Booster appointment made! The appointment is in about 20 minutes at the clinic downstairs from my office. I went to check a few minutes ago to check if there were slots available and there were a couple today, so I went for it.
I'm still feeling like shit from my shingles shot.
Setting aside anti-vaxxers, the sane world seems to be divided into those whose clinics happily give Covid boosters and flu shots together and those whose clinics insist on a delay between them. Any idea what that's all about?
Anyway, congrats to Teo for getting it all out of the way.
Thanks! I don't think I've seen a clinic that insists on a delay. They do typically give them in opposite arms so that if there is an unusual reaction at the site they can tell which shot it's from.
Still here. The kid has had cold-like symptoms off and on for the past two or three days, but her second covid shot was about 11 days ago. (So, she's not fully vaccinated for another 3 days if I remember correctly, but very close.) We've discussed this with the school nurse and she's comfortable treating this like normal sick days rather than covid sick days, which sounds good to us.
Work has been crazy lately. It has most directly been a problem for another guy on my team, but a little bit directly for me as well, and anyways I'm nominally the team lead so his problems are indirectly mine too. Let me sum it up with a line I had reason to say in our Teams chat this morning: "they originally said they wanted it by 12/15 or 12/17. If they really needed it by 12/10, they should have told us before 11 PM on 12/7."
Just to be clear, we've been working on the set of tasks discussed in 7 since early November. So the difference between the 15th and the 10th isn't a huge fraction of that, but on the other hand finding out this week is very late indeed. And I got the date wrong. They actually told us they needed it by December 10 on December 8, not 7.
RWM got a triple shot, covid, flu, and DPT all at one appointment.
8: They didn't tell you at 11 PM on the 9th? Amateurs.
I know what you're thinking. "Were there eight shots, or only three?"
Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?"
Well, do ya, punk?
S&W .44 Magnum is a six shot revolver, not eight. So yeah, I feel lucky, punk.
If it has to be 3 or 8 and it can't be 8, it's 3. You should not feel lucky. There's three bullets in the gun.
I just found out that yet another person from my grad program has cancer. That makes at least six of us that I know of. That's high, right?
I went to Miami. The trip was not a good idea. Basically it consisted of attending a bunch of superspreader events, one after the other. No one was masked, no one was distanced, and everyone breathed directly into my mouth while touching their eyes and my hands.
Predictably, I am now sick. I took two Binax tests and they were both negative. I also got a PCR test but they told me I might not get my results for 3 to 5 (!!!) days. Wtf. It feels like it's just a cold, but it's my first illness since spring 2020. Mostly I feel filthy. I should never be allowed to leave the house again.
15: Yes. You should call someone if you can figure out who. That's horrific.
15. Wow. That is terrible and alarming. Six people out of those with whom you attended? How many students were in the program altogether?
We all graduated within 10 years of one another, I think, and only one person was over 40 when diagnosed. I need to figure out who investigates cancer clusters. Until this recent case, I genuinely thought it was just a coincidence (also, I didn't know about a case of brain cancer that postdated my attendance).
My guess is that this is out of roughly 80-100 or so grad students overall during that time period.
20. That's terrible. This is the resource I know about, do not know how well it deals with relocation: https://gis.cancer.gov/canceratlas/
Definitely feeling the effects of the booster now. Mostly chills and aches, maybe a slight fever. When I got the second shot I called in sick to work the next two days; this feels pretty similar so far.
20: That's sad. I do know that most apparent clusters appear (currently) to be random. The stat I'm seeing is that 72/576 investigations showed actual higher incidence than expected. I'm not sure I have a good sense for how common cancer is in a given age cohort (much less over a fairly long time interval) as opposed to lifetime risk.
CDC and NCI say it's state health departments who take reports and investigate.
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/substances/cancer-clusters-fact-sheet#what-is-a-cancer-cluster
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/clusters/default.htm
24: Feel better soon. The folks running our clinics kept enthusiastically telling us to hydrate. I was wondering how much that helps vs how much it just provides a distraction and some sense of agency.
24: I was lucky enough to just need a lot of sleep this time with 50 mcg Moderna after 30 mcg Pfizer x 2.
Went to a friend's house party and felt like I'd gotten hit by a truck. Had a lie down by still feel like shit
Holy crap, the Supreme Court seems to have in effect upheld the Texas anti-abortion bounty law.
Does this mean that California, Maryland, etc., are free to enact laws putting a $10,000 (or more) bounty on the head of anyone owning an assault rifle (or any gun at all)?
Or a bounty on the head of anyone who makes a campaign contribution to a Republican?
The possibilities for attacking the exercise of other constitutional rights seem endless. And the abdication of federal power, and the potential for conflict between states, makes this seem like a step towards disintegration or civil war.
There's no reason to think this will be at all applied evenly.
I got a Moderna booster over Pfiser; I was a bit tired and slightly feverish that night, and desperately needed a few extra hours of sleep the next morning, but was then basically over it.
32: OK, that's ultimately true, but because on its face this is a decision about what kinds of state officials can and can't be sued, and not a decision about abortion rights, it will be difficult for the Court to justify and explain ruling the other way when the exact same kind of bounty system gets used to undermine a different right.
So there are really three reasons why I want a blue state to enact a Texas-style bounty law against assault rifles as soon as possible: (1) because fuck assault rifle owners; (2) to make the five Justices who upheld the Texas law squirm; and (3) to ultimately get the Court to rule that these bounty laws are not OK, because they are harmful to the rule of law no matter which constitutional right is under attack.
California should make a Texas-style bounty law outlawing the phrase, "Merry Christmas!".
33: Tim was scheduled for a a Moderna over Moderna x2 for next week, but I was able to find a Pfizer appointment for tomorrow, so that's what he is going to get instead. I'd rather he be boosted before we go to the car dealer to get ny winter tires put on. Too many cases here right now.
Honestly, all season radials are fine.
Feeling a lot better today! I did take off work though, which was a good call.
37: I think a Pfizer booster is too. His work is masked, but some people are more careful,than others, and I'd feel more comfortable if he were boosted.
It's never snowed enough here that I wanted two sets of tires. But tomorrow I set an alarm to get boosted. I'm trying walk-in places.
Is there some rule about not getting drunk the night before a booster?
41: Not in Canada, for what it's worth.
Only that it might be helpful to know, post-booster, if you're miserable because of the booster or because of being hung over. But absent managing your personal misery, I don't know of any reason.
Nobody wants to be sober in Canada. My thought was that I should drink tonight because I don't want to be hung over tomorrow.
37: that's what everyone stuck in the snow going up the mountain today thought about all season radials, too.
My thought was that I should drink tonight because I don't want to be hung over tomorrow.
This sort of reminds me of my hard-drinking aunt, who always maintained you could "drink yourself sober."
I don't even see mountains.
Dissected plateau.
I got boostered. But it was Pfizer again because Moderna is the rules girl of vaccines. I should have asked last week for a date this week.
I lied to the tech because she said I couldn't get the covid vaccine if I'd gotten the shingles vaccine in the past 7 days.
51: not true, bu5 pharmacies are strict about rules. I probably would do flu and Covid at the same time but since Shingrix can be pretty reactogenic, I'd probably not do the Covid the same day.
I wish I would have not gotten the shingles shot this week. The doctor said the side effects of the first one weren't bad. They weren't horrible, but I had a week and could have used not having the side effects.
I'm looking into buying a reasonably priced eadmill. Does anybody have a website they trust for reviews of fitness equipment?
This isn't the first time someone has tried to crush me into a fine powder.
54: We have some killer deals in the works!
I would be in the market for a stationary bicycle, but only a cheap one. The old one works, but it clanks which makes me think it isn't going to work for long and also means I can't ride it unless everyone else is gone.
58: it would have to be really cheap for me to do that.
Had my booster and then drove 300 miles north to the new house. All well except for Internet being a bit primitive...
Just in time to catch the best parts of the winter up north!
True, but we have winter tyres so we are prepared. And it is rather good to be able to step out the door and into a forest rather than into the bloodspattered streets of north London
It probably doesn't take long to spatter a forest with blood.
Especially the British kind without many trees.
The Calabat has the flu. Like, actual flu A with a test result and apparently a Tamiflu prescription. He had his flu shot! This is not fair. Mostly okay but a high fever and...uh, how fast does this normally run in kids? Neither of us have ever had the flu badly enough to get tested.
The flu is going around here too. I have no idea how long it takes to clear a kid though. When I was a kid, everything was flu.
much sympathy to the ailing calabat! my memorable, really shockingly bad bout with the flu in my twenties lasted around 5 days for the worst ( v high fever, had to crawl to refill water bottle for a few of those days as boyfriend also just as ill, we took tuens making the excruciating perilous journey), there were about 48 hours of real scariness. v glad your calabat has you & possibly an effective treatment!
bostonienne - i once again, probably annoyingly!, urge you to take up a physical activity based solely on the fun factor. you're faaaaar more likely to actually do it if it is fun for you. now maybe a treadmill would call irresistibly to you, but ...
I have a little stand, so my mountain bike is set up in the basement. It's not really fun enough, so I haven't ridden much, and the effects of that were really obvious when I went XCing yesterday. I'm not sure I've ever been so out of breath. I did complete the loop, and my friends were nice about waiting for me at intervals, but I've got some real work to do.
37 & 33: Moby, you believe actual Bostonians who drive in actual Boston. "All-season radials" don't include Boston winters: it's in the fine print of the tire description.
Of course, AGW is slowly moving Boston winters into something more akin to NJ winters...
I just ordered a reconditioned smart trainer for my bike, as i'm getting beaten up riding London streets in the cold, dark and rain. I did it most of last winter, and I'm mostly OK with riding in bad weather, but I'm only able to get out late in the evening these days, so instead of doing a loop of Richmond Park at lunch time, or Bushy Park at dusk, I'm dragging myself around on shitty potholed traffic congested streets.
Hopefully it should arrive some time this week, and hopefully, it's concealable enough* to not annoy my wife. It's almost certainly the most expensive "Christmas present" I've ever had.
* as in, I can pop the bike off the trainer, fold the trainer up, and put it into a cupboard when I'm not using it.
70, 72: Ack! I stupidly took Norton's and Google's advice to clear out my cookies and suddenly the whole internet says "who dat?" when I try to log in anywhere.
charley got to meet her in person, for the rest of you reprobates here is the new italian in my life 😍😍😍 https://www.instagram.com/p/CXFNuwBPNZm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
if i lived in the ne u s. i would find the challenge of ice skating too powerful of a lure to resist but i really do believe you've got to find the thing(s) you actually enjoy & then go at 'em.
66: my son cleared the flu shockingly fast after getting tamiflu -- like less than 48 hours.
Fingers crossed, Cala. What crappy luck.
Nice bike, dq. If you ever want to go skating with a friend on the local artificial ice, hmu...
I took my kid's a challenge and ran a top-speed lap around the track at a nearby university yesterday, then spent about 20 minutes wondering if I was going to die. This is by far the worst physical shape I've ever been in and I should probably avoid doing "exercise!!" in the stupidest way possible; however, after the stomach cramps abated I felt pretty great (and yes, it was satisfying to have done it more than 30 seconds faster than the ten-year-old, for probably the last time in our respective lives).
66: I hope they'll develop at-home rapid flu tests.
67: Nobody cared then, because it didn't affect clinical recommendations.
I want a smart trainer but can't quite justify it over the dumb trainer/sensor model that I have which is just fine for Zwift. dq, that is a sweet bike!
Tamiflu dose #1 obtained and consumed, and I'm sure it's mostly just the Tylenol/Motrin finally kicking in or a usually ebb/flow of an illness but it sure looks like a miracle drug, as he's now not feverish (though medicated) and is back to fighting with his sister instead of laying on me. I shouldn't laugh but the best prediction of his temperature is how much he's talking. Kid goes quiet = dose is wearing off.
68: I put in layers and go for walks every day now outside, and I enjoy them. I also want to put 10-15 minute walks into my day now that I am working from home. I like to go for 15 minute walk after dinner, which helps my digestion and prevents the post meal slump. When it's frigidly cold or perilous wintry mix, I get lazy about the evening walks.
I can walk on a treadmill after dinner and listen to a podcast rather than slumping on the couch.
You could buy a couch that support ergonomic sitting.
70.1 is probably right. Pittsburgh has hills but the winters are mostly just cold rain. Nebraska had really cold winters, but no hills so I never had trouble if I had a front-wheel drive.
We haven't had snow that I had to shovel (as opposed to sweep) more than maybe three times in the past five years.
lk - ha! i have realized over the last two years that a large part of the fun of various sporty endeavors for me is a challenge (biking up steeper hills, swimming in rougher/colder water, etc.) and i know absolutely shit all about ice skating. also i get on best with doing things outside, it is enormously comforting and calming to me to be outside moving about. hence the attraction of ice skating if i lived in a place where plausibly i could skate outdoors, locally, during the winter. but at the moment i am perfectly ice skate skill-less!
am delighted to hear the bat is better, cala - when they go all limp and silent is very much not good.
bostonienne, sorry to be a pain i understand your reasoning. i suppose i cannot get away from the workhouse treadmill as explicit punishment thing. also a dear colleague did significant damage to his shoulder from one of them, so caution advised!
as for me sweet italian playmate, she is so much fun but not particularly practical lol so am enjoying her while more practical and extremely fun-beautiful bike is being designed and built. and then i have to figure out how to justify keeping both ...
if anyone has thoughts re: specific clip on mudguards i'm all ears!
Clip-on looks too Olive Garden-waiter. Use a double Windsor.
I forced myself to go out and do 20 miles on the bike today, even though I was hungover. Hit my highest sustained 1 minute max heart rate climbing a pretty steep hill. Which is good, in one sense, as I was able to put out more power for longer, but bad in another sense, because it feels _really_ unpleasant to max out for a minute or more, and I'll probably dial it back next time, even if that means taking it slower or even getting off and walking.
re: 83
It's a lovely looking bike, but personally, I can't deal with down tube shifters any more. I do really like steel frames, though. Aesthetically, and for riding. Some scumbag stole my steel framed bike, though.
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Debunking aside, it's hard to see someone trying to take out DuBois and not jump immediately to the "Dunning-Kruger School" joke.
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So, are Tieks really worth that much? (Mainly asking dq).
85: i'm finding the shifters totally fine, surprisingly. but i am a getting-around-places rider, i'm not serious like you are. it's just that in sf just getting around places includes a certain amount of gain-loss of elevation so it ends up being a decent work out. the main thing though is fun fun fun. agree that steel is awesome for looks and comfort.
was just chatting with someone at the club yesterday post swim and we agreed that bike theft is really a dick move crime. sure take up a life of crime, but ripping off bikes? you're a dick.
also am discovering that water temp sub-55 f is when i can't drink the night before a swim - not a glass of wine, not a beer, not a small cocktail. just feel the cold more when in the water and then woozy when rewarming, super unpleasant and not very safe for the bike ride home. ah age, thanks a lot passing of time.
66,75 - son#2 caught the flu last week and was over the bad part in 2 days. Not Tamiflu but a different antiviral Flusomethingax? As usual, going to be dragging for a few days after the acute phase but over it surprisingly quickly. Only one in the family not fluvaxed. The nurse said she hadn't seen a single flu case in a vaxed person yet this year - maybe the formulation is good this year.
Skating outside is so great. My favorite all-times are a Lost Lake in Glacier NP and the C&O Canal. That the SFBA never presents reasonable opportunities is in itself, imo, reason not to live there.
I say that, but haven't owned skates for several years. I should get some . . .
ah but the year round swimming charley!
83, 85: I like biking in part because I can set challenges without breaking myself ala running. 30 miles to climb 4500 feet! Awesome!! I have a cheap workhorse of a steel bike and a fancy but old carbon road bike but pretty steel bikes are just so elegant. I've been a little lazy this season (more mountain biking than road biking, more cookies) but while I'm a little slower than last year I'm not being punished for being out of shape yet. FatCala could probably put out more power so this is likely to be a problem unless I recover a sense of discipline/eat vegetables.
75, 90: Thanks. We were surprised, as the doc did the test mostly as a precaution, because he had the fluvax in September and the 2nd COVID vax last week, and "RSV lasts about 24 hours in a healthy eight-year-old so it's not really a worry", and then, oop, flu.
Geeblets all stayed negative for Covid this past week, so it seems we successfully weathered our exposure.
I dearly love my smart trainer. Didn't get into Zwift, but really enjoy Fulgaz.
The real covid was the friends you met along the way.
Now that Anne Rice has died, the world's leading teller of vampire stories is that Twilight lady.
'Salem's Lot is a vampire story, isn't it? Or am I just showing my anti-sparkliness?
34: Looks like you're getting your wish.
100: I can't hep but think that's not actually a good idea.
94. Good news! Exposure was presumably pre-Omicron, which is apparently far more infectious, so keep safe. (The NHS has apparently run out of lateral flow tests; these are the times we live in.)
I assumed those tests were only for people with really funny nostrils.
101: I agree and even if it's in a good cause the mirror image "owning the conservatives" is a bad look. I like what I heard Al Franken propose: Just pass a law, same text as S.B.8, except that anyone can now sue for defamation or criticism of the governor in any medium (except, of course, eclectic web magazines). 1st amendment instead of second amendment. IANAL but it seems sound to me.
104: I'd support mirroring the language of S.B.8 more exactly, if that's a major problem with Newsom's suggestion. I wouldn't support actually going after the freedom of the press like I would the right to bear arms. Maybe something about how the current interpretation of the 4th or 6th lets the government get away with too much?
Yes. 104 is a really bad idea. Guns is a better target.
Its important to go after something conservatives hold dear. They don't actually care about freedom of speech. Guns is the way to go.