Elephant in the room.

[Manche757]

11 hours ago, tugboat95 said:

 Boy could have stayed home and saved me tens of thousands of dollars.

I detect a proud poppa moment. You don't need the money and would you really want to drive a new Ranger Rover than a rusty MJ?  I have been on both sides of the educational process, both as a student and as a university prof in my late 20s and early 30s before I moved on. I wholeheatedly agree that only a part of the university experience goes on in the class room. 

 

Kids doing well with education, is more a factor with education being important in the home than the level obtained by the parents.

 

You have done good Tug. You are winning at this lottery of life, but then you already know that.

[Manche757]

9 hours ago, derf said:

Perfect. As you may know when the 'chute opens, you have a sense of slowly swaying in the breeze until the ground starts to slam up. I landed on the concrete runway on the first two jumps. Concrete ain't soft.

[amsuco]

44 minutes ago, Manche757 said:

Perfect. As you may know when the 'chute opens, you have a sense of slowly swaying in the breeze until the ground starts to slam up. I landed on the concrete runway on the first two jumps. Concrete ain't soft.

 

It just occurred to me that those of us who have jumped out of perfectly good airplanes probably shouldn't be too hard on those souls that aren't smart enough to practice proper social distancing!  

[Manche757]

3 minutes ago, amsuco said:

 

It just occurred to me that those of us who have jumped out of perfectly good airplanes probably shouldn't be too hard on those souls that aren't smart enough to practice proper social distancing!

Funny. Point taken. High mindedness never serves anyone. Lol

[JustEmptyEveryPocket]

11 hours ago, tugboat95 said:

I could less about him getting out the house and hanging with friends. He's there to get a degree. (2 actually) He already has 2 associates he got while in high school. If he could have gone there Online and live at home he would have. Online courses are really big around here. I know a teacher that got her degree and never stepped foot on a campus while raising 2 kids. I know labs have to be done for certain classes, but my kid is doing digital arts and computer science. Got internet written all over those degrees. Unfortunately he is a Senior and got thrown off campus last summer due to lack of housing so we got him an apartment. (State law First year students must live on campus, they have first priority.) Actually just signed another year lease for his Master's right before all This happened. Sure do Wish I could put that rent back in my bank account.

 

[tugboat95]

 
It just occurred to me that those of us who have jumped out of perfectly good airplanes probably shouldn't be too hard on those souls that aren't smart enough to practice proper social distancing!  

Yeah as a former USAF member I never understood why people would jump out of a perfectly good airplane. It's gotta be bad if that's the better option to land

89 Comanche
Eliminator
2wd
4.0L
5 speed PukeGoat
Factory Original

[Eagle]

3 hours ago, amsuco said:

 

It just occurred to me that those of us who have jumped out of perfectly good airplanes probably shouldn't be too hard on those souls that aren't smart enough to practice proper social distancing!  

 

As someone who ticks ALL the boxes for being at high risk for COVID-19, those who don't/won't practice social distancing could kill me without even thinking about it. IMHO we can't be hard enough on the idiots.

 

A few days ago I read an article about the pastor of a church that insisted on holding live services despite the guidance to avoid groups. Sure enough, he caught the virus, and he died. Now his [adult] daughter is telling people not to be stupid. But ... how many of his parishioners were infected because that idiot thought the rules didn't apply to him and his parishioners?

[Manche757]

49 minutes ago, Eagle said:

A few days ago I read an article about the pastor of a church that insisted on holding live services despite the guidance to avoid groups. Sure enough, he caught the virus, and he died. 

The problem is not that he let them in the church, but that he let them out.

[TheJeepNut]

I tried to look back to be sure I'm not repeating but....

 

Guy called his buddy up said,  "Hey, how long is this social distancing thing supposed to go on?"

Friend says, "Well I'm not sure why?"

"Cause the ol' lady keeps trying to get int the house and I don't know what to tell her."

 

[derf]

4 hours ago, Eagle said:

A few days ago I read an article about the pastor of a church that insisted on holding live services despite the guidance to avoid groups. Sure enough, he caught the virus, and he died. Now his [adult] daughter is telling people not to be stupid. But ... how many of his parishioners were infected because that idiot thought the rules didn't apply to him and his parishioners?

 

I'd say god is trying to tell him something and he wasn't listening. 

 

I wouldn't wish this disease on anyone but I can't muster any sympathy for someone who disregarded every warning.  I just hope his congregation doesn't kill any innocent bystander because of their stupidity.

[thecodemonk]

 
As someone who ticks ALL the boxes for being at high risk for COVID-19, those who don't/won't practice social distancing could kill me without even thinking about it. IMHO we can't be hard enough on the idiots.
 
A few days ago I read an article about the pastor of a church that insisted on holding live services despite the guidance to avoid groups. Sure enough, he caught the virus, and he died. Now his [adult] daughter is telling people not to be stupid. But ... how many of his parishioners were infected because that idiot thought the rules didn't apply to him and his parishioners?

That pastor clearly didn't know his scripture. The Bible is very clear about obeying the government so long as it doesn't contradict God's higher authority on the few important things. I mean...Jesus Himself said to pay taxes.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

[amsuco]

9 hours ago, thecodemonk said:

I mean...Jesus Himself said to pay taxes.

 

I haven't participated in the whole religion thing for some time, so somebody please  correct me here if I'm wrong.  But I believe what Jesus supposedly said was "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's".  That's not quite the same thing as saying to "pay taxes".  A wise man taught me that words are important.  We need to make sure that we're using the right ones.

[thecodemonk]

 

 

 

 

I haven't participated in the whole religion thing for some time, so somebody please  correct me here if I'm wrong.  But I believe what Jesus supposedly said was "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's".  That's not quite the same thing as saying to "pay taxes".  A wise man taught me that words are important.  We need to make sure that we're using the right ones.

 

Right. It was the response to those asking if they should rebel against the government by skipping taxes (they were seeking to trap him and find a way to report him up to get rid of him).

 

Specifically:

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

Matthew 22:15‭-‬17 NKJV

https://bible.com/bible/114/mat.22.15-17.NKJV

 

He essentially said: yes. Pay your taxes and also tithe (as required by Jewish law).

 

But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Matthew 22:18‭-‬21 NKJV

https://bible.com/bible/114/mat.22.18-21.NKJV

 

The whole conversation together shows what what He is saying and is essential. There are other verses later in the new testament that also supports the general idea of obeying the government with the caveat that Christians are to push back only when God's word says otherwise specifically (the idea being that God's word supercedes the government's laws for the Christian). Stay at home orders do not explicitly stop the ability for Christians to practice, but does require Christians to think a bit outside of the box to continue gathering or being in community with each other and most churches are adapting just fine (with online groups and such). The relatively few groups shown in the news being dumb give the rest of us a bad name, sadly.

 

The preachers who just want to do what they want regardless of the consequences or alignment with God's word and think that God will protect their selfishness are a type of person spoken of in the Bible too...and not in a positive way.

 

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

[derf]

1 hour ago, thecodemonk said:

The preachers who just want to do what they want regardless of the consequences or alignment with God's word and think that God will protect their selfishness are a type of person spoken of in the Bible too...and not in a positive way.

 

Yep.  And it's not just Christian preachers.  History is full of people taking religious texts of all kinds out of context, including ignoring whole sections, as a means to justify their own selfish interests.

[thecodemonk]

34 minutes ago, derf said:

 

Yep.  And it's not just Christian preachers.  History is full of people taking religious texts of all kinds out of context, including ignoring whole sections, as a means to justify their own selfish interests.

 

To be fair, people have been doing that to each other over any form of texts.  Case-in-point: Twitter.

[derf]

40 minutes ago, thecodemonk said:

 

To be fair, people have been doing that to each other over any form of texts.  Case-in-point: Twitter.

 

True.

 

The problem isn't the religion.  It's the people.

[thecodemonk]

11 minutes ago, derf said:

 

True.

 

The problem isn't the religion.  It's the people.

 

I mean...that's usually the problem in everything haha.

[derf]

Some interesting data:. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.htm

 

[fiatslug87]

For those of us who like charts & graphs: https://www.labroots.com/trending/chemistry-and-physics/17344/pandemic-maths-time-doesn-t-matter-understanding-infection-trajectory

[88towmanche]

 

Snaky Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington State announced yesterday may be starting the process of opening some things back up.

 

Fishing - lot of people pissed about how the state is managing fisheries up here anyway, think they only reason they closed fishing was so they'd have something to offer during the slow start-back-up plan.  Halibut season should open next month, probably be delayed. Salmon runs (what's left of them) start up in June - pretty calm right now since there isn't much to target, but there is going to be a lot angst if they don't set the seasons and open up in the next month or so - fishing by it's nature is a fairly solitary endeavor - the launches can get crowded and the fish checkers have to interact to inspect the catch, but no worse than a trip to the grocery store.

 

Golf - same thing, this is one sport that encourages social distance - hell most of the time I'm off by myself in the woods looking for that damn titelist that got away from me because I left the face open, bent my left arm, shifted my stance, lifted my head, late on follow through, dog ate my homework, someone talked during backswing....  seems like another activity they took away just so the huddled masses would be appreciative when they give it back...

 

As a side hustle I run a string of vending machines - most of them are in business that are closed/un accessible - hotels, nursing homes, etc.  The few that I do have that are still selling I have been ignoring because I don't consider vending essential - apparently I got that wrong because I have machines in essential businesses and some apartment complexes and they have been calling for me to come fill them up - so have to mask up, glove up, tote cleaners and wipes and go into the places and re-stock the machines.

 

With all the extra time on their hands, the residents of a couple of apartment complexes invested in tubular lock picks (easy to buy right off Amazon) and started ripping off the machines - takes a little skill and practice to get even the cheap locks open, but with all the layoffs people have nothing better to do than practice breaking into the machines..  So now those machines get hardened hasps over the T-handles and puck locks with Abloy cores - good luck picking those suckers!  Soon as they start smashing glass I'll pull the machines.

 

When this first started taking off, I had a case of 160 N95 masks and put some of those in the machines, along with a couple cases of the 1 oz hand sanitizers - those things sold out in hours (I only charged normal mark up - think I paid $.50 ea for the masks and sold for $1.00 and $.35 for the sanitizer and sold for $.75) - phone rang constantly for more masks and sanitizer but couldn't get any - only a fluke that I had the stuff to begin with - ended selling about 24 masks in the machines and all the sanitzer, once I heard about the mask shortage sent the rest to my cousin that's a nurse at a local hospital (kept a dozen for immediate family)

 

Crazy times

 

 

 

[tugboat95]

Well I'm back on my tug for the next 21 days. Flew from the east coast to the west coast. Lots of flight cancellations but the fifth one actually took off. Airports are not deserted but they aren't full either. Commuter flight to Atlanta was about half full. And flight from ATL to LAX was about 2/3 full. Middle seat not sold but 2 people in almost every row on both sides. Airlines are Consolidating flights. Most Atlanta restaurants were open. Lax restaurants were not. If you fly take your own snack and drink. Shorts flights have none. Cross country gets a small bottle of water and 2 cookies. That's it. Have to say Airports and Airplanes are the cleanest I've ever seen them. Now is the time to fly. It was actually enjoyable. First time I haven't felt like cattle since before 9/11. Once I got to the tug, we had to take our temperature and fill out a form saying I've not been exposed and feel good.

Now for the wake up. I'm under contract with Marathon petroleum fueling cargo ships. Ship calls to LA/Long Beach are down over 30%. Our workload has decreased dramatically. Today we found out Marathon has shut down its local refinery. Tanks are full. There are sending us to a competitor to get the fuel now to deliver to the ships. But there aren't any customers. We have nothing scheduled for 72 hours (as far out as we can schedule). In the last 21 days while I was on my off time over 20 oil tankers have shown up and anchored offshore full of crude oil. There's no place to offload it. In the coming days there's expected to be 20% of the world's daily supply will sitting offshore of California on anchor waiting. And no place to go. And the numbers are growing up in Puget Sound as well. I can only imagine what the backup is in Houston and New Orleans.

So for the Love of God, get those Comanches rolling and burn some gas cause I need my job.

89 Comanche
Eliminator
2wd
4.0L
5 speed PukeGoat
Factory Original

[dante2]

18 hours ago, tugboat95 said:

Well I'm back on my tug for the next 21 days. Flew from the east coast to the west coast. Lots of flight cancellations but the fifth one actually took off. Airports are not deserted but they aren't full either. Commuter flight to Atlanta was about half full. And flight from ATL to LAX was about 2/3 full. Middle seat not sold but 2 people in almost every row on both sides. Airlines are Consolidating flights. Most Atlanta restaurants were open. Lax restaurants were not. If you fly take your own snack and drink. Shorts flights have none. Cross country gets a small bottle of water and 2 cookies. That's it. Have to say Airports and Airplanes are the cleanest I've ever seen them. Now is the time to fly. It was actually enjoyable. First time I haven't felt like cattle since before 9/11. Once I got to the tug, we had to take our temperature and fill out a form saying I've not been exposed and feel good.

Now for the wake up. I'm under contract with Marathon petroleum fueling cargo ships. Ship calls to LA/Long Beach are down over 30%. Our workload has decreased dramatically. Today we found out Marathon has shut down its local refinery. Tanks are full. There are sending us to a competitor to get the fuel now to deliver to the ships. But there aren't any customers. We have nothing scheduled for 72 hours (as far out as we can schedule). In the last 21 days while I was on my off time over 20 oil tankers have shown up and anchored offshore full of crude oil. There's no place to offload it. In the coming days there's expected to be 20% of the world's daily supply will sitting offshore of California on anchor waiting. And no place to go. And the numbers are growing up in Puget Sound as well. I can only imagine what the backup is in Houston and New Orleans.

So for the Love of God, get those Comanches rolling and burn some gas cause I need my job.

89 Comanche
Eliminator
2wd
4.0L
5 speed PukeGoat
Factory Original

 

I'm in Oklahoma hauling crude oil and we are filling up here as well. They are trying to keep us working as much as they can for as long as they can. Taking some time off next week to help free up some work for others.

[tugboat95]

I'm in Oklahoma hauling crude oil and we are filling up here as well. They are trying to keep us working as much as they can for as long as they can. Taking some time off next week to help free up some work for others.

Today We are topping off the two barges we run here in LA. 40k barrels each. Then going to a lay berth. I have at least 69 hours off as there are no jobs in the computer. Getting groceries tomorrow for 9 people is going to be interesting. We won't go hungry but the TP situation is on the critical side.

89 Comanche
Eliminator
2wd
4.0L
5 speed PukeGoat
Factory Original

[Torq_Shep]

Working in automotive (and with oil companies) and we are getting to the poo hitting the fan stage with no one signing contracts. Covering night shifts just so we can eliminate overtime for hourly employees. Expecting furloughs and maybe layoffs so that's fun... 

[AMCJeepMJ]

Working in health insurance industry for a regional health insurance company in PNW.. We had a round of furloughs as nobody is going to the doctor to have their hips replaced, or chiropractors, or physical therapists, or acupuncturists, or doing general immunizations, or the like. Not even urgent care- mostly ER visits and a small handful of CV related. So with the reduced number of people visiting their practitioners we don't have the work load for reviewing and processing claims. I wasn't cut in the first round but there will likely be more.