May 31, 2020

And the song in my head this morning is from Neil Young in the 1970s: Don't Let It Bring You

Down:

Neil Young Lyrics
"Don't Let It Bring You Down"

Old man lying
By the side of the road
With the lorries rolling by
Blue moon sinking
From the weight of the load
And the buildings scrape the sky

Cold wind ripping
Down the alley at dawn
And the morning paper flies
Dead man lying
By the side of the road
With the daylight in his eyes

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning
Find someone who's turning
And you will come around

Blind man running
Through the light
Of the night
With an answer in his hand
Come on down
To the river of sight
And you can really understand

Red lights flashing
Through the window
In the rain
Can you hear the sirens moan?
White cane lying
In a gutter in the lane
If you're walking home alone

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning
Just find someone who's turning
And you will come around

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning
Just find someone who's turning
And you will come around

May 30, 2020

Out and about 5-30-20: The credit union, the post office and WalMart plus a family dynamic

bonus... and some pain relief .

The credit union: We got our second stimulus direct deposit this last week so I went to do the transfer
that puts my son's share into his savings account (we share it but he's the primary). I can take care of
my end online since the money comes into my account. As usual, my son has more money than I do
but I am an honest guy, after all...

The post office: WooHoo! We got our absentee ballots in our PO Box today! YAY!

WalMart: Lotta masks being worn by my/our family members today. I saw some interesting people as
usual. I was patient in waiting for 3 ladies who were ahead of me in one aisle. One of the ladies
walked back closer to me and I said I had to wait since they were taking up the space that I wanted to be in. No problem.

I decided to do some impulse buying and picked up some ice cream and chocolate cake. Hey, we've
been good and deserve a reward! Over in the cake section there were a young man and woman frisking about. He was picking her up then they were embracing and kissing passionately. Wow! They weren't masked but at least they kept their clothes on! It was better than pay-for-view...

My oldest son turned 50 last week so I sent him fond birthday wishes. Since then we've been emailing daily and that's good since like many families our relationship has suffered some strain over the years.

My back has been really bothering me this last week. Nothing I've tried before was working, then I remembered that I'm using Tylenol now since that's recommended with this virus. But I always used
to use aspirin and since my back pain isn't virus-related I took some aspiring at 10 this morning.
Within an hour my pain was gone so take a lesson from me to stick with what you know works!

May 27, 2020

Out and about 5-26-20: Highlights of my day...

The Post Office: I dropped off our requests for absentee ballots in the drive-through mail drop at my
local post office. YAY!

Checking my bank account online: I've been looking for our second government stimulus direct deposit.
Yesterday it showed up as a pending transaction. It'll be deposited on Thursday this week. YAY!

Shopping:

Most people masked. I bought a new pair of reading glasses since the ones I've been using are at least 10 years old. I found out they weren't working anymore when I tried to read the fine print
on the latest/new brand of hydrogen peroxide I bought. So with my new 3X specs no problem
seeing that all is well.

Gave a guy in the parking lot 5 bucks when he asked for change. That came out of my personal philanthropic fund. That's the way I do it to keep things personal and remember when I panhandled some years ago.

Saw two lovely young obviously Muslim women in the produce section so as I was passing by I spoke
the greeting "Salaam Aleichem". They were from the black part of our family and gave a reply that I didn't understand but I didn't stop and hope they appreciated the words of welcome and acceptance that I gave them. Many a time throughout the world people have been kind to me when I was a stranger in their town/city/country and I try to pay that forward.

YAY! It was a good day, like many others I experience...

May 23, 2020

Here's a link to a handy reference to Beatles' songs listed by album with lyrics to any song

selectable by right-clicking on any song listed...

link: https://www.azlyrics.com/b/beatles.html

May 23, 2020

Out and about 5-22-20: The Post Office, A language lesson and an elbow bump...

At the Post Office: My son and I received our applications for absentee ballots today in our P.O Box. YAY! We are registered Democrats...

A language lesson: Since I arrived in West Pakistan when I was 2 years old in 1951 it was a simple thing to pick up the Urdu language, which is spoken mainly in modern Pakistan and India*. There are
other languages spoken in the Middle Eastern/Arabic countries as I've learned when I tried to greet
people with the Urdu that I do remember. As I recall, the typical greeting in Urdu is "Salaam" and the
typical response is "Salaam ji". I've been corrected to use the greeting "Salaam aleikem" but still use the response "Salaam Ji" and that lets people know that my background is in Urdu...

*more language at link: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Urdu-language

As I left the checkout at WalMart I saw a couple with a baby that were clearly members of the Middle Eastern part of our family. I decided to make contact, stopped near the man (it's a bad idea to direct any remarks towards a woman who is in a man's company) and said in English, "Excuse me, Sir".
After he turned to face me I said "Salaam aleikem" and he responded with some Arabic that I didn't
understand at all. When he was done I said "Salaam ji" and he extended his hand for a shake.

The Elbow bump: I offered my elbow and we bumped, my first elbow bump since the start of the whole masking/physical distancing campaign started. What a great day!

May 21, 2020

Once again I couldn't go to bed until I tracked down the song in my head. Yup, once again a

song popped up in my head. I remembered that I heard a woman sing it and it remembered the rhythm of the lyric but all I could remember were the words "win my love".

So I started in searching and it didn't really take too long even with those words "win my love" being wrong. The song was written by Bob Dylan and first recorded by Billy Joel then covered by Adele too and it must be her version that I remembered hearing.

So here's links to the lyrics and two or the recordings that I'm aware of. I guess tRUMP doesn't live in my head all that much if I have room for remembering a song too...

link to lyrics: https://genius.com/Bob-dylan-make-you-feel-my-love-lyrics

link to Adele performance:

link to Bob Dylan performance:

The only Billy Joel performance I found is a mix tape that's almost 12 minutes long so I didn't include that but it's easy to find if you want to. Enjoy!

May 20, 2020

The Post Office And Me 5-19-20: The first thread I wrote about my shopping and experience today

is here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213459497
In this thread I was told that U.S.P.S. post office buildings were owned by the Federal government and that's true in some cases, but I found that many/most post office building are owned privately and
long-term leased to the government. This makes for an interesting arrangement.

link: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffnt&q=are+u.s.+post+office+buildings+government+property&ia=web

What surprised me today was that when I went to the counter to make my stamp purchase and began sanitizing my area of the counter and the card reader I was told to stop. At last I did and completed my transaction then left.

My experience with any post office is that it's very similar to any business providing goods and services. Of course any business is allowed to mandate the behavior of its customers, like the "NO SHIRT, NO SHOES, NO SERVICE notice at many restaurants. I understand that and I'm sure that
by the close of business Post Offices throughout Albuquerque now have notices that say NO
SANITIZING ALLOWED. And that's fine. I'm not always a quick learner but I do learn...

It was also pointed out to me that Postal Workers are still leery of unknown contamination like
the anthrax scare some years back. I agree that it's their right to be concerned. However, I see
some differences in access to Federal Buildings like Social Security offices and Federal Courts. At those places the first thing you see after you enter are armed guards, bins for placing the contents of your pockets and a metal detector to pass through. No Post Office has these precautions in place. You walk in, stand in line and conduct your business without being challenged (unless you try to do some sanitizing) or searched. Again, the U.S.P.S. is doing the best it can and establishing its rules
and I understand and accept that.

In 1971 the U.S.P.S. went from being a cabinet-level organization to an Independent Agency. Ever since then the reTHUG dream has been to privatize the whole operation and they have tried very hard to bankrupt the operation. Let's all push back on that.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=when+did+the+u.s.+postal+service+become+an+independent+agency&t=ffnt&ia=web

Summary:
Nowadays the Postal Service is a hybrid operation, with private owners leasing buildings to the government and operating similarly to many businesses. Postal Workers are all Federal Employees
yet "The Government" is trying to shut them down and establish full privatization. We've got to stop that.

BTW today I bought 40 first-class stamps. They'll last me at least 2 years but I support my post office
and will abide by their rules now that I understand them.

May 19, 2020

Shopping day here in Albuquerque 5-19-20. Thanks to our new city ordinance I saw almost

100% masking today. Saw one guy carrying his mask in his hand so I really distanced from him.

I went to the Post Office, checked for mail in our PO Box then went to the counter to buy some stamps
to help support them. This is the first time I've gone to the counter since last December. Now they make everybody wait in the lobby then allow us access to the counter one at a time. There are plastic shields between clerks and customers.There were two clerks today. Of course I had one of my wipes with me and when I got to the counter I began to wipe down what part of it I could reach and was immediately reprimanded. Wow, I've shopped all over this town and nobody else has ever complained. So I quietly paid for my stamps and got out of there. Sheesh.

May 19, 2020

Here are some facts about hydrochloroquine, chloroquine and cholorquine phosphate that

I've discovered in my research: NOTE: Chloroquine and Chloroquine Phosphate are two names that refer to the same drug.

(NOTE: I originally posted this in a thread in the Latin America Group and then in a thread in General Discussion but I think it deserves more exposure.)

1. A. Hydroxychlorquine is listed as as a medication to prevent malaria. It is taken ONCE A WEEK
with doses of around 500mg. Follow your doctor's orders. If malaria develops while using this drug for chemoprophylaxis/prevention, it should not be used as part of the treatment regimen. -Current guidelines should be consulted for additional information.
1. B. It is used as a treatment for malaria infection with an additional dose and follow-up doses at
6, 24 and 48 hours. All doses are less than 800 mg each.
1. C. It is used as a treatment for lupus and similar afflictions. It's said to be a milder form of chloroquine. I didn't find any specific dosage for the lupus treatment using this medication. Follow
your doctor's instructions.

I did find this warning: An overdose of hydroxychloroquine can be fatal, especially in children. For this
reason any treatment using this med is restricted to persons 18 years of age or older.

2. A. Chloroquine/Chloroquine Phosphate is the first choice to use as to prevent malaria. In that application there's an initial dose then follow-up doses taken ONCE A WEEK as long as protection is desired. All doses are less than 1,000mg/1G
2. B. Chloroquine/Chloroquine Phosphate can be used to treat malaria infection. The initial dose is 1,000mg/1G on Day 1 followed by one dose each day of 500mg for 3 days. This usually breaks the infection.

These doses are lower than the 2G dose that was identified as lethal, even if only given once a day.
Pay attention people!

Malaria must be diagnosed using a blood test viewed under a microscope since there are five types of malaria. The type of malaria present will dictate which drug is used as treatment.

There are other drugs used to treat malaria but I've focused on these since they've been advanced as effective against COVID-19 BUT ONLY WHEN USED IN COMBINATION WITH OTHER AIDS OR
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DRUGS. Certainly it seems that no malaria drug should be used for any purpose at a higher dose than that used to treat malaria. (This last sentence is my opinion.)

Now we have the promise of remesdivir but we still need more research. Anything short of a vaccine that helps to stop/reduce the COVID-19 symptoms is welcome, in my opinion.

Links: https://www.drugs.com/health-guide/malaria.html

https://www.emedicinehealth.com/malaria/article_em.htm

https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-8633/chloroquine-oral/details

https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/chloroquine-oral-route/proper-use/drg-20062834

https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/disease.html

https://www.drugs.com/hydroxychloroquine.html

May 19, 2020

As penance for making a slandeorus post elsewhere that accused the Koch organization of

producing Charmin, I have edited that post and present here the straight skinny. Some of this information is old but still valid and a good learning experience for me:

Koch owns Georgia-Pacific headquartered in Atlanta and produces paper products under the Fort James brand name plus these others:

"The only way to stop people like the Koch Brothers is to turn off their money spigot. We the American people can do this by not buying their paper products, which include VANITY FAIR, QUILTED NORTHERN, ANGEL SOFT, SPARKLE, BRAWNEY, MARDI GRAS, AND DIXIE."

link: https://www.change.org/p/boycott-paper-products-by-koch-brothers-industries

"Companies Owned by Koch Brothers and the Products they Sell(...)

The Koch Brothers (David and Charles) own:

Koch Industries
Invista
Georgia-Pacific
Flint Hills Resources
*Dupont
Koch Pipeline
Koch Fertilizer
Koch Minerals
Matador Cattle Company"

much more at link: https://progressivenetwork.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/companies-owned-by-koch-brothers-and-the-products-they-sell/

Let's keep it up, we already got rid of one of the brothers!