Fae Briona

Because of the verbal abuse, threats of violence, and one incident involving a gun [yes, I typed that correctly] our city has changed the "masks are mandatory in open businesses" to the businesses discretion. People are idiots. From Agent Kay in Men in Black:

Managed to get the task taken care of -- which is good, as it's only going to get hotter the next couple of days.

WIll add my well wishes to those from others @Brayon. Still worried about my 98 yr old father where he is, even though they've taken several mitigation steps. I'd be really freaked if someone in the bldg had tested positive.

Someone should remind him of the words of Nelson Mandela. When asked if he had forgiven his jailers he said yes, because without forgiveness they still had control over his life.

Feel better soon

I'll have to look up the story they were in originally; it's not coming to mind at the moment.

Going to be unseasonably hot today through Monday (10 - 15F above normal). Took today off so I can start on some yard work. The area near the back yard gate is a mud pit so we need to re-level the ground, put down some landscaping fabric, then spread out some pea-gravel -- and put in some edging to keep that in place.

sounds good Hope the knee gets better @Reader1810! Hips have been bothering me all day w. the front that was moving in / through. Thankfully we're done w the storms here and things should be fine by morning. Supper for me was a Swedish Meat Pie [no clue what makes it Swedish]: hamburger, shredded potatoes, some spices, and cheddar cheese, wrapped in a puff pastry. Basic peasant food. Pretty much every culture has some version of a savory hand pie. You could wrap it up in something, stuff it in your pocket, and take it out into the fields / down into the mines with you.

Storms just starting to move in. At the moment they're "lime sized" hail w. about 60+ mph winds; tennis ball sized hail not too far away. Largest hail will pass (thankfully) to the N of here and to the SW of here -- great for me but not so great for them. Going to be a very, um, interesting next half-hour. Not good when they talk about a "very unstable atmosphere".

Made this last week, and it turned out surprisingly good: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/269732/mexican-taco-meatloaf/ Will definitely be made again. A basic home-mixed "taco seasoning mix" is: 1 tablespoon chili powder ¼ teaspoon garlic powder ¼ teaspoon onion powder ¼ teaspoon dried oregano ½ teaspoon smoked paprika 1½ teaspoons ground cumin 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon black pepper

The good news with hail that size is the larger the size of the hail (generally speaking), the smaller the area it covers. Of course, that doesn't do you any good if you're caught out in it. Terminal velocity for hail that size is 80-110mph.

I've tried Voltaren but it doesn't do much for my knee pain -- it does, however, work wonders when the neuropathy in my foot acts up.

SP made sure I had a nice evening last night. Today is going to be an "active weather day" -- winds 80mph+, possible baseball sized hail (or a bit larger), and 'quick spin up' tornadoes (they're brief and don't last long but are hard to detect and pinpoint before they're gone).

today has been a Monday <sigh>

we had storms in the state yesterday, but at least here at the house we only had rain -- other parts of state had large tornadoes (resulting in at least two deaths; their might be a third) and baseball sized hail more rain tomorrow

Severe storms last night but the worst of it (2-inch hail -- which was on the small size for some of the storms last night) went just to the West of us. Had we been on the other side of town we probably wouldn't have slept through it. Going to have to call and get the car towed / repaired this morning. Weirdness with the A/C and/or battery.

Tried it once, may have to try it again. Seems like she regressed a bit the last couple of days and we can't figure out why. Horrible evening. Had to run a few necessary errands at lunch. On the way home the air conditioner fan went from low to full blast all at once w/o my touching it and wouldn't adjust. Was going to check a couple of minutes after I got home to make sure the blower motor [whatever that is] had stopped running but got sidetracked w. work [funny how that happens]. We put the furry kids in the car for a trip to the vet a bit before 5pm. Blower fan was still on and battery was dead enough to not even attempt to start to car. Took me 30 minutes to find the correct <beep> fuse to get it to shut off -- then managed to break it getting it out. ☹️ Assuming the battery charger works (very large assumption), I can drive it into the mechanics in the morning. The basic physical mechanics of the car are great, even though it's high mileage, but it's little electronic brain seems to be loosing it.

Not a great night -- joints feeling the rain moving in late evening and overnight tonight - and not a great morning. Youngest dog had stopped her barking all the time but has started it back up the last couple of mornings. It's driving the two of us crazy, and we're running out of ideas on how to stop it. 🐕

Loved the end of the story the first time, and love it now too -- though the feelings it brings now are a tad bitter-sweet; thoughts of loosing C, and thoughts of the present with SP. I'd like to think C would have approved of him.

It's been an entirely unproductive day for me today. I'll blame it on the cold and dreary day.

Love William -- he still might not "understand" the relationship between Grant and Troy, but knows that it makes his son happy, and that is all that matters.

Oklahoma - where, "the wind comes sweeping down the plains" isn't just lyric metaphor. Constant wind of 24mph w. gusts up to 39mph most of the afternoon.

The fish market was also an exotic animal shop. You're correct that no one had to eat the bat for it to make the jump, but the market is where it originated (and will probably never reopen). This precise scenario -- a corona virus making the jump from bats to humans -- has been discussed for years by disease experts looking for where the next pandemic may originate. One of the worst of the conspiracy theories links the virus to 5G cell towers. There have been several set alight in the UK over the last couple of weeks.

It will almost certainly extend through end of May - and a lot of disease specialists say we can expect something like this, or SARS, or something unknown, about every 20 years as people continue to expand into once wild areas.