Wife got the first pfizer shot this morning. Already starting to feel like crap. According to our pharmacist friend, that means she already had covid sometime in the past (feeling sick after second shot means you didn't have covid). Seems like we should develop better tests to see if you had covid in the past, so you don't have to risk getting side effects, etc., from getting a shot you don't need.

Ummm... your pharmacist is an idiot. I had Covid in November. 1st shot in January, no side effects.  Second shot in February? Made me sicker than when I had Covid

A number of posters here have said they’ve been vaccinated. They also know of family, friends, and co-workers who have been vaccinated.
Likewise with respect to knowing people who got the disease.
One could use that sort of info as a personally verified statistical sample as guidance.

Got Covid in November. Unknown where I it from. Grocery store? Target? Costco? who knows. Interesting thing, though. I worked two 12 hour shifts before I got tested.  None of us wore masks, and social distancing is impossible at my workplace. No one there caught from me.   But my spouse did. Three family members had covid and died. But all three were in their 80s and not doing well to begin with.   I got my Moderna shots in Jan/Feb.  Spouse is holding off.  Since December, two other co workers have gotten Covid.  Both did not have the vacc. Several of my co workers have gotten it. I'd guess at 65-75% of my friends/family have gotten vacc'd.  The rest are either waiting until traveling requires it or they are in the rabid anti-vacc group.

I honestly don't care one way or the other if you chose to get it or not.

And while my covid experience wasn't all that bad... exhaustion and confusion mostly. Bit of a cough. That's about it. But I am still exhausted. all the time. I don't sleep well any more, either. Taste and smell are off, too. Meat, coffee, cooked veggies and shit all smell the same now. Eggs, milk, fruit, chocolate, meat and wine all taste 'off'.   

Don't know what effects the vaccine has had on me. Or will have.   I joke that the chip that was imbedded in the vacc isn't working, my 5G is non existent and I'm still waiting for that third arm to grow.

We've had AAA for years.  The purchase price for a couple years paid for towing the ancient Mazda B-something pick up on several occasions when the teenager was learning to drive.  They didn't bat an eye when I had to use a non AAA tow for my motorcycle outside Weed, CA.  I sent them a copy of the bill, they sent me a check. I pick up maps on a more than regular basis. I use them for currency exchange on our international trips (its free).  I do have to keep RV+Plus as a minimum for the motorcycle towing, though.  I get hotel and rental car discounts as well.


I think that while they are a nationwide company, they do tend to branch out, so to speak, to cater to the state that you live in. AAA Washington is mine.  They tailor stuff to the PNW for the most part.   

I've had the great benefit of living and working outside the US, so let me give you a nickel worth of advise on tariffs.

Thailand: If you want to buy a BMW in that country, be prepared to pay a tariff of ~110% over the asking price for the same car in UK(inside the EU).


I'm not advocating tariffs, just comparing like for like.

I noticed that Thai made 'foreign' products (Honda bikes & Bernina sewing machines were two that I was looking at) are more expensive there than they are here in the US.  12$ for a 6 pack of Bud....and some Ex-pats (and locals) are stupid enough to pay it.  hahaha

Skin color is meaningless but I actually care about the clothes you are wearing and I infer judgements about your capabilities and demeanor from them.  If you are in a well fitted suit and alert, firm handshake and aware of what is going on then I think of you differently than if you are in baggy pants around your thighs, gold chains around your neck, a wife beater and a dew rag.

And I have encountered the opposite. Nice clothes do not make you smart.

To my knowledge, he has legally changed his name.  If he wants to call himself Ozymandaus, and goes through the appropriate legals steps to do so, so be it.

you're right. HIS name is Caitlyn.

Unfortunately, utterly true.  People only see what they expect, folks rarely notice the unexpected.  No one expects motorcycles.  I admonish new riders to consider themselves invisible, and consider all drivers as would-be murderers who will try to kill them on a daily basis.  Its way closer to the truth than I like.

I spent three weeks of a five week vacation riding around northern Thailand on a motorcycle this past january.  It was an amazing thing. Once I got used to the seemingly 'free for all' that is Thai roads, I felt safer riding there than I ever have here in the states.  As an ex pat explained to me: "Every person that drives a car here started out on a bike.  They know the bikes/scooters are there, and they leave enough room for them to get around." 

The drivers went out of there way sometimes to give us enough room to squeeze through, seeing as we were on 'big bikes' (Honda Forza and Honda CB500X).

I wish that people here were more like them.  Granted, I never saw dipshits on sport bike doing wheelies on the highway or large herds of slow moving cruisers, but the "can't we all just get along" attitude was nice.