bch2014

Boston (and New York) are great cities to fly out of as no one airline dominates the market. Keeps prices down due to competition, at least relative other hubs. Living in Dallas, it was either AA out of DFW or WN out of DAL if you didn’t want to connect. Of course, at the time, I kind of liked the high prices as work paid for all my travel and the higher the price of the ticket, the more miles and status earned. I still mostly fly AA and continue to maintain their mid-tier status. Pre-Covid, good luck getting an upgrade out of DFW, LGA, BOS, etc.. In the post-Covid world, I’m batting about 75% as a platinum. Not bad!

Clouds tonight around 7:20PM rolling into parking lot at Patriots game.

As a NYC resident, I totally support a vaccine mandate if the alternative is indefinite masking and restrictions that we’re seeing in other similarly governed cities (SF, DC, etc).

One of my favorites in CT is Colony Grill in Stamford. Great bar pies.

Golden hour in Zagreb. No outdoor masking here, masking indoors for employees of establishments but lots of chinstraps. Great to be overseas during the casedemic.. Just got to stay off Twitter.

I think that's exactly what he's saying-We have a "casedemic" in the northeast right now. Hospitalizations have barely risen yet we still have politicians considering restrictions. For example, Bowser just instituted a mask mandate in DC. 2x people have died from gun violence in DC this month compared to Covid. It's ridiculous.

This is a pretty good thread on who’s not getting vaccinated. Generally speaking, the hardest hit states in the Deep South have both an anti-vaxx/Trumpy white population and a high black population.

Just went to get my pre-travel PCR for Croatia... Of course, whenever I step outside I seem to sneeze the last couple days-hoping that's just the smoke/poor air quality. I've stayed away from indoor dining since last Friday night though just to try to limit my exposure... A breakthrough would suck... Fingers crossed!

Manhattan is 88/100k on a 7-day basis. York is 46/100k. Manhattan has 3.5x the testing volume (on a per/100k basis) compared to York county though so the on-the-ground conditions probably aren't much different.

We have a decent sized field sales force and currently, mask rules are on a state-by-state basis. There are three categories: Red: Vaxxed and unvaxxed have to wear masks (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Utah currently) Yellow: Vaxxed no masks, unvaxxed masks (All other states) Green: No masks regardless of vaxx status (was VT for a few weeks but they've moved to yellow).

There's some truth to what you're saying, but the more "bullets in the air" (i.e. transmission in the community largely due to the unvaxxed), the more likely a breakthrough infection. 90% efficacy against 100 bullets means I'll likely get hit by 10, 90% efficacy against 10 bullets means I'll get hit by 1. For some good news, looks like the UK delta wave has peaked. https://twitter.com/ScottGottliebMD/status/1418603943257460739?s=20

I am vaccinated and encourage everyone to get vaxxed but people in the northeast need to open their eyes and see that there are plenty of people unvaccinated all around us. Plenty of towns in Mass (Bristol County, Hampden County, certain parts of Boston, etc) where vaxx rates are lagging. Focus on that before getting all uptight about what's going on in Missouri.

If anyone is looking for a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited with 44k miles, PM me. Looking to sell mine in the next couple months. I would accept a check from a local credit union!

It’s a story when people are canceling meetings, skipping work, etc for breakthrough, asymptomatic infections. We’ll never be able to regain “normalcy” until we stop testing asymptomatic people.

Insane smoke taking the ferry over to Williamsburg.

I'm going to Croatia next week and I'm also slightly nervous about the "have a breakthrough infection and get stuck there for 10 days more than planned" problem. Good thing is that AirBnbs are relatively cheap there and my job is pretty remote friendly so it wouldn't be the end of the world. Work from 2 PM-11 PM every day and hike, swim, lounge in the mornings while I "quarantined." Anyhow-that fear is still not going to stop me from enjoying the nightlife there-which is supposedly world class. I'd be more cautious in an expensive country like Iceland.

What happened? Tomorrow is my first day back.

Agree with the people you talked with-I was in Hilton Head in March, and while more open than the northeast was at the time, it certainly wasn’t “open season.” Same with Utah in February. First time I really felt like things were “normal” was in Tennessee in early May. I was just in Tahoe for the 4th and it’s open season there-just like it is NY, MA, NH.

Take the vacation as you planned. Is there any “off-boarding” you’ll have to do at your job to help your employer bridge the gap before they can fill the position (I.e. train a coworker on tasks you only know how to do)? If so, prioritize doing those activities in your remaining days. If not, well, even less of a reason to worry.

In Lake Tahoe for the weekend.. We got 2 hours of rain this afternoon. If it’s raining in Tahoe, Stein is officially dead.

In terms of cities that I’ve lived in… Craziest Drivers: 1) Houston (so many unregistered, poorly maintained vehicles weaving down 20 lane wide highways). 2) Boston 3) NY (Drivers aren’t really crazy except for the cabbies IMO) 4) Dallas Worst Traffic: 1) NYC (but there are so many good public transit alternatives that I don’t have to sit in it much-so not much effect on my day to day life). 2) Houston 3) Boston 4) Dallas (overbuilt road system and lots of toll roads=winning)

How about the one in Atlanta during the SEC championship basketball semifinals a dozen or so years ago? There was also a massive tornado that blew through North Dallas in 2019 while I was living there, though it didn’t hit the CBD. https://www.weather.gov/fwd/tornadoes-october2019 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ajc.com/sports/college/recalling-the-tornado-2008-sec-tournament/AYY5lYigBSdqdzWeI7jeFM/%3foutputType=amp

79° here on the lake at 1030 PM here in Meredith. Yuck.

Since this is the Covid thread, I thought I’d give a mask report. In the DC area for work this week… Montgomery County, MD still has tons of masks, even outdoors. Just across the border in Fairfax County, VA, I hardly see any around. There’s not any political difference between MD and NOVA at this point so I was shocked by the contrast. Perhaps @PhineasC has a take on this.

Great game on ESPNU right now... Arizona vs. Ole Miss. Stadium pretty full and loud in the 100+ degree heat.