The tanker ships full of cheap crude oil have not arrived on the west coast, prices still above $3 here.
On the water supply front, it is still snowing like gangbusters in the northern Sierras (see Truckee cam). The weather front from this weekend may be headed your way - heads up!
Links to my Google Maps ---> Sunset Route overview, SoCal metro, Yuma sub, Gila sub, SR east of Tucson, BNSF Northern Transcon and Southern Transcon *** Why you should support Ukraine! ***
Gas here is down, but is hanging around $2.45 right now - which would be a normal difference from points south.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
blhanelHy-Vee Gas Station here in Marion, IA has it at $1.73.9 today, before using Fuel Saver discounts...
$2.07 in Central Maryland - down from $2.29 on 3/3
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD Did I hear correctly that the President is suspending HOS regulations for truckers?
Did I hear correctly that the President is suspending HOS regulations for truckers?
Just for trucks carrying essential medical supplies and groceries. That might have already been changed ?
Hy-Vee Gas Station here in Marion, IA has it at $1.73.9 today, before using Fuel Saver discounts...
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
rvos1979Hauling gold tonight, also known as toilet paper. Only thing I care about now is that I have a job to do, and that is to keep the flow of goods moving to the stores. I'll do this job to the best of my ability, and I'll worry about the disease when I get it............
rvos1979 Hauling gold tonight, also known as toilet paper. Only thing I care about now is that I have a job to do, and that is to keep the flow of goods moving to the stores. I'll do this job to the best of my ability, and I'll worry about the disease when I get it............
Hauling gold tonight, also known as toilet paper. Only thing I care about now is that I have a job to do, and that is to keep the flow of goods moving to the stores. I'll do this job to the best of my ability, and I'll worry about the disease when I get it............
Armed guard riding shotgun?
Randy Vos
"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings
"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV
GAS BUDDY shows $1.92 in Gary
Carl, I'm glad to hear you have finished that chemo therapy.
Where I live, residents are to have no more than one visitor a day; at meal times, place settings are brought out individually; water is brought as asked for (no more pitchers out where residents can pour their own; the weekly trips to SMith's (the local affiliate of Kroger) are suspended; and we should be careful about physical conact with other people.
Johnny
Disagreeing with nobody; saving the insults for the idiots running the reality show. Illinois' restaurants are now take-out and delivery only. I'm okay with that...order ahead, drinks already in the car, drive the dinner to trackside somewhere and eat in relative peace.I would have been in Michigan now, were it not for the overabundance of caution. I'll have to see the new jumbo gons some other time (these cars, though still only 52'6" long inside, have 7'6" inches inside height, versus 5'6"; they're being used to remediate the ash dump at a blown-away power plant in Muskegon).Plans are still to go to Indiana Tuesday, eat carry-out if we need to, and see some of the trains I would have seen coming home from Michigan. We'll see if hoarding is any different there than here...I'd like to hoard a few interesting freight-car sightings, for sure! Today we saw our first gas in the Chicago area for less than two bucks a gallon. I think we have enough in our tank to get us into Indiana, where the prices should be even better.I really don't need to catch this virus, but am more likely to, given that I'm in a more susceptible age group. If I become unhealthy, cancer treatments (still pending MD decisions and insurance approval) may be put on hold, and I'm already off my pill-based chemo for over a month. That's where I'll tend to become impatient.Peace, love, and hand symbols!
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Murphy SidingI don't think that's ressticted to strangers anymore in our country.
My friends are usually courteous enough to wait until they can insult me behind my back.
Convicted One zugmann Exactly! We should be listening to strangers on forums! Risk factor is kinda high. Strangers are likely to insult you when they disagree with you.
zugmann Exactly! We should be listening to strangers on forums!
Risk factor is kinda high. Strangers are likely to insult you when they disagree with you.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
PJS1But millions of Americans will believe him because he is a doctor!
And the media, eager to collect clicks and eyeballs, will be quick to spread his doom and gloom because, as we all know, if it bleeds, it leads. I actually place the majority of the blame on the media. If they'd shut up for a week, it would be much saner around here.
Sorry about the political inference, but I see this as little more than part of the campaign to unseat the current POTUS. You'll notice the frequent references to his actions when the virus is mentioned.
Almost 12,000 people died in this country with H1N1. Everyone's level of caution went up, but you didn't see the panic. I don't care how the levels of virulence compare. 12,000 people is 12,000 people.
At risk are the aged and the infirm. Curiously, they are the same group as are at risk from the "common" flu. The same precautions apply.
One source is of the opinion that SARS-CoV-2 has actually been on our shores for much longer than we think. It took it hitting a nursing home, with several fatalities, before the virus really became an issue.
Flintlock76Three million people are not going to die from COVID-19, which is nothing more than a heavy-duty version of the common cold. My non-existant crystal ball doesn't work any better than anyone elses, but no way is another catastrophe like the one 100 years ago going to happen.
I would not predict how this is going to go, but I see no reason to conclude that it cannot be worse than what happened 100 years ago. Every day we are told how many cases there are in this country as though it is true. Yet it cannot be true. It has to be an undercount because it ignores the pre-symptomatic pool.
If we actually knew how many cases there are, we could look at the actual progression and tell about how many cases there would be the next day or next week. But we don’t have that ability because we don’t have any way of knowing the number of cases in the pre-symptomatic pool
In order to know that, we would have to have the ability to test everyone on a real-time basis. That way, we could gain the greatest advantage over the progression by isolating without delay, everybody entering the pre-symptomatic pool the moment they enter it.
But we do not have the ability to do that kind of real time testing, so instead of isolating people the moment they get the virus, we have to wait until they get symptoms and self-report. In the meantime, they get the virus without symptoms and therefore do not know they have the virus. Then as they continue to spend time in the pre-symptomatic pool, they freely transmit the virus to other people. So our lack of testing is giving the virus a head start on its multiplying rampage.
This is the critical point about testing. It is not to merely give people the knowledge of whether or not they have the virus so they can get treated, although that is a benefit. But the real main point is to test in order to eliminate the head start we are giving the virus by not knowing how many people have it without yet having symptoms.
Flintlock76By a very rough population ratio that three million theoretical deaths would equal the 650,000 deaths from the Spanish Flu in 1918-1919, and that was a catastrophe! Three million people are not going to die from COVID-19, which is nothing more than a heavy-duty version of the common cold. My non-existant crystal ball doesn't work any better than anyone elses, but no way is another catastrophe like the one 100 years ago going to happen.
Three million people are not going to die from COVID-19, which is nothing more than a heavy-duty version of the common cold. My non-existant crystal ball doesn't work any better than anyone elses, but no way is another catastrophe like the one 100 years ago going to happen.
The dead don't share your optimism.
By a very rough population ratio that three million theoretical deaths would equal the 650,000 deaths from the Spanish Flu in 1918-1919, and that was a catastrophe!
Euclid writes " so that is only 3-million deaths in this country. "
Well that's a relief, I was thinking 3.2 million deaths!
The ones I find most damaging are the ones who express their disagreement with some varient of "oh come on, smart people don't think like that"./..implying that not only am I wrong, but that they are superior through association, as well.
Convicted OneRisk factor is kinda high. Strangers are likely to insult you when they disagree with you.
Good thing we're not strangers! Let's hug it out!
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
The virus spreads as a geometric progression. Such a progression always seems to start slow and soon it reaches a gigantic rate of multiplication. This virus begins with no symptoms for a period of time. During that time, the victim is not aware of having the virus, but it is contagious, and the victim is likely to transmit it to others. It is only when symptoms begin that people become aware of having the virus.
Because of this pre-symptom phase, the virus is able to infect and spread without anyone knowing it. So the virus gets a head start on its geometric progression of spread.
In this country, we do not know how many are in this pre-symptom phase. It would require testing of everyone to know how many are in the pre-symptom phase. So when we are told how many cases there are here, it is only those cases that have gone beyond the pre-symptomatic phase.
Then because of the multiplication of the geometric progression the pre-symptomatic phase will gain population quicker than the symptomatic phase where we can actually count the members.
So the indications seem to be that the virus begins deceptively slow and then suddenly explodes with exponential growth. I think that is what the congressional doctor is looking at when he predicts total cases at 70-150 million people. But still the fatality rate is only 2%, so that is only 3-million deaths in this country.
Paul of Covington Luckily, I'm anti-social.
Luckily, I'm anti-social.
zugmannExactly! We should be listening to strangers on forums!
PJS1None! But millions of Americans will believe him because he is a doctor!
Exactly! We should be listening to strangers on forums!
Tree, I just realized how well this part of your signature goes with the Corona virus precautions:
"Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you"
Hopefully it will catch on.
tree68 Panic ensues. Schools are closing, other restrictions are starting to show up.
Rio Grande Valley, CFI,CFII
Sold out of chicken at 1 PM this afternoon. Big crowd out on a beautiful day. Not one mention of "how can you hold this?"
Given that many local restaurants have closed their dining areas, folks were looking for a meal, even though we run our event as take-out only.
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
I picked up a large, economy-sized package of TP a few weeks ago (pre-panic) - it'll keep me going for quite a while. But the stuff is definitely scarce around here right now.
Aside from hand sanitizer, and maybe bottled water, everything else in the store was well stocked the other day.
Sunday is my normal grocery day - promises to be interesting.
I refuse to panic. I don't have a job to go to anymore, I have only myself to care for, and I keep social distance from most all people.
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