Fear and Loathing, a Rat Flu Odyssey

[Meadow Skipper]

Thanks everyone. Her dying alone is probably the worst part of this whole thing.

I really wanted to visit her this year but her nursing home has been locked down because of Covid. She lost the ability to talk on the phone this year and she thought at various times throughout the year that either her nursing home staff were keeping family away from her or that her family didn't want to see her. My uncle who lives nearby tried really hard to be involved- he visited her from the other side of a glass door and then over the summer he was able to visit her outside but 6 feet away.

She told me a couple years ago how she missed having all of her family close by. She grew up with multiple generations of her family all living within a couple blocks of each other in Philadelphia. All of her family lived within walking distance- cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents. She met my grandpa when she was a little kid running errands to pick stuff up from the local butcher and he was the butchers helper boy. They married when she was 19, a couple years after he got back from the pacific theater.

She told me the post war world 2 world everything started to change- One of her cousins who has been like an older brother to her died in the world war 2 and her extended family all slowly started to move away. What was once a close family got spread out and separated by time and distance.

My grandpa died 32 years ago and she lived alone for almost 30 years before going into a nursing home.

After growing up surrounded by extended family, she died alone and no family members were allowed to be with her. It's fucking heartbreaking.

I wish I had gotten to see her one last time. She was my last surviving grandparent.

Jeez Kevo, this is all so heartbreaking. My sincere wish for peace for you and your family.

That passage about how the extended family drifted apart is a real story for our times. My siblings have drifted apart, my daughter and her family live 1200 miles away, and that’s not unusual these days. I don’t know how or if it can change, but it sure is poignant.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Well my dad passed on 11/13 and my aunts, uncles, and cousins still got together for a Thanksgiving dinner. One of my aunts is a 60+ ER nurse.

Dude! You need to catch a break. That shit is so fucked up. I had to quit the family zoom when my school teacher sister was starting to be all critical of others after she flew to LA from Houston with her 2 kids and her non live in boyfriend and his kids to stay at here sisters house etc. etc. I look at it as reality at this point but I still struggle with the hypocrisy .

[muted]

Whole lotta traffic on i15 yesterday in remote parts of Utah. I'm sure lots were camping in the desert like us, but I'd wager about 75% of cars were coming back from visiting relatives. Or partying in Vegas.

Well, looks like UT was #1 in travel for T-day and confirms what I saw yesterday: https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics...alth-warnings/

[Benny Profane]

My wife and I were marveling at how relaxing the Thanksgiving break can be when you just stay at home with the core family. No travel, no one else's agenda or drama, etc.

Looking forward to a nice quiet Xmas.

SAN DIEGO—Lying on the couch in his cramped, poorly lit apartment, local man Mark Borkowski was reportedly having the best Thanksgiving of his life Thursday while getting high and eating Taco Bell thousands of miles away from his family. “Wow, I never knew this holiday could be so genuinely wonderful,” said Borkowski, sitting alone with a glass pipe in one hand and a chalupa in the other as he watched episodes of How I Met Your Mother on his laptop. “The Taco Bell guy got my order pretty much right, and I still have plenty of weed. Meanwhile, my parents are on the other side of the country and in a totally different timezone, so our entire interaction this year was a five-minute phone call while I packed this bowl. There truly is so much to be thankful for.” At press time, sources confirmed an elated Borkowski was reflecting on the likelihood that this year his Christmas wish would come true and he’d spend the holiday getting totally shitfaced on vodka.

[east or bust]

In east Idaho Foggy. It’s really funny seeing the stark difference in precautions taken between somewhere like Pocatello/Idaho Falls/Rexburg vs Victor/Driggs/Jackson. For the most part businesses require masks here, but then again the bars are open with no precautions in place whatsoever.



Regarding Thanksgiving, Benny’s post was pretty accurate. So accustomed to the usual. Fly home, go to the bar with hometown friends, wake up hungover and sit and the car for 2 hours to bullshit with people I have absolutely nothing in common with. Drive home. Not that I don’t love my family, but we really just aren’t similar types of people.


Instead, solo skied until about 1pm, went home and made some stir fry and drank wine while watching Breaking Bad. Fucking marvelous day.

[altacoup]

Well, looks like UT was #1 in travel for T-day and confirms what I saw yesterday: https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics...alth-warnings/

You realize you’re part of that statistic?

[teleee]

In east Idaho Foggy. It’s really funny seeing the stark difference in precautions taken between somewhere like Pocatello/Idaho Falls/Rexburg vs Victor/Driggs/Jackson. For the most part businesses require masks here, but then again the bars are open with no precautions in place whatsoever.



Regarding Thanksgiving, Benny’s post was pretty accurate. So accustomed to the usual. Fly home, go to the bar with hometown friends, wake up hungover and sit and the car for 2 hours to bullshit with people I have absolutely nothing in common with. Drive home. Not that I don’t love my family, but we really just aren’t similar types of people.


Instead, solo skied until about 1pm, went home and made some stir fry and drank wine while watching Breaking Bad. Fucking marvelous day.

It is like 2 different worlds between Idaho Falls and Victor/Driggs. We have pretty much sworn off trips to Idaho Falls for any supplies, I would much rather pay the higher prices in Victor/Driggs and not expose myself to the oblivious non maskers in Idaho Falls if I need something.

[hatchgreenchile]

Yup.

Although it *would* be really nice to have my MIL and my mom to be able to visit for Xmas. 'Cause they are pretty drama-free old ladies.
But I'd rather they survive the winter

Not traveling for Xmas presents a scenario where my parents do not meet their grandson for 6+ months. It fucking blows.
Mrs and I are quickly realizing it's the only choice, especially with a 92 year old in the family.

[funkendrenchman]

Not directly Covid related, but this is super cool.

‘It will change everything’: DeepMind’s AI makes gigantic leap in solving protein structures
Google’s deep-learning program for determining the 3D shapes of proteins stands to transform biology, say scientists.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03348-4

[AK47bp]

You realize you’re part of that statistic?

Come on man, you know the TGR rules are that the person complaining is 100% exempt from what they are complaining about.

While traveling you are free to complain about all the other people traveling because those people aren’t being as responsible as you. Fact.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[Conundrum]

Drove two hours to see my 93 year old grandpa who lives alone. We quarantined the 10 days prior. Couldn't get further out than that. He's 93 with a 95% blockage in the vessels around his heart. Doc said he's super high risk for Covid but probably going to die from his heart troubles in the next 3-6 months. Had a heart to heart phone call with him and he said he'd rather die from covid after seeing us (just me and Mrs. C for a total of 3 people) than die soon from his heart and not having seen us since last March. He still works in the office every day at the business he owns and eats out most days because he doesn't really cook for himself anymore. Twin Falls is very similar to Idaho Falls. Where he is eating is maskless by his admission. We stopped for a coffee before the drive home and looked through the window. At least 20 people in line no masks, another 20 sitting around drinking their coffee. We didn't go in. Left town and probably won't be back for a long time. Now we're four days in to not seeing other people again because of what we might have picked up from him.

I don't feel good about seeing people for the holidays even if it was just one person. That was a really tough one for me to navigate and still bugs me. Hoping it reduces any regrets when the old man goes soon. He was really happy on our weekend phone call after the visit though.

Other side's family did a six household Thanksgiving dinner complete with two morbidly obese diabetics (one on a 10 year old kidney transplant), two college kids home, three in high school, and three toddlers. Now they're planning Christmas to be similar to Thanksgiving because nothing happened. If my wife wasn't adopted, we wouldn't be married. Already gave them the no go on family visits for Christmas.

[bodywhomper]

Sorry for your loss, Kevo.

That passage about how the extended family drifted apart is a real story for our times.

It’s weird how this seems to be a part of the American dream.

Dude! You need to catch a break. That shit is so fucked up. I had to quit the family zoom when my school teacher sister was starting to be all critical of others after she flew to LA from Houston with her 2 kids and her non live in boyfriend and his kids to stay at here sisters house etc. etc. I look at it as reality at this point but I still struggle with the hypocrisy .

I also find it to be a struggle with disappointment and a general concern for those that I care about whether it’s extended family or friends.

[muted]

You realize you’re part of that statistic?

Is this a trick question? yes. And also counted were all the people camping alone in the desert which skews the numbers a bit. Plenty of safe traveling going on but they counted all trips over 50 miles, and presumed it's all to visit families.

Come on man, you know the TGR rules are that the person complaining is 100% exempt from what they are complaining about.

While traveling you are free to complain about all the other people traveling because those people aren’t being as responsible as you. Fact.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Traveling in itself is not the issue anyone of us are talking about, it's visiting families. Our governor didn't plead with all Utahns to stop camping this weekend.

[hawkgt]

making the right choice hatch, hope the grom is keeping you up and filling dirty diapers for you.

[LongShortLong]

Possible, doesn't seem likely. I guess that half dose was a mistake in filling the vials, not a planned part of the study. I wonder if anyone has come up with a plausible explanation, other than a statistical variation.

The Oxford vaccine is vectored, meaning it uses another (harmless) virus to deliver the payload. Several folks have suggested the full shot gives some people immunity to the vector. So, the second (booster) shot gets eliminated before the immune system sees the covid proteins. The Russian Sputnik vaccine uses different vectors for the first and second dose to avoid this problem. So the thought is that the half dose may limit the response to the vector. OTOH it could be statistics.
Source: TWiV

TWiVers also complain that all data is via press release, no scientific reports yet. (Including the mRNA vaccines)

Speaking of side effects, current flu nasal vax.... anybody else get one?

One time. Never again. Mild fever and cold symptoms for a couple days. (Those are listed side effects I learned later). Prefer a poke in the arm.

[Kevo]

Thanks for the condolences and kind words, everyone. It's very much appreciated.

[Self Jupiter]

Sorry, Kevo. Awful situation. Vibes your way.

[old goat]

Drove two hours to see my 93 year old grandpa who lives alone. We quarantined the 10 days prior. Couldn't get further out than that. He's 93 with a 95% blockage in the vessels around his heart. Doc said he's super high risk for Covid but probably going to die from his heart troubles in the next 3-6 months. Had a heart to heart phone call with him and he said he'd rather die from covid after seeing us (just me and Mrs. C for a total of 3 people) than die soon from his heart and not having seen us since last March. He still works in the office every day at the business he owns and eats out most days because he doesn't really cook for himself anymore. Twin Falls is very similar to Idaho Falls. Where he is eating is maskless by his admission. We stopped for a coffee before the drive home and looked through the window. At least 20 people in line no masks, another 20 sitting around drinking their coffee. We didn't go in. Left town and probably won't be back for a long time. Now we're four days in to not seeing other people again because of what we might have picked up from him.

I don't feel good about seeing people for the holidays even if it was just one person. That was a really tough one for me to navigate and still bugs me. Hoping it reduces any regrets when the old man goes soon. He was really happy on our weekend phone call after the visit though.

I think you made the right call visiting grandpa. At that age and with those medical problems he deserves to take the risk. When his time does come I hope he's fortunate enough to pass at home.

The Oxford vaccine is vectored, meaning it uses another (harmless) virus to deliver the payload. Several folks have suggested the full shot gives some people immunity to the vector. So, the second (booster) shot gets eliminated before the immune system sees the covid proteins. The Russian Sputnik vaccine uses different vectors for the first and second dose to avoid this problem. So the thought is that the half dose may limit the response to the vector. OTOH it could be statistics.
Source: TWiV

TWiVers also complain that all data is via press release, no scientific reports yet. (Including the mRNA vaccines)


One time. Never again. Mild fever and cold symptoms for a couple days. (Those are listed side effects I learned later). Prefer a poke in the arm.

Thanks for the info. I wouldn't expect to see peer reviewed published vaccine studies before there are EUA's and people start getting the shots. I think we'll have to depend on the FDA's panel of expert to review the raw data (which we wouldn't see in published reports anyway) to make the call. If the FDA gives the EUA I'll be very pissed if Newsom follows through on his plan for California to independently review the data before CA gets shots.

[Lvovsky]

Sorry Kevo. Stay strong. Vibes.

[Lvovsky]

Nurses and their Fox-addled COVID patients...the story continues.. https://www.thecut.com/2020/11/nurse...956.1606751247

The disinformation the right wing is spewing is fucking treasonous.

[Rideski]

Sorry Kevo.

Sounds like a worthy gamble Conundrum.

The future's uncertain, and the end is always near

JMorrison

[old goat]

I don't think I'd be taking life coaching from Jim Morrison.
Meanwhile--CA gov considering full stay at home. Of course the folks that have been gathering, cramming the airports for T'giving won't be following the order, just the folks who've been behaving themselves all along. Time to start confronting and ratting out the people fucking things up for the rest of us (and of course fucking things up for the nurses and doctors who have to take care of them.)

[Deebased]

SAN DIEGO—Lying on the couch in his cramped, poorly lit apartment, local man Mark Borkowski was reportedly having the best Thanksgiving of his life Thursday while getting high and eating Taco Bell thousands of miles away from his family. “Wow, I never knew this holiday could be so genuinely wonderful,” said Borkowski, sitting alone with a glass pipe in one hand and a chalupa in the other as he watched episodes of How I Met Your Mother on his laptop. “The Taco Bell guy got my order pretty much right, and I still have plenty of weed. Meanwhile, my parents are on the other side of the country and in a totally different timezone, so our entire interaction this year was a five-minute phone call while I packed this bowl. There truly is so much to be thankful for.” At press time, sources confirmed an elated Borkowski was reflecting on the likelihood that this year his Christmas wish would come true and he’d spend the holiday getting totally shitfaced on vodka.

Sounds like a dying alone won't be an issue for Mark.

What a miserable existence.

[Benny Profane]

It's satire, genius.

[Deebased]

It's satire, genius.

That you aspire too.