Friday, July 17, 2020

Thursday, July 16, 2020


Self-isolation Day 121.

Last night I went to bed at 10:30, got up twice during the night, again at 5am, couldn’t get back to sleep so I got up at 5:45.

Last night I played 4 games on Chess.com, winning all 4. My new rating is 1267. Remarkably for 3 of the games I had the black pieces. Don’t worry I won’t get a swelled head.

One of my readers recommended a supplement for joint pain so I ordered a bottle of Joint Support from Arazo Nutrition for $19.95. (As I recall I have a credit with Paypal so I shouldn’t get billed for this.)

 

Seth Meyers on Late Night "Donald Trump is clearly upset that he can't hold rallies anymore now that attendance is so bad they look like Tuesday afternoon Mets games. So yesterday he lured reporters to the Rose Garden by pretending to hold a press conference, but decided instead to hold a little campaign rally for himself which quickly evolved into yet another one of his trademark psychotic meltdowns," Meyers said to open the segment.

And of course the coronavirus pandemic — you know that ongoing crisis that has left the country in ruins — barely came up at all. He basically ignored it. That's like the fire department showing up to a burning house just to sell you their new calendar.

It is impossible to watch what is unfolding right now under this administration and avoid the conclusion that America is in free fall at this very moment, as a mostly preventable second coronavirus outbreak spirals further out of control, more than five million Americans have lost their health insurance, a third have missed housing payments, as many as 28 million face eviction, expanded unemployment benefits are about to expire, people are about to get their tax bills, schools might not be able to reopen, and even the postal service is being gutted by soulless corporate raiders installed by our cretinous business husk of a president.

Think about that. We might not even be able to get our mail on time anymore. That's how bad things are. And for most of us, getting our mail is the only entertainment we have left.

 

Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order Wednesday night, which outright banned cities and counties in the state from issuing mask orders to help stop the spread of COVID-19. (How stupid can you get?)

 

The Republican National Committee is planning to sharply limit attendance for its convention in Jacksonville, Fla. next month, shrinking the event celebrating President Donald Trump’s renomination amid concerns about coronavirus. (But of course republicans want full attendance when it comes to kids going back in school.)

 

Yesterday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) sued Atlanta's mayor for requiring people to wear masks in public places. The reason: the governor said the city's rule violates an executive order he signed earlier this week that bans local governments from issuing mask mandates. He said he's encouraging masks but requiring them is "a bridge too far" and hurts businesses. Atlanta's mayor said the rule would "save lives" and she'd defend it in court. Georgia was the first state to reopen its economy back in April, despite health experts' concerns. Since the pandemic began, it's had nearly 128,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 3,000 deaths. Now, it's issuing a law against masks while about half the country requires them.

 

Today the US reported over 70,000 daily coronavirus cases, a new record high since the pandemic began.

 

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland on Thursday night said he has always been a straight-shooter with President Donald Trump over the federal coronavirus response after the White House chided him for "revisionist history."

Hogan had earlier slammed Trump's early response to the coronavirus pandemic as "hopeless" in an article published Thursday in The Washington Post, elaborating on his efforts to secure testing kits and prevent the deaths of residents in his state. His account, excerpted from his forthcoming book, subsequently drew criticism from White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

"I have, from the very beginning of this, been very upfront and straightforward," Hogan told CNN's Erin Burnett on Thursday night when asked about McEnany's response. "When I think progress has been made, I give them credit."

 

At A White House event, Trump claimed that one of his major first-term accomplishments is making sure that dishwashers have more water.

Trump said, “Dishwashers, so you didn’t have any water, so the people that do the dishes, you press it, and it goes again. You do it again and again, so you might as well give them the water, because you’ll end using less water, so we made it so that dishwashers now have a lot more water, and in many places, in most places of the country, water is not a problem. They don’t know what to do with it. It’s called rain. They don’t have a problem and old fashioned incandescent light bulbs. I brought em back. I brought em back.”

 

Covid-19 can cause a wide variety of symptoms, but a new analysis of records by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that most patients seemed to share at least one of three symptoms: fever, cough or shortness of breath.

 

The emergency room overflowed with patients. Then, the next wave arrived. This time on stretchers.

"They were lined up along the walls in the ER," a health care worker inside a Navicent Health-owned hospital in middle Georgia told GPB News. "We never have had an influx like that. Since the Fourth of July, it has just exploded."

 

I left the apt at 8:30 for my 9:15 appointment. I arrived at Dr. Rendon’s office and since he had an 8am no-show he took me right away. He pulled out the temporary crown and put in the new one. He said to bite down hard and I did and we heard a “crack”. The new crown broke. He had to take a new impression and put in a new temporary. He will call me when the new crown arrives.

I took a taxi to Pricesmart. As usual I grabbed one of the carts on the upper level so I wouldn’t have to go down to the garage to get one. When I reached the next level down I saw that they had it roped off. I could see that I had to take my cart down the escalator and up the other side. When I got down I saw a Disney World like line. I got in the back and it was a 10 minute to enter. Of course they check your cedula, ask about your health, take your temperature and spray your hands with disinfectant. I picked up most of the things on my list including 2 Butterball turkey breasts that I know Teresa will be excited about. Traffic was heavy returning to the apt. I transferred everything from the taxi trunk to the portero’s shopping cart and took everything upstairs. (I was very grateful the elevator was working.)

I remembered we were out of milk so I went next door to Exito and bought 3 bags of whole milk (they were out of our usual – what is it called? Semi?).

I had a chess lesson with Juan Carlos from 2 to 4pm. Teresa returned at 3:15 from the beauty shop.

I beat Teresa in parcheesi today 5 games to 0.

At 6:30 I went next door to Exito and bought 2 small tubs of ice cream. I noticed they were completely out of milk. It was about a 15 minute wait to checkout.

 

A Trump replay from April 29th: Trump: “It’s going to be gone. It’s going to be eradicated. And it might take longer, it might be in smaller sections. It won’t be what we had.”

The US has 3,433,156 ð 3,503,533 ð 3,572,085 coronavirus cases with 136,122 ð 137,146 ð 138,087 deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of this afternoon Colombia has a total of 159,898 ð 165,169 ð 173,206 cases with 6,029 deaths.  Medellin has 5,044 ð 5,599  ð 6,067 cases, an increase of 466 from July 14th to July 15th.  Envigado has a total of 281 cases, an increase of 29 from July 14th to July 15th. (I’ve noticed some of the numbers – especially increases – don’t jive, I’m just reporting them as I receive them.)

 

Joke of the day

Ned decided to go golfing in Scotland with his buddy, Carl, so they loaded up Ned's minivan and headed north.

After driving for a few hours, they got caught in a terrible blizzard, so they pulled into a nearby farm and asked the attractive lady who answered the door, if they could spend the night.
"I realize it's terrible weather out there and I have this huge house all to myself, but I'm recently widowed." she explained. "And I'm afraid the neighbors will talk if I let you stay in my house."

"Don't worry." Ned said. "We'll be happy to sleep in the barn and if the weather breaks, we'll be gone at first light."

The lady agreed, and the two men found their way to the barn and settled in for the night. Come morning, the weather had cleared, and they got on their way.

About 2 years later, Ned got an unexpected letter from an attorney. It took him a few minutes to figure it out, but he finally determined that it was from the attorney of that attractive widow he had met on the golf weekend.

He dropped in on his friend Carl and asked, "Carl, that night at the barn, in that farm we stayed at on our golf holiday in Scotland about 2 years ago, do you remember it?"

"Sure I do." said Carl.

"Did you, er, happen to get up in the middle of the night and pay the widow a visit at the house?"

"Well, um, yes..." Carl said, a little embarrassed about being found out, "I have to admit that I did."

"And did you happen to give her a false name?"

Carl's face turned beet red and he said, "Yeah, look, I'm really sorry, buddy. I panicked a bit and gave her your name, actually. Why do you ask?"

"Because I'm rich. she just died and left me everything."


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