| While back to our normal programming, we can talk about easy things |
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(post subject meaning: Now that the evil orange man is gone.)
Lesley,
Are you playing Bridge these days?
Modified by eDrek at Wed, Jan 20, 2021, 19:10:14
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I know. It's been snowing here and so pretty. Cold, too.
I feel relieved that what's his name is all gone. Haven't all had our fill of that?
I'm sure we can find something to disagree about around here.
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Yeah, there's a sense of relief that he just went in the end, and Biden seems OK, and no violence kicked off, and half of QAnon is going wtf, we've been lied to. There'll be an ex-QAnon forum going up. Maybe JHB would like to lend his expertise?
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Yes, edrek, I am playing bridge. I play a social game once a week on a verandah which is enjoyable and involves things like chocolate biscuits and we can sit and talk about a hand as it happens. And I play an online game once a week with my brother who lives in Sydney.
It is put on by his club, a proper tournament and it's a good field, lots of good players and funny lines in the texting box because they know each other from playing together over the years at club. We have just been through a winning streak, placing second first second and our percentage went up to dizzying heights 69% and it was almost a relief to place 5th with 52% this week.
at the end of a tournament you're often left with one hand that you remember. So mine from last week is the one where I got creamed. Opposition are the best players in the field. The top player opens the bidding with 3S, that means he's got lots of spades but not many points and my brother doubles. Opposition partner who is my favourite - he is the man who inspired me to play well when I first went and played at club in Sydney so basically I am having my best table of the evening time - so he passes and I am on the spot. What does the double mean, is it for penalty or take out? either way he has a strong hand so I am looking at my cards, it is a flat hand, no long suit and not a heap of points but I got some I should bid, but what should I bid, I've got no suit to bid and somewhere floating up from the pit comes this idea that oh he must have hearts - a lot of people do play this but not us - but I latch onto it and before you can think I have bid 4H, I think I made only 4 tricks. It was bad! But you know it was enjoyable playing it because of the company. Afterwards Maryo spoke up again like that first time at club and he said to my brother you should have bid 3NTs with a hand like that and I said I should have bid it because I had some points but telling the story now I realise Maryo was right again, he should have bid it and then if I had a long suit I could have shifted it over.
Is that enough bridge?
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Thank you, Lesley.
As I've mentioned before that I used to play Bridge when I was about 10. It's a cool game.
Also, at one job I worked with an older guy who was very good and 'ranked' or something like that based on how often he played or how good he was. He was very modest about it, but I could tell that he was a serious player.
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yes, I have a high ranking that I don't honestly think I should have, but I expect it will have dropped with that 4H bid!
the funny thing is that twice my brother has got up my nose about the way I played a hand and he is right, I played it wrong but somehow when you look at the results I have made an extra trick to everyone else and I think I am literally being rewarded for not knowing how to play for the odds as well as the rest of the field. 
I have a good cat story to tell. Right now my cat Lily is sitting curled up in my chair on the verandah. She has got her soft sleek furry look back like the pampered cat she is, hand fed on prawns fresh off the trawler.
It is a peaceful feeling - that quiet peaceful sunny feeling that drew me to this area in the first place. and I am glad to have her back in the house with me. It has been weeks maybe months she has been out in the garden. tough times for both of us. and I didn't understand why.
The timing of it all comes down to a lily. A white hippeastrum with a flower spike budding up. It is a very long story if I go into detail but avoiding all detail let me just say it was the point at which my tenant felt offended by my lack of blind belief in her version of reality. Weeks, months later it gets brought up again along with the latest problem and again this insistence from her and I say demanding I believe her contrary to the evidence is not sufficient response. and omg the shit hit the fan her behaviours escalated.
It was like I knew she was a bit nuts with all the shifting conspiracy theories and so on but I didn't know how much.
I knew she had been difficult with me but I did not realise it was psychic warfare. I knew she was messy, I didn't mind that but I just didn't know how messy she'd been - I went from accommodating to pushing and she responded fast.
The first night she was not sleeping here Lily came back into the house, and slept by my head all night. then she was in and out while the packing up went on for an endless week but now she is gone and we are back to normal. well I don't have an income and will have to spend a bit to get the flat fixed and I am not ready to let anyone here again at the moment, but I have enough in the bank til I work out my next step. and so happy to have Lily back like I never lost her, she is just as I always thought she was only even better.
it's just so corroborating. I find it fascinating. It's not just Lily, now the water dragons who had unaccountably disappeared are back too. always I have believed that where I am on the same page as other creatures as well as humans then it is a good basis for reality mapping - I am standing on planet earth. This is twice now Lily has led the way out of a toxic bubble. she's been so brave.
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Spell 'relief' as when someone who has been acting strangely towards you finally leaves for good.
Just like Trump. We all feel better now.
Your cat seemed to know.
Modified by eDrek at Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 21:06:21
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thanks edrek, that's it exactly.
Lying is cheap grace isn't it, as described in Karen's post about the preacher. Nothing more stark at the moment than Covid, Trump could minimise it as much as he liked but the realities of that bug just went rolling right over him.
I agree with Pat I don't see Joe Biden or any other possible candidates as being anything particularly useful but it is good to be rid of Trump, he was showing us how bad it can get.
and now there is this awful news out of the UK that the bug has got a lot worse. Do hope you are all being careful.
Modified by lesley at Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 15:39:39
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I disagree with the assessment that Biden will not be useful. I think and hope that he will do a lot of good things. Of course, those kinds of things probably are not something that Pat agrees with.
But, it all depends on the US Senate where the Democrats have a tie with the Repubs, but get the tie-breaker vote with Kamala Harris as the Vice President. At least with Senator Schumer being the Majority Leader in the Senate means that bills submitted by the Democratic House will at least get a hearing or whatever they call.
Mitch McConnell was, indeed, the Grim Reaper when it came to passing bills that the Dems put forth. However, McConnell did manage to quickly get 3 SCOTUS justices sworn in. Funny, how that one worked when he refused to even present Obama's pick of Merrick Garland because it 'was too close' to the election even though the election was about 11 months away or more. McConnell did a complete flip-flop on that imaginary rule he was obeying when it came to Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to SCOTUS.
And, yes, the news from the UK about the new Coronavirus variant is not good.
My 89 year old father and my step-mother are scheduled to get their first vaccine shot this Monday. Hopefully, they'll get the protection they need.
Meanwhile, my sister and her husband have come down with COVID.
My other sister, a nurse close to the front lines as a discharge nurse in the COVID ward, got her vaccination early on, so hopefully she'll be ok.
As for myself, I'm drinking a lot of fish tank cleaner as a preventative.
Modified by eDrek at Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 16:27:50
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yeah agreed. I actually edited my post to change it from useful to particularly useful. You only get to be president once, maybe you serve two terms but it's still a once in a lifetime proposition. I dunno. I tend to think of Biden as similar to Keating (Labor) over here, he promised to do good things but at the end of the day his personal effort turned out to be dismantling the tariffs which protected us from Asia and he made himself wealthy in the process. After that it was easy for Howard (conservative govt) to introduce a stunning pair of new taxes - GST and superannuation. I still remember the 'Read my lips it will never be more than 3%. Never.' - ha! Mr 'butter wouldn't melt in my mouth I am such an honest fellow' Howard.
I am entirely cynical about politicians I just struggle to keep such an open mind about the people I meet!
I am sorry to hear of your family getting Covid.
I am worried about the vaccine, I am, and glad I don't have to get it, and hope it goes well for those that do. But I do wonder what happens down the road, when the mosquitoes have had their fill of vaccinated blood, what do they give us in return?
Modified by lesley at Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 18:04:16
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Puzzled. Why would you be worried about the vaccine? I should think Australia will be offered the vaccine as much as anywhere else. The fact that they've kept the disease under control so well doesn't mean it won't wreck the country if they stop being so vigilant. And I can't see them relaxing till they've persuaded everyone they can to take the vaccine.
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yes we got vaccination plans that seem to be going quite well, they are taking their time developing systems with our biggest transport company for roll out and talking like they will want everyone to take the vaccine but it is possible I will be exempt because of the risk of anaphylactic shock being so high with me.
but beyond my personal risk there are more general worries - like everything else the materials used to create medicines are always trending to cheaper options and I imagine under the impetus of such high volume demand they have gone cheaper yet. To me, the canary down the mine, what I observe is that it's not necessarily the active ingredient it's the fillers that can make me sick. Like cleaning products, I have to stay away from the ones with fragrances. I wouldn't mind wearing a mask to walk down the aisle of cleaning products in the supermarket but I still like the smell of Domestos, a household bleach. and they know it - when you look at the products they market for allergy sufferers they are all fragrance free. and let's not forget that factory in France making exploding breast implants out of cheap secondhand oil.
so vaccine concern A - such shoddy production values it makes numbers of people sick.
B - that it becomes like the flu shot where new vaccines are required every season and that feeds into concern A and also into concern C - the things that suck our blood - they will all be intimately affected by the vaccine won't they?
The connection between ticks and red meat allergy is substantiated by research, but why did it happen. When I went to hospital with the tick bite that did it to me the doctor told me he was worried, that I was the 4th case in a week that needed hospitalising (small country hospital) and it was unprecedented - people didn't use to collapse from a tick bite.
So once you get it that's it, even now all these years later I would be horribly sick if I ate beef. I heard of a woman who said she thought it was the cow's revenge which was very funny but I tend to believe they're the meat in the sandwich and the tick's saliva is being affected by the cattle dipping. that's why I'm worried about the vaccine.
I might be worrying unnecessarily of course, it could be that the insecticide wasn't involved at all or the ticks were affected by the direct touch of it on the cow's skin and it is not from drinking the blood - that once the vaccine is in the blood it is safe, we have already assimilated it - I doubt if much funding is available to answer questions like these, but I'd be interested to know what the microbiologists might think. I do know they are worried about the effects of all the antibiotics we have already been taking, measuring them in waterways.
Vaccination looks like it is going to be a massive ongoing medication event. but you know I'm not really worried, there's far too many things to choose from to pick on the effects of modern medicine on mosquitoes. It's sort of like watching the approaching giant meteorite and thinking I wish I'd remembered to put the milk in the fridge. Besides, it's hard to worry when I am so happy having my little cat back inside.
Modified by lesley at Sun, Jan 24, 2021, 13:42:38
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There won't be any fillers or fragrances in the vaccines.
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine includes the following ingredients: mRNA,
lipids ((4-hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis(2-hexyldecanoate), 2
[(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecylacetamide, 1,2-Distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-
phosphocholine, and cholesterol), potassium chloride, monobasic potassium
phosphate, sodium chloride, dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate, and sucrose.
mRNA, fats, salt, sugar.
Much less to worry about than the virus. One downside of the vaccine is that once it is in a lot of people, there'll be a tendency for new, possibly resistant variants to pop up. Still, it's the best we can do.
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yes, that is the name of the vaccine being prepared for roll out here. It should start next month, rolling round the country in refrigerated trucks and two shots two weeks apart.
I completely agree it is the best we can do. It will be fully funded by the public purse here and I think the policy of just doing it without debating it is good - the anti-vaccination lobby is not being particularly noisy about it anyway I think.
What they are telling us is that the vaccination is not a silver bullet and to be careful, to still practise social distancing. It does seem to work well - I haven't had a cold or flu since Covid restrictions started, this whole area seems to have stopped sneezing.
It is interesting to read the recipe explained, thanks - and what's not to like in fat salt and sugar, I like them all.
It still comes down to the raw ingredients that are sourced tho, like menobasic potassium phosphate has to come from something.
it's the thing I often ponder - factories mass produce china using a recipe like that and it is remarkable how stable it is how identical the result and yet I have to guess they source their ingredients from different places at times. well even different times would make differences too.
so it's like take these ingredients and put them in a blender until it is the living to the dead, and reconstitute them as something else, it bothers me. it's why people like handmade objects - I saw this man on the telly, he is in England and made wooden bowls on a lathe he'd built and foot-pedalled.
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Lesley,
I think that you are correct in holding off from the vaccine if you have anaphylactic shock problems.
Maybe one of the other vaccines that are coming out might be better for you.
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thanks, oh yes that is interesting - I would be in the category not to have the Pfizer vaccine.
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ok, so that took me a couple of gos to read through, it wasn't easy to contemplate. I hadn't quite realised it before but I go straight to the very worst symptoms.
I ate a spring roll and overnight went from no allergic symptoms to the worst. Not only that but it is rare to have the delayed reaction, hours later. it was hard to understand what was happening. I got sent for so many tests. Eventually the doctor said talk me through it again and when I ended by saying it feels like I'm nearly dying he said but you never do, do you.
He had a point, I thought, it was very reassuring.
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ok so for seven years I was collapsing and going through the whole near death experience complete with the emptying your bowels bit and finishing with a recovery which includes going shivery as the blood pressure improved and a period of painful abdominal cramps.
I had no idea I was experiencing anaphylactic shock or that it was msg that caused it but slowly I started to work it out, a trip to the Chinese restaurant helped me along. I had already realised the timing had to do with something moving out of my stomach, a point somewhere there, that's where it triggered.
It was a tick bite that got me the diagnosis, with an ambulance ride and the hospital emergency services.
so yes over all I have a lot of detailed experience of anaphylaxis, what happens to me and how to handle it to give myself the best chance of survival. I'm not suggesting it is the same for everybody but this is what I do -
No epipen in the fridge, they scare me a bit, but I make sure there are those nice soft freezer packs in the freezer. I use my last moments to get them, a towel or two and lie in recovery position in the bathroom. Hope nobody finds me until I'm better, not because I don't want them there but because they would be bound to call an ambulance - and they would strap me down on my back.
funny that. the first thing they teach you in first aid courses is recovery position. It's more than just the airway - once I am in shock put me on my back and I go unconscious, keep me on my side and I retain consciousness even when I am so low I cannot move so much as a finger voluntarily, I retain consciousness on my side. it's enormously helpful, cannot explain why.
oh well part of it might be that my body has sort of taken over from my will - even tho I cannot move anything voluntarily, my hand has kept the icepack on my head, and if I am being bitten by a tick, my arm has moved with deadly accuracy, I rip that tick out even though I'm not aware I'm being bitten (they have an anaesthetic in their spit).
it's more than that though. somehow I am helping myself survive just by being there.
Once my body has dealt with the toxin I recover quickly. It is tiring but a bit of rest and time to replenish and I'm fine.
The second shock from contrast dye I was already unconscious as I was under general anaesthetic, I don't remember it. The thing I remember, well two things to say - I was worried my surgeon was contemplating using it again and I said to him there isn't a drug in the world that can stop that happening. and indeed that was the case, nor could the general anaesthetic keep me unconscious. so the thing I remember is waking up, I was waking up to die. It's all so endogenous by then see, and I felt I was being completely looked after from the inside, like I was being hugged, I was wrapped up in a pink bubble. but outside there was this warmth, she was in the shadows beside me and she was so putting everything into it, she was keeping me alive. The picture I had of it was like a vast cavern dark and shadowy greens and blacks with a massive piece of machinery she was using to keep me moving on through it.
Afterwards the anaesthetist asked to see me. and she was able to confirm this was the case, I had woken up, she had been trying her hardest to keep hold of me. and now we were smiling at each other. see from my perspective she is the one person in the room I was aware of. and it was all up to her, the others stood back, behind them skulked the surgeon. She used the modern learning she had, she used drugs and she used her intelligence in what to do when. It was the warmth of her heart I was aware of.
Setting aside the other stuff and just focussing on the anaphylactic shocks I am confident in saying the experience and subsequent recovery from being treated for anaphylactic shock instead of letting my own body deal with it -in that equation no treatment comes out ahead by a country mile so you know I tend to think much as it is very necessary and I am glad the vaccine is here now, I am still a bit worried about it.
not that I really care too much, there is so much other stuff to worry about anyway.
Modified by lesley at Fri, Jan 29, 2021, 15:36:52
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Wow. Just that. Wow!
You probably and certainly should be careful with which vaccine you get or none.
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I'm pretty certain I'll be exempt from vaccination. But it looks likely there will be restrictions on travel without it. I saw this New Zealander on the news yesterday - he looked very triumphant, they have adjusted some cattle swab to a human one - not a swab, a blood test. A finger prick test that can tell within minutes whether you have the virus or not. and they were surmising that it could work with some smart device already in place at airports.
I have always kept out of the vaccination debate. It's such a painfully difficult one and not having children I haven't had to face it. So very uninformed but unsurprisingly I had this idea that vaccines would become big business, not realising they already are. 72 vaccines by primary school age someone told me. oh really? so I go on the internet and find an article saying how mad those numbers are it's really only 13.
Then it goes on to explain that if you count a two shot immunity as two, and you count a multiple disease vaccination by the number of diseases, then it adds up to 54. And that crazy number of 72 this article is supposed to be debunking is come to by adding 18 flu shots.
they're giving primary age school children flu shots?
I was given a flu shot at school. I'm guessing our headmistress was given something to take part in the trials. The parents weren't informed but we were all lined up and given a shot, maybe around 100 of us aged from 12 - 18. three of us ended up in sick bay vomiting uncontrollably - oh we must have received a double dose is what they said but who knows.
I have sometimes wondered if that is what made me susceptible to a double dose of msg in the packet of spring rolls or only the one I ate? who knows.
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yes, I don't think most doctors would want to give me the vaccine, it's a lot of risk to take particularly as we are Covid free here. If I need an antibiotic we go looking for one I've taken before and I am not a good candidate for any surgery - not only was I shocked by the contrast dye, I turned allergic to the blood thinner. So really, it is all a bit of a lottery and I don't mind not having the vaccine.
In Australia what we have experienced is that social distancing and contact tracing and lockdowns can stop minor outbreaks and we never got the overwhelming rates of infection you have where you are. I am so scared at what is happening in UK, the whole world - I am very glad the vaccine has arrived and so hoping it can turn the tide.
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Hundreds of funny photo shop images of Bernie Sanders in his padded jacket and mittens on Facebook.
Hmm, difficult. VERY difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh yes. And a thirst to prove yourself. But where to put you?
Modified by karenL at Fri, Jan 22, 2021, 06:18:10
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