As reported yesterday, Texas and Mississippi will be ending mask mandates and opening businesses up to capacity, prompting POTUS to remark that "the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking." I'm thinking that that comment might be insulting to Neanderthals who probably had a much stronger survival instinct that the governors of the two states in question. What those states are doing is a bold move givern that both are still in the top 10 states in terms of deaths per capita. Word on the Interwebs is that Ohio and Louisiana will be following suit. I do not see this ending well and truly hope my last remark is proven to be in error.
The Professor gets his first shot at CVS Drugstore tomorrow. Today he got the official email from the local health district telling him he can make an appointment at one of their vaccine clinics. He decided to stick with CVS. I doubt that they would vaccinate me with a leftover dose given that I'm sure they have a waiting list of people meeting the current 65 and over criterion. I'll get some reading in at least while hoping that The Family Dog who has not really been left alone in the last year behaves at home.
I haven't done much news crawling today, having devoted too much time to the issue of why the green backing fabric I ordered for Son #2's quilt repair has been sitting with FedEx in Memphis for over a week. I gave up trying to speak to a real human after 45 minutes on hold. I put the phone on speaker and left it on the table so that I didn't have to crane my neck to hold it against my ear. I finally learned, this afternoon, that the package is "in transit to the delivery site." The only problem with that statement is that "in transit" could mean "sitting in Memphis" on its way from Colorado to Virginia. I finally filed a claim asking for my money back. I'll look into ordering it from Joann Fabrics and seeing if it's available for local pickup.
I learned that loss of the sense of smell is termed "anosmia" and that anosmia due to covid does not develop over time but instead happens instantly. One person described the sudden loss of smell as suddenly encountering a bad smell. The absence of odor was that unpleasant. I would ask my mom about her loss of smell except that she did not notice it until other people would comment on smelling her microwave popcorn; she had not missed her sense of smell at least as far as the popcorn was concerned.
A few quickies I did manage to work into my news crawl. Qantas is starting mystery flights out of Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. A flight begins with breakfast in the terminal at 7:00 am and returns in the early evening. Destination? That's the mystery part. The cost is $577 economy class and $1,230 business class. Dolly Parton got her first covid vaccination, a shot of Moderna, the vaccine whose development was helped by a $1,00,000 grant from Parton to Vanderbilt University. She even sang before the shot, substituting "vaccine" for "Jolene" in one of her songs. A volcano in Iceland may erupt at any moment. It is not expected explode in such as way as to hamper air travel; however, lava from an eruption might block the highway from Reykjavik to Keflavik Airport. An Indonesian volcano is also much more active than usual, and even Mt. Etna has been putting up some impressive fire shows.
Corn chowder is on tonight's menu, and it's time to get chopping!
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