Good morning!!!!

[toppop52]

Monthly breakfast with the guys this morning, serious BS session. 36 ° early, 43 ° now, looks like we might hit mid 40s today, very breezy.
I took the old Monte Carlo for a long ride yesterday, hadn’t been run in over a month. Always a good time.
Trying to finish my Christmas shopping and cards finished, couple of cards are hard to find.

Christmas is going to be complicated with my new normal, involving multiple families, two moms in nursing homes, two sets of kids, my grandsons, etc... but, it’s not about that, is it?
Happy day guys, God bless.

 

[jbrumberg]

There has been more weather chatter about the potential for a colder air mass as Randy and Rick have posted.

This pending 12/21-22 weather event will help draw the arctic cold which has been on the other side of the northern hemisphere to our side.

This year the weather pattern seems to be the upper level jet stream driven low pressure systems and lower level driven lows track across the CONUS and never really completely phase which is classic el Nino weather. It appears the "driving energy" over the Pacific will be starting to lessen. There still is that split jet stream modeled, but models are very poor 10 days out. Who really knows???? We'll see. I would like to see more snow. 19.75" of snow so far this season. I still have 3"-5"'s of snow pack. I doubt this pending warming trend and rain event will melt much.

Randy- Your Holidays read as a major logistic challenge; but connecting/reconnecting with families is an important Holiday theme. Good luck.

 

[sodamo]

64 °F and 0 rain. Looking to be a good day in the dirt.

Sorry to read about your Aunts, Don. Sounds like you gave your Mom a terrific day.

Congrats to the birthday ladies.

Looks like interesting guitar project, looking forward to the pics.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day

 

[Jim Nelson]

Jim-

Welcome to this thread and good luck with the doctor. Your charges and how Big Pharma manipulates drug costs should be considered criminal.

Thanks for the welcome Jay,I'm actually a long time lurker but seldom post because of "oldmanitis"and poor typing skills. Sometimes something like this comes up and just makes my blood boil, the idea that Medicare pays for it is ludicrous and we should all just refuse this kind of abuse by big pharma and the medical profession.

 

[txdon]

Don, sounds like you did a good thing with your mom. You have me talked into your neighborhood, if I could live on a ranch on the outskirts, and drive into the clubhouse for the fun.

I think you have a winning combination there. I need to talk to Del Web about that as a new additional neighborhood, with 10-30 acres in that wild land to the North of us.

 

[txdon]

Christmas is going to be complicated with my new normal, involving multiple families, two moms in nursing homes, two sets of kids, my grandsons, etc... but, it’s not about that, is it?
Happy day guys, God bless.

You are right it's not about family, but . . . . I can see your complications and your attempt to be there for everyone, it could get exhausting. Take care, this is your first "new normal" Christmas what you do now will set the tone for future Christmas.

 

[LouNY]

Thanks for the welcome Jay,I'm actually a long time lurker but seldom post because of "oldmanitis"and poor typing skills. Sometimes something like this comes up and just makes my blood boil, the idea that Medicare pays for it is ludicrous and we should all just refuse this kind of abuse by big pharma and the medical profession.

I'm going to rile you up a bit.
The last 13 years before I retired and for several years before that I performed calibrations for a Pharmaceutical company.
I was amazed at the millions of dollars and years of time to get a new drug approved by the FDA.
Several clinical trials lasting years each, phase 1, phase 2 then finally phase 3 then submittals and a few more years.
Tons of documentation to be submitted in both technical pharmaceutical terms and also government linguistics and
bureaucratic nonsense.
On top of that hundreds of ideas don't get to trials, thousands are dropped after stage 1 or 2, many at stage 3 and then
more are rejected by our FDA or other countries equivalent.
So the few successful ones are supporting all the failed one and the ones under development.
Are some of the charges high yes, but what is the alternative.
Or should we stop all of the new advances?

 

[jbrumberg]

Lou- I fully appreciate the costs of business, R&D, legal support, etc.; and understand how the profits of successful meds fund operations. It is the "government linguistics and bureaucratic nonsense," unexpected sudden profit driven exponential increases in medication costs, as well as outright abuse of Medicaid and Medicare by producers, providers, and consumers that gets my undies in a bunch.

Having typed this I fully appreciate the costs of my care and treatment when I got sick.

 

[toppop52]

You are right it's not about family, but . . . . I can see your complications and your attempt to be there for everyone, it could get exhausting. Take care, this is your first "new normal" Christmas what you do now will set the tone for future Christmas.

Precedent and protocol, right Don? :thumbsup:

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

"I gotta go to the butchers today and the PO, that is all"-----LFN

Looking, you probably shouldn't use 'butchers' and 'PO' (parole office) in the same sentence! :laughing: