BeamerBikes

After signing up in the first day of the soft launch, I've been notified that my free tests are arriving Thurs Feb 17th. Eh, coordinated national effort that shouldn't have been necessary if more were vaccinated. Nonetheless, here we are. After 2 years, omicron's transmissionablity forced the "Let 'er rip" method of pandemic non-containment. Least, the willing and some relucant vaccinated before all that. Now looking forward to hopefully return to life pre covid.

All that being said... I sadly never learned his opinion on when is the best age to tap into the booze, stripper, escort funds or buy the sugar daddy sedan.

A dearly departed friend had quite a few witticisms; we'd call them Chuck-isms. One such Chuck-isms applies when a younger friend receives a decent inheritance. Not enough to retire early, nor too little to blow through without regret. It's admittedly subjective on what's "decent" vs fuck you money. "Save that money. Don't touch it. Put it away, that's future money for booze, strippers and escorts." There was a collary for car advice. When faced between buying a nice brand new car(BMW 323i) and late model used SugarDaddy Sedan or Roadster (BMW 740IL/Z4), both about the same price "don't buy the sugar daddy sedan/roadster. It'll attract boys. The WRONG KIND of boys. You'll end up broke, single, and heart-broken(if you're lucky over the car)" I wish I saved more of this life advice. It was classically delivered with humor and love. I aspire to be that kind of daddy as I enter into my 40s.

Happy happy bday!

The infected flu/TB patients wearing surgical masks to prevent them from transmitting it to others, and hospital workers wearing n95s to protect themselves from TB patients was pretty widely accepted as a prevention technique inside care settings. Most people never saw that because airborne infectious disease such as TB is rare in most developed nations now.

Bandana -> cloth -> surgical -> n95(kn95) -> rubber half face respirators with canister filters(think black mask with purple cans) -> full face respirators(gas mask) -> the PAPR (helmet with powered filtered air) As I understand it from both science education and family experience taking care of hospitalized covid patients, wearing a surgical mask or double cloth masking were about the same in preventing transmitting the virus TO someone... N95(American standard) KN95(Chinese standard) are designed to protect the wearer FROM someone else. Basically, healthcare workers wore N95s to protect themselves from known infected patients. Patients wore surgical masks to prevent spreading it to others. Of course in practice, patients would take off the surgical mask when they were alone in their room. Hence the workers needed to wear the N95 going into a room with virus particles. With omicron, everyone had to be assumed infected and N95 supplies were stable so recommending upgrades to N95 was the best advice. Knowing that a large percentage was going to be non-compliant regardless, the guidance was issued to provide the best advice for those that would listen. In the end,get vaccinated, don't lick door knobs, go live your life.

Midwest reaction. I won't give away the punchline. https://twitter.com/CharlieBerens/status/1491553404170166272

It could have been much worse. There was no reference to an old Shirley Q routine. :::cringes::: That'd definitely get folks canceled now.

Agreed - Matthew Rush did a Men's Fitness cover when I was in my teens and I was like "yep, I'm gay" Years later, I met him, shared the recollection of the cover, and he was really sweet in person.

When I visited Prague in the mid 2000s, I cracked up that the best English speakers were at the "nightclubs". Both male and female the English was great. In the business world... eh passable. The study aboard trip name "Issues in Globalization" From the business issues - they complained about the Slovakians undercutting them. LOL

Your friend might also be able to get you access to the Naval Aviation Museum on base. It's been restricted access since the base shooting a few years back. It's by far one of the cleanest and well maintained museums for aviation I've visited. Well worth the hassle to visit if you like military aircraft.

Yeah, I'm out of my 20s&30s now, but it seems the gay meccas, much like the urban gay bars are fading. The PCB crowd was definitely what I felt on the ferry. Once on island, I stayed at a rental in Old Town. After that, I was and still am prepared to drop 10-15k for a monthly rental to escape northern winters. Just insane to me that 10k can go just for a week of lodging! Yeah on service, I don't mind move at the speed of the south when its less crowded. Just different vibe when it's packed and also slow. But yeah, cute little resort towns once gay meccas are now overrun. Ptown to me felt like Key West but with overtone of Puritan keep it discrete vibe. It'd be interesting to see if there's any new up and coming locations.

Good for them finding clientele to pay it. I probably I'm not alone getting priced out for vacation spots. I enjoyed Casa Marina for the relative quiet but ease of access to Duval. As the song goes though, if you don't have any money, keep your broke ass home. This is more the case of comfort spending at these rates. Also doesn't help I took the ferry from Ft. Meyers on my last trip, and the Florida crowd was full effect. I dont mind dropping coin, but its a hard value proposition if it's packed and the service is poor. Aside, I don't know how folks can responsibly afford those rates. Lots of folks yolo'ing? It'd be interested in the demographics if tipping rate is affected by higher rates.

Always an option as well. I'm based in Chicago though. Drinking tends to be our thing. As bicoastal friends have noticed, this city has a binge drinking problem. 😁 Though in all seriousness, I've seen friends go deep into the bottle and it's scares me enough to never make it a regular habit.

Anyone with recent experience on Key West? I've been looking at rates and floored how expensive lodging has gotten. Casa Marina rooms are regularly starting at $1k/night. I thought it was expensive, but worth it at 500/night a few years back. Now that seems to be the going rate for even the airport area hotels. Not looking to turn this into a crank about how expensive it is. I check out the Great Loop boaters group, and there's reports that island is almost too busy. Service is suffering, but folks are still forking over money hand over fist. Curious, is the island actually this packed? Is it super crunched to find industry workers, and service is suffering? Little from column A and B?

Anyone have any recommendations on how to ease back into going out/meeting new people after a long dry spell? Back in 2017, I started down the road of significant abdominal surgeries. A partial colonectomy from diverticulitis, spiraled into an ostomy, reversal, then two open hernia surgeries, and facing hopefully the final hernia surgery in a few months. Oh yeah, and then COVID shutting everything down. Just wondering if anyone else faced how to start getting back social circles after significant medical setbacks? I'll go out to dinner with married suburban friends, but haven't ventured past my bubble in several years. In my 20s, I'd go out to the bar life in the city. In my 30s, I settled into my stripper bar habit aka my gay cheers while doing long term caregiving. Then the health issues creep in. Now in my 40s, I'm going stir crazy and yet also don't want to repeat the heavy boozing that usually comes along with going out. Perhaps it is just as simple as deciding to go out for acouple drinks, and calling it early. I curious for options on what worked for others in a similar situation. Sitting on grindr seems fruitless, I'd rather go out and take my chances making new friends in real life.

Sadly, my straight friends from Mobile talked up Pensacola being this gay magnet of the gulf coast, but I never went out to find any significant gay nightlife on my visits. I found the downtown Pensacola art walk nights to be very fun. I'd start off at Seville Quarter then wind up at Wild Greg's Saloon to watch the youthful 20s show off their line dancing prowess. Interested in memorial day experiences as well, Pensacola and Mobile are nice slower/less expensive options compared to New Orleans.

As one of my gay elders told me after I was fooled by the whole "I'm in the closet, my roomie doesn't know" turned into the roomie being the long time bf. I was shocked that after 10 years of being a fairly weary street smart out gay.... My friend knew there was nothing to do but crack a joke and tell me to move on. (Faking an Irish accent) "well Ladee, it appears you have been taken" "nothing you can do. Block his number block everything and never look back." Learn from it, and be thankful he went for the quick pay day. Rather than a long bleeding your wallet and heart dry.

In the chgo burbs, I havent seen mine yet ordered when site went live. Others are reporting tests are coming in but no real rhyme or reason.

Depends on the charger, but usually 30-40 min for 100 mi in range assuming a 150kW charger. I usually look for one near a restaurant or shopping. Plug in and then go putz around. Roadtrips over multiple states isn't something I regularly do. I adopted a rule to fly if it's more than one state away. Gas price in my area. Around $3.65/gallon for regular gas.

With real time pricing, I pay about .07/kWH * 78kWh battery = $5.46 that's at home. Gets about 220 miles. On the road, I've done quick charging for about $15 for 100 miles.

Eh, my experience is different. My sister was living with me at the start of Covid. She's a nurse at a community hospital in a poor large city neighborhood. March/April 2020, we followed the Contagion protocol (scrubs get tossed into the washer and her way to the closest shower from the garage). I heard about the n95s getting reused for a week at a time. The running out of PPE, the unknown treatments, the Xrays of broken glass lungs being more reliable that any test, ventilators needed, finding out only 10% will survive the ventilator, the hospital running out of body bags. Getting COVID ourselves in Aug 2020, being miserable for a week, then one day taste went away for the next week, the mental fog... All the while, I had a surgery complication from prepandemic that wasn't getting better. My follow up care was delayed for a few months while the hospitals dealt with the first wave. The covid protocols evolving. The timing of the eventual revision surgery to beat any winter surge. A surgery recovery unit that prepandemic had folks walking multiple times per hour as a means to encourage everyone to get up and move. Now that same unit a year later had folks walking laps in their room. I am thankful for the vaccine. I didn't want to deal with covid again. Once Delta had some breakthroughs, I still was thankful that the vaccine provided protection against hospitalization. Same with Omicron. I've made peace with living with Covid. That peace was made easier with vaccines. Yes those vaccines are riding on top of whatever is left of my preexisting "natural" immunity. In short, if your vaccinated and relatively healthy, omicron shouldn't worry you. If you haven't had covid and/or the vaccine well traveling is a risk. If you wanna better your odds of staying out of the hospital, get vaccinated. You still might get it, but odds are better that you won't end up in the hospital.

Also does anyone have experience with actual New Orleans covid procedures? Are bars checking for Vax status/enforcing masks?

I'm vax'd and boosted from November. I'm going to take the plunge on traveling by plane at the end of February. I feel confident that we're on the back end of Omicron, and I should manage any infection alright.