iPhone Plays Music at 12:02am

 For some reason my iPhone 11 started playing the deathbed coffee song at 12:02am on 7/12/2022 this morning.  It scared me right out of my dream.  I reached over to turn it off but it wasn't playing.  I had to open the phone, open Pandora and then close it to get it to stop.  I was dreaming about someone but I can't remember who it was.   I hope this was a coincidence.

Then on my way to work this morning, the Deathbed song started up where I left off last night.  I skipped it, it played another song and started playing the Deathbed song again.   I skipped it and it played two songs and started in on Deathbed again.   When I got to work it started playing again.   It just played again.  What is going on, why does this song keep playing.

We will check on all our loved ones today.

What is going on?

What is going on here?  George Floyd was murdered and now all across the country there is rioting and looting going on.  People are chanting "I can't breath" and "Don't Shoot".  They are destroying our cities.  How is this helping?  What are they expecting to happen? 

My Mom says some guy named George Soros is hiring people to loot and cause trouble.  He pays $18 and hour.  My Mom said Rinda heard that they are heading toward Columbia, Kirksville, Brookefield and Chillocothe and Macon next.  So we will see.

I am very sad right now.  I have enough to deal with, I don't need to worry about protecting my family and my home from rioting.

Daily LIfe & Stats

May 4, 2020.
May the Fourth be with you!

Well we made it to May.  The Governor of the state of Missouri has now lifted the stay at home order as of May 3, 2020.  This means that business can reopen.  However, the Mayor of Kansas City and Independence still has the stay at home order set for May 15.  The Teachers are set to come back the week of the 18th, so we will see what happens.   There have been several cities where they have lifted orders and lots of people got sick.  Well Duh!  We have been inside for months and our immune systems are not doing very well.

At Work we are resuming our meetings today and they are all in person since the stay at home order has been lifted.  To my knowledge, masks are not allowed.  This should be interesting.   We are preparing for Summer School and Regular school.  The plan is to have kids come to school, but we are preparing for virtual school.   If we do virtual school we will have to check out Chromebooks to all the kids, that should be fun.   Jason and I are looking into using Virtual Desktops to deliver computers to students for AutoCad and maybe video editing.

In personal life, Jen, Xander and I attended a party at the O'Brians over the weekend on Saturday night.  We are such rebels, we broke the stay at home order.  The Schmidts, and Litvaks were there.  So I guess we wait and see if we all come down with the sickness.  Jen didn't really want to go because she was afraid of interacting with people and catching the virus.  I told her everyone has been at home besides me, so if anyone has the virus the three of us already do.   So cross your fingers that I was right and we didn't catch the virus. 

We have been looking at getting a new camper.  We are thinking about upgrading to a 21-24 foot camper.  Jen really likes the Ozark and I like the Keystone and last night we watched a video on a No Boundaries.  We both really liked that one, so I am putting this in here to look back later and see what we end up with.  We are also getting a bid on a sunroom this Saturday.

Oh, I went to Target yesterday and there is now a line outside because they can only let so many people in the store at a time.  Most everyone is wearing a mask.  I am still not, I think it is silly, the virus is so small it will pass right through the mask, but everyone is so afraid they will do anything the idiots we call leaders tell them to do.  If you shop at Costco staring today, they will not let you in without a mask.  I snapped a pick of this woman pushing carts at Target.  The mask is mean to protect me from everyone else.  I feel totally safe.  Blah!

Now for some Virus Stats.  The USA is in the lead, which is not good in this race.
Virus Count

ONLY AS REPORTED
World: 3,526,178 Confirmed, 247,971 Deaths.  7% Death Rate. 32.1% Full Recovery Rate
US: 1,158,341 Confirmed, 67,686 Deaths. 5.84% Death Rate 15.5% Full Recovery Rate

TOTAL DEATHS

TOTAL RECOVERED

Chances of getting it is still pretty low by the numbers.
World Population: 7 Billion,  Percent of Population with Virus: .05%
US Population: 329 Million, Percent of Poplulation with Virus: .352%

I hate to say it, but this isn't going to end anytime soon.  The news keeps talking about a vaccine.  SARS came out in 2002, MERS came out in 2012, both Coronaviruses and still no vaccines.  Not sure how this one will be different.  If we all worked together I am sure we could get to the goal faster, but Trump and the US Govt is to busy blaming China and trying to start a War with them.  I saw they are thinking about attacking the Talibane again.  Our govt is not good at doing anything other an giving away money at the Middle Class expense, giving false info and starting wars.  Jack Johnson said it best in his song lyrics "We went beyond where we shouldn't have gone"  We are so far in left field now, we have left the park and forgot where home is.

Mask Up or Not

The big debat at the moment is to wear a mask or not.  The CDC recommends we wear cloth masks.  The virus is microscopic so it will pass right through the cloth.  So who is the mast protecting?

They say that some people are carrying the virus and don't know it because there are no symptoms.  So wearing the mask will protect other people if you sneeze or cough.  Once again the virus will travel right through the cloth mask into the air.   I guess my question is if a sneeze can go 6 feet, how far will the virus travel if you are wearing a mask?  Half or less or no change.  Since the virus can travel through the cloth, but surely it will get stuck in the cloth fibers?


Rod and Sara want us all to wear masks until widespread testing is available.   My Questions:

1. How long will I be expected to wear a mask?   Is this a 2 week, 2 month , 2 years or rest of my life?

2.  If I get tested on Wednesday, then I go shopping at Lowes over the weekend, do I need to get tested again on Monday? Or mask up again?

I am not sure how long this will go, but I have a feeling we are in it for the long haul.

COVID-19 Stats 4/29/20

I love stats, I hate this virus, but let's post some stats.  I am trying to figure out if this virus is a getting more hype than it should be.   There was a couple doctors that posted a video on YouTube on April 23rd and it was removed on April 27th.  They basically gave stats on the virus and compared it to the Flu.  They said if you do the simple math you will see it is much like Flu.

I took some screen shots of the John Hopkins University stats page on March 26 and 27th.  I planned to take a screen shot every week, but I botched that.

MARCH 26, 2020

Simple Calculations of percentages. 

Total Deaths / Total Confirmed = Death Percentage
22,169 / 491,623 = .04509 (4.5%)

Total Recovery / Total Confirmed = Recovery Rate
118,245 / 491,623 = .2405 (24%)


APRIL 29, 2020

Death Rate: 218,649 / 3,142,942 = .0695 (6.95%)

Rate of Recovery: 948,693 / 3,142,942 = .3018 (30.18%)

It appears that recovery is going up, but death rate has increased a little in the last month and few days.


FLU STATS

2018/2019 (Estimates like the COVID-19, not everything is reported)
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2018-2019.html

Deaths / Cases: 34,157 / 35,520,883 = .000961 (.096 %)


2017/2018
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2017-2018.htm

Deaths / Cases:  61,099 / 44,802,629 = .001363 (.136 %)

Coronavirus, Working, It is April, Finally!

Wow!  So here we are, we are in month Four of the Coronavirus.  Everyone is quarantined at home until the Government says so.  Trump is an idiot.  They all told us not to wear face masks because they don't work and now they are about the announce that we all should be wearing face masks, but they aren't available.  There are currently 1,011,490 case of COVID-19 in the world and the USA has 242,182 of them.  We have 36 Confirmed cases in Independence, MO and over 1,800 in Missouri.

I should have started this blog back in March when things started to get serious.  Back in 2019 we booked four days in Disney World for June of 2020 and now that park is closed and I don't think we will be going.  Everyone is really bummed.   School shut down a week before Spring Break in March and Jen and Xander are stuck at home.  Jen is back to work this week and Xander is playing a lot of Fortnite and Minecraft and reading books when his Mom makes him.  I wish he would read Harry Potter, I think he would really enjoy it.

Gas prices were $1.68 on my way home tonight.  Russia and Saudia Arabia are fighting a gas war and the entire world is in quarantine so no one is driving so the gas prices are plummeting.   We are running the Tech Department on 4 Essential staff and it is killing us.  We are be forced to hand out Chromebooks to our families because we still are not a 1:1.  We are told we can't wear any protective gear because it makes the public panic.  I know I am going to catch the virus, it is just a matter of when.  The enemy is invisible, so it is just a matter of time.

Well it is finally April, and it is getting warmer so it is about time to plant the garden.  I finally got my garden beds built at the new house and now I just have to battle the deer.  I am sure there will be more on that later.    Other than that we are all just sitting around trying not to be bored.  I am just tired maily, I have to be at work at 7:00AM for meal prep, then go solve tech issues, hand out chromebooks to the public from 10am to 1pm, then answer some email and go to a Zoom Cabinet meeting at 3:00pm and it usually lasts about 1 to 1.5 hours.  Then I try to answer some more emails and go home after working 10-12 hours, Monday - Friday.  Sara is mad at me for not being safe, but the superintendent isn't allowing us to be safe.  I am trying to be safe and smart but just buying time until I catch the virus.  I am not afraid of catching the virus, but I don't really want to be sick.  Well we will see what tomorrow brings.

Gardening Season Coming to an End

The Gardening season is coming to an end, I hate this time of year and I love it.   I hate it because I can't grow anything outdoors and I love it because it is time to harvest the Pumpkins, Gourds, Squash and Sweat Potatoes.  I also bring my herbs, ferns and other plants inside and see if I can keep them alive during the winter.  Last year my plants were on the brink of death but spring came and I was able to get them into the sunshine.  This year I have built shelves in my garage next to the windows, so I will give that a try.

This winter I am going to try to keep chives, basil, mint, rosemary, catnip and some odd and end plants that I took from the flower pots.

This fall I put in a late summer box of green beans, which turned out awesome so I had some to freeze for the Winter and for Thanksgiving.  Green bean casserole is awesome with garden beans!  This box of beans was something a little different.  I let the beans in the middle of the summer (that I didn't pick) stay on the plants and turn hard.  Then I harvested the seeds and planted the box with them.  Turns out they grew and they were just as good as the seeds that I purchased.  Only difference is I have a TON of seeds.  I have enough seeds to last two or three years, so next year I will need to either buy more boxes or give them to friends.

But this afternoon I Blanched the beans.

1.  I snapped the beans and washed them.  I also got a pot of water boiling.

2. (What is this blog doing?)  I prepared a bowl of ice water.  Then I put the beans in the boiling water and let them cook for 2 minutes.

3.  After the beans cooked for 2 minutes I put them in the ice water to cool down.  Then I took them out and dried them off with paper towels.

4.  Then bagged them and labeled them and stuck them in the freezer.  Easy!  We will have some fresh green beans this winter.