Good morning!!!!

[check]

I'm going to make some calls this morning and see if I can at least talk to someone who knows what local distribution is.
Who knows that I'm a 70 year old guy with recent cancer treatment? Medicare? No one had talked to my primary as of last week, so
who has the authority to make these decisions? And where do they get the information other than age and address?

Ken and Paul, have you heard anything about distribution methods in this area?
I know my SIL drove all the way to DE for a shot, she's a baby nurse.

In today's Information Age, this lack of information is worrisome.
I'm guessing February at best.

will start with primary doc again, hate to bother them with call.

This is a huge undertaking. I hope they get it right.
Should have a pool on who gets the vaccination percentages right by end of year.
I'm guessing 66 percent.
Will be wearing masks in public places for awhile.

and then I hope we can move forward, talk about something else, enjoy our restaurant
dinners out and even a hug or two.

Much to our surprise, my wife was put at almost the very top of the list, and we got notice that she had to be in town on Saturday so we drove in, And sure enough, she was vaccinated! Big relief for us here.

Tiny bit of soreness in her arm, but other than that, no side effects. Very efficient set up at the hospital where she got vaccinated as well. And here’s another surprise. We are getting the sense that the vaccinations are going to be rolled out faster than they had predicted, possibly significantly faster.

 

[pennwalk]

I dunno, Drew. I'm hearing rumors that infection rates for the common cold and regular influenza are way down this season. I usually get at least one head cold by this time of year, but not this time around. If wearing a mask, using hand sanitizer, and keeping social distance can keep me healthy, I might just keep doing these things in future cold seasons.

One weird thing I have read is that some colds caused by corona virus may protect you from getting the covid 19 bad. Should we be having cold parties?

Chris

 

[Eric Salop]

Good afternoon all. For a bit of a change we are enjoying some Scandinavian weather this week, brought here by a brisk and relatively cloud free north easterly breeze. It is keeping the ground frozen, easier for me to walk on, but with grass taking a hammering these last couple few weeks I am having to find extra grazing for the sheep. Today they are munching away at a strip alongside the track to the shed. At this rate I will soon be asking my wife if I can let the sheep onto her lawn, which she hasn't been able to cut for at least a couple months due to it being so wet.

Spectacular cloud pic LS.

Check, great to hear vaccination rollout is going better than expected :thumbsup:

Here the news is that although lots of additional people, such as recently retired doctors, nurses etc have volunteered to give jabs, some local health authorities have been wanting them to undergo "diversity training" and "terrorist awareness training" before they pick can up a syringe. Some admin people never seem to miss an opportunity to make life harder than it needs to be :mur:

 

[PJSprog]

25°F and heavy fog this morning, going up to 45° today.

More catching up to do here.

 

[ronjhall]

Pretty shot of your pond, Ron. Do you keep the pump on to keep it from freezing? Sounds like your doctor friend got a rough ride from his Advantage plan. What's the advantage to an Advantage plan, just the lower premiums? Sounds like my experience with Kaiser: Really low premiums, but the care left much to be desired.

It’s a aerator that keeps oxygen in pond for fish. Important when pond freezes over.
I have not looked at all Advantage plans. There should be one that covers similar to a supplemental. Not all supplemental plans cover everything. I have plan C. Covers everything. Even deductible. No longer offered. It is original Medicare. Plan F has 2 plans. 1.Covers everything. 2. is high deductible. My plan C cost about $312 a month. Goes up about $10 a year.
If you travel supplemental is the best. You are covered at any Dr/Hospital that accepts Medicare.
There are limits on how and when you can switch between supplemental and advantage.
Like any insurance you get what you pay for. One of the problems with searching for a Medicare plan is that agents get paid more commission for selling an Advantage plan.
I am not an expert on this stuff. Find a advocate that is in it for you. Here in Michigan we have a group called Area 1b for the aging. Lot of good info from them.
Company I retired from gave me a HSA that pays over half of my plan cost.
I also have a dental plan through them. I have a separate plan D for prescriptions. Do not miss this. Because there is a penalty for not getting it when you are 65.
Good luck in your search.

 

[daugen]

we are enjoying some Scandinavian weather this week
We blame ours on the Arctic or Canada...

local hospital still had no idea when and who would contact me.
Keep Checking Please.
They are doing medical staff now, as expected.
Apparently the CDC is involved and you would think there would be a spokesperson saying something on the news.
the impression I got is that hospital would be contacting me vs primary care provider since hospital has refrigeration capability.

sun is trying to break through the clouds, lot of grey weather lately.

 

[sodamo]

65°F and .18 inches rain.

Hope to be kinda day I can get back to my project.

Cottage tenant came down yesterday and we went over some of the finer points of buying a tractor. His property is 11 acres and come to realize his JD rider isn’t going to cut it outside his fenced plot. Of course he knows about TBN. Likely he’ll opt for a Kubota model in part for dealer support.

Zoom Happy Hour this afternoon. That 40 minutes has become our primary social venue.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day

 

[txdon]

the impression I got is that hospital would be contacting me vs primary care provider since hospital has refrigeration capability.

I called HEB pharmacy this morning, they said they are still on 1-A in this county and will be all week and cannot go to 1-b unless more vaccine is delivered.

Drew the impression I got is that you call a place that is on the state distribution list and get on their waiting list and they will call you when they have enough vaccine. You have to make the call to get on the list -nobody will call you unless you have made the initial call to sign-up and are on their list.

Drew I looked at the PA health dept web site, could not find the specific locations and doses they received like Texas has. All it says is that CVS and Walgreens is distributing the first wave, I would call one of them to see when they predict the second wave of doses will be given.

 

[Looking4new]

daugen, that's O.K., you can blame us Canadians for your cooler weather, we got broad shoulders.

 

[kenmbz]

Drew - List of vaccine sites and info will be available after Jan 6th for PA.

 

[daugen]

Thanks Don, Ken and others.
our local CVS seems overwhelmed in normal situations, has terrible online ratings, can't imagine this working out well.
So did the CVS in Washington NC, and every time you find a nice local drugstore, they either aren't a preferred provider and therefore
your copays are higher or the whole place gets bought out by CVS or Wahlgreens.
I question how they are going to manage this to avoid a concentration of sick people in one small place usually back in the far corner
of the store.

 

[Rich B1]

Good afternoon! 33 and drizzling out. Another gloomy day.

Had 1st follow up appointment today. More blood work. Definitely not going to be back into work until February. As far as working from home, doctor said 杜ake sure you are ready and if they have a problem with it, call me? So looks like I am gonna be off for a while.

Drew, I would hope the people that are getting the shot are healthy. I wouldn稚 think they would be letting them in for the vaccination if they are sick

Friend from Phoenix area called yesterday to see how I was doing. He disclosed he was part of Pfizer痴 test of the vaccine and actually received his shot in May. No issues to date.

Need to get the wood burner cleaned and back up and running. That will be my project this afternoon

Everyone stay safe out there.

 

[rswyan]

34F and cloudy @ 14:00, headed up to a high 36F for the day. Essentially same forecast for the next 4 days, then the possibility of some sun for the 4 days after that.

Refill squirrel and ear of corn feeders, cracked corn on ground for doves and others.

Need to go down and renew registration on van.

Beyond that, not sure exactly what all we'll get into today.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable, productive, and safe day ... :thumbsup:

 

[daugen]

Drew, I would hope the people that are getting the shot are healthy. I wouldn稚 think they would be letting them in for the vaccination if they are sick
Yes, but....
I read that 55% of covid transmission is done from an asymptomatic donor. No symptoms. No fever. No problems getting through door checks.
so if every other person that shows up negative could actually be positive and not know it, I think that would suggest safety is not
getting bunched up inside, whether it be in a restaurant or the drugstore waiting area. Too bad they can't do it in a drive thru like the tests.
But I think you have to sit and wait for 15 minutes (?) to see if any reaction. And if inside, that's 15 more minutes of bad air to breathe.

 

[pennwalk]

It is my hope that they will set up drive through vaccination centers. The best hope to do the most good is if they can vaccinate a lot of people fairly quickly. I think they actually need to vaccinate a lot of people world wide or risk the darned junk mutating.

Chris

 

[rswyan]

The Woman just called friend/neighbor lady to see if she wanted to go over to Kohl's with her.

No way.

This individual is a former nurse, who still works in the healthcare field.

You go over to her house and she is in a mask ... and a full face shield ... :thumbsup:

 

[txdon]

It is my hope that they will set up drive through vaccination centers.

My Brother just went through a drive-up vaccination center and received his covid19 vaccine. After he got his vaccine he had to go to and adjacent parking lot and wait 15 minutes to make sure he did not get any adverse reactions.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Good morning, back to work for me, 32 going up to 45 and cloudy. Not supposed to rain for a while.

LS - that cloud picture is amazing.

Roy - hope your new boss is good to work with and makes the transition smooth for you

Phil - same issue with LEDs , incandescents used to last 5 years or more, the compact florescents came out and incandescent and CFL only started lasting 2 years.:confused3: LEDs seem to start failing at 3 years - LED chip is fine, circuit board seems to fail.

Drew - Wife works for a school, told around March - PA seems to be running behind other states. Don't have much other info, nurse friend got hers last week. Will see what I can find out.

Thanks BEF - guess I will just take VHS tape somewhere to convert. Had converted all my digital tapes way back when and put them and pics on a PLex/vortex server. Waiting for some SATA disk to come so I can set up a NAS to have some redundancy on our pics/movies and other often accessed data.

Work is going to be crazy with a cross US project I am rolling out in the next two weeks. Starts tomorrow-should be wonderfully nerve racking.

Stay safe and be well

If you have a working VHS deck, you can hook up a capture card ($10 on Amazon) hit play and capture on your computer.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Do not miss this. Because there is a penalty for not getting it when you are 65.
.

No reason for a penalty, other than another money grab.

All this SSA talk made me go online and look. I get $2222 a month at 62. Don’t understand the WEP stuff. I had no SS paid on my first 5 or 6 years of work, then paid SS ever since.

It’s all confusing.

 

[kenmbz]

I just looked at my SS, difference from 62 to to 67 is quite large for me. Something to think about.
WEP just reduces your monthlies if you have a pension, my father had to go through this. Different if you pay tax on pension vs. a no-tax (like in PA)
If there is one thing the government is good at it is making things so complex that no 2 people give you the same answer.

BEF , no VHS player- figure even if it cost me 30-50$ would still be less than VCR and capture card. Thanks for the advice, thought about a converter and VCR , but didn't want more electronics taking up space.

Vaccine info for the PA people:
Vaccine