I'm not really sure I would say that cases are "surging" here in Texas. They have increased a bit, yes, but it's generally been pretty stable. I'm actually WAY more concerned about Illinois, which added 3k new cases yesterday. Testing in Texas has increased a lot over the last 2 weeks; there have been about 270K tests run in the last two weeks. Our positive case percentage has stayed about the same since April 24. The 7 day positive average is actually at the lowest it's ever been, probably because of the increased testing. We've run a total of 623k tests. Here is the Texas health department website, in case anyone is curious. They have a tab for how COVID-19 is trending in Texas. COVID-19 in Texas I'm definitely not trying to claim that covid-19 is no big deal or that Texas has some sort of special way of handling the outbreak that is leading to better results here. I think we have low population density and warm weather working in our favor. I keep reading in the news "Omg, what's up with Texas?! DOOOOOOM AWAAAAAITS!", and it's not exactly matching what is happening here right now. But I don't hear much about Chicago or Illinois in general, and the situation there seems much worse than what is happening here.

I think I simply don't have strong feelings about toast? lol But I am curious about a toaster that could inspire such strong feelings!

I have always had good luck with cheap, $10 toasters. 🤷‍♂️ Every time I've bought one, it's lasted me about 10 years. I think it's one of those things that suffers from a diminished lifespan when over-engineered. If you really want one that will last forever, get a vintage Sunbeam Radiant toaster from eBay. Those things are built like tanks.

It seems like I only wear it for a job interview or a wedding at this point in life. It gets really hot where I live. Make up plus sweat feels gross. I wore make up more often when I lived in a colder climate. I actually think make up makes me look older than I am. That probably means I am wearing "the wrong type" of make up, but I don't feel like spending the money to find "the right type".

Husband's company extended work-from-home until US Labor Day, but I honestly don't see them ever returning to the office. At least, not like it was before. They have several thousand employees working in a converted shopping mall. There's just no way to do that safely right now. I'm sure the company is looking at the savings of having everyone work from home, too. Electric, water, trash, cleaning services, office supplies. They'll probably save on health insurance, too. Colds and flu won't spread among the staff with everyone home.

I was more diligent about disinfecting all.the.things. when this first started. Wiping down doorknobs and light switches, wiping down the groceries, etc after I'd been out of the house. Now I'm back to normal cleaning. I don't wipe down the groceries anymore, except for canned goods. I wear a homemade mask in public, use hand sanitizer, and avoid touching my face until I get home and wash my hands. I'm in a county with very few cases, so that is impacting how much effort I put into disinfection. If covid-19 was really tearing through our town and county, OR if it was winter, I'd be more diligent in cleaning. It was 94 degrees today, so the odds of anything surviving on the mail or an Amazon package are slim this time of year. I do admit I don't fully understand the thinking of people who are not leaving the house and also turbo cleaning every day. If you aren't going out, then how would new germs make it into your home? I've always used really boring Lysol, bleach, or Mr. Clean to clean my house. If something seems really grubby, I'll scrub at it with a bucket of soapy water. None of those seem particularly nefarious, IMO. I'm not anti-chemicals. When diluted correctly and used appropriately, they are not "toxic" for most people.

Aveeno Daily Moisturizing

We're also trying our hand at vegetable gardening. I have no idea what I'm doing! But I've got some little seedlings popping up, so that's nice?

Oh no, I'm not upset. I can be rather verbose, and I've been trying to be more concise lately. Maybe I've gone too far in the wrong direction, and I'm coming across angry, lol! It's true that we often underestimate the risks we take on a daily basis. I think part of what is causing so much anxiety for people right now is that there isn't enough information about covid-19 to be able to evaluate individual risk very accurately. I know that cases are very low in my town and county, and the odds of me coming in contact with a covid-19 carrier are very low. I feel pretty comfortable going into stores, and I'm beginning to consider bringing my son along with me the next time I go, just so he can get out of the house for a bit. (There are less than 10 active cases in a town of 26,000 people). But I can't figure out what the risk is of him going back to art classes. The classes are small, but it's a confined space for 2 hours with a bunch of other people that have been who-knows-where. The drive-in theater seems fine, but the regular movie theater seems potentially risky because you don't know who's breathing on you. What about the town pool? It's out doors and the chlorine would kill any virus in the water, but there would be a lot of people in close proximity to each other, and kids aren't going to maintain social distancing if they are having fun at the pool. There's a lot of unknowns. So far all "They" seem to agree on is exposure time + viral dose = increased risk. I wish we all had concrete answers so we could relax a bit!

I don't see why I would have to take into consideration the risk of an automobile accident vs an airplane crash when trying to determine whether the chance of contracting cv-19 is greater on an airplane or in my own car. Also, the article is 9 years old, so completely irrelevant to today's issue of covid-19.

I have a few friend-of-a-friend situations where the person died of cv-19. One was a man in his 40s, the other 2 were in their 70s. A case just popped up in a nursing home not far from me. I feel really sad and angry about that.

Run the fan, open the windows. I'm assuming the fan moves air out of the house? You could also put a couple of box fans in the windows pointed out, to help move the air out of the house.

I'm not sure it's riskier to drive than to fly. Being in an enclosed space, breathing in the same air as dozens of other people for 1-2 hours vs a few seconds of handling a gas pump...eh, I'd be driving. The Risks

And just like that, my Father's Day gift conundrum has been solved! Aw, out of stock. I know y'all bought them all up!

Not a new skill, but I'm working on improving my needlepoint skills. I've been concentrating more on making sure my tension is even, the back doesn't look like a raggedy mess, etc.

No, they can't tell if you unfollow them. If you unfriend them, they can tell by looking at their friends list. Your name will no longer be on it, so they will know.

Not a chance would I get on a plane right now. Is there any way you could drive to your destination instead?

My step-mother was a pediatric ICU nurse in the late 70s/early 80s, who should have known better, but kept the household cleaners in the cabinet under the sink. My half-sister drank most of a bottle of Mop-N-Glo and got carted off to the ER to have her stomach pumped. Even as a 10-ish year old kid, I was confused how the whole thing could have happened. (Half-sister was fine, by the way, but continued to get into scrapes that could have been mostly avoided). I do think attitudes about risk, health, and death have changed since I was a young child. I don't know exactly what was driving it in my corner of the world, but there was this attitude like "Oh well, what can you do?" about risks that we avoid taking now.

Thanks! I just placed an order for 4 reams. This will last us a long time.

It won't surprise me to hear that it was in many, if not most, US states in late December/early January. We knew a lot of people that were down with something really nasty in January. One of my son's classes was cancelled for 3 weeks because the instructor's family was very ill with something they picked up during holiday travels. I know that everyone says "it's a bad flu year" every year, but this year was one that I actually took notice of how many people were down with something really ugly. Makes one wonder...

My gut feeling is that Abbott knows that masks are a good idea, but he also knows that most of Texas will pitch a screaming, gun-toting fit if they are mandated, so he's not saying anything particularly strong about it.

That was a good point with Cuomo. I admit I stopped watching a lot of the briefings a couple of weeks ago, because it was stressing and depressing me. I don't know that Texas has had such a clear message about masks. The response by government has been sort of wishy-washy. 😕

There also was precious little research on whether a cloth mask would help. There were some studies on whether they help or hurt in occupational settings, but until CV-19, no one had ever looked into whether masks were beneficial to the general public. I've noticed with some medical and scientific people, if there is not proof that something is true, then they speak as if that means it's 100% false, when it's really a case that no one has ever looked into the matter. There's a reluctance with some people to say "We have no idea, so we don't know how to advise yet", and instead they'll say "There's no proof it helps, so it's a waste of time" Well, has anyone ever looked? No? Ok, then could we look into it before dismissing it?

I agree that the information about cloth masks was confusing at the start of this. I have a little bit of understanding about wearing PPE from vet med, but even I was like "I have no idea what the right answer is here" when it came to cloth masks for the general public. In the end, I decided that worst case scenario was they did nothing, but best case scenario was they helped keep virus out of the air.

Our local post office is great. They have been slammed with increased volume. My mail lady said that they have Christmas like volume right now and they are exhausted. Quality of mail service seems to vary by area. I have lived in some places where the service is terrible and other places where the service is great.