With barbershops closed, I’m going to look like a damn hippie when this is all done.
I went to the other grocery store in town today. This one part of a locally owned chain. This particular store has a huge footprint compared to the other and has no pharmacy taking up 25% of the space. In other words it’s really big and all food.
The extra shelf space pays off, with a couple of exceptions this store was incredibly well stocked. I’ve never seen so many pot roasts - people must be going for comfort food.
No toilet paper, but they had almost everything else.
Now to the important stuff:
They had Coco Wheats! Take that Abyss! Also frozen burritos. And it wasn’t like I was taking the last package and feeling guilty about elbowing granny out of the way. No they were bursting with Coco Wheats and burrito goodness. Success.
It’s important to support local food joints so I got supper from a locally owned drive thru. I used the heated passenger seat to help keep the food warm on the way home.
Like: My favourite film aged 12: Where Eagles Dare
This is one of my favorite movies too: it has adventure, derring-do, evil Nazis, a plot, a great chase scene, a great music score and all those other things listed in the article.
I can’t see how we can ease up on the shelter at home restrictions, like sending people back to work, until:
- Hand sanitizer becomes, once again, commonly available for average citizens.
- At least cheap surgical masks become commonly available.
- Testing with fast results, becomes very widely available.
Without those three things in place, we’re all kinda stuck here and no amount of whining by billionares is going to change that.
Went to the store today. The place was pretty well stocked although I didn’t go down the toilet paper aisle. However they were out of Coco Wheats and Cream of Rice hot cereals. It hard to face the Abyss without Coco Wheats. Powdered milk was all gone too. Unfortunately, all the frozen burritos were gone as well.
The good news is they were well stocked with instant mashed potatoes. Plus I got the last chuck roast and a couple of steaks. And I found a Family Size bag of mixed berries by reaching way back into the freezer case. For my oatmeal. Oh, and I got a couple of frozen pizzas to make up for the dire burrito shortage. All in all, not bad.
Fun Old Movies for Lockdown
I have 3 lists of old classic movies that people of a younger generation might have never seen. The lists are WGN Family...To all the far-right politicians, billionaires, pundits and talking-heads that want the elderly to sacrifice themselves for the economy I have this response: You first.
Go on, over the top, lead from the front. Show us how it’s done. Noblesse oblige We might follow, if you personally, show us how you sacrificed yourselves - first. Otherwise, get back behind your mahogany desk and shut up.
Trump, Invoking Cold War Authority, Enjoins GM To Build Ventilators | NPR
About time.
Many people out walking their dogs or airing out the kids. Everyone keeping nice social distance. All is as orderly and well as can be expected.
Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren’t So Sure Pay no attention to the stack of bodies in the corner. You peons get back to work. #corporatism
Fog is rolling in. I like fog when I don’t have to drive in it. Except I always expect Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce to emerge out of it.
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There is something wrong here:
we can’t produce enough masks and protective garments inside the US,
states and the Federal government are all bidding against each other for basic critical supplies like masks in the middle of a pandemic,
meanwhile, doctors and nurses in hospitals have no masks and protective clothing,
meanwhile, while the White House, corporations and politicians dick around, common people are using GoFundme to raise money for masks for NYC hospitals,
meanwhile, hospitals in Iowa have put out the desperate plea for homemade, washable masks,
meanwhile, hundreds of women in Iowa are cutting up their bedsheets and t-shirts for material to sew masks in response.
meanwhile, while women’s sewing machines are clattering into the dark of night, Trump’s DOJ quietly asks for extra ordinary powers to suspend Constitutional rights and Habeas corpus.
and we still don’t have enough test kits or the means to process them.
What is wrong with this picture?
With everybody shut up inside who’s going to spot the UFO’s?
DOJ wants to suspend Constitutional liberties Power grabs. Power grabs are not a substitute for competently dealing with the emergency at hand.
No and hell no.
I understand that many US rural hospitals were financially stricken before the coronavirus. Not one big corporation, casino, bank, airline, hotel, Boeing etc. should be bailed out before we bail out rural hospitals.
Take note: all these capitalist corporations are now elbowing every one else out of the way to get in line for a good old socialist government bailout. And we’ll probably have to do it but there had better be conditions first and a shit load of reforms. Hell, I’m a capitalist too but the ways Big Business, the big 5 Banks and Wall Street have been allowed to operate since 2008 has got to change.
Final thing: Even though I’d prefer a Canadian style national health system, Medicare for All or some sort of system is coming quicker than you know. Just you wait till the medical bills start rolling in in the US from this pandemic - there will be hell to pay. And it won’t be the doctor’s, nurses or technicians fault either.
Coronavirus Journal 3/21/2020
Coronavirus Journal 3/21/2020 Moved boxes to storage to make more room. Unloaded the tubes of sand from bed of pickup tr...Of all the various talking heads on Twitter, talking about coronavirus, Mark Cuban twitter.com/mcuban really stands out. He’s shown a lot of good sense and humanity in this crisis. He’s worth following.
In case you missed it: Useful Links, for Those Stuck at Home During Coronavirus Links to news sources, entertainment, and things to pass the time in isolation/quarantine.
I just double checked. I have plenty of Scotch.
We have leaned down the supplychain, government (Fed., State, Local) and our medical system far far too much. We have no cushion, reserves or excess domestic capacity, or any capacity, for times of crisis. 40 years of unfettered capitalist orgies have put us at the edge of the Abyss.
It’s time for some deep changes in leadership, banks and corporations.
I’m waiting here for the repairman. A spring on my garage door decides to break right in the middle of a effing pandemic. Brilliant.
Snapshots: School closings left local dairy with huge inventory of half-pint cartons of milk. So they started giving them away drive up pickup to families w/kids. Had to quit, the line of cars was taking over the town.
Local Ace Hardware is bringing out customer orders to people curbside in their cars. Looks like the demand is high. Good for them. They have always helped with community charities. Shows small, local stores can adapt faster than big box stores. #shoplocal