PhineasC

Earliest melt-out in Randolph in 80 years, according to the CoCoRaHS guy. I brought some serious heat vibes to town!

Randolph CoCoRaHS guy says this was the earliest melt out in "my 80 years." Not sure if that is a typo or not. Didn't think the dude was that old. https://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/ViewDailyPrecipReport.aspx?DailyPrecipReportID=dd25acd7-f6ed-4e59-84a4-54e2ddf445a1 Now he is talking about Stein conditions.

Solid winter look. Even gives me 1" of moose fart dust to cover the dirt and be counted as a "snowstorm."

My business and one of our customers has already been sued over "COVID protocols," and other businesses are dealing with the same exact issue. Many lawsuits are working through the system with new and untested COVID-related statutes on the books in cities and states. So whether I want to "dwell" on it or not, I have to think about it very realistically at a large scale on a regular basis, probably more than just about anyone else here, assuming most here can just worry about themselves, or maybe their immediate family. Trust me, I wish I could just hang out at the mountain all day drinking session IPAs and strumming a guitar. LOL

I figured all along they would run out of demand long before they ran out of supply. Next question, do they try to force more demand or just accept it as is and open 'er up?

It sucks down here in suburban MD now, TBH. Kinda hate coming back here since we bought in NNH. Headed to FL soon and then the beach to get that vibe back a little.

Get it all out man, this is good for you.

Stay mad, bro.

The Federal installation on which my office is located has a very strong mask policy. You need to wear a mask at all times indoors and outside, even in an office with your door shut. The policy actually became more strict recently. The nightly news down here (my MIL watches it religiously) is still like 85% COVID case counts, vaccine news, deaths, etc. Very depressing to watch. Boomers need to turn off the TV. Restaurants still implement capacity and time restrictions here on the regular. My local church is still closed, they can only have Mass in a local school gym. Schools either still closed or back 2-3 days a week max and kids are on Zoom even in school with the teachers at home. Everyone talks about scary COVID all the time. It's annoying as hell, actually. I can assure you COVID is much more of a "deal" here than in NNE.

It's silly to think an employer will choose an employee who never comes to the office and is militantly anti-social over an employee who is at-ease dealing with coworkers, clients, and superiors, assuming the output of both is similar. How can you guys actually believe this makes sense? LOL I see this fallacy SO MUCH from employees who are bad at their jobs and want to blame their lack of promotion on the fact that the other guy was a suck-up. That is a junior high mentality used to explain why some jerk you hate got an A and you got a C. It's just jealousy. The only exception is a small group of technical high performers who can get away with acting like this because they are so good at their jobs. This topic is cracking me up as an employer.

That's right. The narrative changed, probably once it got all wrapped up in the election and COVID turned into a political weapon. It will need to be changed back to ever get people out of the fear-loop they are in. People are going to keep contracting COVID forever, and some will die. Deal with it.

In fairness, your life is very, very different from someone in a city or someone who is very poor in an urban environment. They can't just grab the dog and bike over to Stowe whenever they feel like it. LOL When I go to NNH, COVID disappears, but I can assure you it is still very real down here in MD.

How is "normal" being defined here? Keep in mind, they are saying "back to normal" from the perspective of the CDC, where the baseline today is that travel is still supposed to be only happening for dire needs and you shouldn't be going into restaurants or shopping for non-necessities at all. Getting back to normal from that viewpoint may still be very restricted. I'm concerned that "normal" is basically vaccine passports, social distancing, many schools still closed, mask-wearing, and capacity restrictions. Just like "normal" at the airports changed after 9/11 and never went back...

You sound very typical to me. Deal with guys like you all the time. I hope you are a very technical high-performer. If so, you are absolutely staying in-character as expected and your boss is perfectly happy with you and understands you. Most top engineers and technicians think exactly like you. Good bosses are used to this and it is not a problem. That's basically 80% of my staff. If not, I would suggest looking over your shoulder. Your job isn't secure if that is the attitude you bring to the table in basically any non-technical field, or if you are in a technical field and just a so-so performer.

I don't like the Israel comparison. They are basically a police-state with literal border walls and checkpoints all over the place. Also very tiny country.

Man, I hope the conspiracy theorists (like me) are wrong...

I am waiting to get a vaccine until I know about the boosters and the vaccine is under full auth. Then, my family and I will gladly get it like we do now every year with the flu shot.

Every rational person out there hopes you are right. The fear-mongering over variants tells my conspiratorial mind that certain players want the fear and restrictions to continue indefinitely. I really hope I am wrong, and people can feel free to laugh at me if I am wrong and we are all eating hotdogs in the stands at Yankee stadium without vaccine passports by July. It is kinda crazy how hard it is to find good news on the pandemic. Just try it. I'm sure there is some out there, but it's like 90:10 bad to good. The media is always kind of like that, but this seems over the top.

I personally think the FDA needs more information on efficacy against these variants and more of a roadmap for boosters and how other variants will be handled before full auth, but maybe that is on the agenda before they approve.

To be like this winter, the precip would need to curl around and hit SE Mass and then slide due east. But otherwise very similar. 12" for NNJ, 5 sloppy inches for SE Mass, and 17" for ORH region.

You are free to eat microwave burritos at home and avoid restaurants entirely. No need to mandate the same for everyone else. Have a little personal responsibility, it'll do you a lot of good.

That article appears to reference the SA variant, not the Brazil or UK variants, unless I am misreading.

Casedemic powers onward.

Hopefully the FDA will make them provide data on the efficacy against the UK and Brazil variants.

And they probably aren't even that effective in the real world across millions of people, especially if those people stop masking and distancing.