Glad to hear that. Sometimes it's been a bit rough in spring, this must have been an easy off-season.

A bit of basic frost damage and erosion. Not sure how much is winter and how much is fall and spring. It just needs a bit of regular maintenance, always had since they "finished" it. You can probably ride it on a regular bike, just keep you eyes open.

I rode it many years back, when it was all grassed over and there was a really narrow trail. The grass kept everything anchored and it didn't erode. The finished trail opened it up to that.

My wife and I walk regularly from Colchester down to about Staniford Rd, and that's all clear. Someone else mentioned the causeway, and I would be surprised if there weren't a little damage. Haven't tried to walk it at all since last fall, though.

Thank you for that perspective, it makes me feel much better about things. Not enough better to quit being careful, but still better than I had been.

I was under the impression that Omicron and later were better at evading immunity and that nothing worked in a lasting fashion against them - everything wanes fairly quickly.

Palace on Shelburne road, not for the building, but for the Fathom Events shows.

There are of course the arguments about there being left-leaning echo chambers, but then you have to ask how much of that is a "both sides" argument and how much is real. Keeping in mind the "facts have a liberal bias" comments.

A while back I posted that I came here on a job interview and it felt like home, so that was the job I took.

Aside from that and something that's been developing while I've been here - Vermont is one of the better places to be in a warming world. This real estate is going to become downright prime over the next fifty years or more.

Years ago we were in Hawaii for our 30th Anniversary. At some point we were talking to some locals, and they were lamenting that their biggest export was their youth. "The kids just want to get off the rock."

My wife is from Vermont, though.

Thanks for some references.

I was wondering this, too. Are you aware of studies quantifying vaccination vs long Covid?

Interesting. I've read information pointing in this direction, but hadn't heard it stated as a conclusion.

I'm looking at this, but my roof situation doesn't work because of the trees, siting, etc. It's not just cutting my own down, it's my neighbors' trees, too.

However I have a place in my back yard where a (mostly) stationary installation would work. I say mostly stationary because it's south-facing and I'd have to adjust the slope higher in the spring and lower in the fall for best power. (Friends from work do this.)

Do any of these companies do installations like this?

In my best Boomer voice I say, "really cold?" Really cold was my first winter after moving to Vermont when there were 30 days straddling January/February that never made it above zero, and bottomed out at 35 below zero.

Boomer anecdotes aside, and I'm sure non-transplant Vermonters or especially those from outside of Chittenden County have colder stories, I'll agree with others that you have to look at averages over time. We used to get below zero regularly, it only happens occasionally now. It's so memorable when it does because it is so seldom.

We got the two-battery unit in the first round, also. Our power had been getting pretty sketchy in the past several years. Nothing major, just lots of brief outages. We've had 37 events since Oct 2019, the longest 3 hours and a total of 19 hours. No problems, either.

Back in the fall they were predicting a trifecta - a combination of Covid, flu, and RSV. People have been saying for years that "Covid is just like the flu", which it isn't, but there are similarities in the symptoms. Maybe this time it's the flu instead of Covid. Which reminds me, my wife and I were visiting the grandkids and got sick after we got back. We tested negative Tuesday morning and should probably test again. I don't think it's anything significant, just part of the childhood germ factory cycle.

Elsewhere someone was asking, "What happened to the big wave of Covid that was supposed to hit this winter?" I think the problem is that we've quit paying attention.

There are two aspects to this - antibodies and white blood cells - T-cells and B-cells. Yes, the antibodies fade in a few months. The T and B cells don't. That's why they say that you still get protection from more severe disease.

We have a "perfect is the enemy of good" here. No, the vaccines aren't perfect. But they are pretty good, they do help, particularly so it's not so bad if you do get it. The find point is that just because they're not perfect doesn't mean they're completely useless, because they're not.

I'm over 65, I've gotten all of my shots on-schedule, and I still mask when going indoors into "public air" like supermarkets, and such.

I've been going to Four Seasons for my skin checks - next one week after next. I'm happy enough with the care I'm getting, but I'm also not any sort of special case, just preventive checks. I did go in a few years ago with an actinic keratosis and they took care of it for me.

We had some friends visiting in a truck years ago, and in addition to all of the above, when they were getting set to leave I took a few 2x4s and whacked together a simple frame for in the bed. A 2x4 in front and another behind the wheel-wells, and a pair of 2x4s in-between. Then put the kitty-litter / sand in the rectangle formed by the frame. That keeps it from sliding around in the bed.

In "The Forever War", by Joe Haldeman, they used fluid compression to survive extreme acceleration in their starships. Most of the time was shirt-sleeves, but when they went into battle, it was "into the tank." He goes into a fair bit of gory detail about the discomforts of it. Frequently better science fiction authors will have some amount of research behind what they write, but I have no idea what research he might have done back in the mid-1970s when this was written.

Probably about 20 years ago my wife was away with a friend for a day trip. While she was gone the kids built Isengard in the snow, taking up the whole front yard. When she returned the kids took her on a tour.

Though not causation I might expect some correlation, with the assumption that the vaccinated are more likely to follow other general medical precautions.

I've taken rail in England, both the tube in London and longer distance rail. The longer distance rail was really nice - preferable to air travel for the distance we were going. I would welcome that in the US.