HIPPYVALLEY

Not looking forward to sweatshirts next week but it's been an awesome week. Hopefully WNE gets some low 60's next week if/when we get the sun to come out.

Yeah but throwing darts at a board to pick stocks is still the best route. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/random-darts-beat-hedge-fund-stars-again-2019-06-26

As you and I have discussed, the pandemic has further fueled the great wealth transfer from middle classes and poor to the super wealthy. https://www.businessinsider.com/pandemic-widened-millennial-wealth-gap-economic-inequality-rich-poor-henry-2021-1?op=1 Obviously it began long before Covid, https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/ I remember reading Donald Barlett and James Steele's excellent "America What Went Wrong" the year after I graduated college. At 30 years old it is still a completely relevant read about the betrayal of America's middle class by our corporate lobbyist corrupted politicians. Bill Moyers did an excellent TV special that contains the TLDR version. Not the easiest video to find anymore.

Covid’s economic fallout continues. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/09/small-business-closures-tick-back-toward-covid-pandemic-highs.html

Cloudy yes. wet? Occasionally. QPF does not look prolific for much of NE.

It’s not gonna be great but I don’t think it’s going to be a wash for doing things outdoors.

While the Biden administration has been trying to find a way toward a standard for vaccine certification, the federal government will not issue a vaccine passport, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. "The government is not now, nor will we be, supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential," Psaki said at a news briefing. "There will be no federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential."

NWS BOX has 50% chance of showers here Sun/Sun night.

There is probably no way to ever know if we have reached suggested heard immunity percentages unless there is widespread antibody testing which will probably not happen.

I think people are bragging that they got their shots but I don’t think many are ostracizing anybody who doesn’t. your body your choice!

Greenfield gave 3 to the kids this year which was awesome!

And when you really want to get out of that WFH meeting: Zoom Escaper is a tool to help you escape Zoom meetings and other videoconferencing scenarios. It allows you to self-sabotage your audio stream, making your presence unbearable to others. https://zoomescaper.com

It’s also cutting down on the stress of commuting and the pollution that results from commuting.

Yeah, I feel bad for anybody who is a performer. Restaurants and breweries etc. around here, that are having live music again, are definitely letting performers get away with singing a few songs in their sets. Silly rule anyway.

I have friends who are involved in commercial real estate in Boston and San Francisco and they said it has been bad but not apocalyptic.

Schmoozing opens more doors than being a hard worker does in many fields.

I’ve been using alcohol to ward off illnesses for years. It seems to have worked.

Initial reports are now saying that the vaccines have reduced efficacy on Covid strains which have the E484K (EEK)protein spike mutation. Apparently that mutation has reduced antibody binding properties and a decreased neutralizing antibody response triggered by the current mRNA vaccines. It is present in the B.1.351 variant (South Africa) and the P.1variant (Brazil). We are probably moving towards Covid becoming endemic but human adaptability is pretty remarkable so I for one am not going to get too rattled about it. The new variants will eventually become dominant (Brazil is on fire with P.1) and I doubt Americans will tolerate another round of lock downs, regardless of reduced effectiveness of vaccines against emerging strains. America seems done with the pandemic even if it is not done with us.

Plenty of time for that to change into something more tolerable.

Perfect!

The wind never stops blowing anymore. You are up higher than the Pioneer Valley so obviously it was less of a bummer here but I still need to recover one of my tarps from the neighbors yard. Regardless, it is warm and wonderful in the sun here despite the stiff breeze.

Glad we WNE.

What a day it turned out to be, 62° and sunny.

Until the switch flips and summer becomes extinct at that latitude.

I approve.