BradInATX

Going to piggy back on this thread. I'm going to throw a structure up next to the pool. I have no idea what to even call it, but it's basically an 18x8 pergola with a roof, two sides walled off with planks, and two sides open with roller shades or curtains (TBD). Outdoor living room with TV, bar, fridge etc that can close all the way up. Anyway, my only option due to a bunch of logistics is to put it on an existing concrete pad that's at least 10 inches thick and probably more. Any issue with using the Simpson 4x4 bases that are meant to go on concrete and using redhead concrete anchors to secure them? I know code is to dig and bury, but my backyard is pure limestone and even if it was possible logistically (it's not), I'm not doing all that. I'm going to put angle braces on all of the structural cross beams, and the whole thing is going to be pretty damned heavy by the end. I don't think shear will be an issue, but I also don't want to tear up my slab. Any thoughts?

I think it's going to be our biggest challenge, trying to find some like minded friends locally. We haven't even really been out in the world due to Covid, but I can tell it's going to be tougher than in Austin. I can go throw horseshoes and drink Bud Light as well as anyone, but we're hoping to find some more worldly types too. It's definitely something to think about coming from somewhere like Austin. Everything else out here is pretty incredible though. YMMV depending on what part of the area you end up in.

Voting for manicured silver-spoon New England wimpy bags of sand to own the libs

Come see me in New Braunfels and then tell me if you still think that. (I generally agree with your principle if we're talking about race, though - Austin is white af)

I expect that will change before I actually end up out there. I told them mid April, since that'll be my 2nd shot +2 weeks.

Not sure what you're looking for exactly but my sister in law just did a new build out there in China Springs that was really nice for what she paid for it. Might be the way to go. I think it took 6 months.

This was excellent. We did a great job here and America once again led the world on this one We'll see, but we won't know long-term impact for awhile. I think VCs and mega corporations gobbling up the small guys (see: Alamo Drafthouse) is tragic. Even the very early returns show that the pandemic has absolutely hammered wealth inequality almost exponentially, which is a huge problem. Many in the service industries have suffered financial catastrophe. And we might have an impending rent/mortgage crisis, the severity of which is TBD. If we do end up doing better than most economically, which is still out to the jury, the question is; was it worth 200,000 people who are unnecessarily dead? I don't know. That's sort of a moral judgement that won't be that interesting to talk about because everyone has their own compass in terms of weighing economic wellbeing vs. death.

W was a much better governor than he was president. If you offered me a deal where every Texas governor from here forward is an exact clone of W during his governorship here and there's no risk of any more Abbott's or any of the insane Texas GOP being governor, I'd take it in a heartbeat.

"IT'S BECAUSE EVERYONE IS FAT" ... "IT'S MORE COMPLEX THAN JUST LOOKING AT FAT PEOPLE!!" The mental gymnastics some of you put yourselves through to rationalize away America's objectively poor pandemic response is quite a ride.

Vasectomy and 2nd vaccine dose both scheduled the Thursday before March Madness. Pretty cool that in one day I'll be protecting myself against a potential life-ruining destructive force and also getting the Covid shot.

This is true. The excess death numbers make it pretty clear that we are underreporting ours. China's numbers are pretty laughable too.

In terms of actual Covid deaths vs. expected based off of obesity rates, we are 21st worst out of 160 countries. Based on obesity rate, expected deaths 96 per 100,000. We ended up at 160 per. If we tracked with the expected, we'd have had around 200,000 fewer Covid deaths than we have.

God damn Asians always overachieving and making the rest of us look bad.

The UK has been terrible. One of the worst countries in the world in terms of Covid outcomes. The UK has done an admirable job of mimicking the US' population of fat entitled hillbillies.

I'd just do it the next week. The 28 days isn't really based on anything except the time period they set to get through the trials quicker. There's some evidence that might even end up showing that it helps to wait. We don't really know one way or another yet, but 3 days difference isn't going to materially change anything.

I have a client whose management is pretty Trumpy and has been wanting me to come out there for some in-person sessions for awhile. I'll be vaccinated soon and I'm actually excited to get on a plane and go to suburban Georgia for work. What the fuck?!

Educated people, music, art, culture, and a collection of people that aren't all exact like one another isn't for everyone.

It's like everyone involved is dug in to the point where nobody will consider that there is some option between "forcing them to live like hobbits in the woods" and "having them build entire slum towns in the middle of critical infrastructure".

I saw that too, even a little wobble upward. Although it's Austin we're talking about so for all we know they're still not caught up from the ice storm. But it wouldn't completely surprise me to see a little bit of a plateau until vaccines start really exerting downward pressure on the numbers. Anecdotally I know two people that just caught Covid between their first and second shots. There's definitely a little bit of premature load-blowing in terms of people acting like the pandemic is over. Hell I'm between my first and second shots and I find the urge to YOLO it and go hit the bar or whatever is creeping in. I'm not really concerned by it, outside of it killing a handful of people at the 11th hour which is a bit tragic. I saw someone, can't remember where, compare the deaths between now and summer to the people that died in WW1/WW2 battles that happened after the war was already over. Collapsing dead 5 feet from the finish line. That sucks.

I mean, yeah. You know who we're talking about here.

LOL she couldn't even focus on her council job for more than three months.

You don't think the Republicans would have passed a shit ton more legislation than they did over the past four years had they only needed 50 votes? For every bill that gets to vote there are hundreds that don't because they already know they don't have 60 to pass it.

It's weird because I swear there's a poster here who lives in Prague and was saying that they were doing really well early on, even re-opening faster than us based on there being almost zero community spread. But that was pretty early in the whole thing. They have the second worst death rate of any country besides San Marino. Also, that obesity rate for the Czech Republic is off, the data didn't copy and paste cleanly from the web. Thought I caught all the ones that were off. Czech is not the fattest country on Earth by 2x. Their death rate is terrible though.

We poor now

Death Rate actual vs. expected based on obesity rates. Dotted line is expected death rate (deaths per 100k people) based on obesity rate. Above the dotted line is bad. So we don't get to use obesity as our excuse. Even accounting for that, we're one of the worst performing countries in the world. The countries directly above and below us in terms of obesity rates have 14% and 25% of the deaths per capita that we have. But hey, we did better than Sweden at least.