saying the bottom seems to be in place and stocks should bounce around for a while but there is a firm bottom (we all like firm bottoms  don't we?)

One reason the article said was the hardest hit sectors have been rebounding lately which shows investors are a little more optimistic looking 2 months down the road.

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If you want my vote for VP for Biden it's Rep Katie Porter 100% all the way!!

https://youtu.be/027uak64htU

    

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WOW - I guess I had some anger built up  LOL

+++++

I am CRUSHING in in Real Strat-o-Matic   15-3 at the moment.  SOM 365?  not so much.  12-18 BUT learning.

IN SOM365 there are only 12 teams and it seems most teams stack their line-ups with lefties.  REAL Strat-o-matic with 24 teams you can't do that.  In SOM365 my right handed starters are seeing 60% left handed hitters.   Using Free Agents I've been chucking some of my starters who are great against right handed batters and finding more that are reverse righties (better against LHB).

NOW I working on dumping some of my offense that crushes lefties because there are not many left handed pitchers.

BUT back to REAL Strat-o-matic . in the 18 games my opponents have score 3 or less runs 14 times.  And pitching Verlander in Miami, the very best ball park for pitching is AMAZING. I'm sure I'll come falling back to earth but it's a good start.

I was 19-8 two years ago in April and 11-16 in May.  Crossing fingers.

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HER IS SOME GOOD NEWS - for the first time in my life I might get to see concerts on the square.

I have played softball, or golfed every Wednesday for 30 years and now they are going to Tuesday nights Hallaughua     

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When I worked in IT I spent 15 years programming in COBOL and 6 in SAS.  Now there is a need for COBOL programmers.  50% of the banking industry use COBOL and 80% in card-based transactions are programmed in COBOL.

I could go anywhere in the world and ask for a 100K salary in COBOL or SAS.  Only us old guys know it it seems.
+++++++

here is a problem - unintended consequence - with all this clean air - solar radiation is higher and the earth seems to be warming as the sun is no longer filtered by garbage in the air.  Sun screen is MORE important now.

Did you know what state has the most skin cancer from  melanomas ( I know all about melanomas as I had a malignant melanoma on my shoulder - MOHs chemo surgery)   Minnesota!

*********************

Missouri is considering making cannabis legal.  Is Missouri more liberal the Wisconsin

Oklahoma generated $7.8 in medical cannabis tax revenue in March ?  Is Oklahoma more liberal then Wisconsin?

Oregon retailers sold approximately $84.5 million worth of marijuana products in March

A study found that marijuana is one of the "most effective treatments for gastrointestinal nausea."  Is gastrointestinal nausea more liberal then Wisconsin?

Have a GREAT GREAT day