euphrasyne

Oh definitely tying up the route. Someone said something about other countries needing cargo containers in that link from Ice Age farmer. That seemed very odd to me.

Also..I am an idiot. Why would they need empty cargo containers? They just use a large crane to move the current cargo containers to a new location. Those things are designed to go from ship, train, or back of a 18wheeler. They also just offload into stacks on the ground. We see them everywhere around here since we are the main import area of the US for shipping since we have the deepest bay. That ship truly is an average size for what it is and isn't tying up an undue amount of containers.

They want empty cargo containers? They have a couple hundred thousand stocked in the yard by the Elizabeth River bridge here. Tell someone to come get 'em. That boat is huge, but DH says its kinda small in comparison to ones he has worked with and several other types of cargo ships are bigger. Potentially, you could go around Africa instead of across. it would add approximately 1-2 weeks to shipping time.

Local hospital DePaul is closing because they dont have enough patient volume. I guess they aren't overwhelmed by covid. Bon Secours will close Norfolk’s DePaul hospital building in April - The Virginian-Pilot (pilotonline.com)

I'm sure there are lots of reasons he ran around. Historically, that has always been a difficult area and people hire helmsmen with suez experience specifically for it. Boats of this size use a nav system where everything is by sonar/computer as well as a full visual of the area. My DH (designs, maintains, and fixes large ships for a living) says high winds alone wouldn't have done this there had to be negligence. Our next door neighbor who does similar for commercial ships feels the same way and they were discussing it last night. I feel bad for the crew and I'm super glad I am not one of them.

It is very common to move ships through spaces narrower than they are long. The helmsman was just really awful in this case. The canal is notoriously difficult and it is common to hire someone just to drive through it. Here are two carriers docking locally that are roughly the same size as the cargo container.

That is actually a small one. DH works on ones and you drive past them thinking they are office complexes or hospitals, but they are ships taller than any building in the area.

Thank you for the offer, Littlesister. That is very kind of you. We are good though, and you should donate it to those less fortunate. I managed to put back quite a bit for us and we are trying to rotate stock right now. Please let me know if you need anything. DH got a promotion, we got the second and third round of stimulus already, and we should be getting child tax credit $ starting in July. We fixed under the house and now the roof and we got a new van to replace my very old one. DH got his first covid shot from his work and should be getting his second in a few weeks. I'm going to skip it. Things are all going so well that I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. My mammogram showed something last week and they have me scheduled for more tests this Friday. I'm hoping this turns out to be a 'i jiggled' or something during the last one and not the other shoe dropping.

I'm tired. We've been running around since yesterday. I got several fillings and we did some car shopping. My old van is going to DD17 on her 18th birthday in June. I had bought it in 03 and kept it in fairly good condition since then. I bought a new minivan today. Its a new Sienna hybrid so the gas mileage is 37mpg and it will fit everyone and everyone's STUFF. This will probably be the last vehicle I ever buy for me so we got the top end one with all the bells and whistles. It should see us through the remainder of the kids growing up and leaving home. DH was very impressed by all the warranties, the quiet motor, and the 'pep' of the engine. It seems very comfortable and I'm happy with it, but I'm a bit stressed about how much we spent. DH spoke with dealer and learned that Toyota is under manufacturing right now because they are having trouble getting chips for it. The chips are manufactured in Taiwan. We had a lot of trouble finding what we were looking for and almost all the lots were half empty.

The Comfort was never intended to take care of covid patients. They were supposed to take on the other traumas so the main hospitals would free up for covid. The problem is that NO ONE will treat you for anything other than covid because you 'might have covid.' People are dying and hurting over more mundane things because they cannot get treatment. I'm experiencing this. Littlesister experienced this.

I prefer soaking and crockpot for beans up to 2 years. Over that, I soak, then pressure cook until done. They take longer but they get done better in the pressure cooker. I start them in the morning for 40m. Then I'll natural release and cook in 10-20m intervals with natural release until they are done to my satisfaction. Sometimes It takes a few times.

Its been a bit hectic lately. The kids are driving me on a trip around crazytown. Workers were in last week replacing the insulation under the house. We sold the RV and are trying to decide if we want to replace my van or the roof with the proceeds. The roof was original from 98 and my van was purchased new in 2003. My husband has ambitious plans for yard projects that I am dreading. I skipped a week on getting school food for the kids so we could catch up on our perishables. They are pretty much funding school meals for all kids forever including dinner now. It reminds me of that old government cheese and shelf stable eggs they passed out when I was a child. Now they hand out WIC cards. I wish they would do the same with the school food. Give a set amount of $$ on a card to every enrolled student household. It would save the environment if nothing else. The excessive amount of packaging involved is insane. The food waste in my household is truly sad; I cannot imagine how bad it is in houses who don't care about food waste to start with. Our tax dollars at work.

Pressure cooker. Electric or manual either works.

When I was a child, I was playing outside at my aunt's house and burned a huge hole in my skirt with a magnifying glass while looking at plants.

I have a friend that I speak to almost daily who lives in Quebec which has more stringent rules than anywhere else in Canada. He drives a school bus and works with kids daily. The situation there is restrictive, unfair, and dumb in his words. They are not allowed to go to anyone elses house and have a very strict and early curfew. I know it was 8pm last week. They had just opened up and allowed family members to meet in small groups in outdoor settings. The child alone thing isn't true or rather something taken much out of context. If you are exposed, you are supposed to limit contact. If you need to have direct contact with the child in your house, then you are supposed to isolate with them. If you can isolate from them, you should, but if there isn't enough caregiving then you isolate together. He is fluently bilingual and his wife is french-speaking only. They feel that the restrictions are unnecessarily higher in french-speaking areas.

When I moved from MS to VA I was shocked at how expensive it was here.

Mexican Soup Mix All in Crockpot on low until done--its a soup and amounts are not important. Just add what you have and liquid to desired consistency. 2 lb brick of velveeta type cheese (used aldi brand) leftover black beans cooked cuban style *3c or so leftover onions and mushrooms from gril * 1/2 c total leftover olives sliced *8 olives brined not pickled pinch dehydrated jalapenos pinch dehydrated spinach (because i confused it with the jalapenos at first) handful dehydrated bell peppers leftover shredded pork roast *1.5c chicken pouch school corn *1c packet taco seasoning big spoon salsa verde can rotel tomatoes container school milk *1c Water or chicken broth/bullion to desired consistency *6c serve with homemade mexican cornbread. For the chicken, I used 3 school chicken legs and 3 tubs of school chicken wings in a very nasty sauce. I rinsed all the sauce off, decided I'd never get the flavor truly out, and deboned it all. I then tossed meat into mexican soup because the strong spice pattern would overwhelm the sauce previously on the chicken. I tossed the meat into the crockpot as I deboned it, so I never measured it. It made about 8 quarts of soup. Mexican soup freezes well, but be sure to reheat on low or the cheese will separate. Don't boil this soup. I did not add more spices to the soup because the black beans were very heavily spiced mostly with tropical sazon and more would have been overwhelming. I'd have added more taco/fajita seasoning or some sazon if the beans were not so heavily spiced.

Anytime umbrella comes up, all I can do is think about my ex-FIL who passed about 2 Thanksgivings back. He was a 5th generation Methodist minister and his favorite story to tell was about his pastor in TX who gave a sermon about Rain. This guy 'had a direct line to god and when he prayed for rain it did.' That was what everyone said. Well they asked him to pray for rain. He said he would and told them to be prepared. The next week the congregation asked why it had not rained. He told them they did not believe and were not ready for their prayers to be answered. It went back and forth, we are! you are not! Finally they asked why he would say that and he told them, "not a single one of you brought an umbrella." If you are going to pray for things, be ready for your prayers to be answered.

De evolving symptoms works works well on the bacteria mode. There are a few other things that can work better for some of the other things. You can ignore Greenland on a few if you environmentally harden to cold and then pass via water and animals. It will infect before Australia that way. I find Simian Flu and Prion a bit more tricky. Mega-Brutal <3.

The school now adds dinner and a snack to the breakfast/lunch bags they send out. My tetris game is getting bigger. I need to either can some apple butter or fried apples today, they are overflowing. The frozen veggies they keep giving us are giant round containers that hold about 1c but are only 1/3 to 1/2 full. DD12 and I took them all, opened them, and dumped like items into the 1c breastmilk bags that came free with my machine. They work much better and take up a lot less room. I used a quart bag for the broccoli --when it is full, I'll make stirfry. We have so much 1% milk that I'm thinking about making homemade cheese, yogurt, or no-churn ice cream. Between the fridge and freezer, I have at least 7 gallons white and 7 gallons chocolate in 1 c cartons. This week we have 4 types of burger/sandwich and french bread pizza. I'm glad all mine like sandwiches. I'm glad they are feeding the kids, but the tax money wasted on grab and go meals because people cannot be bothered to prepare food is truly sad.

So there is this game called Plague, Inc that is super fun to play. You can play real life scenarios on it and it requires thought. A fatal virus does not necessarily kill fast. A virus doesn't seek to do anything--it just replicates. The more people and time it has, the more it does. The more replications it has, the greater the chance of mutation that is more deadly/fatal/contagious. The contagion and the fatality are actually separate. An instantly fatal virus may last longer than say an STD simply because it is passed through air, water, animals, or corpses. Contagion does not depend on the host being alive, and can exist for extended times without a host for several virus. Examples of this are corona lasting for a few days on a box, or Hep A lasting weeks on a dirty counter. A frozen Siberian virus was unthawed and still infectious 30K years later. ~I play way too many video games and read too much medical literature. Here is an article I used with my kids to explain some of the basics: There are more viruses than stars in the universe. Why do only some infect us? (nationalgeographic.com)

Most likely, the egg is in there because the age of the original recipe. Pre 1930s most non oil & vinegar salad dressing recipes contained raw egg.

Shepherd's Pie Dump and mix the following in a casserole dish: 2 tubs frozen peas (*1/2 c ea) 1 tub frozen carrots (*1/2 c) Diced leftover leg of lamb *2c or so 1 can mushrooms handful dehydrated onion Montreal chicken seasoning to taste Leftover lamb shawarma w/onion and mushroom (*1/3 c) 1 packet brown gravy mix beef broth to desired consistency. *about half a quart. Make mashed potatoes and spoon on top of the casserole. Bake 350F for 60m. Duchess Mashed potatoes for shepherd's pie. 2 c potato flakes 2 cartons school milk 1/2 c water 3 T butter Heavy cream to consistency 2 eggs salt & pepper Mix milk, water, and potatoes. Microwave 2m. Add in remainder and mix to consistency. Microwave 2m. Spoon on top of casserole and bake for at least 30m+ *Can be done on stovetop instead of microwave. Bake in oven on something or by itself afterwards b/c of eggs.

I'm so sorry for your loss, Littlesister. I know your husband is in a better place.