Getting my Corona virus vaccination

 Today I got my second shot of Moderna vaccine.  It was a strange deal.  Right after NH announced we could register for a vaccine shot, I logged into the "VAMS" website, answered all the silly questions and received an email promising an appointment email in a few days.  Well the appointment email never arrived.  I logged into "VAMS" again. answered all the question ans again "VAMS" promised my an appointment email within a few days.  It never arrived.  So I tried "VAMS" for a third time.  This time I was able to obtain an appointment in May.  Some time later the phone rang, it was a new vaccination site starting up in North Haverill, only a couple of  towns over from Franconia.  " Would you like an appointment with us?" they asked.  "If you can get me anything before May I will be right there" I replied.  They came thru, I had my first shot two weeks ago and my booster shot today.  Give me a couple of weeks for the shots to settle down and I will be as Corona proof as possible. 

Let's keep the Senate filibuster

 The "filibuster" has changed it's meaning over the years.  Now "filibuster" simply means requiring a three fifth's vote (60 senators) to pass anything that one party or the other party doesn't like.  Years ago it meant taking advantage of the unlimited debate rule and talking and talking until either the windy senator keeled over or they decided to drop the issue and move on to other things.  There is a long evolution of the filibuster from unlimited debate into today's 60 vote requirement to pass anything.

Now the Democrats, who have the thinnest possible margin in the Senate, want to get rid of the filibuster all together and pass everything on a 50% plus one vote.  That will allow the Democrats to pass a whole bunch of stuff that they cannot get 60 senators to support.  

Me, I think anything that cannot gain three fifths of the senators support is probably a bad law and we do well not to pass it.  Let's keep the filibuster to guard against passing bad laws. 

Dam Busters 1955

 An oldie but a goody. A World War II RAF miracle operation, probably the best mission the RAF flew.  The mission was to destroy German dams in the Ruhr, creating devastating floods and depriving German war industries of needed water and electricity.  The film, by a British movie company, opens with British engineer Barnes Wallace devising the totally novel bombs needed to take out a dam.  Dams are very big, very strong, and ordinary bombs won't break them.  We see Wallace getting his bombs to work and the RAF setting up a special squadron of the new four engined Lancaster bombers to deliver the bombs.  The film was made back in 1955 when the Brits still had some real WWII Lancasters flying.  We see the real aircraft down at 60 feet above the water, roaring in on English test dams, and later on the German dams,  at 250 knots.  The flying scenes are very good and make the movie.   It is in black and white which was standard for war movies back then.  There were some amusing but realistic touches.  The car doors on the British sedans slam with a tinny rattle.  Not like the bank vault clunk you get slamming the door on a Detroit car.  The Barnes Wallace home has a plate rack running around the room high up.  My grandmother's house in Montreal had just such a plate rack.  Grandmother filled it with decorative liquor bottles instead of plates.  Enjoyable watch and the movie tells the story straight. 

Do you want to go to College?? This year??

High School graduation is coming up .  If you are a senior, it's time the think about college.  College is rediculously expensive.  A four year degree at a reputable college will set you back $100K to $200K.  That's new house money.  And you cannot get out of paying it back.  Bankruptcy doesn't work on school loans.  If you start, you have to finish and graduate, otherwise all the money you have paid in is wasted.  You still have to pay it back, but you don't get anything for it.  So, your first question, to yourself, ought to be "Do I have to stick-to-itness to make it thru?"  

    College is not much, if any, more difficult than high school.  If you have no trouble doing high school, you will have no trouble doing college.  On the other hand, if getting thru high school was a major strain, college will be at least as stressful, maybe worse.   

    If you are unsure of yourself, you can take an off year.  Enlist in the armed forces, hike the Appalachian trail, take a job, go to Europe, Spend a summer as a camp counselor, spend a winter as a ski bum, sail around the world, anything.  The Corona virus makes next year a good one to take off.  They will probably still be into face masks, and "distance learning", and no parties, and no real face-to-face classes.  After a year or two of off year, you will understand yourself better, and you will get a lot more out of college.

    And, there are a lot of well paying jobs that don't require college at all.  Machinist, NCR tech, truck driver, heavy equipment operator, lineman, cop, auto mechanic, fireman, railroad engineer, fish and game warden, plumber, electrician, professional sports, and a lot more.  Think about it.  If college looks like four more years of boring book work, and you like working with your hands, you might be happier as a skilled worker.  

Foster Grants reading glasses

 I just had operations for my cataracts.  The new plastic lens give my excellent distance vision, No so good close up for reading vision.  I bought a couple of pairs of Dollar Tree reading glasses.  They work, but not great, everything more then two feet away is blurry..  Going thru Shaws food market I struck a bunch of reading glasses, Foster Grant by name, $35 each which is a big step up from the Dollar Tree.  I bought a pair.  They do work better than Dollar Tree.  They even have a slight yellow tint in the lenses which is supposed to block out blue light from screen displays, which is said to be harmful. 

So how do I pick a defensive handgun??

 First you want to pick a cartridge that has enough punch to do the job and is widely available.  Of which we have 380 Auto, 9mm, 45 ACP for automatic pistols and 38 Special, 357 Magnum, and 44 Special and 44 Magnum for revolvers.  Then we want to find a handgun that fits well in our hand.   In my experience the old 38 Special Air Force issue revolvers were miserable to shoot.  Grips were too small and they had been marinated in gun oil for 25 years and were slippery.  The Army 45 auto was much better.  Your experience will differ.  But you want to shoot at least one box of ammo before buying the gun.  Once you have bought the handgun you need to shoot it, at least once a month until you can keep all the shots withing a 6 inch circle at 25 yards.  Shooting two handed.  If you cannot hit squat with it, it won't do you much good. 

So what is available in SUV land?

 

Since Detroit is no longer making sedans, I thought I would take a look at SUV’s.  Start with Chevy.  They offer 7 different SUV’s from a 5 passenger Trax and Trailblazer and working up to the 9 passenger Suburban. Other than size, they all look pretty much the same.  The small ones have really dinky engines, 1.4 liters (call it 87 cubic inches) and even the big ones don’t have much engine, 2.5 and 3.0 liters.   Gas mileage on even the dinky little engines is unimpressive, 27 city 31 highway.  I owned a full size 1999 Cadillac De Ville once with the Northstar V8 engine that did as well.  No manual transmissions just slush boxes. 

   They all come with an “entertainment package” featuring a 7 inch touch screen.  It is not clear if you get an AM-FM radio or a CD player with the “entertainment package”. A lot of new cars come with just a satellite radio that requires you pay the satellite company for service. 

  Pricing can be slippery.  On of them claimed a list price of $30K but they wanted $51K for the SUV pictured.  The options and this and that can be expensive, like $200 for floor mats.  They want $40 for a front license plate bracket.  It was not clear if this bracket was needed to mount a front license plate or was just a trim piece to dress up the license plate.