One year into the covid pandemic today
Boys this Coronavirus thing is gonna get bad
I started this thread on Feb 9th to try and give a heads up that it's coming. I beat the Federal government by an entire Month on this whole covid thing. .
Shit i thought it was a hoax - dangYes you did and I thank you for it. Had it not been for this thread we would not have been as prepared at home with our pantry and freezer being full and plenty of toilet paper before the mad rush came.
Shit i thought it was a hoax - dang
Its hard to sort this all out - be interesting to see what shakes out with the lifting of restrictions around the countryThat's the beauty of information, providing it isn't blown out of proportion by a party seeking office. In the beginning when this first let loose in China the only thing we knew was.
1. It's a confirmed new "Novel" coronavirus
2. It is not contained, and highly contagious
3. The two coronavirus predecessors SARS and MERS had 15% and 30% mortality rates respectively.
As time went on, and we began to learn more about COVID-19, we began to see that the fatality rate wasn't but a minute fraction of that, and the only people who were in any danger were the elderly and chronically sick. Unfortunately the orange man bad crowd needed something to run a campaign on because their dementia candidate wasn't worth a wet bag of dog shit, so they massively blew it out of proportion.
How will you know? No matter what, they'll skew the numbers and do what they have to do to drive home the fear to the masses. Like now its "let's push the new variants" tacticIts hard to sort this all out - be interesting to see what shakes out with the lifting of restrictions around the country
Was all about preparedness and having the supplies to get us through whatever decisions were forced on us. Wasn't a hoax in my book since me and my family did get it. My Dr. would agree with it not being a hoax. Was it bad enough to shut the economy down and do everything that has been done? No way IMO.Shit i thought it was a hoax - dang
Hope you and the family are ok nowWas all about preparedness and having the supplies to get us through whatever decisions were forced on us. Wasn't a hoax in my book since me and my family did get it. My Dr. would agree with it not being a hoax. Was it bad enough to shut the economy down and do everything that has been done? No way IMO.
there isn't anything to sort out, if you asked me. lifting restrictions won't help all of the people with covid derangement syndrome. they will go on living in fear, probably forever. and it won't help all the small business people that lost their businesses because of government overreach while Amazon, Walmart, Target, Lowe's, etc. got to go on making money. this whole thing has been 5% legitimate health concern, 95% hyped up, sensationalized fraud for political gain. a travesty of the highest order.
I had some lunatic woman tell me today when I arrived for our appointment (after it took two weeks to arrange a time to meet with her to provide a FREE quote for her homes EXTERIOR) that she didn't care to do business with me because I wasn't wearing a mask when I got out of my truck and walked toward her front door. I offered to put on a mask to walk around the OUTSIDE of her house (which was in a rural area, not in town) in the RAIN, but that was, apparently, too little, too late. this stupid cunt wasn't even wearing a mask herself! I was laughing when I got in the truck. I'm glad I only wasted an hour of my precious time on that fucking idiot.
The reason I was laughing after our brief meeting was because I told Nancy before I left that this woman was a weirdo and I didn't have high hopes for getting the job. nailed it.
I have given thousands of painting quotes in the last 30 years. I've dealt with every type of idiot you can imagine. some folks that were rude, hard to communicate with, disrespectful, insulting, plain stupid, and on and on, but this is the first and only time anyone has refused to take a bid from me before I even started.
Its hard to sort this all out - be interesting to see what shakes out with the lifting of restrictions around the country
ThanksActually it's pretty simple. We have a complete years worth of data. The Crude mortality rate for covid is 0.28%. (Risk of any one person of dying from covid) Only 4.5% of all deaths occurred in patients under 65 who did not have serious health conditions.
So what does all that mean.. Well. 83.5% of the US population is under the age of 65. For that 83% who have no known health conditions, They only have a 0.000126% chance of dying from covid. Meaning they are about 200 times more likely to die from choking.
Coronavirus Death Rate (COVID-19) - Worldometer
Case Fatality Rate (CFR), Infection Fatality Rate (IFR), and Crude Mortality Rate (CMR) latest estimates for the COVID-19 disease from the SARS-CoV-2 virus originating from Wuhan, Chinawww.worldometers.info
Ok Dr. Buttercup - lolFor the risk to the over 65 population.
Deaths of those over age 65.
Covid = 158 per 100k
Seasonal Influenza = 93 per 100k.
OMG Covid is so much more deadly than seasonal influenza!!!
Wellll. Not so fast. 68% of those over age 65 get their yearly flu shot. If a flu shot didn't exist the over 65 age group would see 291 per 100k.
But since a vaccine for covid didn't exist, and one for the flu does, the realized risk of death from covid is much higher. The realty is it's far less deadly than an unmitigated flu season. So why the big push for those under age 65 with no health conditions to go get vaccinated? Makes you wonder, they don't do that for the far more deadly flu virus.
If you're over age 65 or have a health condition please go get vaccinated. If not, then you're probably going to be ok buttercup
dang, those guys are working cheap. I seriously would not get out of bed for $35 per hour today. profit isn't a dirty word. gouging, however, is, and free markets tend to curtail that. I'm sure you realize that running a legitimate business costs money for stuff like insurance, workers comp., advertising, travel, etc. these things have to be figured into the cost of every job, and are part of that hourly charge. beyond that, what are you willing to pay to hire people to work in your house with your wife and children that you trust? what are you willing to pay for reliability, punctuality, experience, craftsmanship? some peoples time is just more valuable than others when it comes to service. there is no more glaring example of "you get what you pay for" than in custom residential repaint work. everybody always disrespecting my trade. it's no wonder we all drink so much.Crazy. Don't feel bad. My wife asked a lady on Facebook for a reference for some painting work that she had done. Some guy with a remodeling business said he would quote the job. My wife being the precious soul she is didn't even check the guy out just gave him the address. I'm working and I look out the window to see a truck pull up and this tatted out dude get out. I'm talking neck, both sleeves, multiple face tattoos, corner of both eyes. straight up Locked up LA looking fucker. I met him on the porch before he even had a change to knock. Told him we had decided to go with a friend of the family. He left. I looked him up after he left. Fresh off a 7 year stinton federal gun running charges. SMDH. I looked at my wife and said "That dear is why I carry in the house"
On a different note. I got another interior quote and dude quoted me $3,500, I already have the paint from SW. It's maybe a 2.5 day job with two men. Call it 3 days for buffer. A total of 50 man hours. That comes out to a $35 per man hour labor charge. They think I'm going to pay $10 more per hour labor than Ingalls shipbuilding down the road pays a skilled shipwright welder.
dang, those guys are working cheap. I seriously would not get out of bed for $35 per hour today. profit isn't a dirty word. gouging, however, is, and free markets tend to curtail that. I'm sure you realize that running a legitimate business costs money for stuff like insurance, workers comp., advertising, travel, etc. these things have to be figured into the cost of every job, and are part of that hourly charge. beyond that, what are you willing to pay to hire people to work in your house with your wife and children that you trust? what are you willing to pay for reliability, punctuality, experience, craftsmanship? some peoples time is just more valuable than others when it comes to service. there is no more glaring example of "you get what you pay for" than in custom residential repaint work. everybody always disrespecting my trade. it's no wonder we all drink so much.
One more off topic post for this. How do you stay sane quoting jobs in such a crazy market? 0n commercial projects, a 2million dollar project contractors may be within 10k of each other and often times are far closer in competition. I find in residential someone might receive bids of 2k 3.5k 6k from three contractors way, freaking different. I have a hard time thinking a guy down the road is making double of what I might make even if he is a snake, but I'd feel like a dirtbag charging what some people are willing to pay. I think if I'd lived in the 40s when there was more set pricing I'd been better off than the crazy shit I hear going on.