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I got an alert last night that the results of my coronavirus test I took on Sunday were available. It was negative. Odd. I’ve been literally sleeping (in every sense of the word) with my COVID-19 positive spouse, and I’m still negative. Maybe it hasn’t developed enough to be detectable. I’m pretty sure it was taken correctly. I had to swap myself, but I made sure to tap my brain from both nostrils with the swab. When it comes to my health and immune system I usually have the worst luck. So far, the kids aren’t showing any symptoms either.

Over the past four years, I’ve worked with my health care provider to find the right blood pressure medication for me. It was a bunch of trial and error, but we found one which didn’t make me drowsy and didn’t cause lab numbers for my kidneys and liver to go bonkers. I tried to refill the medication but the new medical insurance my employer switched to declined it, saying I should try to use a more affordable medication and provided a list of ones for me to try. The ones on the list were ones I already tried, and my health care provider’s office let my insurance know, but they still rejected it. Our health care system sure is frustrating to deal with. I’ve never been one to claim that I wish I could keep my healthcare plan or that I’m in love with it. My employer switches plans often. Because health insurance is so expensive, I never really felt like I had a choice in selecting a plan. If it wasn’t for my work contributing a portion to pay for it, I wouldn’t be able to afford it.

It’s wrong of me, but old habits are hard to break, I often refer to the stovetop as the oven because the burners are on top and in many cases connected to the oven.

The article is a little more than two weeks old, but I still wanted to share it because it’s cool and sounds like a plot of a movie.

Italian Police Use Lamborghini Huracan to Transport Kidney 300 Miles in Just Two Hours

Averaging 145 miles per hour, the Italian State Police delivered a donor kidney last week from Rome to Padua—a journey of more than 300 miles—in around two hours. The Lamborghini Huracan they used, which was specially modified for such tasks with a refrigerated frunk, was obtained by the Italian police back in 2017. Speedy organ delivery isn’t its only job, though. In fact, it’s a regular patrol vehicle for the department with lights, a police computer and other equipment necessary to perform traffic stops and arrests. Luckily for other speeders, it was too busy flying down the road for officers to check their radar guns.

I found an AI picture restorer that’s suppose to help eliminate scratches, or at least make the pictures look better. I gave it a try with two old photos. The before pictures are at the top, the after results are at the bottom.

Restore pictures with AI in seconds. Hotpot builds on the latest research to automatically remove scratches, sharpen colors, and enhance faces, transforming tattered photos into cherished memories. Color photos with faded parts are also repairable.

Here’s an interesting Kickstarter idea, it’s a Murphy bed that when flipped up reveals a heavy duty configurable gym.

Just realizing with relief that no future @potus will have to fly around in “Trump Force One.” The JFK-era livery will continue, right ⁦@BeschlossDC⁩? pic.twitter.com/ynIsLf4Zhg

— Mark Lukasiewicz (@DeanLuk) November 27, 2020

Something for my fellow U2 fans, The Edge surprised a kid with a guitar. I’m impressed with some of the names he came up with for his songs, very mature sounding, like I’m Not The Man You Think I Am.

https://twitter.com/RTELateLateShow/status/1332481745170673664?s=09

From a reader, supposedly on Texas 183– pic.twitter.com/FgZ4pP0kOt

— Bud Kennedy / #ReadLocal (@BudKennedy) November 29, 2020

CLAIM: Researchers used lung tissue from an aborted male fetus in the creation of COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. AstraZeneca did not use MRC-5 cells, which were cells first obtained from the lungs of a 14-week male fetus in the 1960s, in its production process for the COVID-19 vaccine.

However, this Wiki entry and this ABC News article provide some background to the use of fetal tissue in vaccine development.

The use of fetal tissue in vaccine development is the practice of researching, developing, and producing vaccines through the use of cultured (laboratory-grown) human fetal cells. The vaccines themselves do not contain traces of human DNA fragments.

Most vaccines currently available were developed using cell strains cultured from two fetuses aborted for other purposes in the 1960s. This has led some to oppose vaccination on religious or moral grounds. However, vaccine experts and manufacturers state that vaccines do not contain any of the original fetal tissue or cells, that the abortions occurred decades ago and replenishment with new tissue has not occurred. Also, producing a safe vaccine for many diseases requires the use of these cell strains. The Catholic Church, which opposes abortion, has stated that vaccination should not be refused on moral grounds in cases where the public health benefits of vaccination may outweigh the use of aborted fetal tissue to develop some vaccines, when an alternative vaccine created from cell lines that are not morally problematic are not available.

I absolutely loved this nugget left by Liberally Lean yesterday. Assuming that seal will be given to the judge’s family, that’s a remarkable momento to remember him by and I’m sure will pass down generations. If I were writing a novel, a direct descendent one day will have the same name and use it in his courtroom.

• That seal in the background was handmade by an inmate of the Wise County Jail circa 2004. The guy, my client at the time, had about eight DWIs and was headed to prison for another one. But we managed to let him serve a lot of his time in the county jail in exchange for letting him redo the courtroom because he was a skilled woodsman and artist. Every piece of wood in the courtroom was his handiwork.
• One other thing about the seal: The inmate told me that Judge Cude whipped him so much during the remodeling project about being a Texas Aggie that had secretly carved a longhorn into the seal. I was never able to definitively find it, and I never told the judge about it. (As I looked at it today, it seems possible that it might, ironically, be a set of upside down horns at the 6:00 o’clock position. If that’s it, I’m now regretting not telling him.)

Obama says Dolly Parton not getting medal of freedom was ‘screwup’: ‘I’ll call Biden’

This is a long video, but if you give it a chance, it might pull you in. Inigo Quilez is a mathematical artist and he provides a step-by-step explanation of what it took to create this image of a girl taking a selfie. If you want to take it a step further, he lets you toy around with the editable real-time rendering code. Give it a try, and pretend you’re an intern at Pixar.

I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while. Last week was Thanksgiving week and the week prior was extremely busy and stressing with something I plan on writing about later. But on Saturday, WifeGeeding tested positive for COVID-19. She’s been experiencing mild symptoms throughout the week, but on Saturday morning, she lost all sense of taste and smell.  Since she’s a schoolteacher and with Monday around the corner, we opted for a rapid-test. For the most part, she’s fine. The only major symptom I may have is extreme fatigue. But then again, maybe I’m just bored and depressed. Whatever the case, I went to get tested yesterday and expect to find out the results by Wednesday. The kids seem just fine and will be quarantining at home attending class online again. Too bad we didn’t have a competent administration who could have enacted measures to protect the American public from the pandemic from lasting as long as it has.

At the beginning of Thanksgiving week, I was slightly perturbed at WifeGeeding’s family for inviting everyone to travel down to attend a high school playoff football game. I thought it was an irresponsible thing to do considering the rising COVID numbers and having everyone travel from all parts of Texas to attend a game they didn’t have any close friends or family in. And you know how high school football games are treated, with little respect to anything related to pandemic prevention. They claimed they would be careful by brining their own food and not going to concessions, but the ineptness puzzled me. WifeGeeding’s brother cancelled because someone at his place of employment recently tested positive for COVID, so that helped take some pressure off of us. It bothers me greatly being put into a position in which I have to put the safety of my family over peer pressure of pleasing other family and not looking like the black sheep of the bunch.

As for Thanksgiving, I was really pleased with my turkey. Some years I really get into the whole cooking experience, other years, it’s a burden. Last year, I found a great brining kit from Urban Accents. It includes everything, including the brining bag. What I love about the brining bag is that it’s the perfect place to dispose of bones and all the other uneaten leftovers. This year, I used my gas grill to try to smoke my bird with woodchips since I don’t have a traditional smoker. Out of the four burners, I left the outer two on low, placed the bird in the middle, and added woodchips every so often. It may have been my best bird ever. I also mastered some great sides which added to the experience. Thankfully, WifeGeeding still had her senses of taste and smell at the time.

The only other thing we did was travel to visit my parents’ grave at the local National Cemetary on Friday. I like to have the kids place some poinsettias by the headstone, as well as, an American flag. The kids seem to enjoy doing it each year, and it’s fun to see both of them compete at seeing who can find them first. But I’m feeling weird “dragging” the family down there to do something only I need to do and I’m not sure if I even want to do it anymore. If it wasn’t a long trip and didn’t take so much out of the day, I’d probably feel different. I get the sense that “real family” to everyone else is anything related to WifeGeeding’s clan. I used to feel strongly at trying to honor my parents by having their grandkids who they never got to see visit their resting site and for them to know and honor their heritage, but now I’m thinking, what’s the point?

In a conversation yesterday, I accidentally combined Best Buy and Bed Bath & Beyond by saying “Best Buy & Beyond”. You know, if they merged, that would be a great name.

I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of social media photos of Elves on the Shelf wearing masks and other personal protective gear with everyone thinking they are the most imaginative.

It’s going to be a busy week for me, so I’m not sure how much I’ll post this week. You have been forewarned. Or, if you’re a Mandolorian fan, I have spoken. This is the way.

A German man’s Nazi grandfather took over a Jewish man’s store. He tracked down his descendants to apologize

A Reddit user’s town’s library is under construction, so they’re using an old grocery store as the temporary library.

I have heard a lot of predictions about Donald Trump refusing to leave office, but my prediction is he will leave suddenly. The scenario I can picture most easily is this: sometime soon, he travels to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend as he always has, but this time he just stays there.

— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) November 15, 2020

President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1328113186747396096

While checking the mail yesterday, a neighbor drove by, stopped, and rolled down his window. I stepped towards his car, but he told me to stop because he thought he might have COVID-19 and explained all his symptoms and how he hasn’t been able to work and just has been laying down on his couch out of breath.

I asked if he was going to get tested. He said it could just be a sinus infection. I told him he can get tested less than three miles away at Andy Brown Park in Coppell. Then, we talked about how much it might cost and how quickly he could get the results. He had a friend who got his results in 15-minutes, but it cost over $300 dollars. I told him that was because he got a rapid test, but I’m pretty sure he could go through the drive-thru testing at Andy Brown Park and it wouldn’t cost him anything, though it would take longer to get the results, and it was worth checking out.

He then explains to me how he doesn’t trust any testing but the rapid testing. I inquired as to why and he explains that he can monitor his sample and questions how can they track his sample from anybody else’s and that it sounds like some scam to cover-up a bigger agenda. Ignoring the cover-up portion, I told him that testing isn’t unlike any blood test or he’s taken in the past, that there’s a system in place in which they record his name, sample number, and they probably use bar codes to help with the record keeping and speed things up.

My neighbor then explains, “Well, I’m afraid if I get tested and I’m positive, they will take my son out of school.”

BoN: Wouldn’t that be a good thing so others won’t get infected?

Neighbor: But that’s the thing, I think he may have got me infected.

Puzzeled BoN: Well, if that’s the case, wouldn’t you want to pull him out of school so he doesn’t infect others? Thanksgiving is around the corner, you don’t want him to infect someone who is going to have Thanksgiving dinner with a high-risk family member.

Neighbor: Hmm. Yeah, probably. That’s why I talk to you, you’re my inner conscience.

Despite rising COVID-19 cases, universities including Texas Tech and Texas A&M are planning in-person fall graduations

Multiple Texas universities are planning in-person graduation ceremonies this December, despite the fact that the state’s daily COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations are higher today than they were in May when most universities first scrambled to cancel the celebratory events.

80 percent of those who died of Covid-19 in Texas county jails were never convicted of a crime

Alex Trebek’s ‘Jeopardy!’ replacement should be LeVar Burton, say thousands backing petition

As I said before, I think it will end up being Jeff Probst since he used to host Rock & Roll Jeopardy!.

PayPal now lets all US users buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency – The company plans to bring cryptocurrency into Venmo next year.

Brewery launches new Biden beer described as ‘inoffensive and not too bitter’

People Who Work from Home Should Pay a New Tax, Economists Suggest

Entitled “What We Must Do to Rebuild,” the report outlines a series of problems that lay ahead and suggests some pretty radical solutions. For instance, Deutsche Bank researcher Luke Templeman proposes that leaders should impose a tax on people who work from home.

The proposed tax wouldn’t target citizens during times of government-imposed lockdowns, but a Deutsche Bank survey found that respondents would like to continue to work from home two to three days per week when it’s time for people to go back to the office. “That means remote workers are contributing less to the infrastructure of the economy whilst still receiving its benefits,” Templeman writes.