Our RV Adventures

Jan was jonsin’ for her Bravocado Toast at Snooze, so we left for Webster about 1pm. And though it rained earlier this morning, it was sunny and in the high 70’s by the time we got there so we sat outside on their patio.

I got my usual 3 Egg Classic with eggs over medium, bacon, fruit, and an English Muffin.

After lunch we made a quick stop at the nearby UPS store to drop off an Amazon return.  Just walk in, give them the open bag, show them the QR return code on my phone, and they give me a receipt.

Quick and easy.

Coming home, we made a quick stop at our storeroom to drop off some stuff, and then a Cowboy Coffee stop so we could sit out on the patio and enjoy it.

Several readers have asked about my AC repair. Well, so far, so good.

It’s running just fine, and just in time too, since even though we’re getting temps the in 50’s/60’s at night, it’s running into the high 70’s/low 80’s in the daytime.

And no, I still don’t know what caused the problem with the Control Box. The AC stopped working but then we got a cold snap and didn’t need it for a few days. And then when I took the cover off days later, and was just looking up at the Control Box, all of a sudden there was a bright flash and a sharp ‘Crack’ from inside the plastic box. And then smoke started coming out.

So I’m still not sure what caused the circuit to wait a week to short out with me just looking at it, and more importantly, how it drew enough current to burn through a 10 gauge wire without popping the breaker.

Sometimes it’s just one of those things.

On the mask front:

Oregon Proposes Permanent Mask Mandate

Oregon bureaucrats are proposing making the state’s mask mandate and social distancing requirements permanent.

In their proposal, the state’s health bureaucrats admit that while the mandates were adopted “to address the COVID-19 pandemic,” they want to keep them beyond the May 4 expiration date.

Meanwhile, in the UK, bureaucrats are suggesting that mask mandates and social distancing requirements will be in place “for years.”

“Ramsay told the BBC on Sunday that masks and social distancing could be required for ‘several years,’ or ‘at least until other parts of the world are as well vaccinated as we are, and the numbers have come down everywhere,’”

Then there’s this.

Do We Need Mask Mandates? The science suggests that more states should consider rescinding them.

. . .masks proved far less useful in the subsequent 1918 Spanish flu, a viral disease spread by pathogens smaller than bacteria. California’s Department of Health, for instance, reported that the cities of Stockton, which required masks, and Boston, which did not, had scarcely different death rates, and so advised against mask mandates except for a few high-risk professions such as barbers.

The Surgeon General of the United States Navy warned that masks were “designed only to afford protection against a direct spray from the mouth” and could even spread disease if used improperly.

The epidemiologist Warren Vaughan used even blunter terms: “Certainly the face mask as extensively used during the 1918 epidemic was of little benefit and in many cases was, without doubt, a decided detriment.”

Studies in hospitals, likewise, have repeatedly shown that surgical masks worn by surgeons do not reduce bacterial wound infections, even though masks might be expected to work best against short-distance transmission of bacteria rather than smaller viruses.

One study even found that when surgeons in one British hospital got rid of face masks, the rate of wound infections fell by half. Surgical masks, another study showed, did not reduce bacterial contamination of surfaces in an operating theater.

There are several case studies, furthermore, of Covid-19 outbreaks in confined spaces despite good mask adherence, such as one outbreak in a Marine Corps barracks whose residents wore cloth masks almost constantly.

And then this.

New SARS-CoV-2 variant in France appears undetectable by PCR

French authorities have announced the emergence of a new variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the northwestern region of Brittany that has escaped detection by standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

I’ve mentioned before about the 20+ European countries that have stopped the use of the AstraZeneca CoVid due to a wide array of serious and even deadly side effects, including multiple blood clots and anaphylactic shock.

And also the fact that they’re trying to get approval for the same vaccine here in the U.S. And now it appears they’ve been ‘fibbing’ about the results of the US drug trials.

AstraZeneca Releases ‘Outdated and Potentially Misleading Data’ on Vaccine Trial

After the company finally released results from its vaccine’s Stage 3 Trials, U.S. regulators were shocked to discover that the information was “outdated and potentially misleading.”

The rosy picture the company painted of its vaccine on Monday — that it had a 79 percent efficacy against COVID-19 and substantially reduced serious illness — turns out to have been more PR than real.

Even Dr. Fauci was upset.

The head of the NIAID, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was at a loss to explain it. “I was sort of stunned,” Fauci said. “The data and safety monitoring board were concerned that the data that went into the press release by AZ was not the most accurate and up-to-date data. That is what the DSMB communicated to AZ in a rather harsh note. Having seen that letter we could not just let it go unanswered.”

Any wonder why almost half of US frontline healthcare workers are refusing to get vaccinated.

Thought For The Day:

“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into”—Jonathan Swift

In yesterday’s blog, under the heading of Running The Numbers:,

blog reader Doug corrected my mistake in one of the math calculations. And it was so obvious I should have caught it myself. So I appreciate him bring it to my attention. It was here.

As far as catching CoVid

There are 30,485,146 cases as of today in the U.S
Divided by the 330,000,000 people in the U.S gives you .168% of catching it,

or a 99.8% of NOT catching the CoVid virus.

While I stated problem correctly, 30,485,146 cases divided by 330,000,000 people in the US, what came out of my calculator 554,899 (the number of US deaths) divided by 330,000,000.

Just looking at it, I should have seen that the answer should have been closer to 10% than .168%.

And in fact the correct answer is 9.24% chance of catching the CoVid virus, or a little over 90% chance of NOT catching it.

The other figure, giving you a 98.18% chance of NOT dying if you were to catch it, is correct. And as I said months ago, to me the important thing in all this is whether you die or not.

Or at least it is to me.

Tomorrow we’re going to work on some projects around the rig, and then take some more stuff over to the storeroom. And then probably Snooze for breakfast/lunch later in the afternoon.

I’ve also got to drop off an Amazon return at the UPS store there in Webster. Don’t have to pack it or wrap it. Just hand them the damaged box, show them the QR code Amazon sent me, and I’m done.

Neat!

Thought For The Day:

I think they’re wearing them wrong.