Quarantine Ain't What It Used to Be

 I always thought that quarantine was when they put a padlock on your door and nobody was allowed either in or out.  Apparently that's not how the COVID quarantine works.  My daughter and her guy were just told to stay home from work and avoid contact with other people for 10 days.  Her employer told her to take 14 days off just to be safe.  She had been working from home anyway, only going in once or twice a week to do stuff that she couldn't do on her computer.  Her guy has a production job, so he just stayed home.  I don't know if he will be compensated for his lost wages.  I don't think either of them were retested when their quarantine expired. I read in the paper today that a half dozen cases of one of the new variants have been identified in neighboring Presque Isle County, and that those people have been put in "isolation", unlike the regular cases that are merely quarantined.

I only recently read about the "natural causes" thing and I don't remember where I read it.  I guess I should start writing these things down.  Be that as it may, I don't think that a car crash qualifies as a natural cause, except maybe in Texas.  I understand that a guy once shot at police there, the police returned fire, and the guy took 17 bullets.  The coroner ruled that his death was by natural causes because, with 17 bullets in him, it was just natural that he would die.  

I asked the lady who was teaching me how to operate the self checkout the other day how they prevented people from taking items without scanning them. She told me that they have cameras watching over those lines at all times.  Don't know if it's true or not, but that's what she told me.  

I just looked it up, and the current minimum wage in Michigan is $9.65 per hour.  I have seen "help wanted" signs in both Cheboygan and Petoskey offering $12.00 and $13.00 for entry level positions.  Some places are even offering a "start up bonus" ranging from $300 to $3000.  The higher bonuses are for medical and technical positions, but Little Cesar's Pizza has had a sign in the window for months offering $300. 

I checked Uncle Ken's link, and found that current national unemployment rate is indeed about 6%, but it peaked at almost 15% a year ago.  Michigan's rate is currently in the same ballpark as the national, but it peaked at 23.6% a year ago.  Our local labor shortage has been going on for at least a year before COVID, but it got much worse when the COVID hit the fan.  

I got my first COVID shot on March 31, and it was a Moderna.  My second shot is due April 28.  Jenny must have gotten her first shot a couple weeks before me because her second one is due April 17.  

Quick shot

You win some, you lose some.  I've been holding off on a vaccination until the one-shot, Johnson & Johnson version became more available.  Last week I got my wish, made an appointment on Tuesday for a Thursday vaccination at a pharmacy my sister told me about.  No problems, no side effects, but now I'm reading about a problem with blood clots and who knows what else will come to light.   New variants seem to be popping up on a regular basis and there's talk that a third shot may be needed for some folks.  This is starting to get tedious but there's nothing to do except wait and see what happens.  At least the pharmacy was close enough, a short walk and train ride, less than thirty minutes away.  And I found a nice food market nearby with all kinds of imported stuff and fresh produce.

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Nothing else worth relating at this time, subject to change, of course.  I won't be baking more bread until I finish the stuff I have, which is fine.  I haven't gotten tired of eating it yet.  Have either of you guys made any pasta?  Pretty much the same ingredients as bread except eggs are involved; could be interesting.

 

 

unemployment rate

 The CDC says: If your COVID-19 test was positive, this means that the test did detect the presence of COVID-19 in your nasal secretions. This result would suggest that you are currently infected with COVID-19.

So I would assume that Jenny had covid when they tested her. 

I had one of those covid tests before I could go in for my colonoscopy.  They have this long cotton thing that they stick up your nose and at first you think that it's going to be sort of funny in a little kid booger way, but they stick it way down and it really hurts.  Also feels uncomfortable like when they probe some part of your body that they don't usually probe, like maybe your eyeball.

When I said that thing about non covid tests being counted as covid was popular in Trumpworld I meant that it was a charge that Trumpists would toss off with the usual flimsy lies.  This wasn't Trumpists exaggerating the covid tests, this was Trumpists accusing others of calling death by natural causes, like say a car crash, covid if that person happened to have covid in his bloodstream, which like voter fraud there were never any real cases cited.

I think these store owners know the cost of the self serves going in and are doing it to save money.  I wonder if they removed them because of shrinkage.  It's very tempting to just slip a few items directly into your bag without them crossing the bar code reader, or if it's something that is being weighed just saying it is a cheaper item than it actually is.  

If the suppliers for a store raises his prices, or the landlord raises the rent too high, the store goes out of business and well that's the invisible hand of the marketplace, that's the essence of capitalism.  Likewise if they can't afford to pay their help the going rate, they are not going to be able to stay in business.  When republicans oppose raising the minimum wage they always point to poor old Mom and Pop on a shoestring, while the benefits of keeping the wages down go mostly to fat cats.

Fifty or so years ago when I was collecting unemployment in Champaign I had a card where I had to list I think it was five places where I had applied to work each week.  It was no problem at all to fake it.

 I have never before seen a situation like we have now, with a labor shortage during times of high unemployment.  

This is also the first time we have had a booming economy where the rich guys are making out like bandits and yet there has been no increase in wages in like five years.

We've both been talking about the unemployment rate, and I was assuming like Beagles that it was pretty high, but I really didn't know so I went to google and here is a pretty good graph. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE  It does show that the Trump dip in unemployment was a continuation of the Obama drop, just wanted to say that.  But it also gives the current rate at 6 percent which historically is not that high.

Jenny's Story and Some Other Stuff

Whenever somebody around here comes down with COVID our local health department tries to track down all of their recent contacts, and my daughter and her neighbor ended up on one of those lists.  Until recently, they would just advise these people to "self monitor" for symptoms, but apparently now they are testing them all.  I'm not sure if the resulting quarantine was compulsory or voluntary.   A week or two before that, Jennie had been sick for a few days after she got her first COVID shot, but she assumed that was just a reaction to the shot.  She thinks that might be why she tested positive, but nobody knows for sure. 

" That thing were people who died of natural causes were being racked up as corona deaths was popular in Trump world at the beginning when they were denying that there was any pandemic at all, but I know of no cases where it was actually verified." - Uncle Ken

Why would Trump want to exaggerate the COVID death count if he was "denying that there was any pandemic at all"?

The only other store besides Walmart in Cheboygan that had self checkout lanes was Family Fare, and they got rid of them a year or two ago because the software needed an expensive update and the things never did pay for themselves.  Cheboygan got rid of all their parking meters decades ago for a similar reason, they didn't bring in enough money to pay for their own maintenance.  That said, our Walmart was having staffing and supply problems at least a year before the COVID hit the fan, so I take everything they say with a grain of salt.  I just reported what I was told.  

 Actually, the lady who told me about the businesses closing in Petoskey did name several of them, but I wasn't familiar with them and don't remember their names.  If I had known they were going to be on the test I might have written them down.

I agree that our local businesses might find it easier to recruit help if they paid more.  Walmart can certainly afford it, but many of our small businesses were running on a shoestring budget even before COVID.  It was they who took the biggest hit during the initial lockdown while Walmart's business actually improved.  

Any able bodied people on welfare in Michigan are required to either work or go to school at least 20 hours a week.  If they make less money than they would on welfare, the welfare makes up the difference.  People drawing unemployment are required to submit at least two job applications a week, but this requirement is commonly waived when the unemployment numbers are high.  I have never before seen a situation like we have now, with a labor shortage during times of high unemployment.  

moving the All Star game

I don't believe I have heard the reason that your daughter was quarantined.  Did she test positive before she was quarantined, or after she came out?  I am going to guess she tested positive and that is why she was quarantined. which would make it a case.  I don't know what you mean when you say there was no actual case.  Some people who get it never show any symptoms so maybe that is what you mean by there being no actual case.  I reckon if she tested positive it would be counted as a case whether she had symptoms or not.  

That thing were people who died of natural causes were being racked up as corona deaths was popular in Trump world at the beginning when they were denying that there was any pandemic at all, but I know of no cases where it was actually verified.

Those self checks have been all over the city for five or ten years now.  They are there to save the store money by not paying wages.  They would be there regardless of whether or not people could be found to man the cash registers.  

According to the law of supply and demand if something is in short supply, say labor, then you have to pay more money for it so if the store owners needed more checkers then they should pay them more.  If people get paid more they are more likely to buy more stuff and the store will take in more money which will in turn allow them to pay more wages which will result in them spending still more at the store.  Isn't that the trickle down theory, or maybe trickle up, that is so popular with republicans that they haul it out whenever they want to do another tax cut for the rich? 

As it is store workers get laid off and have to go on welfare and then the republicans fight to give less money for welfare because these guys are lazy and don't want to work.  

That word of mouth thing about businesses closing down because they can't find help is probably just word of mouth.  I guess it would have been rude but had I been there I would have asked what businesses is she speaking of.  

Some years ago the company that made Twinkies or Ho Hos or one of those things went out of business and claimed it was because the workers wanted too much money but when the accounting was done for the bankruptcy it turned out the place was terribly mismanaged.  I expect that happens a lot, where the workers get blamed for the misdeeds of the higher ups.

And how about Delta and Coke and MLB?  Is big business siding with the democrats?  Maybe just a little bit,   Because you know they need a functioning country where people can go about their business and buy their products and invest in the country.  Because thugs storming the capital puts the country at risk.  Because even though Trump has that solid 40 percent of the country, 60 percent of the country does not like him at all.

I don't see business leaning towards the dems for very long, because we do not favor tax cuts for the rich, but maybe just until the reps free themselves from the Trump death grip, but who knows when that will be.

Local COVID Update

My daughter's quarantine has expired and she never developed any symptoms.  I wonder if this counts as a confirmed case.  Although she tested positive, there was no actual case.  Her guy's test results finally came back, and they were negative.  I read somewhere that, if a death certificate says "natural causes", they frequently count it as a COVID death.

I was in Walmart yesterday, and none of their 14 checkout lanes were in operation.  A sign on each one said to see the "self checkout lane host" if you need help.  I knew they had some self checkout lanes, but I didn't know they had a host.  Apparently there is one host who goes back and forth between the six or eight self checkout lanes and helps anyone who's having trouble.  I had never used a self checkout lane before because I figured they should give everyone who uses one a discount because of the paid checkout clerk they are replacing, but now I had no choice.    

While the host lady was teaching me how to operate the machine, I asked her if this was going to be a permanent thing.  She said that it was until they could hire more help.  They had been running short handed for some time, and now many of their people are in quarantine.  She said that, even when they are able to hire a few new people, they don't last long because "they don't want to work".  I have heard this lament before, but usually from manager types, which I don't think this lady was.  I commented that Cheboygan isn't the only town having this problem, I was in Petoskey the other day and there were "help wanted" signs all over the place.  Another lady in the next lane said that she knows of several businesses in Petoskey that have shut right down for lack of help.  The last time I was in Walmart, a discussion ensued in one of the only two regular checkout lanes that were in operation, and the consensus was that it was because they are paying people more not to work than they could make working.  Somebody blamed it on Biden, and I was going to point out that they were doing the same thing when Trump was in office, but it was late and I just wanted to get out of there and take my groceries home.

catfish 14

Fridays are typically a slow day at The Institute, so I am just going to relate a phone adventure and toss out another chapter of Catfish.

Was ordering some medicinal tablets for my aging kitty and the only way to go was Amazon who I hate and despise but nobody else had this stuff.  Website is like a trap and by the time I was about to put in my order I had somehow also ordered amazon prime, and some worthless gift, and somehow a gift card for $25.  On the way to trying to clean up that shit my phone rang and it was Amazon telling me somebody had ordered a $99 something for Manhattan and they were wondering about that.

What the hell?  I said it wasn't mine and as long as we were talking I tried to bring up my order but she wasn't interested in that, she wanted to know if I had a computer, and if it was on and whether it was Apple or Windows and then she wanted me to do something with my cursor and HEY, I realized she was not an Amazon at all but some crook.  I guess the foreign accent and the phone calls in the background should have been a clue, but that's what you get when you call up any big company these days.

I slammed the phone down, kind of worried, why had those crooks called me just as I was making an Amazon order?  I searched the Amazon webpage for a phone number and went all over and finally got into some chat thing, but they wouldn't let you type in anything but just check through options none of which had anything to do with my problem and finally I got to a phone number, but once again I had to go through all those irrelevant options and finally got a chipper southern belle, I assume, who when I informed her of the phone call laughed her sweet magnolia laugh and said Oh Sweetgum those were crooks.  Happens all the time.

Anyway it took about half an hour but she straightened out my problem, as for Amazon Prime she said I can have it free for a month and they will just not charge me afterwards, don't worry about a thing  Hon.  I had my suspicions about that but she was such a sweet thing that I know she doesn't hold a grudge against any old grumpy Yankees.  And that fake Amazon call, right when I was making my order, I will have to rack it up to coincidence.

And now it turns out that with my free Amazon prime I can now watch the first season of Scrubs for free, so pretty cool huh?

Monday morning again.  Kind of a reality time for me because that was when I headed out to the union hall.  A month and a half now I'd been back in Champaign, spring had turned to summer.  Summertime and the living was easy, getting up late and heading down to The Great Wall at noon to catch the opening crowd, then back to the bunkhouse for a nap, then back to The Great Wall for the five o'clock crowd, and then maybe get something to eat, and then back to The Great Wall to end up the night, which was all fine, fine enough, good times hanging with old pals and swapping stories, but truth be told the stories were getting old, and I hate to say it, but so were the pals.  The same old guys I'd closed the bar down with the night before, and well none of us had done anything since the last time we'd seen each other, and so the first few beers we just sat in our stools staring straight ahead at the bottles behind the bar, grunting at each other.  Once we got into our beers the old stories weren't so boring, we were all a bunch of great guys after all, back slapping and back to the bunkhouse and one last beer run and then deep down into our couches.

 I was headed for California remember?  This was going to be just a stopover, just a time to reconnect with old friends, have some good times and build up a little grubstake.  Well the good times weren't all that good, and the grubstake, hell I'd run through the Seven Eleven money from LaCrosse and was just getting by on the occasional odd job and bumming beers.  This truth hit me in the morning, but the answer was always that I was just waiting for the big job to come through.  I was hauling my ass out every Monday morning wasn't I?  And rumor was sector five was going to open up this week, and if not then, then for sure the next week.

 Anyway this particular Monday morning, right on the edge of sector five opening up, because talk in the hall was almost certain that this would be the week, and I have to say, much as I dreaded joining the shovel army, I was almost hoping to be called out for the big job, just to be going somewhere, and was kind of tossing and turning on that back-breaking green couch, wondering what had gone wrong with that Gina and feeling a little guilty about stopping by Claudette's old apartment and sort of looking forward to getting called out of the union hall, there was that thunking again.

 Diamond Dan walking between the couches and slamming that softball into the mitt.  "Don't forget guys, practice this afternoon."

 Practice?

 "Softball practice, this afternoon guys, look sharp." and then Dan flipped the ball behind his back. then turned around quick to snatch it in his glove on the way down only he didn't make it fast enough and just knocked it a little so that it took a little bounce on the floor and hit Ted, just rousing up from under his blanket and rubbing his knuckles into his eyes flat in the nose and dribbled back into the center of the room where Dan scooped it up like he'd always meant to do that and repeated, "Look sharp," and took his exit.

 Well shit was that coming up? It'd been a big triumph getting  George

  to sponsor the team and all, but after that it had slipped my mind.  Doing a little calculating I realized that opening day was just three weeks away, but you know I had never figured on practice, I thought we would just show up and do whatever.  Practice, shit, it sounded a lot like gym class. 

 Almost got on the shovel brigade that morning.  Guy came in and looked at us like we were a sorry lot of recruits which I guess we were, went down the line, this guy and this guy and just before he got to me he was done. 

 Back to the bunkhouse for a nap, sure was grueling getting up that early, and sitting in the hall for like three hours, but the nap was refreshing and then out to The Great Wall for noontime beers.  Beers went on kind of late for me because of that practice thing, instead of heading back for my after lunch nap, I might as well suck up beers until we headed out to the field.  Truth be told I was rather hoping it would rain, but no such luck.

 Itch, behind the bar, was strangely into it.  Around five o'clock he shut us off sharp.  "No more guys. Out to the ball field."

 The ball field?  "Is that what you call it?" I asked snatching my glass which was still maybe a quarter full from his grasp.

 "Indeed I do Natty," that stupid nickname he'd stuck on me, which I might say I didn't like a bit.  "Because the ball is what rules the field, until it leaves the pitcher's hand nothing happens, just a bunch of guys standing around looking stupid, but once released, twirling in the air then it is in play.  It may be a ball, it may be a strike.  It may be that the batter swings and should he make contact, maybe a hard grounder to third, maybe up the middle, maybe a..."

 "Maybe a line drive right at the first baseman's head," I cut in knowing that he would be the first baseman.

 He looked at me a little funny.  Hell I hadn't meant anything, was just trying to cut short his speech, finished my quarter beer and shoved the glass towards the bar.  "To the ball field," Itch announced and off we marched. Well we bought a few tewelve packs, one for first base, one for third base, and one deep into center field. Dan wasn't too happy about all that beer lugged out onto the field, but we had showed up, what more could he ask?

 I hadn't been too hot about interrupting that cozy early afternoon drinking session, but I have to say that once I got into that fresh air I perked up a bit I staked out my claim in centerfield, and it just felt alright, felt just fine.  Of course that twelve back just behind me had something to do with it, but still when Dan ran out and tossed me my glove and I snagged it in the air and slipped it on well I was ready to go, hot to trot.  Played a pretty good center field way back in high school, wasn't that long ago.  Actually it was, fifteen years ago, doing some quick numbers in my head, but still felt as fresh as that green grass underneath my feet. 

Maybe seven, eight guys out there.  Dan took the mound, pretty drunk guy doing the catching, Itch at first, noticed he claimed it right off, just like I had claimed center field, no second baseman, young guy at shortstop, no third baseman.  Just me in the outfield, lot of ground to cover, but that didn't matter because nobody was hitting anything out there.  Dan wasn't much of a pitcher so the batter had to swing at almost anything, so it was mostly just slow rollers in the infield.  I kept moving in further, dragging that slowly emptying twelve pack behind me. 

I passed up my time at bat because I wanted to stake my claim in center field, and the truth was I wasn't that great a hitter.  Oh when I smacked one, I smacked it good, but I didn't smack that many, mostly I whiffed.. Problem was I closed my eyes just as the ball was coming in.  Coach was always on my ass about that, and I saw his point, I agreed with his point, but I don't know, I always did it anyway.  The ball always looked like the full moon coming in, and I just wanted to hit it so hard that I squeezed my eyes shut for the extra power, and there it would be strike one, strike two, and strike three.  Damn.  You know I had gotten into it to impress the babes, not that there were many girls showing up for baseball games, but a few, and what they liked were the guys who got the hits, who put the runs on the boards.  I had my share of over the shoulder running out and running in diving catches, but a glove man, you know, just not the same as the guy at the plate blasting them out of there.