The UK variant is beginning to dominate here in Michigan. More young people are getting it, and two weeks ago the hospitals were totally overwhelmed. But, cases are beginning to drop, slowly. We have about 31.5% ish fully vaxed. If there had not been a pause on JnJ, several universities had scheduled mass vaccinations for last week. College students seem to be happy to get in line for shots. But we have a high rate of hesitancy in rural areas. I am worried because this third wave has been horrific, and now it looks like Washington State is going up badly again!

Also, Oakland University has mandated it for fall. U of MI Senate Assembly just passed support for such a mandate. It is given that Northern Michigan University and Lake Superior State will also. Both of those last schools are in the Upper Peninsula, and overwhelming the small, hospital system up there is NOT wise. My guess is that Michigan Tech may do that as well. From Michigan schools, this is all we have heard thus far.

I am an old time boardie who has chosen to lurk this year for the covid info. I felt like I should come out of hiding for this thread so NotaNumber can add my data to her compilation. I had my 2nd dose of Moderna yesterday. Unfortunately, I agreed to let a student nurse practice on my arm. Got a "scared to do it" slow push through the skin instead of a jab and a lot of painful jiggling of the needle due to shaking hands. Poor guy. He was practically in tears when he saw the blood and realized I was going to bruise pretty badly. The RN supervising was actually chatting with someone else, so not helpful. At any rate, I had sore arm and strong fatigue that resolved within 48 hrs with the first dose. I am not getting that lucky this time. My arm has a visible, hard knot, tingling and numbness when not on fire. Tylenol and anything else over the counter does not abate it at all. Ice helps, but only limited because the pain is so bad I can tolerate the ice pack against it for at most three or four minutes. I am currently running a fever of 103F and just woke up from a five hour nap. I am home alone so going six hours without something to drink has resulted in some dehydration. I have gone to refill my water bottle, which made me cold so my teeth are chattering, and am back in bed where I belong. Despite the hassle of being sick and in pain - totally normal for me, my body goes bananas over any vax - I am elated! We can breathe easy. Dh had JnJ and one would have thought he did not even get a shot. Typical for him. Middle son had JnJ at his grad school campus before the pause. Youngest and eldest sons have appointments next week on Friday for Pfizer. Youngest needed to wait until after his last final exam in case he does a repeat of me. Eldest boy had his master's thesis to submit this month and has secluded himself from the world until he submits it Tuesday. He has been a vaccine reactive, miserable person his whole life. Every single vaccine. Poor guy. Since we will be gone, he is going to grandma's house post vaccine. This is the boy that had a fever of 104.5 and tried sleeping for 18 hrs straight after his measles booster to move to campus as an undergraduate. He sleeps so deep, it is difficult to wake him, so grandma knows to wake him up frequently to force fluids. Both of the grandmas had Pfizer in Jan/Feb. Our daughter and son in law each have their first doses. So this just leaves our two young grandsons. But now we will be able to gather safely and enjoy time with them because we will all be protecting them with our vaxes. I cannot wait for our summer family camping trip! N is a real miniature fisherman and has lots of plans for being on the boat with his PapaM (Dh).

I am an old boardie from a long while back. This year I chose to lurk so I could read the pandemic threads because I knew there would be a lot of information here. My youngest is still in college and attends a university that chose to have a contest with several other universities to see whose student body, staff, and faculty could get the highest percentage of their population immunized to the flu. They considered it one more way of helping out their local communities, trying to prevent flu and covid simultaneously. Every college in the contest exceeded 75%, and two exceeded 80%. Students are camping at the bit to get vaccinated to covid so that campus life will be more normal next semester. His school also requires measles and meningitis vaxes in order to attend. So I think that with right minded administrations and student bodies, campus immunity is a real possibility.

Thank you everyone. Sorry its been a while since the last update. It doesn't look good. Her kidney function is very, very poor, BP hard to control. She was pretty lucid after her hearing aids were turned on, so we've been able to have good conversations with her. Yesterday late afternoon she fell asleep, and only awakened for a few minutes a couple of times since then. I guess that is good. She doesn't appear to be in distress. I think for her, as she has expressed before, she's had a great life, but all of her friends are passing away, and just last week, her sister in law died. Dh's dad, his two brothers, and now their wives as well. She still has a sister, but auntie's health is in very, very poor shape. MIL got to spend two weeks with her sis this summer, and her comment when we picked her up at the airport, was "This may be the last time we had together." I think maybe mentally, she is somewhat ready to let go. The fight doesn't seem to be there. I am trying to help DH process it all.

Wow, Dr. Hive. You guys have been awesome with so much timely advice. I just got an update, and am heading back to the hospital. My theater group had a performance this morning, and another this afternoon, so i was out of the loop for a long time. I did manage to briefly log in and look at 1 p.m., and then called dh. Thank you to the person who mentioned hearing aids. Dh didn't realize hers were turned off. Once he turned them on, she immediately perked up. The BP is still too high. She's had a lot of meds, so I'm very worried. Pain levels are okay. She isn't requesting much for meds which is very good given the opioid issues. Of course, she isn't moving around right now. I'm sure that if they stabilize her and she goes to rehab, she might have to move in ways that will cause a lot more pain. So we'll have to discuss that. I am taking her kindle to her so she can read, and play candy crush. Ottakee, I will ask them if they've tested for any infections, and mention bladder infection. She already has kidney issues so my guess is they are monitoring that closely, but she is a bit prone to bladder infections. Thank you all so much!

I am very upset. She's 83 and a wonderful grandma to my kids. She tripped over a rug that we've taken up time and time again because it was a hazard for her, and she kept getting out again. It's a rag rug she made years ago. Her knees are stiff so she shuffles her feet and would catch her toes on that rug. She has fallen due to that rug before. I don't know why elderly folks have to be so stubborn. She didn't do so well through the night. She has BP troubles, and kidney issues as well. The BP was hard to get down and keep down. It's more stable now. But she seems "off" to me, and the doctor isn't really very helpful. Dh has asked him what to expect, and they just rush around and shrug their shoulders. If you've had an elder with this injury, can you post here? What was recovery like? Pain management? Did they go to rehab before coming home? Were they able to walk? Should we worry about pneumonia? How much physical care did you need to provide and for how long? If they went to rehab, did you have to be there a lot, did they require lots of advocating or was it fairly straight forward? Thanks to all who respond. I think I'll be at the hospital the whole day, and will try to check back on my cell phone.

Raccoons here can be very destructive, and have rabies. We've had some cases of that in this county so everyone is quite wary. They definitely go after farmer's chickens, and so end up on the wrong end of a hunting gun often. We actually need the state to hire some hunters to thin them out. There are way too many because there aren't enough coyotes to hunt them. The rabies issue will get worse if the population isn't reduced. They also attack dogs and cats, sometimes small children, and the stuff they destroy.... They may look cute to people who don't normally deal with the buggers, but they are nasty and a menace. Dh had to shoot one that wouldn't stay off mil's front porch, and tried to attack her little King Charles Spaniel.

When I was first married, they insisted on referring to themselves as "mom and dad" and wanted me to call them that, but I had both of my parents so it was very uncomfortable because I would use their first names, and they would come back with "mom and dad". It wasn't a fun three years. But then we had our daughter, and the other grandkids referred to them as Granny and Grandpa Sandy (Sandy was a nickname) so I started using those terms all the time. Father in law has been gone for a number of years, but granny is still granny even though all the grandchildren are adults. She likes it. So happily, the problem did resolve.

Oh yikes. Clearly these people are totally unobservant! I think it's okay to simply cut them off and say, "I'm sorry. I have my day carefully planned, and won't get this yard work done if I take the time to chat. Have a nice day." Walk away. Refuse to engage. If they can't take a polite hint, that's not your problem.

I love lentil soup. Fell in love with it when we were in Egypt. I use red or orange lentils, and slow cook in my crockpot with chicken stock and finely diced carrots. I add garlic, tumeric, and cumin. Shredded chicken is a nice addition if you want meat. Dh and I like to have a big pot of vegetarian style and just eat on it all week. Dh is known to make himself a grilled cheese to dip in it. I also make a meatless chili. Canned tomatoes run through the blender to puree. Garlic, tons of cumin, only a mild amount of chili pepper, little bit of salt. I add one can of red kidney beans or if I've recently soaked and cooked kidneys, then some of those, plus two cans of pinto beans. I cook it on low for a couple of hours until it is nice and savory. My family likes to add a dollop of sour cream. I soak dry pintos with a little salt and lemon juice for 24 hours, covered. Then thoroughly rinse. I add more water, and cook until done, then drain, and add taco or enchilada sauce. I serve them over rice, and sometimes we add some ground beef to them when we add the sauce, sometimes without meat.

Agreeing with Ottakee, here they want paraprofessionals to work with special needs students for $12 an hour and want a minimum associates degree. Not really certain why they think they deserve that level of qualification for that price, but there is no accounting for the "thinking" of bureaucrats and administrators. Sub pay is worse. If I sub for the local district, I have to have 90 college credits, bachelor's preferred though at this point they are so desperate they'd take any warm body that hasn't committed a felony, arrive at 7:30 p.m., stay until 4 p,m, and if an elementary classrroom eat with the students, no potty breaks because there aren't any teacher's aides to stay with the kids. 8.5 hours of work very skilled labor for 80 a day. When I sub for high school math and science classes, same pay, and I'll have upwards of 150 students throughout the day, and am required to do the grading of anything handed in that day before I leave. If subbing for a zero hour AP class, I have to be there at 7 am no additional pay. They wonder why they can't get anyone to do it! Well seriously, Taco Bell is so desperate in the town west of here that they are offering $12 an hour. It's a lot less liability for me to make someone's fast food or cashier or whatever than it is to teach children. In our area, a 1 bedroom apartment that includes water and trash is $450 a month, usually electric heat so around $150 a month for that in the winter, and $50 minimum for internet which you simply have to have because most employers now publish schedules online and require internet access of their employees. Add to that a cell phone so said employer can get a hold of you, and you can call 911 when needed, and the minimum is $40 a month. The car is no less than $200 a month to insure because Michigan is very expensive, and that $200 a month usually doesn't even have collision on it, and only the lowest levels of PIP. Put gas in it, buy tires, and have regular oil changes, one is up to $100 a month for just that, and then one has to consider emergency savings for car repairs because we don't have any public transportation here. That's just shy of $1000 a month, and food hasn't been purchased yet, much less personal care items, any kind of clothing allowance, nor prescriptions or office calls. $15 an hour for 40 hrs per week, 52 weeks a year is after withholding $2076.00 a month. For a single person, if he or she doesn't eat, then one paycheck goes to the aforementioned stuff, and the other to health insurance, and a single young person could buy a policy on the marketplace for that. They couldn't, as a single person here, earn that much and still get medicaid. Obviously, said young person will choose to eat, have winter boots and coat, and try to keep the car maintained so he/she can keep a job which means not having health care access, using the ER if absolutely necessary, and then going bankrupt when the bill can't be paid. Try raising a family on that. The reality is that most of the jobs in the area don't pay $15 an hour, more like $10 an hour when not salaried with benefits. This means that no matter what there simply has to be two earners in the household, and if there are young children this is a major issue because childcare costs have to be added to the budget. We wonder why so many families eat mac n cheese, tostinos crappy frozen pizzas, tuna, and peanut butter sandwiches. Right here. That's the reason. It is my personal belief that the current economic model is not sustainable unless the nation is very content with huge swaths of mass poverty. I am very sad for small businesses. A lot of owners are really good people. But a business model based on extremely low wages in the face of cost of living is always going to struggle to employ people, and corporate welfare in the form of corporations paying low forcing their workers onto public assistance programs is not a recipe for economic success.

I am so relieved to hear from you. When I heard about the shooting, I can honestly say my first thought was of you and your family. I am so sorry Arctic! I know you feel the pain of your community very strongly. Many hugs.

And I agree with that. One should be cautious about throwing one's hat in the ring as expert leadership, making a names for oneself for doing it because one uses that celebrity status to influence others. That should not be a responsibility taken lightly. Most of the time, I think it is often taken VERY lightly. In the case of the Harris's, I think they are feeling this keenly at least taking into account the wording of Josh's apology.

Most laws about this are state or locality specific, and some areas do not put any responsibility on the part of the server while others put a lot of responsibility on them. I think it's somewhere down the middle. But young servers in particular without much life experience, in my opinion, should be given a lot of training, and should work with experienced servers to help learn the ropes of figuring assessing situations and responding appropriately. Management and owners should have very well written and thorough policies as well because that helps the servers know exactly what to do and when. I do believe that ultimately the responsibility to NOT drink too much is on the drinker. However, since it's a public safety issue, it cannot only be on the drinker and must include some reasonable restrictions and guidelines on the seller.

That is the crux of the matter. Deconversions/Deconstructions among prominent members of a belief system sometimes rock the world of others who adhere to the same or similar beliefs. It wasn't easy for people connected to Moody Theological Seminary when Bart Ehrman deconverted. it was a bit of a scandal in that community, and heart breaking for many of them. There is a lot of pain that can be involved when leaders have a change in worldview. Compassion needs to be extended both directions so people can heal. A huge amount of marriages don't survive these things either, and especially so if there is a lot of outside pressure and turmoil. Dh and I have managed so far and that's partly due to how much privacy we've been able to maintain in the matter. For Joshua and Shannon, privacy isn't going to happen, not when one is prominent enough in the community to have to make public statements about their faith issues. This didn't just happen overnight, and trying to go through it without having the SGM community up in their business was not likely easy, probably rather impossible actually. SGM churches due to their take on "church discipline" tend to be unbelievably snoopy - at least as reported by many folks who have left them - and up in each other's faces, quite judgmental. It is the problem with setting oneself up as a very public figure for your belief system or political system or celebrity status. You choose to live in the public eye and that has its rewards, but it also has some pretty big downsides and this is one of them. For Joshua, he's had to go through the painful process of trying to figure out what to do with his books, and that means dealing with publishers, distributors and retailers, etc. That's not something that normally converts or de-converts have to navigate. The same for the musician, there is published work out there so how does that get handled, and for those that loved the music and found encouragement and blessing, how does that work out for them? Ultimately, the Harris's kids pay the biggest price. The marriage isn't going to make it, and they are living that bad dream in the public eye. They will have to figure out as adults what they believe, and if that is different from their parents, another layer of difficulty added. I feel so sad for them.

Maize, God Be With You is the closing of the non traditional service - which is really a blended, relaxed service but not particularly contemporary. Pastor and I wrote the arrangement so it would be pretty and lyrical, yet upbeat and joyous to sing. I like the keyboard part I wrote. Except for around specific holidays, it is sung at the end of every non traditional service. People seem to really enjoy it

This. Unfortunately, we've experienced some epic with the trains when we used them.

Agreed. Without the sun, the temps would have been too low to sustain plant life even if it was only for 24 hours. While it says "let there be light", light doesn't necessarily mean life sustaining temperature. Instant freeze. So unless one believes in some sort of suspended animation kind of thing, or some other methodology for warming the earth that isn't explained, then it's pretty hard to take as more than a story of how ancient Israelites thought about the natural world and how it came to be. I've listened to all the arguments for young earth, middle earth, old earth based on interpretation of the biblical creation story, and well, the text just doesn't hold up unless one adds a lot of not in the bible supposition about how it could have happened, thus accepting conjecture to support the theories. I think the value in the text is in shedding light on how ancient peoples thought and related to their material world, how they thought and related to god as they perceived him or them, but not as a documentary of what actually was.

I gave up on the new school of thought in chiropractic. It has not been remotely helpful, not worth my money. What has worked is yoga combined with 5-6 therapeutic (so not those comfy, relax you make you fall asleep kind) massages which work out the inflammation and restore good circulation. Those two things have been worth way more to me than chiropractic. But possibly one reason this is so is that I have specific kinds of soft tissue injury, not necessarily vetebra alignment issues. When I was in college, I had an old school DO who gave what I like to call "brutal adjustments" but man did those things work and last a long, long time! I alignment problems back then which is a no issue these days.

It's out there Maize, so I expect you to contribute!

Okay, so here goes: Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring Jesu Bambino Panis Angelicus Ode to Joy (Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee) The Prayer Pie Jesu Laudemus Te - Vivaldi Ave Maria - Schubert Of Standard Hymns: Make Me a Blessing Day by Day O the Deep Deep Love (I am not certain why it appeals to me. It's hauntingly beautiful, and I love to sing it, love to hear it despite not being invested in the theology.) O Holy Night In Excelsis Deo (Angels We Have Heard on High) Contemporary: You are My Hiding Place - Selah You Raise Me Up - Selah Kyrie - Michael W Smith

The Lan Su Chinese Garden is 3/10th of a mile from union station. I can't think of much else that is close by although you could walk the nearly half mile to Cycle Portland and rent bikes. That would give you more options.

Me too. As a matter of fact, I still love sacred music so much, that I serve as the director of church music at our UMC. I enjoy giving them the music that blesses them, and makes life worth facing on Monday. I don't begrudge anyone the faith that gets them through life so long as they aren't hurting anyone else. For Christmas Eve service, not only did we sing traditional carols, but my son played Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring on classical guitar while I accompanied him, a cellist performed What Child is This with me, I brought in a special vocalist to sing Breath of Heaven, and our mixed vocal quartet performed O Holy Night. All of it to candle light with our pipe organist providing lots of Bach for preludes and postludes. It was exquisite, and I loved every minute of it. I am half tempted to start a thread on "sacred music that means the most to you" and then have people pick their top five pieces and post them. It would be interesting to see how many like traditional, classical, contemporary, christian rock, alternative, etc., and it would extra interesting to hear what those from non christian backgrounds find uplifting within their musical religious context.

WoolC, thank you for sharing. I was somewhat aware that the Orthodox have a slightly different view of this issue than other christians. For the record, not everything about christianity is something I've turned my back on. I see a lot of wisdom in the words of Christ, and I attend and serve at a local UMC with dh so he can be nurtured, and we share and work together as part of making our interfaith marriage work. Most would be likely to describe me as a Red Letter Christian, though I am a deist who applies Red Letter principles to my perspective on sharing planet earth with everyone else. I find the discussion of the ancient Aramaic and Hebrew surrounding the translation of these passages to be really interesting.