The roundabout road to a Jeep's demise (or: ALWAYS LOOK A GIFT JEEP IN THE MOUTH!!)
Last week, a new fuel filter. I'd set out on a trip to Revelstoke, thrifting, exploring, maybe some prospecting, but the Jeep sputtered, lost power, and somewhere around New Denver I came to my senses and decided it would be a lot better to break down nearer to home.
Turn around, plans abandoned.
Change the fuel filter.
This seems to fix things for a bit, but there's something new, always a new surprise under the hood. This a shaking and rattling as the Jeep changes gears. This, you can tell while riding, will be no trivial thing. So call and make an appointment with the mechanics.
"Maybe a U-Joint" they tell me. Fingers crossed.
Of course it's not a U-Joint, it's the transmission, it's shot. Completely. Add to this various oil leaks, seals, no suspension in the back end, shocks, welding...
And the grand total will be $5200. Roughly.
The answer is, of course, no, it should have been no a long time ago. $8000 in repairs in a little over a year and the jeep is still going over a fucking cliff, I could have been driving a new Wrangler - all the time, not just every other week - for the same as I've put into this. So - for this year - the gathering and prospecting is largely done, time now to address my income and find the means to level up my wheels.
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The Nelson Anti-Mask Mandate Rally
Which was today, in Nelson, approximately 3 blocks from my house.
These signs are everywhere. Everywhere. Printed, drawn in crayon, pencil, spray painted....
And - being on Facebook - a lurker, not a contributor - I've seen all the posts. The asshole who's never tipped in his life reminding restaurants of his loyal patronage. And all the rest, all the rest.
Anyways, day off, my errands largely are done - time now to go down and check out all the hot fuss.
And what a fuss! Easily Five hundred people, all waving banners, placards, cars honking their support, the 4 corners and boulevards at Vernon and Ward are full, full full. Placards saying "No Mandatory Vaccine" and "Medical Freedom for all" and ten thousand other nonsensical slogans that make no sense whatsoever from a broader prospective. To put it in perspective - last week (the last week for which numbers were reported) over 150 people tested positive for COVID in Nelson.
That's 1.5% of the population of 10, 000.
But - actually - it's not. Combine it with the 2 weeks before and you get to about 3.5%.
But - actually - it's not. Consider that 62% of Nelson's eligible population has been vaccinated - and that this 3.5% is drawn from the unvaccinated pool.
So now we're at about 8% of the unvaccinated have tested positive in 3 weeks.
Now consider that they're only testing people who are reporting symptoms. Given that 50% are estimated to have no symptoms you could comfortably guess that that rate may be as high as 16%.
Oh, but that's not all. There's any number of people here that refuse to get tested - under any circumstances - for fear of getting into "The System" - the people without a BC Care card, the anti-taxxers, anti-vaxxers, the off-the grid, the all of the fucking wing-nut alternative "thinkers' and you're getting a much higher number.
And, 500+ people, still coming down the street, late, no readily available parking, it's all taken, to gather in close quarters without masks and protest an invisible, non existent entity like COVID, like protesting air or gravity or radio waves or 5G - oh, wait - we all know that's real, how else would Bill control the COVID Chip?
Anyways, I should have made up my own placard, "TITS OUT FOR FREEDOM" or some other such enticing offer, given the level of enlightenment there might have been a show. But - really, you have to keep your distance, there's no close quarters for these people, not until the virus has done it's thing and natural selection has culled the herd.
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Doomed by half-measures
Mask mandate after mandate, lockdown after lockdown, we're being doomed by half measures.
Out, around Nelson, everyone doing the right thing. The required thing. Wear your mask into a crowded restaurant until you're sat, then take it off for an hour to visit.
Doctors, Nurses, protesting against getting a vaccine. How is this a thing? If you work in a hospital this should be a requirement - not debatable - just as during the great AIDS pandemic adult actors wore condoms or provided testing proof that they were HIV free. Yet Nurses, orderlies, etc. should be able to decide whether or not they get a vaccine?
Mother fuckers, your average porn star has more common sense than some of these loons.
Old folks homes, assisted care facilities - still reporting outbreaks amongst unvaccinated workers - HOW CAN YOU ALLOW AN UNVACCINATED VISITOR OR EMPLOYEE INTO THESE PLACES?
We are doomed.
Police in Toronto protesting mandatory Vaccines. They are civic employees - how is it a requirement you be vaccinated to go work remotely at Camps up North and yet the governments own employees are clamoring for a free pass?
And restaurants. The passport - demanding customers have vaccine passports - but what about the staff? And this is tricky - because - an awful lot of staff in restaurants haven't got their vaccine. Refuse to get it. For any number of reasons, the vast majority entirely stupid - but - if it were a requirement many restaurants - already short staffed - would be forced to close.
Every country reporting rising numbers, largely due to the unvaccinated spreading it, more and more breakthrough cases, vaccinated people getting it, subtle adaptations as it mutates, multiplies and spreads. We've allowed the stupid to speak to science as if their opinions were fact, as if they deserved an equal listen, as if common sense were political, an imposition on their freedoms, we're becoming victims of an excess of compassion, and this will drag on and on and on...
This is the pandemic without end.
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Gender VS Taste
This in regards to my distaste for other peoples voiced sexual preferences and inclinations.
While I loathe to disagree with Conservatives on anything, in this they are right. There are only 2 genders. You are born either Male or Female. A sex change does not alter your birth gender. If you have a sex-change - for example from male to female - that does not give you the right to compete against women in the Olympics.
Now, to clarify - Gender is indeed a construct - from a social perspective - but there is no disputing that Men and Women are born different. The only exception or caveat I would qualify this with is in those - albeit very rare cases - where gender is uncertain and so assigned at birth by a Doctor, who gets it wrong.
Everything else is a matter of taste. You are a man who likes men? You're a Mr. You're a Man. You are a woman who likes women? Ms. or Mrs. You're a woman.
No additional pronouns or "Other" categories are needed.
The fact is - no matter what your taste or preferences, an excess of liberality has allowed us to "Gender" you based upon these preferences. This is first of all
A) Irrelevant
B) Wrong.
There are very few social situations in which I need or even desire to know your preferences. The vast majority of my friends and acquaintances I have no desire or inclination to sleep with. They don't need to know my preferences. For me to embarrass them with lurid embellishments of my sexual exploits or demand they conform to MY "NON-BINARY" (mis)Understanding of the world is as offensive as them demanding I listen to their exploits and conform to their expectations of the world.
Non-Binary is simply a means of assuming that your fluid tastes make you a far more colorful person than your neighbor. This may be true, taste is an idiosyncratic and peculiar thing, but as soon as you feel the need to elaborate upon it it also makes you a bore.
Now for a few words regarding "Gender".
There are 2 genders - which are described by an abundance of gender pronouns. Mr, Mrs, Miss, He, She, His, Hers, Etc. Not all cultures use them - for example Finnish, Estonian, Chinese, Etc. I will accept arguments against gender pronouns on the basis of a historical power imbalance - the patriarchy has embedded within language a deep seated power imbalance, that by implication prejudices the reader or hearer of the pronoun.
So, instead of creating more gender pronouns, create fewer. One. Accept people in personhood will be bigger step towards equality than creating a mass of pronouns to describe what should be regarded as a personal and intimate part of their lives. To emphasize any gender - or preference - makes it a bigger thing than it needs to be. No one - no whole person - should be defined by their taste in what is a relatively small and unimportant part of their lives and relationships with others. Therein lies true equality.
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