Another sign of fall is the increasing number of boats being pulled from the water by owners and boatyards. The one that services and stores the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout has more than two dozen in its temporary storage area awaiting winterization and shrink-wrapping. That number is increasing daily even as the storage racks and trailer yard are filling. My boat won’t be pulled out of the water until a couple of weeks after Columbus Day, giving the boatyard plenty of time to work through the backlog that will build up over the next few weeks.
As I have mentioned before, the Leaf Peepers will soon be arriving in growing numbers as the fall foliage colors emerge. One thing that is different between the Leaf Peepers and summerfolk is that Leaf Peepers are here for only a short time, they envy the people living here and admire our beautiful landscapes. They also leave behind a lot of tourist dollars, something that is always appreciated. We also only have to deal with them for a few weeks as foliage season passes pretty quickly.
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The claims that the only way to stop the spread of Covid-19 is to wear masks are accepted by so many without questioning them. Yet study after study shows the efficacy of masks (except for the N-95 masks) is minimal at best. We’ve seen more than a few videos with practical demonstrations of just how poorly the masks most of us use work. There have been the studies that show the same thing, both by experimentation and statistical analysis. Yet the gullible don’t question the claims by questionable ‘authorities’ or bow to the demands of the mask “Karens”.
I know I am sick to death of people spouting the “masks will prevent the spread of Covid” line when an increasing amount of evidence says otherwise.
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While not exactly fresh news, it is still disturbing that we’re seeing blatant racism in the UK, in this case in the form of 14 white musicians working for an opera company being fired solely based on the color of their skin.
Their excuse? The opera company claims they are following diversity guidance from Arts Council England. However, the Arts Council said they did not instruct the opera company do so.
‘Woke’ has claimed even more innocent victims.
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To see just how crazy it’s gotten down in New Zealand, this is a perfect illustration.
Three Auckland residents attempting to cross into an Auckland Level 4 Lockdown Zone with a significant amount of food from Kentucky Fried Chicken were arrested by police. Why would these three people attempt such a thing?
Auckland New Zealand was placed in a level-4 lockdown, meaning all restaurants are shut down even for takeout, and people within the L4 zone are to remain in strict isolation bubbles and quarantine confinement.What, a food run isn’t considered part of emergency food shopping? Hmm. I guess tyrants really don’t care if their people suffer under draconian laws that reduce citizens to nothing but prison inmates.
After an extensive sting operation and police chase, law enforcement announced today they successfully arrested three men who were attempting to gain re-entry into Auckland with a significant amount of contraband Kentucky Fried Chicken, ten tubs of coleslaw, and a large amount of illegal french fries.
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As a result of the ‘level-four’ restrictions, the people in New Zealand were instructed to stay at home, “Do not talk to your neighbors”, wear a mask, maintain 2 meters social distance, and stay away from others if you leave your home for the three approved reasons: Emergency food shopping, healthcare or testing.
What’s ironic is that it has been shown that lockdowns don’t work, and in fact actually make things worse, including damaging the economy.
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Something that has been evident to anyone paying attention is that China isn’t the economic juggernaut everyone thinks it is. One indicator is the impending crash of Evergrande, the Chinese property giant that the government is on the verge of abandoning, leaving it billions in debt.
Evergrande is proving to be the first big victim. As the company falters, its undoing raises a fundamental question for the world’s second-largest economy: has China’s property-driven growth model – the global economy’s most powerful locomotive – run out of road?To quote Stephen Green, “Authoritarian regimes often look invincible until shortly before they unravel.”
Yes, says Leland Miller, chief executive of China Beige Book, a consultancy that analyses the economy through proprietary data. “The leadership in Beijing has been more worried about Chinese growth than anyone in the West.
Then there’s this:
Not only is Evergrande possibly facing complete liquidation, but word came down that the company might make payments on Chinese-owned debt, but stiff foreign debt holders.If the Chinese economy has become so fragile that the downfall of a single firm could take the Chinese economy with it, that is a signal of economic weakness, one the Chinese government is trying hard to hide. But it can only hide it for so long.
But the word this morning is that the Chinese government is now telling them to avoid default on dollar-denominated bonds. After all, if investors worldwide decided that all Chinese debt was potentially toxic, that would leave connected Chinese communists in a world of hurt.
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Oh, yeah, this certainly has a ring of truth to it:
Professionalism and working together peacefully together is no longer the acceptable social norm.It seems no one is allowed to grow up anymore. Then again, being ‘woke’ means you never have to actually grow up. You can remain a whiny spoiled child and never become a mature adult.
Nobody is immune. It is cancel culture made into everyday office life. It is a high school behavior sanctified by corporations.
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On my pre-church shopping trip to Walmart this morning I noticed a lot more empty shelves. There was plenty of toilet paper and paper towels, unlike the last time we went through this. What was missing?
- Frozen foods. There were more than a few empty frozen food shelves, something I have rarely seen at Walmart. It isn’t unusual to see one or two empty sections as they are always rotating stock and need an empty freezer section to move stock into. But over half of one side of an entire aisle was empty.There were empty shelves here and there throughout the store as well, though I didn’t spend the time to see which items were missing. (Hey, it was a pre-church shopping trip and I generally know exactly what it is I want and where it is, so I don’t spend a lot of time taking care of it. I’m usually in and out in less than 15 minutes.)
- Distilled water. They usually have a couple of hundred 1-gallon bottles on the shelves, but for the past 3 weekends, there have been none.
- Spring water. With the exception of a couple of the local suppliers, there was none to be had. Of what was available, there wasn’t much, maybe a dozen gallons of each.
- Carbonated drinks. I’ve found that a number of brands of soft drinks are only available in plastic bottles. Aluminum cans for those brands have disappeared. I haven’t seen any a couple of weeks.
- Canned cat food and dog food. The feline contingent here at The Gulch consume both wet and dry cat food, with a majority being dry food (also know as “That nasty dry crap”). The pickings were slim today, with over two-thirds of the shelves being empty. The brand didn’t seem to matter. I noticed the same thing in the adjacent dog food aisle.
- Dry cat food and dog food. While I didn’t need to buy any during this trip, I saw a lot a few empty shelves as well, but it seemed it was primarily certain brands that were in low/no supply. The IAMS and Blue Buffalo shelves in the cat food aisle were the only ones fully stocked. It was similar in the dog food aisle, but there was also plenty of Walmart’s Ol’ Roy house brand available.
I haven’t walked through any of our other local supermarkets, but it wouldn’t surprise me if I saw similar things there as well.
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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is more fall-like, there’s still plenty of boat traffic out on the lake, and the boats of the summerfolk being removed from the water are stacking up quickly in the boatyards and marinas.