I think that there are some enforcement ideas that could work. One is to tie the fines to taxes so if not paid before then, it goes on your state or federal tax bill and if said taxpayer would receive a refund, deduct from that. Use the proceeds for bonuses for healthcare workers. Sociopaths do tend to care about money when they can't be bothered to care about humans. It is possible. But I am willing to admit state and federal leadership are primarily weasels and jellyfish so nothing is going to happen. Just let it rip. I wonder if any of them have stopped to consider the effects of a million or more dead on the economy they so ardently worship!

I have not been inside our Wal-Mart since the pandemic began. I know that with curbside pick up, I often have items that they cannot get. My newest thing is to use a local, pretty new meat market. The quality is high, very high, and at 2 pm on Mondays, I am usually the only customer. The employees are behind a long plexiglass divider. I can't get a lot of groceries there, but I can get herbs and spices, and some canned goods. As long as the outdoor farmer markets last, I will frequent them and am freezing a ton of veggies, making salsa and pasta sauce and freezing too. I am getting an extra T.P. any time I can from WM as well as cat and dog food, and cat litter. So if things get really sparse, we will be good for quite a while. The drive through pharmacy is always well stocked on OTC meds and first aid supplies.

October 27, 1918 in San Francisco, 110 people were arrested for violating the mask/face covering mandate. Another 175 were arrested by Nov. 2nd. It was not deemed unconstitutional. Some posted the $10 bail and promised to wear their face coverings, others served 30 days. Is this where we are headed as a nation? In my head I hear Effie Trinket say, "May fortune be ever in your favor". It is the Hunger Games out there.

Oh.good.grief. Such prize individuals! (dripping disdain) 😠

This is a very interesting idea. Is anyone working on nasal spray vaxes? It really doesn't shake my belief in the vaccine just because we need boosters. I have a tetanus shot every 8 years. I had my measles titres tested for every pregnancy. Many vaxes require 3 or more shots over childhood and even adulthood in order to maximize immune response. I am always a little shocked at those around me who think that needing a booster shot is proof the vaccines entirely ineffective. Yet, same people keep their tetanus up to date. Patricia

I think that at some point, some states are going to have to consider closing borders to others. This piece meal, states rights, approach to a national emergency is not working which may force states that choose another shut down to have to put national guard at the borders to keep everyone from border states out especially if those states are doing nothing to stem the tide. That should be good and ugly. 😭

We have no ICU beds in my county. We have one ER, level IV. We call it the stitch and ditch. Unless medics need the helipad there, they just drive past and head to the city. It is manned by family docs with no trauma experience. They don't even have a pediatric intubation kit. So all of our patients in need of ICU are turfed to city hospitals which so completely overwhelms them that they beg and plead for the locals to stop screwing around, get vaxed, wear the damn mask, stop partying. And it falls on deaf ears.

I could see it though. If some state that has a more cooperative population offered good money to move, I can absolutely see it happening, flood of healthcare workers wooed to the New England states for instance.

Unfortunately, I have to agree. They swallowed the bait hook, line, and sinker, and we will all pay the price. I actually find myself almost looking forward to a shut down again. No people outside of my own family to deal with is beginning to sound pretty good. At the rate of speed this nation is going, we are going to end up eschewing society for a very long time, maybe permanently. I have no trust left to squander.

How many children have to fall, how many long haulers, how many dead before people stop being narcissistic? The answer is that likely, there will never be enough. I truly feel that groups like the ones terrorizing school boards and making threats against them have no threshold. They will deny there is a plague to the bitter end.

Yikes, been a long time! And that Kerry file was after the great "Ken Ham takes on SWB at the Cincinnati Homeschool Convention" which also absolutely epic. Man, we had some legendary threads back in the day. I miss the days when we could post men in kilt photos. Sadly, too many of them were copyrighted photos so we had to take them all down.

Dawn, I am so sorry! I hope he heals well. And yes, I totally get it, raising stubborn, elderly parents is WAY harder than raising children! My elders exhaust the tar right out of me.

I will ask dd to consider it. When we go at Christmas, light levels will be low, and of course sunrise is late. That is a very shady side of the house. So in terms of her usual sleep schedule she should be okay. But in the summer? If she visited then, she would need the blinds or some blackout curtains or something.

If we reject vaccines because "follow the money", then why not reject a crap ton of other medical treatments and drugs? Seems inconsistent. Most of them should be " suspect" under this philosophy.

That's rough. We lived on the Banana River in Port St. Johns a long, long time ago.

I always made homemade mac n cheese, really creamy, and then served with peaches and cream (almond or coconut milk works well for dairy allergies), and my daughter makes one with a vegan cheese for her husband with dairy allergies and thickens with corn starch or rice flour then thins to the right consistency with almond milk. My kids also really liked a chicken and roasting vegetables put on in the morning. It would be done at noon, they would eat on it, and then I made biscuits at supper that they could eat the leftovers on along with some broth from the pan.

I agree completely. You join, and basically the military owns you for the duration of the contract. Don't like it! Don't join. They have always required a ton of vaccines due to international travel, less than hygienic living conditions. This is not news. And they do have the legal right to change things during the duration of the contract. It is disingenuous to join the "big bad gubmint" military force in order to get free tuition and room and board in the ROTC dorms, and then turn around and winge about that same government having the audacity to require a new vaccine to protect the troops or the civilians the troops come in contact with, etc. Doesn't do us a hell of a lot of good to have covid ravaging national guard bases when the next big natural disaster hits or overwhelming V.A.hospitals. Ugh.

Your puppy is precious! And I love how he has won over his most ardent detractor!

Katie, is there any chance that your relatives are also really sick of it too and would consider selling out while prices are lucrative, and moving? We are working hard on our mothers to be willing to get out of here to the Alabama home which would.be so much better for them. I don't know if we will be successful. But if you could find a house that is good for your family in a place that you can enjoy more and then a couple of cute cottages or bungalows nearby, it might be healthier for all of you. But I totally get how one ends up entirely tied down and can't get out. We have spent years in that boat, just bailing water and waiting for " someday" to come.

Listen to Carol knows. Carol is the guru, the foot master, the wizard of foot. She helped me much! I am wearing Brooks Cascades trail running shoes because of Carol, and not only are my b unions doing fine, but my bad ankle is lasting for longer distances. Cushion and that rock plate for support have been a game changer! Listen to Carol!

Okay so this is weird. I have been perimenopausal for 13 years. Got my second shot in April, no periods since then. If the vaccine pushed me into menopause and out of the increasing unpredictability of the monthly monster, then not only is it my favorite vaccine, I want a booster just to be sure, like every month for a year!

😁 That is Sully, and for whatever goofy reason, he likes to pose for photos. Goober, on the other hand, is quite skittish. So we rarely have a photo of him, and when we do, it is on the move. The sunroom is off the kitchen and has doors that open to the deck. When Mark's mom saw the pictures, she fell in love with it and asked if she could sleep in it if she is well enough to travel this winter. She had tears in her eyes when she said it. Our dear daughter was more than happy to stick the daybed in there for her and is seeing curtains for the French doors to the kitchen so she will have some privacy. Mil doesn't want anything on the windows because she wants to see the view at all times. We will have to make sure the grandsons don't play on that end of the deck when she is there if it is morning or night when she might be changing.

So the original color was mustard yellow. Really dark and yucky. Dd has been moving into the space. You will see a daybed in one photo. That is for my mother in law if she visits. The room will regularly be for sewing/crafting.

I am afraid this is where our schools are headed. Most teachers and staff are not happy, but superintendents and school boards are throwing their hands up in despair over the angry mob of ridiculous parents constantly yelling at school board meetings. They are just done with it. So the parents can live with the consequences of which sadly, given how this variant is playing out in children, will be tragic. One more instance of children suffering the folly of the adults in charge of them.

We are locking down more. I have two outdoor piano gig jobs this summer, and gave notice for October 1st for the last indoor one I had playing on Sundays for a UMC church live stream service. New members added to the worship team who are vocal about thinking covid is a hoax and openly not giving a crap about other people. I don't want to work with them. I am only on for two Sundays in Sept, and agreed to do those so they have time to find someone else, but I told them NOT to call if they are unsuccessful finding a replacement. We made a generous donation to the DSO so we can stream concerts. Year two of not being there in person and it hurts. But oh well. Dh's company has backed off on getting people into the office. His permanent work remote was approved due to his mother's health. Youngest ds still in college is returning to campus with mask mandates and mandatory weekly testing of unvaxed students and staff. 83% of faculty and staff are fully invaded, and current numbers indicate 72% of student body with likely more still reporting since it is mandatory in order to live in any campus housing. All the big classes have been broken down into several smaller sections and faculty hired to help cover it, banquet hall, ballroom, etc being used for additional class space. Fingers crossed. He is probably better there than at home where the county percentages on vaxes and community spread are terrible, while the area around the college is doing well. I am still planning on camping in the area for parent's weekend, and doing some outdoor activities with him, but that could change. We are back to as much curbside pick up as possible, and I canceled my eye appointment because that town is a hotspot now. It can wait. The vocal student who is supposed to have her senior recital this fall and graduate in December informed me that her college might cancel performances leaving her unable to graduate. I feel very bad for her! But they did that to us the previous two semesters, and I can't just be on deck to practice indefinitely with her. So I told her that if they do cancel it again, they will need to assign her a new accompanist. I can't be on the hook indefinitely. As it is, her voice lessons are zoom, I have to travel to another location to have access to a piano with the right equipment in the room to play for the lessons. It is barely working, and the location is an hour round trip for me. I am so sad for college students who have performance intensive majors! We have also instituted a ten day total lockdown policy for any future visits to the Alabama house because our grandson was recently diagnosed with a heart condition. We will pack food, KN95 for rest and fuel stops. So my career is back to being 100% on hold. Sigh. But it can't be helped, and I will do everything I can to NOT take the delta variant to my grandson.