Some Clarifications

 I never said that the lockdowns had no effect, I just said that they have failed to stop the virus.  It was shortly after the first lockdown that I made that statement, and none of the subsequent lockdowns have changed my mind about that.  The first lockdown was supposed to be temporary, which led me to believe that the virus itself was temporary.  Looking back on it, Queen Gretchen did not promise any such thing, but it is human nature to read what we want to hear into what is actually being said.  

Like in many states, the urban areas of Michigan tend to vote Democrat, the rural areas tend to vote Republican, and the suburban areas tend to swing back and forth based on how unhappy they are with the current administration.  Our governor and state senators serve four year terms, while our state representatives serve for two years.  This means that everybody's term doesn't expire at once.  If people are pissed at a governor who still has two years left to serve, they retaliate by voting for state and federal legislators of the opposite party.  For some reason, all of our federal senators seem to be Democrats, which might be a coincidence.  They serve for six years, but both of their terms do not expire at once.  Maybe every time a Michigan US Senator comes up for re-election, the suburbanites coincidently are pissed at the Republicans that year.  Just guessing.  I have already conceded that there has been some gerrymandering going on.  A ballot proposal passed a few yeas ago promised to end that, but we won't know if it actually will till after the effects of the 2020 census are felt.  

I advanced the theory that Trump was a double agent way back in 2016.  I subsequently found out that some others had said it before me, but you heard it first from Talks With Beagles.  I said that he was sent by somebody because I don't know who sent him.  It might have been the Democrats, the Russians, the Red Chinese, the Mafia, or Trump might even have been working for his own self.  One way or another, Trump was on a mission to damage the Republican Party, and he did a pretty good job of it.  If the party ever hopes to recover from this, they need to cast Trump into the outer darkness where men shall weep and gnash their teeth.

My point about the chainsaw repair was that I am not the guy on the next barstool telling somebody how to fix their chainsaw, I am the owner of the broken saw and will take whatever advice comes my way, but I don't expect to pay for that advice if it doesn't work.

My real chainsaw in real life probably has a blown engine.  This is what I suspected, and the guy at Ace confirmed it.  I don't even know if it's possible to change out the engine but, if it is, I'm pretty sure it would be cheaper to buy a whole new machine.  The guy told me upfront that it would be a long time before he could get to it because he has been really busy lately.  To my knowledge, he is the only guy doing small engine repair in the Cheboygan area since Taylor Equipment went out of business.  I was in no hurry anyway because I have another chainsaw, which the Ace guy had repaired for me before I turned in the second one.  I am a pretty good  amateur chainsaw repairman if I do say so myself, but some jobs are best handled by a professional.