Charlie

What a nice Studebaker!

The real problem is not where the cruise ship has been, but who the other passengers are. You don't know where they have been or whom they have been exposed to before the cruise.

My first thought when I saw those photos was, "Oops! A clockwatcher."

Or they might immediately put you in quarantine for two weeks.

Yes, because I have been having terrible seasonal allergies for the past month--sneezing, coughing, and runny, itchy eyes. However, the respiratory problems associated with COVID-19 are in the lungs, not in the head, although the average person on the street is probably not aware of that distinction.

My landline carrier also identifies a call as "potential spam," and I always let those calls go to voicemail. They rarely do leave a message.

Health care workers actually need to use them because they are more likely to become infected from their interactions with the ill, but be asymptomatic themselves while they are caring for--and passing on the illness--to others.

Am I correct in assuming that if you took the Delta flight, you would have to get off at LAX, go through immigration and customs, then get back on the same plane and fly to the ultimate destination of the original flight? What would happen to the rest of your ticket if you were denied entry at LAX?

The problem with Ontario for Mike is that there are no direct flights from Australia to Ontario; he would have to fly to LAX, change to another flight to Vegas, Phoenix or Salt Lake, then fly from there to Ontario. It would be simpler to just deal with the traffic around L.A. Ontario is certainly preferable to LAX if you are originating in a US city, but not if you are coming from across the Pacific.

Palm Springs may or may not be a good choice, because of the Indian Wells tennis tournament which starts next week and will run over two weekends and draws hundreds of thousands of attendees. On the other hand, many people who have already made reservations may cancel if the COVID-19 epidemic scares them off, so there may be empty rooms available at the last moment.

The last car my father had bought before the war was a 1935 Chevy. During the war there was no car paint available, and he repainted it himself with gray ship paint that he obtained somehow (he worked in a war factory). No one had new cars during the war, but I still was embarrassed riding in that car.

I remember the milkman delivering his milk in glass bottles. There were two kinds of bottle, one just for milk and one that had a glass bulb at the top for cream. My mother had to leave a note in the wooden milk box by the side door of our house if she wanted the one with cream.

Yesterday I took disabled friends shopping, because they were worried about the possibility of quarantine. The supermarket mall shopping lots had no disabled parking spots available--in fact, the lots were almost totally full everywhere we went, because of all the people stocking up. My friends bought a month's worth of supplies, and every cubic foot of cargo space in my SUV was packed with food, drugs, hand wipes, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, etc. I think they are overly cautious, but it is hard to resist the impulse to buy a large package of Kleenex boxes at Sam's Club when everyone around you is grabbing them.

Silent Generation. My family on both sides tended to be long-lived. As I child, I was surrounded by family members who reminisced about when the telephone and automobile were exciting new inventions, and electricity and indoor toilets were only for the wealthy in Manhattan. My mother performed on one of the first radio stations in New York City, and I remember when only one family on our suburban block had a tv set, and all the neighbors would come by to watch it. I remember Truman beating Dewey; my mother remembered Wilson beating Taft and Teddy Roosevelt; my great-aunt Clara remembered Ulysses Grant's election.

BTW, in the event of a natural disaster or pandemic, one of the most useful items to have is a supply of large garbage bags, since trash collection is likely to be interrupted, but you will still be creating garbage. You can also use them if flush toilets no longer work because of water supply problems: you drape them over the toilet and shit in them. As you may have guessed, I am a member of our local Disaster Preparedness Committee.

I think I still have some leftover from the swine flu epidemic.

Some of the preparation for a pandemic is a lot like preparation for any kind of widespread disaster, like an earthquake: food, water, pet supplies, toilet paper, emergency medical kit, extra batteries for equipment that uses them, a full tank of gas in the car, generator, etc. I am always prepared to be cut off from supplies and aid for at least a couple of weeks.

I think g56whiz made that comment tongue-in-cheek.

My primary care doctor monitors me constantly, which is sort of a waste of test money, because my cholesterol numbers are always fine, my arteries are completely clear, my blood pressure is excellent, and my heart is sound. I also consume enormous quantities of sugar, but have no signs of diabetes and am not overweight. I seem to be one of those lucky people who can eat what I like, with adverse effects only on my digestive system.

I prefer large curd, full fat, and I always salt it. I enjoy it as a side dish with many kinds of meals, especially a juicy steak.

I see you are capable of disciplining yourself as well as clients:D.

Another term that is familiar is "lurker," for someone who often looks at the site but never joins because he/she doesn't want to participate. To me, "guest" should be restricted to someone who is a temporary member, and I assume that a poster who is described as a "guest" is someone in that category.

Congratulations! I am curious though: what was the length of the mortgages? Fifteen years, thirty years? It takes discipline to pay off a mortgage early. I have never lived anywhere long enough to pay off my mortgage during the standard time frame.

Having spent a majority of my life in eastern PA, where there are a number of small communities of old Central European religious affiliations, I am familiar with the Moravians, although even there one encounters few of them now. In the 18th and 19th centuries, they did a lot of missionary work in Native American tribes. One of my colleagues at work went to Moravian College, which surprised me because he was Chinese-American. BTW, I have been to Moravia, where hardly anyone knows who the "Moravians" are.

Well, I must be really old, because I remember what the sex for money scene was like before any of those agencies was established.