BrianW

Trader Joe's is one of the first stores to drop mask requirement for fully vaccinated customers after CDC mask update. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2021/05/14/trader-joes-masks-not-required-fully-vaccinated-after-cdc-guidelines/5093425001/

We are so short staffed at my company and so many people are putting in for time off this summer they are offering to buyout our vacation days at twice what they are worth. Crazy.

Down in Fairfield County CT automation to eliminate cashiers and other low skill jobs is like full steam ahead. Walmarts here have 1 person now watching 16 self checkout registers. At the McDonald's in Stamford you order from screens now. A couple automat style restaurants have gone in were they just need 2 cooks and zero cashiers or waitstaff. Scan your card an open a door to get your meal. The big one though is the first Amazon Fresh Grocery store going on that has like no actual employees. Fill your cart and walk out the store. Supposedly the prices are going to be rock bottom there and their goal is to undercut Walmart by like 20%.

I just posted about that right before you did. Here's a good article on the shortage and talks about the average age in Massachusetts. Its going to be ugly in 5 years. Over the next five years, 65 percent of the jobs available in the skilled crafts and trades won’t have people to fill them,” said Sarah Turner, president of Boston’s North Bennett Street School, which has been turning out craftspeople since 1881. https://www.boston25news.com/news/shortage-tradespeople-will-raise-costs-wait-times-home-projects/FVVETFTNBNF4TGTRQPMBEAHLSE/

I was talking to some coworkers who have done a bunch of commercial work up in Massachusetts. They said the majority of the electricians up there are like 55+. They have been on jobs where like half the guys looked like they were 70. They said the pay around Boston is sky high and like $75+/hr and that's motivating a ton of guys to keep working. I looked up some stats on Massachusetts and the shortage is bad there and only going to get worse. The average age of plumbers, electricians, hvac is over 55 there. The amount of guys retiring far exceeds those coming in. At current rates in 5 years its expected 65 percent of the jobs available in the skilled trades won’t have people to fill them.

It's going to get much worse. My boss said in CT something like 500 electricians retire every year but only 150-200 new guys come in. Its been like that for a long time and it's going to take like a decade or more to reverse those numbers.

The incentives are crazy out there right now for those in licensed skilled trades. Companies are offering some interesting stuff. This ad for a E-2 electrician in CT will give you the company truck after 5 years employment. BENEFITS: FULL TIME OPPORTUNITY, $10K SIGNING BONUS, $40+ PER HOUR WITH UP TO 10-15 HOURS OVERTIME EVERY WEEK, COMPANY VEHICLE PROVIDED, OVERTIME, 3 WEEKS PTO, 401K, MEDICAL, VISION AND DENTAL BENEFITS, KEEP COMPANY VEHICLE AFTER 5 YEARS OF EMPLOYMENT

There have been a couple of tudies recently done and published on how long antibodies last. They are finding people who had covid still show high levels of antibodies 10-12 months later. I was also reading that during the first SARS outbreak in 2002 they still found antibodies 17 years later and they were cross reactive to sars-cov-2. Next, we showed that patients (n = 23) who recovered from SARS (the disease associated with SARS-CoV infection) possess long-lasting memory T cells that are reactive to the N protein of SARS-CoV 17 years after the outbreak of SARS in 2003; these T cells displayed robust cross-reactivity to the N protein of SARS-CoV-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2550-z Maintenance of neutralizing antibodies over ten months in convalescent SARS‐CoV‐2 afflicted patients https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tbed.14130 Public Health Watch: Military Study Suggests SARS-CoV-2 Immunity May Last Up to 1 Year in Some https://www.contagionlive.com/view/public-health-watch-military-study-suggests-sars-cov-2-immunity-may-last-up-to-1-year-in-some Here is the study from the above article. SARS-CoV-2 antibodies remain detectable 12 months after infection and antibody magnitude is associated with age and COVID-19 severity https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.27.21256207v1

We fully leafed out down on the shoreline.

There has been an insane recent surge of people wanting renovations and work done on their houses in CT. My contractor friends are saying a massive amount of people have been terrified to have anyone at their house doing work and now that their vaccinated the phone is ringing nonstop. Also, get ready to pay like double pre covid prices. Material costs are through the roof and there is a huge labor shortage of licensed electricians, plumbers etc.

Yeah its bad. I have a ton of friends with decent jobs but there is nothing affordable out there. With the rise in materials and labor I read it's near impossible to even build a small new house an average person could afford. I heard the rental market is tough as well. So many landlords got screwed during the eviction moratorium they are now requiring huge deposits and near perfect credit scores. Rental prices are way up too.

Yep. My first $150 bitcoin purchase from 2016 is now worth over $20k. I bought a bunch in early 2016 when it was in the $300-400 range and never sold.

Does anyone know how the taxes work on coinbase? Let's say I invested 5k in Ethereum last year and its worth 50k right now. If I withdraw 45k into my bank account through coinbase do they report it to the IRS? Or am I supposed to report it?

Try wondercide. It's main ingredient is cedarwood oil. I have been using it my yard as its dog safe. I definitely noticed a huge reduction in ticks. Some of the reviews on Amazon said it worked great on grubs. https://www.wondercide.com/products/outdoor-natural-pest-control-concentrate-kills-repels-100s-of-pests-ecotreat

Mine is definitely a nice specimen tree. I lost one ash last year from EAB and had to have it cut down. I was treating it as well but it didn't make it. Perhaps the one still standing had a bit resistance as its currently leafing out nicely. I counted the rings on the one cut down and it was around 110 years old. The one still standing behind it is much larger so I assume is much older. CT also released some Parasitic wasps to attempt to combat the EAB. So there is some hope that may help.

Another record month for solar production. March and April really stand out on my monthly charts from the 4 years I had my panels. Probably also explains why all the plants and trees here are so far ahead.

CT is getting its first Amazon Fresh Market and basically no actual people work in. There are no checkouts or cashier's. You fill your cart and walk out the store. Shoppers enter those locations by swiping a smartphone at the entry gate. Inside, they’re tracked by cameras, software algorithms and shelf sensors—then charged for what they take when exiting through the designated gates.

My company is hiring electrician apprentices right out of high school at $15-17/hr. 2 years later when you reach the state mandated hours and get your license you will start out around $30-35/hr. Electricians with 10+ years experience are making $50-60+/hr with endless overtime available.

Not sure your stance with pesticides but I have been keeping a 100+ year old ash alive with a soil drench of Dominion 2l. Amazon sells it for like $25 a bottle. Its the same bottle the pros use.

Its going to be a bad year for ticks. In addition to the non native Asian long horn tick and the lone star tick CT now has an established population of Gulf Coast Ticks. Their Northern range was Maryland/Delaware. Also, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station is reporting massive numbers of ticks this spring. 46% of dog and deer ticks recently tested were positive for Lyme disease. NEW HAVEN, CT (WFSB) – The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station reported populations of the Gulf Coast tick in Fairfield County, and noted its potential to further spread in Connecticut and transmit diseases to both people and pets. According to Dr. Goudarz Molaei, a research scientist who also directs the CAES Tick Surveillance and Testing Program, its is the first report of populations of the Gulf Coast tick, Amblyomma maculatum, in the northeastern United States.

Gypys damage of yore. @Damage In Tolland

That drought has been locked in those areas it seems for years. From New Haven down through SW CT has never been remotely near any drought condition in a long time. I'm at almost 5 inches of rain in the last 30 days.

I've been reading there might be some big changes coming to cracking down and tracking these cryptocurrenices. The malware hackers that are paid in bitcoin have been able to operate untouched as it really can't be traced. I think I read that hundreds of millions are being paid to these hacker groups as ransom weekly. These Malware attacks are becoming a huge issue. Nobody can get Chemotherapy at Yale New Haven hospital as a ransomware attack has cripple the chemo machines software there.

Shoppers enter those locations by swiping a smartphone at the entry gate. Inside, they’re tracked by cameras, software algorithms and shelf sensors—then charged for what they take when exiting through the designated gates.

Amazon is putting in its first Amazon Fresh Market in CT in Fairfield County. There is no checkouts or cashiers. Very few people actually work in the store. Its all automated and they are using state of the art technology to track purchases. You just fill your cart and walk out the store.