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If you bought products made after COVID, did you notice the quality was less than what they were before COVID? It's across the board and I'll start with paper towels. I used to think the thinnest napkins and paper towels could be found in Chinese restaurants. Not so anymore. The towels in dispenser at the highway service plaza are so thin now, they melt in your wet hands as you pull them. It takes a few extra towels to dry your hands.

Paper cups from Publix market... I've been using them for years and after COVID the cups were leaking right near the bottom. It took a few months before they corrected the quality control. Now, the cups don't leak but the price went from $2.00 packs and are $4.50

Scorpion brand was one company popular for making model aircraft Electronic Speed Controls (ESC's) but they had a failure rate more than 50% after COVID. They will replace a defective unit under warrantee, but the cost of repairing a crashed model helicopter (or airplane) isn't covered. Many of us switched to other (more expensive) brands with assurance of less failures.

I'm sure lots of cars manufactured right after COVID are having a higher rate of defects.
That said, maybe it's important to confirm the manufactured date of the products you are buying to be before COVID (BC) or after COVID (AC)

Tag. } A R [ eng. Et Cetera...

7 2 8 1.. instantly.) Now.
..4151..an appointment in Time.) Strong radio O.
3 1 3 0.. Joseph.*) Let him A D D.[ !
.* Tell me, how long you going to stay here, Joe? -Amerika
.... 23. Physics.) The maximum distance that a charged particle, as a proton, can penetrate a given medium*...and yet maintain K e.) kinetic energy.
To produce ionization in the medium.
....24b. a length of Anchor cable on the deck.
* If the medium be the Pentatonic hive mind,
Ionization fails due to masonry...
Corridors & Murphy rule of war, para. 1..
' You are not G sus.'
...o4..the distance of the target from the weapon.
.... climate change confidential...
Heavens on Fire./ The radio dept.
..cloud song../ U S of A.
The sky moves sideways./ Porcupine tree.
..A R ] Pentagon$ meet the Shields / ~ .

Another hidden upside of C-19, is reconsideration of financial realities. And evolution. Jobs, employment, the stock markets, deficits, taxation, and even the threat to the usually secure money market funds. Many firms are failing, and some governments, with the best of liberal intentions, are throwing good money after bad. In these legal processes, after lower level creditors are sent packing, the higher ones (read bankers), inherit the mess, and often assign a management team to "reorganize", which is the root of another name for the work. What may then emerge is a leaner and meaner company, often much more successful than the failed one ever could become. But the losers often just piss the government money away, sooner or later to fail anyway. Marx and Engels would be rolling in their graves. But not Adam Smith. Socialism/communism---great plans, until other people's money runs out.

Tag.) Unwarranted Fed. Objective

Ride / 21 pilots
..bird flu / M I A } rest of the story...
Jet Lag / simple plan..} see Y. Shimatsu.
...........*.4 0 signs // sings \ g...sins...*.......
Hate to say I told you so / the Hives
..39.. country grammar../ Nelly
38..fill me in. / David.....} Psalm 9 / trouble.
3 7.. the Time is Now../ moloko...
...36..Lost art of keeping a...../ Q S A...
35..Come On let's GO./ Broadcast
...34..National Anthem / Radiohead....
33..D A N G E R / mystikal...
32.. playground love / A I R.
..31..music is my radar / blur...
XXX...kite / U 2....29..NYC / interpol...
28..Facts of Life / black box recorder
{ kite..kit...steal.. playing...must.....} 911 phonix
...27..NY, NY / Adams....
26..the Leanover / life w/o buildings.
25..what would you do ? / City high.
..24.. pyramid song / Radiohead
23.. Takeover / J z.
2 2. Lights, camera, Action./ Mr.Cheeks
21..Imitation of Life / REM.
X X..We need a resolution / Aaliyah.
...part 2..Cause = Time / broken social scene...
.... pandemic / comethazine
Teen Age Icon / the Vaccines
.. XENOCIDE / Aversions Crown
....b.. Xenocide / O S Card..[ the novel
$ ¥N.} ..FULL COMMUNISM / downtown boys.
P.3....next Edt.....

A woman called looking for a full bathroom renovation and was dissatisfied with the price and treatment from a nearby firm. The lead came to me so I was dispatched to her place to see what she wants and gather enough information to create an estimate. Estimates are free.

The entire meeting was prefaced with "My budget is thirty thousand and not a penny more."

I went to her house, took measurements, listed some of the points for her design, made a followup appointment at our showroom to go over the layout and prices. She came in and we showed her drawings and a line item for everything we can do and keep the price within her budget. Everything is transparent. No hidden charges.

We did good and I worked a design that was just around $28 thousand.

She looks over the layout. Decides on a more expensive door style, more expensive bathroom fixtures, add more drawers to the layout. that brings us right up to $30 thousand.

We don't supply lighting so she would have to purchase 4 of her own fixtures (that we will install) and they could be as low as $50 each to $250 each if she buys something ornate.

One issue is her want to change a swing door to the water closet into a pocket door.
The existing opening would have to be completely rebuilt, electric moved, new door, pocket door cage with sliding track installed. I explained while it's not in my normal scope, I have a carpenter who could do the work but I'm estimating the cost to be around $1,600 and that's taking her over the budget.

The woman's mood changed and she became angry. I explained every thing is clearly listed and she has choices to simplify the layout, choose less expensive fixtures and forget about the pocket door. I'm offering choices.

She waved a check in front of us thinking we would come down in price and my associate explained she needs to go home and make some decisions. We priced what she asked for with options and cannot bend a few thousand to make the deal.

With a huffy attitude we couldn't come down to her price, she wanted to take our design drawings on leaving. The estimate is free, giving away drawings that took a few hours to make isn't.

After she left, my boss wanted to know the outcome of the meeting and we told him the details. His comment was it's better she walked as his experience is customers who are difficult in the beginning are like that through the entire job.

....are making as much sense as some presidential candidates. For starters, are the huge drops over only two weeks. Record highs to solid bear market conditions. And not only in stocks, but also in bonds/rates. These usually head in opposite directions, which is the whole idea behind a "balanced, age linked, portfolio." Even more oddly, with interest rates at historic lows, the home mortgage rates seem little affected. Combine all this with falling prices for oil, and no real response to a full one trillion, that's TRILLION, of bond purchases, and other so called "quantitative easement" tricks. Never understood quite why they named it that. But I digress. Talking money heads claim that, in addition to Novid 19 overblown fears, there's a shortage of cash. What? Even less clear. Safer to stick with science. So nice to be grateful for having enough. The concept of enough is a great lesson for kids to learn. As in, I've had enough of the democrat mega pandering. Oops. And I really tried not to make this political, folks.

I was discussing with a business owner what will happen to his employees if/when he scales back his work force to due to a lack of work. His comment was they will most likely take on jobs making deliveries.
Most restaurants and grocery stores already have delivery service available. In the interest of safety, people would prefer having their orders delivered and not having to be subjected to crowds with long lines to get their food and supply now that they are on lockdown in many public places.
Shop by phone app, make a payment and schedule a delivery. When the truck arrives, your order is boxed and placed on your doorstep where you are alerted by text it's waiting for you.
I cancelled a routine doctor appointment this coming Sunday and the clinic said they are starting to call clients to cancel as the government mandated they go on lockdown. 20 doctors work out of that clinic and the waiting room is packed at peak times. They are implementing video doctor calls and hope to have that system up and running next week. The facility will remain open for emergencies and prescriptions will be available via phone consultation. That means the pharmacies that don't already make deliveries will begin making deliveries... job openings on the horizon.

I'm surprised no one picked up on this, but the suit that Trump wore in Georgia when he was arrested, booked and posed for the famous mugshot has been cut into pieces and being sold. This is similar to the coffee mugs and T-shirts promotion sold bearing his photo.
Last week, it was reported that Trump is offering 'pieces of Trump' in the way of cuttings of his blue suit, but you have to buy 47 $99 NFT's

That amounts to $4,653 and includes dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Trump himself.
It's an online purchase and the fine print states there's no guarantee you will get either.

Appropriate, isn't it?

Last month, masks were hard to come by. All the Amazon vendors showed back-orders. Fortunately, I had some saved from renovation work last year and travel. We found a box of 25 surgical masks in the medicine cabinet at my house.
Grocery shopping?
Everyone has some kind of mask. No mask, no entry.
It bothers me to read hospitals are out of masks. N95 and surgical masks are in short supply. As of tonight, I see Amazon has KN95 masks direct from China for $8 each in limited supply and surgical masks around $1 each in quantities of 50.

People are getting masks from somewhere. 30% are the fabric variety, probably home-made. It's been 2-3 weeks since I've seen/read and stories of the clothing companies putting employees back to work making surgical style cloth masks.

I did some research and planned to do some home-made masks. Joanne's Fabrics only had the raw materials and Walmart had 1 sewing machine (in a 30 mile radius) and lots of raw materials. That was more than a week ago.

On my return trip to Walmart, the machine was gone, nearly every bolt of white cotton fabric gone and all the elastic material for straps was gone.

I procrastinated... waited too long.
So ended my plans to make masks from home.

Every night I check the new cases for my county. The numbers are dropping but every few days it spikes. Because it this, I'm expecting the stay home order to be extended for another month.

Procrastinator or not, it's unlike me not to have a backup plan.

I'm thinking...

I see Reuters news service reported that Twitter has permanently suspended the account of 'My Pillow Guy' Mike Lindell for repeated violations to their company policy on election misinformation.
His personal account had nearly half a million followers.

It appears to be a self inflicted wound as QVC shopping channel quietly stopped selling his 'MyPillow' products in June of 2020.

Business 101 states: Never mix business with religion and politics.