SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

How good is the testing in the area?

From the outside it seems that US testing Service is Substandard to other States of the western Nations.

Testing in the U.S. is virtually non existent, yet will likely improve. Our CDC failed us in a very big way. Had Trump been alerted sooner, we could have flattened the peak, saved more lives, and avoided some the economic consequences as well. Had we not shut the country down, more like 2 million deaths may have occurred in this first wave, as opposed to several hundred thousand that is now projected. As it is biological weapon rather than a naturally occurring virus, it is proving to have a few unnatural tricks up it’s sleeve, surprises I was expecting. There are now reports that some males who have had a bad case of it, are being rendered partly, or mostly sterile. As noted early on, it can damage the heart and kidneys, but now it is known to also damage the testicles. During the first, and then subsequent re-infections, it can damage different parts of the body, and as expected, it is mutating. There is one report that there are now 100 strains.

I can’t comment on other Western nations, but bear in mind that the US is much larger than most of those. So to a certain extent, it’s a matter of logistics, simply fielding enough kits for testing. The US is also minimizing testing to people exhibiting significant symptoms, partly to avoid bringing them into an area where they could either be infected or infect others, and to help avoid over-tasking our medical providers.
I think we will continue to see increased testing over the next few weeks as more kits become available, and especially if home testing kits are fielded. Anecdotally, we had no issues getting our daughter tested a couple of weeks ago, and she was taken after hours on a weekend to our small rural hospital. So testing availability is probably going to be somewhat inconsistent, with more issues in areas of greater population density.

Your daughter is well i hope?

I didn´t intend that to be negative, but to give the Impression i got from outside including the reason the numbers you´ve seemed not very valid and that Absence of evidence is not evidence of Absence.

She is, thank you. And I took no offense, I agree the numbers seem off. I was merely offering a potential explanation for the inconsistency.

They are calling plenty of businesses non esential, however the urgency to build these 5G cell phone towers is going full speed ahead. Lots of evidence shows that the frequency of 5G is extremely harmful to human health. It can even cause flu like symptoms. It causes problems with DNA. Do some research folks 5G, which is banned in numerous other countries, is going to cause many more health problems than this virus.

This is simply not true. Do the research but do it so that you will know who and which sites are putting this crazy stuff out there and then stop listening to anything they say.

It is true. I have done the research and have confirmed it with 2 friends that are doctors. Both of them have done the research as well. Electromagnetic frequency can be very unfriendly to the human organism. To much UV ever cause a problem??? The U.S. military has used various microwave weapons for years now. To blatantly discount that 5G can have no effect on the human body is insane. You probably think fluoride is good for us to and that mercury fillings in your mouth could never cause a problem.

Consider me dubious. Please show me some scientific studies that demonstrably show an effect on living organisms at those low energy levels. A typical 5G tower puts out 5 Watts. So why then weren’t people dropping dead or developing tumors when they were exposed to thousands of Watts, living near UHF television broadcast towers? See:

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A snippet:

“A 5G macro cell antenna will be placed up on a tower or on the roof of a high building. Height above ground is thus some 30 m, and we assume a position in 100 m distance from the antenna. Path loss can be calculated to as =82.5dB. The received power is 50 dBm – 82.5 dB = -32 dBm, which is less than one µW.” [A µW is 1 millionth of a Watt.]

Here is Americans for Responsible Technology and the many links to studies on the effects of RF. ^[19]

Remember when OBO wanted people to move closer to the cities, live in smaller square footage, commute to work either by walking or mass transit. Could you imagine if the liberals got voted in in 2016 how much bigger of a disaster we would have had?

You mean like in Japan or ´ve you ever visited London, private cars wouldn´t work there

In Kansas City the banks have gone to drive-thru’s and ATM’s as well. Unfortunately, they have limits of $500. at the ATMS and the drive-thru’s will only let you have $2,000. I worked two different credit union locations this Fri and Sat past and found out for any withdrawal larger than $2,000, you have to have reason. After some heated words, my reason became the pandemic. I made 2 withdrawals of $9,000 each. The Fed Gov’t is now interested in tracking transactions less than $10,000. This is a way to limit a run on any banking institution, apparently.

The banks may be worried about bank runs as people pull out cash the banks don’t have.

Federal Reserve’s data base FRED indicates currency in circulation soared by 3% in March — see ^[20]

Note: Up at the top at EDIT GRAPH select 1 Year scale

And not to mention that the Federales dropped the bank reserve requirement to ZERO.

Yup got the evil eye back in late February/Early March when I took a sum of cash out.

Don’t you just love it when they get snarky with you when you ask to take out YOUR money?

And for years now they don’t even face the bills anymore. I don’t know why but that really bugs me.

Rock on

If they have it it isn’t yours you are just a uncollatterized lender(changed several years ago).

I’ve “heard” from family that testing is very difficult to find in South FL & AL

Pray we all uP our game

In South Florida, testing has started, but it’s just a “feel good” measure.
Right after you are tested ‘negative’, after just a few minutes, you can be ‘positive’.
And if you are tested ‘negative’, you are told to ‘self isolate’ for 14 days, which you should have done in the first place.
Just stay home – you’re better off.

JustWatchin, I agree with your assessment of testing. Just because you don’t have it at the time of testing doesn’t mean you won’t get it later on. If you have symptoms, no point in getting tested, as the advice is the same, self isolate at home and treat the symptoms as best you can. If you have difficulty breathing, then go to a hospital and hopefully get put on a ventilator. But if it comes to that, good luck! With a shortage of ventilators already, I would like to know the number of people on ventilators that end up dying anyway.

ski_hike: Very few who end up on a vent actually survive. i have yet to see one. The clinical course at that point seems to be similar- these people go from shortness of breath to complete respiratory failure within a few hours. After that, complete organ failure of the kidneys come next. Blood pressure drops, fever spikes. While everyone talks about the vent shortage, the REAL shortage is not vents, but all the other equipment needed to care for the person. They take only ONE vent, but often need multiple IV pumps- 4-6- in order to maintain the infusions of antibiotics, vasopressors, and fluids. A complete failure of the kidneys can make bedside dialysis necessary, and placing the person on a rotoprone bed ( where they are flipped upside down) has shown some improvement in lung function. Most hospitals have a VERY limited number of bedside dialysis machines and rotoprone beds, simply because there typically is limited call for them. Finding IV’s pumps is already like a geocaching expedition at times, I have no idea what we’ll due if a “surge” truly hits.

Just Watchin’, I agree. Although my daughter tested negative, I still wonder. The hospital’s response of “it was probably just a bad case of seasonal allergies” rings a bit hollow, since those don’t generally cause fevers and a dry cough. Granted, I’m not a doctor (nor do I play one on TV). Either way, she seems to have made a complete recovery.
In addition, I suspect I may have had it back in January. I was out of town at a conference, when I became suddenly ill. Fever, body aches, and a severe dry cough. A colleague had told me a couple days earlier that he’d had a bad bug with those symptoms that took him weeks to shake. Our boss came down with the same thing at the conference. All of us recovered, although it took me weeks to shake the cough. Again, not a doctor, so I could be mistaken. Still it make one wonder.

No, it’s rather easy to get a test in South Fla. if you have simptoms of covid19. But if you just want to check and verify that you don’t have the virus, that’s pretty selfish. Go home, be an adult and quarantine yourself, like the rest of us. There’s 3 million people down here and, for now, maybe 200,000 tests. I think we’re fine

Re. Grant County OR
I’d like to see the County’s list of areas they deem to be ‘significant’.

Criminals will pick the low hanging fruit first. My hunch is that anyone coming to do harm to rural properties will find that owners already deem their property as ‘significant’. And they will protect it as such.

It’ll likely be Hwy 26 that flows E/W.
Small, isolated towns are there. I’ll just bet that everybody knows who the jackwagons are, so they’ll keep an eye on those few for now. This is very isolated, very rural area.
Hwy 395 runs N/S through there, but I don’t remember there really being anything of significance.
It’s very pretty country.

Nationwide, the highest numbers are seen in the urban areas. There are entire counties in rural areas with no identified cases. What the media is not broadcasting widely is that only about 25% of positive cases require any hospitalization, and only about 9% require ICU level care. This is actually less than is typically seen with the yearly flu. Symptoms can range from nothing, to a “bad cold” to complete respiratory and organ failure. Those with more severe effects have underlying medical problems- chronic COPD, asthma, heart disease, kidney disease, or compromised immune system.

Even the numbers in the hospital are misleading to an extent. Due to a significant delay in getting test results, (we’re up to 8-10 days), we have entire floors filled with “rule out” patients. They have 2 symptoms- such as slight fever and a cough- they become rule outs- the test is sent off, and they are put in isolation until we get the results. Very few of them are actually positive.

I live in a Washington state. It is my opinion that the virus has already been through here and is on the down side. The evidence is mounting IMO.

The official case rate spike is already rolling over even as New York cases are mounting.

The new case rate and death rates are already rolling over.

I have two friends who were uncharacteristically ill around Feb 16 along with their wives. Dry cough. Not very much in the runny nose department. Fever. Uninterested in food. Laid up in bed for several days. And loss of sense of taste.

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My son-in-laws best friend tested positive COVID with virtually no symptoms. He had slight tightness in his chest that he would have normally blown off. He went and got tested out of a sense of public responsibility not because he was actually sick. He is perfectly fine by all reports.

The local YMCA staff was convinced in February that the COVID virus had already cycled through their facility. Like any pool or gym, particularly one that caters to children, if it is going around, it will go through there.

The first cases not traceable directly to someone getting off a plane from China were on the West Coast. They showed up very quickly after the first traceable cases showed up. This virus was out of control on the West Coast from the second it came through LAX, SAN FRAN, SEATAC and all the other West Coast airports as they all host major carriers servicing China and the West Coast has significant personal and business ties to China.

The West Coast governors shut the gate well after the horse escaped IMO. Actually I think the horse had already made a lap around the property and was headed back to the corral when the gate was shut.

The case spikes were due to the availability of test kits not to the number of actual cases. When this thing started our counties major hospital, a fairly large multisite facility had 10 kits total. They were not testing hardly anyone and are still turning away most people from testing.

As people may recall, many if not most initial test kits were faulty.

Regarding Idaho, I heard a report from a friend just yesterday that at least 30 positive tests from Coeur D’Alene were just returned from Boise more than a month after they had been sent in. Idaho was probably infected right from the start and is probably on the down side now as well.

I cannot speak to the East Coast but I suspect in reality what is happening there is the same. They just simply started testing in earnest with test kits that actually worked.

From the evidence I see around me, the actual case count for this pandemic in the US is probably in the millions just like seasonal flu. And the death rate is probably similar also.

We probably shouldn’t be too quick to say that the number of illnesses is already declining. The curve seen in Italy would indicate that the peak for us is still two weeks to six weeks away. The U.S. is a huge expanse of land, with 350 million souls. Things will get worse before they get better. This bug will likely come at us in waves, until the Herd Immunity threshold is reached. Methinks that 2020 and 2021 will both be remembered as Plague Years.

Agreed.
This virus is a chameleon. Symptoms present differently between patients.
It also seems to boomerang. Looking at what has happened elsewhere, it is more of a sine wave than a simple spike and dip.
This thing still has a ways to go.
God has the plan.

I believe the data out of South Korea and my state indicates herd immunity will be reached much faster than advertised and may already be well on it’s way to establishment. I believe an order of magnitude more people than advertised have already had this, been exposed to this and recovered.

If we put up case and death counters for seasonal flu, which is also “novel” and lethal to some extent nearly every year, we would not function.

I think the Chinese leadership is laughing at us right now or at least very happy with how we are self destructing our economy. Either celebrating their good fortune or satisfied with a plan well executed.

Have you any reliable Information, that the recovered developed immunity?

I only know the scientists expect it but didn´t know for sure.

^[22]

Note a couple things.

Serious cases are very low indicating those who have it are somewhat resistant.

New cases peaked and have since flattened out with only slight waves indicating the virus is finding fewer susceptible people to infect badly enough to prompt them to get medical attention. Or to even infect at all. China shows this same pattern but many do not trust their data.

Also to my knowledge there has not been an appreciable amount if any of random sampling to locate unknown cases except on Diamond Princess where you had a whole population almost certainly exposed and then tested. The Diamond Princess data indicated that when exposed over 75% of the people did not contract the disease. Of those that did the majority had no symptoms or symptoms so slight they would have never sought medical attention. So you can be confident there are large numbers of people asymptotic spreading this like wildfire but few people are getting sick enough to go get tested or are not even contracting the illness. And even a larger population whose immune system will are just naturally resistant at the outset.

In my county they still will not test people until they are very ill. So you can be sure your case numbers are way higher than advertised. You cannot hide deaths however.

Also at roughly 42000 deaths world wide, this virus has killed about half the people among 7.7 billion in three months than the seasonal flu killed in just the US last year. 80000 in a population of about 3.3 million. The bodies are just not stacking up as fast as seasonal flu.

The reason couldn´t be that South Korea acted fast, decisevily, very efficiently?

I miss any scientific tests, analyse pr such kind of quantifiable proof, i´m not saying or wanted to make the impression this isn´t the case.

The information you gave seems the or part of the reasons the scientists do expect that but afaik they´ven´t confirmed that.

The University of Utah is expecting their peak a bit after mid May.

The political choices are – keep things locked down, and slow burn till October – November.
Praying second infections is not a real thing.
Economy takes a even more massive hit and people get unbelievably stressed out.
“Essential” workers will eventually demand more pay to continue to support those who are “working from home”.
The balance of people doing something to those pushing paper will become more obvious and wage changes may come into play. Hazard pay of sorts.

Or…. open up to some extent and things rip… hospitals get overwhelmed, and it’s rather scary for people.
This forces some people to choose to self-isolate. In this case we may lose too many “essential” workers. Risks to infrastructure become real in this scenario.

No easy way out of this – unless we discover that one of the many therapies (not vaccines) are actually very effective.
That would change the dynamic quite a bit in the near term.

If not, we are in this for the very very long run.

Jim, enjoyed your ballistic wampum market forecast, thank you.

God bless and pray every day.

We anticipated a peak in early to mid summer. That was a generalization. The disease course is proving to be somewhat predictable. It should peak in the Redoubt later, or nearly last, and long after the big cities on the coast. North Dakota and Alaska might be the the best places to avoid the virus. Campers fleeing the cities will arrive in the Redoubt in greater numbers as time goes on, so we may have a longer in duration, or double peak, yet a much lower peak. Latter arrivals may have a greater infection rate. Winter will force most campers south.

Hey Tom,

“No easy way out of this – unless we discover that one of the many therapies (not vaccines) are actually very effective. That would change the dynamic quite a bit in the near term.”

Dr. Vladimir Zelenko has now treated 699 coronavirus patients with 100% success

^[23]

Dr.Zelenko defines success as “not dying”!

Rather than a vaccine, how about a cure.

This is a very interesting read on this subject. ^[24]

I’m on my 2nd week of staying home, its actually been a lot of fun for me but that is said from a frugal lifestyle and 20 years of prepping.

I usually cook my breakfast each morning watching the daily update from Chris Martensen over at ^[25]

Mondays 3/30 podcast was specifically interesting as he talked about ways to decontaminate your face masks to reuse.

If you are also sheltering in place and you haven’t seen it, he also did a video series that you see there for free called “the economic crash course” that is worth watching.

^[26]

I don’t have anything to do with the site, I just recently found it useful for these times.

Here in my county in Montana I have been keeping a simple count every Saturday morning over the last 3 weeks the count has gone from 1 to 4 to 9, it seems the confirmed cases are doubling every week.

In my opinion, Democrat news media are covering up the fact that US containment of this virus has been good EXCEPT for a big failure by New York City’s Mayor Blasio and Governor Cuomo.

Today, the number of US deaths/NYC deaths are 3173 / 914. Even though NYC makes up only 8.4 million of US 328 million population, it has 29% of the deaths.

About two days ago, the count was 2197 / 672, giving NYC 31% of the deaths.

About two? weeks ago, the count was 499 / 98 — at which time NYC had a lower 20% of the deaths.

This is one of the ways the News Media functionally lies to you — by vague narratives instead of providing precise data. All the claptrap about extent of testing is a red herring — you don’t need tests to count the dead.

Something else the News Media is avoiding is the question of why rich New York City was so UNPREPARED to deal with disease. Disease is largely the responsibility of local and state health departments –because local conditions vary so much. Florida worries about mosquito-borne diseases — North Dakota worries about frostbite.

It was not in prepared.. notice how true keeps talking bio weapon and several have pointed out sterility from this plus politics. …. Notice how the coastal areas are hardest hit.

This is a weapon made to kill liberals and Democrats and keep them from making more liberal Democrats.

I mean this is spread via close contact and fecal matter. … Not gonna say which group has highest infidelity rates and fecal contact but it sure ain’t good Christian folk.

The priests in Italy who died caring for the ill weren´t good Christian Folks?

The medical personal who is infected and dying deserve dead?

OMG! LOL! IMHO!

Aerosol from flushing feces down toilet is a source of possible infection. Putting lid down will help minimize this, also make the women happy.

The Yellowstone reporter! That is a wise young man.
As a school aged child I remember my classmates returning from summer vacation with great stories of visiting Yellowstone National Park.
Fast forward 60 years. We had a group that planned to visit Yellowstone for the first time in April of this year. We made our plans and reservations in September of last year.
We canceled those plans a week ago.
We do not want to be asymptomatic and drag this bug to West Yellowstone.
We do not want to get on an airplane or even drive state to state.
We do not want to risk speaking the virus.
Moot point because they closed the park anyway.
We had it all figured out. We were going to arrive on the day they were to open the West Gate. A friend was really bummed that we had to cancel until I mentioned that Montana would probably quarantine us in a bear den for 14 days.
Next year or the year after. If it doesnt erupt. Then we will have to wait a little longer.

JWR: “Fewer people means fewer problems.”

My very Southern Granddaddy’s version of the same thing was “Less dogs, less fleas.” 😉 I sure miss him.

My state(VT) has “asked” people to please not come here unless they are an essential worker(nurse, doc etc) coming here to work. People have been “asked” to stay away if they’re just coming for pleasure or to escape the virus in NYC, NJ etc. Hotels, motels, inns and AirBnB’s have been told they need to close down and can only provide housing to essential workers or the homeless that are placed there.

So how’s this working out? Evidently a little official visit was made to just 88 of these establishments(hotels, motels etc- not AirBnB) and half of them were in violation! Looking online at AirBnB’s, I saw only one that said “essential workers only”. The others were happy to rent to you no matter where you came from. But our governor doesn’t feel it’s ok to be inhospitable and tell people to stay away. On a good day we lack adequate numbers of hospital staff. And it’s likely that additional staff and supplies will go to the big cities; not us.

I dunno. It’s not that I didn’t know that living in the northeast, even all the way up here in the far north had its risks. But looking at that huge red bullseye on the maps of infections now that covers NY, NJ, MA,CT; gaaaah. Gonna have to go visit the Redoubt! 😉 (only kidding)

Ani,,,,,,if you come out this way after the virus ,let’s get together for tea and chocolate ,i have some thing to show you that we were discussing , and bring your fishing pole,,,

Shalom

Will do! 😉

Our borough (county) has recorded three cases of COVID now, all at the other end of the valley from us. We are still able to go to the stores and pick up supplies, though there’s not much we need now (eggs, bread, fresh meat). Fuel prices continue to fall, though without going anywhere, all we can do is top off tanks. I just picked up 2,000 rounds of one of my preferred 22 lr rounds at the local grocery store for as good a price as I’ve seen in recent history. One big drag is the archery and gun ranges are closed, and there’s still too much snow on the ground to set up my targets out back, so I am having to put in target time in the garage with my blowgun. It was 9 degrees this morning. I tweaked my lower back this weekend, and have been forced to take it easy on a heating pad till the muscles start to recover. It sucks getting old.

Dry fire practice can be better than range time,especially to correct flinches,bad habits and malfunction drills. Really easy on budget too.

There’s a lot less people out. Had to run to the local farm store last night, and found a lot has been restocked. Still had freeze dried pouches, and a bunch of 5.56 on the shelves, though other calibers haven’t recovered. Slugs and buckshot are still gone missing. Very few out wearing masks. Have 5 new cases in the last week to bring the county total to 10. (doubled in 7 days)

Saw something last night that worries me. Saw a look of hatred in the eyes of a couple, as I had a mask and they didn’t! I think it’s time to at least wear soft armor when out and also carry! You may become a target for your PPE.

Good thought about the masks. I’ve had some interesting comments as well……. Maybe just tell people you’re infected and that’s why you’re wearing a mask!

For an interesting experiment on how to deal with this virus without destroying your economy consider Sweden

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We’ve had some excitement here in Nowheresville, Idaho. The nearby town is so small everyone knows everyone else’s business. Apparently a young man, who lives in town, has a drug problem and was shooting at the Sheriff deputies who had been called. There’s been two days of trying to catch the fellow. Several neighboring towns have participated in the police action. I only heard of it because a family member texted me last night. I barricaded both outer doors and the bedroom door, checked the handgun and the rifle, put them within reach as I went to bed. I actually slept. It made me think about my refusal to join FakeBook. We don’t have any kind of “alert” system other than informal calling/texting. Everyone was updating everyone else with what they knew on FB. I think one retired LEO had a police scanner so knew more than others. While this incident probably has nothing to do with the virus, it was the first “incident” our sleepy town has had in 20 years. It did cause me to re-assess home security, and pray over everyone involved including the “lost” and addicted young man. He just forfeited his current life for prison. So sad. Idaho does not require a permit to carry and I think many of us had gotten lazy about not carrying everywhere because nothing ever happens here other than daily life. Kind of a wake up call. I continue to see, however few, trucks pulling campers, going North. It’s just not tourist season yet and everyone is under “stay at home” orders. I don’t begrudge these people. If I were still living in a metro area, I’d have invoked the GOOD plan early on rather than sitting there watching the news. Once you are “awake”, you can’t go back to complacency.

Circa 1980, Mel Tappan said even small town retreats far from cities would still have psychopaths — but that they would usually be less than the number of rounds in a 1911 45 magazine.

We’ve got to keep in mind that God allows pandemics. Disease, pestilence, etc is talked about everywhere in the Bible. He uses these events to bring people back to Him. Interesting that it is the ‘corona’ virus/crown. The Big Guy with the Real Crown has sent a reminder that He’s in charge, and people need to get right. We are having tremendous witnessing opportunity right now.

I think most people here in Wyoming are sleep-walking. My wife and I did our monthly shopping trip today and were astounded that we counted among maybe a dozen people wearing masks and eye protection. Everyone else looked and acted as if nothing had changed. That does not bode well. The idiotic cautions AGAINST wearing masks will probably turn out to be one of the leading causes of skyrocketing infections. There doesn’t seem to be any more common sense in the Redoubt than in any other part of the Republic.

Just worked the numbers for Wuhan. At 86 total ovens, at 50 minutes per body, for 28 bodies per day per oven, and working round the clock for 65 days, that’s 156,520 dead. And they’re only reporting 3300. They’ve got millions that were infected just in Wuhan alone from those numbers. No reports of the other provinces.

Again, wear that PPE when out and about! A mask will help keep you from infection, and prevent infected from spreading as much virus. And if you do catch it, you get less of an initial dose that will give your body more time to respond, and you will likely be less affected.

This might be the final birth pang leading to the rapture! Once that hits, the antichrist arises, brings a war, then famine, and then another pandemic, and that’s for starters. Be ready to meet the Lord now, and don’t wait! We know He’s coming as a thief, and we don’t know what time, so be ready!

I worked for an aerospace company for 30 years. One of the product lines was TACAN navigation systems for aircraft that were deployed on the ground. The techs and engineers who worked on these systems were older than I was when I started working there, and were still around when I left three decades later. The transmitters on these navigation aids were far more powerful than the 5G cell towers, and indeed, all cell towers are. The techs would “burn in” new transmitters before shipping them to air forces all over the globe, and RF energy was always bouncing around the facility.
I asked several of the RF engineers about the hazards of such, and indeed, it is not good to be extremely close to a powerful transmitter antenna (say, 1000 watts). But any reasonable distance from a cell tower will assure long term safety for human health.
So, not buying into the anti-5G urban legend.
Last week, I tried to tamp down the excitement around urbanites “invading” rural areas as they try to flee their city. What I’m saying is, we should all be very careful and prepared to deal with a genuine violent criminal threat, but also avoid over reacting and getting ourselves into trouble. Might be a good time to reacquaint ourselves with our state laws concerning use of force. My favorite reference is “Self Defense Laws in All 50 States, by Mitch Vilos. If you don’t have time to read it now, you might have plenty of time to read it in a cell. Don’t be a test case! Be the moral people you probably are and stay safe as this unfolding event plays out.
And…if you’ve made it impossible for anyone to get in, you can’t get out. This will be over soon enough, let’s be smart about this.
In the Salt Lake area, I noted that Target, Sam’s Club, and Walmart staff were wearing masks and gloves in the stores. ’bout time. I only wore my gloves, but had a mask in my sweatshirt pocket. Until the pharmacist sneezed, and my mask went on in about three seconds. Had I a spare, I’d have thrown the sneezer a mask, along with a hairy eyeball.
Be safe out there.

My bank last week would only give you $500
Said they were almost out of money
Called this week it is up to $3000
Also the hospital that the wife works for said they need volunteers to cross train in other areas
Said when it gets BAD here NOT IF will not be volunteering any more but mandatory
She has been busy all week with older people coming in to her office
But yesterday was slow
So people are staying home
She knows that she has had about 8 people with it so far
She has a 2nd job for the county I will not say what it is but she does have meetings with the state
And it is not looking good

Thank you for the update! Am praying for your grand babies, wife and loved ones to have a hedge of protection around them.

1. In my weekly team meeting today my boss reported, though this hasn’t made the news yet, that Kansas state troopers are stopping Colorado plated drives traveling East on I70 for COVID purposes.

2. I’m hoping this is wrong, but it seems to rhyme with state of things: Florida, NJ, etc. ^[28]

3. You may remember when Colorado legalized weed for medicinal, then open freely recreational purposes, Kansas PD went fishing and once that was made public and a few law suits later, it was “stopped”.
^[29] & ^[30]

Here we are again.

I’m pleased JWR made cycles to get home quickly before the “borders” were closed with jack-booted thugs asking for your ‘papers’.

Me too! 😉

Even though we are to the West of the Redoubt, we are seeing the insanity. My 80s aged parents have been self-isolating since Mid Feb, Dad has a cancer/diabetes dragging his health down and Mom is a smallpox/cancer survivor, both have compromised immune systems and have been very careful on their few trips out. Mostly us sons have things delivered to them. We trade off.

The Mrs and I have been pretty much home-bound since March 10 when I was instructed to work from home by my employer (which necessitated satellite internet at no small cost). She is a transit coach operator (bus driver) who has been off work since early Jan due to an injury. We have stocked up a bit, over and above the usual month+ in the pantry, have started the garden indoors and in portable green houses until it quits freezing at night and are keeping to ourselves.

My side business is considered “non-essential” and is therefore officially closed, although the 2A is essential in my book, I am doing appointment only for the current duration.

As we are rural, we are starting to get “explorers” in the odd times of day. Keeping the appropriate implements handy and I work with one within reach. LEO response in this corner of the world is best described as “post pizza”. We also have a backhoe.

This will be interesting times I think, the likes of have not been seen for a century.

Observations from southern Idaho – No one here seems to be taking it seriously. Run to pharmacy a few days ago – no masks seen, no one wearing gloves – I was. Saw my first car with CT plates parked down the street — house full of Saudi students. Why they are not already been deported or detained I don’t know. They barely follow the rules under normal conditions.
Started concealed carry – never felt the need before but this is all screwy. Having a C and R license is helpful – picked up another CZ82 for $200 and it got here in 3 days. We are all bugged in – no need to go out for a month. Just for giggles looked at my metals dealer — $299 minimum order and three week delivery-maybe. Well we will see what happens when they dump $6 trillion of cash into the economy. That is on tap according to Fox Business.

Note that Baker Creek Heirloom seeds was out of basically everything when I did my garden order today. Got everything I needed – I basically plan an Alaska garden given our climate and late growing season. Have three beds set up and ready for when snow melts. Bought some Giant Cambodian Eggplant as the regular purple variety was gone.
I can deal with poverty and hardship – don’t like it but can deal with it. Think alot of people are going to experience this for the first time. It won’t be pretty.