PPE

Had a "mostly" uneventful week since last we spoke.  Went to the grocery store twice and the liquor store once.  While at the grocery store, saw and spoke to a couple of teachers that I knew and liked from my most recent prior existence.

One happens to teach first grade.  So I asked her how the home schooling was actually being accomplished at that level.  Parents would come by the school and pick up paper packets with assignments in them.

I blinked twice as I heard that.  She said "Yeah, I know...But most of my kids are lower income and don't have computers."  Which brought up a short question about Gov Abbott closing school for the duration of this school year regardless of starting the "re-opening" process.

"Damned if you do, damned if you don't."  There's been so much time lost so far, that getting butts in seats alone will take most of the day.  So...little upside.  Potential for big down side.  However, the other downside is with low income families, the school takes the place of child care.  Obviously, education is also part of that picture.

Or should be.  So, if the school's don't open, Mom and Dad are going to have to find someone to take care of Little Johnny, which means either one of them stays home, or they hire someone.  Both of which means less money for the family.  Best case is maybe a family member can help. 

As I said, no good answers.  I think if I ever hear "....an abundance of caution" again, I'll come unhinged.  I think that statement actually translated from the original Russian means " ...an overabundance of cowardice."

Just me....being charitable.

Other events for the week, MBD and T-Dawg  came over for a few days.

T-Dawg is the one in the middle.

Working from home has some perks.  One of them, for me, was listening to her running a meeting for her team on a project.  The young lady has some MAD people skills.  Must have come from her mother's side.

Her looks obviously came from me,  thank you very much!

The other highlight was a Skype call to our refugees.  That would be Little Juvat and his wife (comments here occasionally as LJW...get it?).  I may not have mentioned this, but they are assigned to the US Embassy in Kuwait.  Back in January, he was sent on a short TDY to another Embassy in the region.

Then, for some unknown reason (yeah right!) all travel to and fro was shut down.  He's been there 65 days now and counting.  No end in sight yet.  I asked him about short tour credit. He said he's quite likely to get it, I think he only needs about 3 more weeks.  Good news is he's staying busy, 10-12 hour days.  He keeps track of weekends by working only 8 hours.

LJW isn't much better off in Kuwait.  The Embassy compound is shut down, so there isn't a lot of activity to keep busy.  This is her first long term overseas experience and is a bit OBE.  She seems to be hanging in there, but...

Indications of "wearing thin"  are quite evident in both of them.

They are number one in my evening appeals to a higher power.

I read an excellent article this past weekend from a link of Feral Irishman's blog.   It's a bit long, but written by a Doctor in Alabama in consult with some other physicians he associates with.  He pretty well lays bare what's really going on.  Highly recommend reading the whole thing, but IMHO, here's the money quote.

According to worldometers.info from January 1 to April 1, 2020 the worldwide deaths from COVID-19 were 46,438 as opposed to 121,993 for influenza. To recap, during the same three months, with the same social distancing, the same shelter in place, and even handicapped with a vaccine against it, the flu still killed more than two and a half times as many people as COVID-19. (Emphasis mine)

Yep!  We must put millions out of work right now!  Because....

Stolen from BarbaCat's site  Thanks!

The dog's got the right answer!

Now that my blood pressure's up, we'll change the subject.  Anyone?

"What's going on with the "Big Project", juvat?"

"Well, Sarge, it was PPE week at Rancho Juvat."

"Personal Protective Equipment week?"

No, silly!  Painters, Plumbers and Electricians."

Monday morning I'm walking up to the Horsebarn to feed the Hay Burners and a truck drives by.  Asked him what he was here to do and he said we're the Painters.  By the time I got the hay thing done, they were starting to tape things off and by the evening feed, they were done.  Or at least for this part of the project.

Mrs J and I were a bit concerned as the hardy board was this puke yellow color and we were afraid that something had gotten lost in translation.  However, the actual color is a beige and really sets off the Cedar accents on the rear of the house.

The two walls to the right side of the picture will be all brick.  As one can see by the protuberances  on the roof, the plumbers have also been there.  The gas lines have been installed as well as the hot and cold water lines.

No, Beans, the drains are still in the middle of the hallway.

This is the hallway to the master suite.  The bathroom sinks are on the OTHER side of the wall to the left.

The electricians have installed most of the boxes and electric wire to each, so while progress is not as noticeable as it has been so far in the project, it is still being made.

My personal project is to do something about this.

My workshop.  Having a computer background, my first effort was to try and use Sketchup to figure out a more optimum configuration.

RIIIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHHTTTTT!  What a PITA that was!  So I got out the old drafting tools and some graph paper and drew me some scale plans

Now, an astute observer (AKA Beans) will quickly discern that the two elevations are not oriented correctly.  As the horizontal elevation is oriented with the observer at the top of the drawing looking in. Whereas the bottom one is looking in from the door.

So...the Draftsman didn't get paid for his work, but scale was more important than precise layout.  In a 15' X 11' space, storage is critical.  My plan is to build two plywood walled floor to ceiling garages where my router, drill press and bandsaw will be stored when not in use.  The middle section will be 2  60" W cabinets from Lowes with 4  30" W cabinets along the ceiling.  That should give me enough storage to clear off my work bench and stop using my table saw as one.  That will be a major improvement.

Lowes has got 10% off on the cabinets now, so I think I can do this whole thing for less than $500.  Mrs J has approved the expenditure, so now I just have to move stuff around so I have room on that wall to work it into being.

So.  I've got that going for me.  Hope all y'all are well, mostly sane  and will shortly be able to return to a somewhat normal living.