54 thoughts on “October 28, 2021: Buck Up”

  1. I wasn't going to watch assuming it would be horrifying, but I turned it on early in the third and was shocked to see a ten point lead so I stuck with it. I made the right choice. That, aside from having to see Grayson Allen's stupid face (and a blatant cheap shot), was the right choice. That drive by Ant at the end of the game was beautiful.

      1. I thought they we are "buzzworth" alt band from the mid 90s. Played on a tour with Nada Surf.

  2. AFL report:

    Salt River 3, Scottsdale 2.

    Andrew Bechtold was 0-for-2 with three walks. He is batting .267.
    Michael Helman was 0-for-4. He is batting .286.
    Cody Laweryson pitched a perfect inning and struck out one. His ERA is 1.17.

  3. The fourth delivery date for our cooktop replacement has come and gone; after calling Home Depot, we came to find out that the order was cancelled on the 13th (GE is no longer making it, I guess?) with no word to us. They've held our money ransom since May, and supposedly it would have been refunded in the next 48-72 hours. Our laughably long deadline (Thanksgiving) for the countertop replacement looks like no longer a possibility, even if the new cooktop (which Mrs Runner isn't as happy with) order were on its way ASAP. Thanks, supply chain

    1. Co-sign.

      I clean up ice and ice melt from the main shelf in my fridge daily. Our replacement MAYBE will be here by February.

      1. bS - I’ve been dealing with same/similar for quite awhile. Mentioned it to the technician looking at my dishwasher* (this after dropping 3 bones on replacement of the lower heating element in the gas oven). He said they’re doing a major recall of the internal ice makers because that brand and model had been experiencing issues for year. He said I should reach out to Samsung (BestBuy-bought extended warranty was for 3 years, which expired 3 years ago … literally within 5 days of identifying the problem). So, I went online, did a registry thing and spoke with a service technician who established that I’d already tried everything they would’ve recommended. He arranged to receive a scheduling call, scheduled it, tech showed up yesterday and swapped the whole ice maker array, circuit board and all. This was, apparently, a long time coming so they had supplies galore.

        *dishwasher technician established that the pump motor was shot. Another of those widespread issues, apparently, but only recently established so there were not a lot of replacement parts available and the wait for said replacement parts had been brutal all summer. Recently received a large shipment, so come next Wednesday, I go back to loading a dishwasher and running it every other day, instead of the non-stop hand washing I’ve been doing since mid-September.

        1. The U.S. government is trying. Or would be if anything could get through the Senate.

          But modern fabs are multi-billion dollar facilities and the economics of making chips for the Internet of Things are dicey. I was just reading about GlobalFoundries, a contract manufacturer spun out from AMD that just released an IPO. Its prospects are questionable.

          1. Intel and TSMC are building fabs in Arizona today. They'll be ready in five years maybe.

            GlobalFoundries has had a troubled history since AMD bought part/most of it from IBM. Them going the way of TSMC but US is smart but it will be a race between GloFo restarting leading edge fabs and Intel being an actual foundry for external customers.

            1. Ayyup.

              And your point about the lead time for getting a fab up and running is critically important. This is not a market amenable to "hit and run competition." Huge barriers to entry.

            2. I’m imagining how much of a jump my state would have had on this issue had a certain former governor elected to give billions of state money to TSMC or Intel instead of Foxconn…

              1. I honestly don't know if they would have built there anyway. Fabs need pure water (heh, Arizona) but more importantly no seismic events because they're etching silicon at nanometer scale and seismic mitigations are expensive. I bet having actual seasons and weather would impact that too.

                1. Water access was definitely one of the more contentious elements of the Foxconn deal. I honestly doubt Terry Gou had any intention of doing anything that was floated or reported at the time; he saw that opportunistic sucker coming a mile away.

        2. They should probably start with reforming the structure of the ports and the surrounding inland receiving. They're not set up for this kind of volume. Can't do much if you can't get anything into the country. There are literally around 100 vessels waiting in the waters outside LA/LB.

          1. My daughter just showed me a story about the Port of Long Beach just recently relaxing its esthetics-driven prohibition of stacking containers more than two high. Now up to 4 high! w00t!

            1. Also, it would super helpful to allow Mexican long-haul truckers to drive freight in the U.S. to reduce the bottleneck of not enough long-haul drivers.

          2. Certain RR I know of has created "rewards" to trucks picking up early, have gone (at least temporarily) to weekend port work, and has powered up inland intermodal distribution program between P.O.Long Beach and Utah. I think they and others were dabbling with fine increases for demurrage as well.

            btw, the higher you stack container boxes, the more difficult it is to get the bottom one out to load onto the truck waiting for it

            1. Last time I was in Panama (a while back), Hutchison Whampoa was building a container terminal on both sides of the Canal, and using robots to rack/stack even 9 deep. Then Kansas City Southern had a quick RR line across the Isthmus to ferry the containers back/forth. The idea was to haul the stuff to Ponce, P.R. and bypass Long Beach and Newark. Not sure what came of that project.

      1. I'm so old that I remember when a single ship blocking the Suez canal was sending shivers through the global supply chain.

        1. Considering the location and condition of most bullpens, I think arm pit would be better. Also, I have no problem with their mission, but their methods are self-aggrandizing and I think often counterproductive.

    1. I was surprised they lured Melvin out of Oakland. I assumed Melvin and Beane would stay there forever. But, Beane is less involved with the Athletics of late.

      1. From the reports I’ve read, the A’s had exercised Melvin’s option for next year, but are letting him leave without compensation from the Padres. I’m struggling to remember the last time something like that happened.

  4. Even though I'm not 65 yet, NBBW and I both signed up for, and got the Pfizer booster shot yesterday at CVS.

    When registering for the appt, there was only a checkbox that said something like you have a reason to get it now (I had pneumonia 2 years ago). No line of people, or any waiting.

    Also, no appreciable side effects other than slight arm pain in the evening, and some tiredness.

    I wonder if this (periodic booster shots) will become the new normal going forward...

    1. I'm getting my booster Saturday, but having the 'beetus puts me in an at-risk group so I had no problem scheduling one. I didn't have any side effects from the two Moderna shots, so here's to hoping that continues.

    2. Since I had J and J in March I get my booster tonight. Pfizer. I wouldn’t be surprised if in future we will get an annual combo flu-Covid shit in future.

      1. I had J&J in April. I got my Moderna on Tuesday. I anticipate boosters every 6-12months probably, ust like the flu. And I'll get it, just like the flu.

        Hopefully, things are wrangled enough pandemically so that there's not a flowchart you gotta go through to see if you're eligible. Just show up and get it.

    3. Due to the relative weakness of the motivating evidence, this does seem like a bit of a Cash Grab by the big providers, complicated by vaccine refusal/resistance from pockets of the adult population and not-yet for under-12s, both of which raise risks of break-through infections.

      But I agree that odds seem high that we will segue into an annual or every-few-years booster shot world.

      (no criticism of individuals seeking boosters intended; THAT seems quite rational, given that the downsides for individuals seem so scant)

    4. Being a teacher with asthma issues, I got the Pfizer booster about a month ago, and the side effects wiped me out. I had a sore arm for the first shot, and nothing at all from the second, but I couldn't get out of bed for 24 hours after the booster and had to miss a couple days of work. My wife did hers the day before me, and had no reaction at all.

      1. I hope that doesn't happen to me. I have sweet, lower bowl tix to Twolves-Nuggets game 25 hours after my Pfizer booster.

        1. I was tired after my J&J shot, but didn't even take a nap that day.

          My Moderna booster on Tuesday was even less impactful. Felt like I got Slug Bug'd real good in the arm, and that's it. No fatigue, chills, any of that. I've had sorer arms from rugby practice many times in my life.

          If you had a light J&J reaction, this sample size of 1 says you'll be good to go to the game.

          Unless the Wolves are so bad you're looking for an exit 😉

    5. I'm leaving in 15 minutes to get my first Shinglex shot. It's 100% covered by current insurance, which will change after the end of the year, so I have to squeeze two shots in before year's end and they have to be two months apart. I'll get my Pfizer booster in a couple of weeks, then my flu shot two weeks later, then my second Shinglex on or after December 29th but before January 1st.

          1. Interesting, I ended up not getting my shot today. I've been feeling a little crummy for a few days, a swollen gland in my neck, some occasional chills and fever flashes, nothing major at all, but the pharmacist advised against getting the vaccine until I'm feeling 100% healthy for at least 24 hours. Because it's an active vaccine there is a risk of actually getting shingles from it if your immune system is weak or compromised. So for now I'm playing it by ear. If I don't feel good enough for the shingles vaccine by Sunday, I'll just get the flu shot and then my Pfizer booster and work in that first Shingrix at the first good opportunity.

    6. I just scheduled my Moderna booster through my employer. (Since all three were offered, I went with the orthodox choice based on what I had received before.) I got my first two through the VA, which is only offering them to immunocompromised patients right now. I suspect my employer is able to offer them to employees because it’s an educational institution. Since I’m on-campus a few days per week, and I ride public transit to my place of employment, I feel this was a defensible choice.

Comments are closed.