Pam

..... first, the plural of anecdote does not equal data ..... second, I'm an informatics epidemiologist. Guess what data I spend my days in? I don't have time to even see anecdotal data about COVID most of the time. much less give it credence. ..... third, you can get tested for free if you think you have COVID, no money need be spent ..... fourth, my personal opinion on your vaccination status should be pretty obvious from my 2nd point, so I'll just point out that the options in other countries are less effective against new variants (e.g., AstraZeneca) and many were released faster than Pfizer and Moderna, but you do you as long as you are not putting other people at risk by potentially exposing them, because not everyone is lucky enough to have mild cases, even of Omicron.

Yep, this is my understanding and experience of prints not taking.

First point: it didn't affect YOU in a way that was a big deal. Many elderly, very young, and unvaccinated people are not as fortunate. Second point: actual influenza is not quick-moving. Some cold strains and other respiratory viruses and coronaviruses (COVID-19 is not the first, or only, coronavirus) are quick-moving, and too many people are quick to label anything respiratory as "the flu".

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dave-ramsey-fired-staffer-taking-covid-precautions-lawsuit-says-rcna8835

This is a particularly bad problem with Verizon cell customers, because Verizon allows people to email SMS messages to a phone number by appending some universal @verizonblahblahblah.com to the phone number, and there are like 3 different domains that can be used. You cannot opt out of receiving texts sent to yourphonenumber@ one of these domains, and it's terrible and outdated and no one uses it for legit purposes any more. Spammers have set up bots to send these texts, usually to groups of ~20 or so, which is why you get texts like these. The spammer's original text was likely caught by spam filters, but the response was not. Like hdporter, I was receiving a ton of these for a while, and then they stopped and I probably just jinxed that. I also got the random responses because there isn't a good way to just respond to the asshat who sent you a porn link, and sometimes I'd get the pissed off threats, too. As long as the threat was part of a group text as described, I didn't get too worked up because it wasn't directed at me, the bot who sent the original spam isn't at risk of actual physical harm, and I don't live in the geographical area serviced by my area code any more. Verizon does at least provide an app that will filter your texts, so you can send unknown senders to a place you never have to see them, and that helped a bit.

You PRINT your boarding passes? Like, out on paper?!?

The toads here are poisonous, fatally so to dogs. We have a protocol, approved by the FL Fish & Wildlife Commission, on how to humanely euthanize them. It involves freezing them for 3 days. Sigh.

Went to Milwaukee for a concert once. Booked the hotel nearest the venue. Which turned out to be the hotel where Jeffrey Dahmer killed his first victim. JFC.

The OP was like .... yeah, okay, it's not terrible to read about. But @TheVig, JFC bro. That's so vile and disgusting.

How does your mom feel about visiting Florida?

OMG. Ahhhh. I really need Apple CarPlay and bluetooth or I'd be on the next plane to San Diego. Ahhhhhhhh.

Thanks, I've also owned a couple of BMWs, but always happy to have an extra set of eyes on things

Welp, my car got totalled on the Staten Island Expressway a few weeks ago, but for various reasons I don't need to replace it until August/September timeframe. I am really wanting a convertible, preferably a BMW, but my reasonably frugal side is winning out, so we shall see. I'll see if I can't document some of my search efforts here, as entertainingly as CV has.

I'm having good luck with Gap jeans this year. Quality seems high and prices aren't terrible.