Posted inHome life Salem

We find that Best Buy sucks and Kelly’s rocks

My wife has been going through Best Buy hell after an incompetent salesperson ordered the wrong cooktop. Laurel had taken a Consumer Reports rating of induction cooktops into the Salem Best Buy store, pointed to the General Electric model that she wanted, and trusted that the paperwork she got was correct. Sure, she should have double-checked the model number. Or I could have. We admit that we weren't completely blameless in the mixup that led to Best Buy taking out our current radiant cooktop and installing what turned out to be a newer model GE radiant cooktop. We simply assumed…
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Posted inSalem

Why Salem snow has been so much less than Portland snow

Last night on the 11 pm news on KGW, Matt Zaffino said that Salem and the rest of the central Willamette Valley would get the most snow on Wednesday and Thursday.  At that time Portland wasn't even under a Winter Weather Advisory, which was issued only for the Central Willamette Valley and South Willamette Valley until 10 am on Thursday. But if you've been watching the evening news on Portland television stations, you know that the Portland area has been getting a lot of snow. Here in Salem, hardly anything so far. On the 6 pm news today, Zaffino explained…
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Posted inHome life

Schools should meet needs of both visual and verbal thinkers

Today our monthly Salon discussion group talked about a bunch of interesting topics, including the difference between verbal and visual ways of thinking. I brought this subject up, saying that I've started to read a story in The New Yorker about Temple Grandin and how she uses her visual skills to come up with more humane ways of designing slaughterhouses.  (As a vegetarian, I don't think slaughterhouses can be humane, but if there's ways to reduce the suffering of animals, that's a good thing.) Here's an excerpt from Thought Process, the story title in the print edition, which became How…
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Posted inSports

2023 Super Bowl made me feel pleasingly united

Most seasons I watch one NFL game: the Super Bowl. That was the case this year also. I enjoy football a lot, but the college game always has appealed more to me, probably because then I get to root for Oregon teams, and Oregon doesn't have a NFL team. However, I do consider it my non-sacred duty to watch the Super Bowl. It's an American tradition. And because it's the most important NFL game of the year, I get excited watching it. Partly that's because even though I don't have any favorite team during the regular season, I read enough…
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Posted inCoronavirus Health

I get Paxlovid “rebound,” but I’m OK with being Covid positive again

Six days ago I completed my 5-day course of Covid treatment with Paxlovid, which basically puts a brake on replication of the virus, giving your body a chance to deal with it before it gets up a big head of Covid steam. I commemorated that event with a blog post, "My somewhat contrarian take on Paxlovid 'rebound.'" I said: My symptoms (nasal congestion and a cough) have been gone for a few days. The rapid test I took this afternoon was negative. So things are looking good.  And I'm not all that worried about Paxlovid rebound, which doesn't seem like…
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Posted inCoronavirus Health

My somewhat contrarian take on Paxlovid “rebound”

After getting some Covid symptoms and testing positive on a rapid test last Monday, this morning I completed the 5-day Paxlovid treatment regimen.  My symptoms (nasal congestion and a cough) have been gone for a few days. The rapid test I took this afternoon was negative. So things are looking good.  And I'm not all that worried about Paxlovid rebound, which doesn't seem like a big deal to me. Nobody really knows how many people who take Paxlovid either get Covid symptoms after the 5-day treatment is over, or test positive after testing first positive, then negative, then positive again.…
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Posted inCoronavirus Health

I test positive for Covid. And feel positive about Paxlovid.

Well, it was a good run without ever getting Covid -- about three years since the nasty virus came to the United States in early 2020.  After I had trouble sleeping last Saturday night, feeling on edge for no discernible reason, I took a rapid Covid test Sunday morning, which came back negative, even though my voice was a bit hoarse. But Monday morning I had some nasal congestion and increased hoarseness, so I tested again. Yikes! A positive result.  That kicked off a flurry of phone calls. First, I called my Salem Health family physician's office. I talked with…
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