WNash

These a-holes. UB students from downstate came back up to UB over the last few weeks to party as well, no masks, no distancing. Big parties - 150+.

I think we have really missed out on early season lake effect rain in recent years. Septembers have been warmer than normal, with a cooling trend so gradual we miss out on the delta t’s needed for convection (lake effect rain) in the early fall.

Some disturbing pictures going around social media from the last few days near UB south. Apparently a couple hundred students from all over the state flocked back for big frat house parties that have gone on every day. There’s a photo of a house on Main Street showing 100+ kids on the balcony and in the yard, with more visible in the house. No masks, no social distancing. If there’s an outbreak among this group of students, it could undo a lot of progress across the region, seed the whole state with the virus, and risk the ability of SUNY campuses to open this fall.

Same when I got mine from Erie County. They took a surprising amount for the antibody test. I wonder if they're reserving vials of blood for future comparison testing or studies.

It's possible he wants to run for president, but Biden is the Dem candidate now. I don't much like him, but it's really hard to imagine him not winning -- I don't think it's controversial to say that Trump hasn't made it a priority to attract votes that he didn't win last time, which is backfiring on him now. Republicans may be facing big losses, but they really have made their successful years count. Maybe Cuomo thinks he can run in 2024 to either succeed Trump or if Biden is in his 80s and steps down? But he has to realize how much he will be held culpable for what was essentially a bloodbath in the state's nursing homes. Even with the capital markets being a little bit down over the last year, total US market cap is 1.5x the entire GDP of the country, so money exists to upgrade climate control systems with HEPA filtration, install UV lights, put in thermal imaging cameras and staff them. We're going to pay one way or another, so it would be a good investment, if we could get a political consensus to make it happen. It would be a good time to work in climate systems and the safety industry, or better yet, to start a business to install such systems. Forcing herd immunity onto the country looks worse and worse as we recognize that this disease has dangerous sequelae even for many young and healthy survivors. Consigning a few percent of the public to death or a severely limited life as a survivor (extremely dependent upon public services or hard-pressed families) will be political suicide.

Another vital point is this: science proceeds based on hypothesis testing, which is a *falsification* process. Scientists subject a theory to repeated attacks in order to disprove it. They test a theory against case facts, or alternative explanations.For us to have scientific knowledge, it is *absolutely necessary* that scientists sometimes be wrong. Claiming that contradictory hypotheses are somehow proof that scientists don't know what they claim to know is a fundamental misunderstanding of scientific knowledge.

Sadly, it's a relative handful of people who refuse to comply with masks and social distancing. All we need to do to get through this is to accommodate some relatively small changes. I have cousins in Houston and in central Louisiana who claim that COVID-19 is a Chinese hoax. One of them depends upon his mother -- my aunt -- for childcare. She is in her early 70s and has survived cancer and has a weakened immune system because of RA meds, and her doctor has told her she is in a very high risk group. What is wrong with people that they'll believe what they hear from sleazy, lying politicians than what they hear from scientists, public health officials, and their own mother? I'm certain that even if my cousin were to give my aunt a fatal case of COVID-19, he would find a way to blame people he doesn't like (BLM protesters, Chinese people, Mexican immigrants) rather than the cynical politicians whose nonsense he follows devotedly and who have made this problem far worse.

I can't make any claim that gyms in Norway has the same climate systems as gyms in the US - in fact, I'm pretty sure they don't -- but there is some evidence that compliance with modest restrictions makes gyms no more dangerous than the average setting. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/health/coronavirus-gyms-fitness.html

I wonder how many cops with enough service are gonna retire. And what that means for everyone else if there’s a long hiring freeze. Stay safe.

They won’t be able to enforce a damn thing. I have to take a trip to Tennessee in early August to help my mother out. I’m driving alone, stopping only for gas, and will be social distancing when I’m there (except for my mother, who is 78 and barely leaves her house). Are they going to stop me from going to Wegmans with a mask on?

Just curious, how is overtime for NYPD patrol officers lately? Are you guys getting extra shifts with all the craziness or are they cutting back already?

I just checked the radar, and plenty of convection is getting through! We’re going to get a storm pretty soon. Those cells that fired up around Clarence look pretty potent as well.

Update: storms approaching Buffalo are getting sheared apart and dried out by the breeze. The clouds look threatening, but the radar is showing convention crapping out in the metro. I don’t want to say we’re getting shafted, because this is the typical outcome from June through August, but I was really hoping to get my water bill a break.

It’s really getting to be sprinkler season in my backyard vegetable garden. I’ve counted only two soaking rainfalls in the past three weeks. It gets pretty dry in Buffalo during the first 2/3rds of the summer, but this is really dry, really fast.

It’s pretty clear that a high degree of compliance of mask use makes a huge difference. The story of the Great Cuts in Missouri, where two COVID-19 positive hair stylists cut 70-80 people’s hair over a few days and had 0 transmissions, apparently because of their mask use, may an anecdote but strongly reinforces our local experience that masks save lives. People who won’t wear masks because of politics are already contributing to infection waves in many states. If mask use could have saved us the shutdown, then we made a huge mistake. But even in a pandemic, many people refuse to wear them when it is optional, so in that sense a shutdown might have been necessary (or even unavoidable). And when we are talking about the toll this disease has taken, it’s not just about deaths of old people. There’s growing evidence that mild cases can cause organ damage. We don’t understand the true cost of a hands-off approach for years.

I was at the Tops on University Plaza on Friday. Healthcare workers were offering free antibody tests. I would guess that the county health department would have more info.

Honestly, it’s a personal preference. You certainly don’t need air conditioning if you can tolerate humidity and occasional 90F+ heat waves that can last week or so. We moved into a house with central air, and the comfort level is much higher, for us, our daughter (who has lung problems), and our pets. Since we’re both working from home, it’s nice to not feel sweaty and warm inside the house. But I’d say it’s not a necessity, especially if you can sleep through hot, sticky nights.

I think most colleges will come back, assuming we don’t have a calamitous widespread increase in cases, but it certainly won’t be “normal” — there will be capacity restrictions in classrooms, dorms, events, etc. Likely the same deal with restaurants, movie theaters, and other public accommodations. Not ideal, but it will be an improvement over the last couple of months, assuming the vast majority of people will behave responsibly (maybe too much to hope for).

I’ve been planning to till for three weeks, but the ground has been soaked. Now this weekend looks like another loss! Just get me a four day dry period going into a weekend so I can get my vegetable garden started.

Mazel tov!

Started putting in our vegetable garden. 80% of our seed starts died from shock, so we had to buy plants. Talked to an Earsing’s employee who said that going from snow to summer in a week killed a lot of people’s seedlings.

Good luck to her. What district?

You might want to ask your pediatrician if it’s possible to get an emergency dose of a steroid. Our daughter had a very weak immune system until she was 12 months - 15 months (due to treatment during a NICU stay). We had a steroid in the medicine cabinet just in case she needed it.

Great question. We actually had our deck redone last summer, with new decking, some strengthened joists, entirely new railings that are safe for our two year old, and completely rebuilt steps. We were told by our contractor to wait 12 months before staining. He recommended Ready Seal stain and sealer, and he suggested that we use an airless sprayer to apply it.

Today was a beauty. Bright sun all day, low humidity, enough of a breeze off the lake to keep you cool working in the sun. We just did not get many days like this in Tennessee. We power washed the back deck, got the patio furniture out of the garage attic and cleaned it off, put down the outdoor carpet over the decking (deck is covered, so it’s more of a veranda). I have some custom coolaroo blinds on order to keep the afternoon sun off us. I’m going to live out there this summer.