Cup of Coffee

March 10, 2020: Old Friend

80 Comments

I'm setting this up faaaar too few hours before it goes live. Stupid TV show I've seen before and keep clicking the next episode button because it's so damn intriguing!!!11

80 thoughts on “March 10, 2020: Old Friend”

  2. Twins make their first roster cuts. No real surprises. Thorpe is being treated as a surprise, but when he had to miss more than a week of camp for personal reasons that pretty much sealed his fate. That's not a criticism--I don't know what his situation was, and sometimes you have to do what you have to do. But with as many options as the Twins have, falling behind like that pretty much assured he wouldn't make the team out of spring training. If he takes care of business in Rochester, we'll see him in Minnesota at some point.

    1. I think its been said before, but the way the Twins treat their pitching staff just because you start in Rochester doesnt mean you'll be stuck there all year. Im guessing Thorpe is on the short list of first callups on the Rochester Express shuttle.

      1. I've heard from enough people this off-season that internally the Twins really really liked Thorpe as a 5th starter, so it wouldn't surprise me if he's back soon.

        1. We do have a lot of bench spots and one N/A spot, if I remember correctly. Just a fun nod to being able to draft prospects.

          When the league started we had 2 or 3 teams get stupid lucky with keepers (I think Trout is still going to be drafted in the teens?), so we wanted to create some slots for other teams to take chances on prospects and be able to keep them without hurting their odds that year.

          1. I've gone ahead and sort of introduced you to the group. Most of the people in it are connected to the commissioner in some way or another, and most are pretty reasonable about baseball stuff, though not always. You'll probably see a few head-scratcher trade requests (IIRC, Dragons is the team who sends out most of those?).

      1. Looking at the box score, it was basically the Rochester Red Wings playing today. Arraez was the only starter who played, with Cave, A-Stud, and Adrianza also in the lineup. The only pitcher who might be on the team at the start of the season was Poppen. I assume that at some point Rocco is going to use the regulars more, but the season starts in a little more than two weeks. I'm sure they're doing plenty of work in practice and stuff, but there are some things you can't really simulate in practice. It seems to me that it's time to get the regulars some regular action.

        1. Not really getting the complaint here. Yesterday's lineup had 6 starters plus Gonzalez and Avila. Sunday's had 4 who didn't go to the DR for Saturday - over the two day weekend, every starter played Saturday or Sunday besides Polanco (who they didn't take to the DR because of his recovery schedule, and he played yesterday) and Buxton, who obviously isn't playing at all yet. Avila, Gonzalez, Cave, and Adrianza are all going to be on the team out of camp so they need "regular action" now, too.

          1. I'm not even sure it's a complaint, really. Maybe I'm just getting impatient for the season to start. It just seems like we're seeing an awful lot of the AAA players, and not that much of the regulars. But it's a long season, and Rocco certainly had enough success last year that he deserves the benefit of the doubt, if in fact there's any doubt.

  8. Some friendly elf gave us a bag of Meyer lemons recently. I now have two jars of preserved lemons in process. Check back in three weeks!

    Wash your lemons. Cut almost through in quarters. Fill with kosher salt. Stuff in clean jars. Smush down. Add more lemons and smush down. I added a tsp or so of peppercorns and a few cracked green cardamoms. Weight so that the lemons are below the level of the juice/brine. Put the lid on loosely. Store in a cool place for ~three weeks, checking occasionally.

    I can't wait.

    1. What do you use them for when they are ready? Do they go in something, or just eat them as is?

      We just bought some small fruit trees to plant in our yard: Meyer and Eureka lemons, lime, avocado, fig, Asian pear, and Mandarin orange. They’re small trees now, so I don’t expect much fruit for a few years, but someday we’ll have a pretty nice little orchard.

          1. I am defn jealous of your new orchard. We have some yard space where I hope to plant a lemon tree this year. Waiting to get an old stump ground out first.

            We had a Mandarin tree and a navel tree at the old place. But my neighbor had a Meyer lemon tree that they made no use of. I really wanted to raid that tree....

            We do have a fig tree, but it bore no fruit last year. Hoping it starts producing. Unfortunately it is right next to the house. I may need to remove it before it gets much bigger.

      1. I mean cut down to within a half-inch or so. The quarters are still connected, but not by much.

  9. The Santa Clara PH officer issued an order banning "large" meetings/events for the next 3 weeks today. Large is 1,000+.

    We are scheduled to have our monthly commission meeting in that county in two weeks. Typically fewer than 100 total attendance, but this is creating angst for our staff.

    1. I’m concerned my campus (in Los Angeles County) is going to get closed. I’m much more savvy about and experienced with online instruction than most of the faculty members in my department, and I’m struggling to think of good ways to switch to online-only if needed. And I’m not even reaching any labs this semester; those lab classes will really get screwed if we end up needing to go all online.

      2. I have the same wonders about transition to online that you do, Mike. I perceive a pretty wide gamut of interest, energy, and ability to adopt online instruction at all, let alone on such short notice. I’m aware of administrative efforts to prepare for this possibility, but courses with labs and studio components seem very difficult to approximate in a virtual environment. Likewise, students who are conducting field work necessary for certification (BSW/MSW candidates, teacher education or nursing students, likely others) will need some guidance on completing those components, though their weekly seminars should be just fine online.

        The third in-state case (and second in-county) was announced this week. However, the second-largest R1 in our system just closed its campus through the 29th (by extending its spring break an additional week), pending a move to online-only instruction for most courses for the remainder of the term. So far, our central administration has not made any announcements. Our break begins this weekend, so I would hope a decision — if they intend to make one — comes in time for students to know before they leave campus. Faculty, staff, & students have already received emails from the chancellor strongly discouraging any travel outside the county, indicating the need to self-quarantine could “significantly impact your professional and personal obligations at great individual expense.”

        1. Well, there we go. In-person delivery of classes suspended until at least 10 April, with instruction shifting to alternate means. Students have been instructed to (when possible) return to their permanent residences to continue their coursework remotely. A vague reference to required self-quarantine following travel, depending on destination — but of course no student is required to submit leave paperwork that enables tracking of visits to unauthorized/ill-advised destinations.

        2. From the U's latest update:

          While the Duluth, Rochester and Twin Cities campuses are on Spring Break this week, and in anticipation of the Crookston and Morris campus breaks next week, we encourage our faculty to begin preparing to move classroom instruction online, especially for courses where this can be implemented immediately.

          1. Well, that didn't take long:

            We are suspending in-person instruction, including field experiences and clinicals, across our five campuses and are moving to online, or alternative, instruction. Students on the Morris and Crookston campuses will have in-person classes through this Friday, March 13.

            1. I have a kid at U of M- Minneapolis and UMD - Duluth. Both home on break and not going back now. My daughter will probably do well with on line courses and my son will probably suck at it. My daughter is also crushed right now as it looks like her study abroad class in New Zealand the last few weeks of May won't happen. She was going to also fly with friends to Fiji after the course and spend a week there. I told her to look on the bright side, she saved about $4,000.

        3. We got an update today about our college's plans and contingencies. It specifically says that we will NOT be forced to switch in-person lecture classes to online. The main rationale given is that we have a large number of students who, due to the financial realities of the school I teach at, do not have access to a computer or internet connection at home. It also mentioned that, if we have multiple students or staff with positive tests, we will likely close campus temporarily. It also floated the possibility of extending the semester at the end, but I'm guessing there's not much of a chance of that actually working, seeing as it would need to be negotiated with all of the various unions on campus.

      3. My small, private college west of Chicago is still remaining open. Spring Break starts after Friday, so I wonder if students will be allowed to come back.

        Softball and Baseball teams left on a trip to Florida this morning.

        1. Our company told us to WFH tomorrow and Friday kind of as a test for what's needed in case of a prolonged stretch. Naturally my boss told us to come in on Friday.

    2. I've been mandatory WFH since last Thursday, which was company-wide. I'm pretty sure that within a week or two, I'm going to be at home with my two kids under 4 (so basically impossible to get any actual work done during the day), while my wife will be heading into the hospital every day, likely reassigned from her current role to something more aligned with treating COVID-19 patients. I don't think I'm going to be getting much sleep in the near future.

      This is very stressful, but there are a lot of worse situations out there -- a lot of restaurant/service workers are getting fired or having their hours slashed drastically, there are school workers having to go in to teach every day with vulnerable relatives at home. All in all, it's a bad situation.

      1. I am in a couple restaurant owner facebook groups and throughout the country almost all of them are way down in sales the past couple of weeks. Up in our neck of the woods, we have been super busy (up 20% the past 5 weeks) but I am bracing for it.

        1. I’d love to see the government work out some kind of stopgap solution to sustain businesses like this temporarily, doing something like enlisting them in a sort of meals on wheels program so people in need could get food (especially if schools shut down) and restaurants could get paid, but I don’t think that will happen.

      2. I go to people's homes to serve the most vulnerable populations. Thankfully, if schools close my wife's job could be done at home and we have plenty of family support. It's the people already near the poverty line who are going to be hurt the hardest.

            1. Yep, mental health social worker out in the community trying to do good in the world.

              Not a fan of that at the moment, but I have no idea what kind of accommodations could be made. So much of her job is face-to-face interaction with her clients.

    3. We just cancelled our family cruise over Spring Break. Been saving for it for several years and wanting to bring my mother-in-law on at least one more vacation while she still can. We shouldn't be out any money, other than we've already paid for everything and will basically just be allowed to reschedule it for much much later and they can get interest on our money.

        1. My Peru trip is in 17 days. I'm planning on going unless someone forbids me from going.

          2. If I didn't have a kid, I'd be searching for the cheapest travel deals I could right now.

          3. My wife and son just got back from Peru. Last I heard, they only had one person diagnosed but their tourist season just started.

        2. Ireland... I know some things and I know someone on this blog who knows some things ...

      2. That’s a huge bummer. I’m sorry!

        We are going down to Sanibel (RE: Fort Myers) in about a week. This includes my parents, wife’s parents, and sister-in-law with her family.

        I’d rather not be going. But once we get there Sanibel is probably as safe as our town. And if flights/fear are terrible at the end of our stay, we have a car rented to drive back just once case. 🤞

        1. Yeah I'm worried about being stuck on a ship for a month. At least you'd have options.

          1. I’ve enjoyed a cruise or two, but the prospect of being trapped on one would be pretty scary.

    4. Our once-monthly nursing home singing was officially cancelled, but we'd already internally decided to suspend until further notice. And we can use the practice anyway.

      1. Our local nursing home is now closed to all visitors. I think they'll still let me in because I'm a part-time employee. I'm thinking I may need to try to visit there more often, at least for a while. It's not that great to be in a nursing home anyway, and not being able to have visitors makes it worse.

        4. Guys, I appreciate the kind words, but I'm also a little embarrassed. I didn't post that to get compliments or to make it sound like I think I'm such a wonderful fellow. It was just part of the conversation. In times like these we all do what we can, and this is something I can do. But we all make our contributions in our own way.

          1. I know you weren't fishing for compliments. But I think it's also important to point out when people do make their individual contributions to the betterment of the world and lift each other and those contributions up.

          2. Just stand there and take it like a man, Padre. 😀

            Seriously. Point of Light, dude. Point of Light.

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