My sister is a retired RN. Most of her years were in labor and delivery. She volunteered to jab people with the mRNA vaxx. She voted for Obama, Biden and Harris, so there is that clarity of thought. We are diametrically opposed on the topic of the mRNA vaxx. My objection stemming from my background as a molecular biologist and keenly aware of the adverse effects observed as well as related research in producing the vaxx.
On an unrelated topic, I put up a new TP-Link router yesterday. It is WiFi7 capable. The current house router is an Asus model with support for WiFi6 and has the firewall and account login to my fiber ISP. I added the new router as an access point with DHCP off so the Asus router is in charge of DHCP service. The new router feeds off one of the Asus 1 Gbps Ethernet ports. I did a wireless speed test yesterday to my Samsung S22Ultra phone on the 5 GHz WiFi6 channel. 877.71 Mbps download, 938.61 Mbps upload. Actually faster than the wired Ethernet connected to the USB-C on the Samsung phone. Pretty close to the limits of the 1 Gbps symmetric service.
My parents are conservative, but both of my sisters and my little brother are completely on the leftist side of everything. I am trying to get everyone to come over for Easter so I was on the phone with one of my sisters this morning.
She began talking about how much she hates Elon Musk and Donald Trump and claimed that both were trying to steal our data and destroy our country. I tried to gently point out flaws in her thought process and things that she believed to be true that were actually just propaganda. She started getting extremely emotional which is how lefties try to win arguments. But I could see that my hopes to get our family together for Easter were going to fall apart if I didn’t change the subject.
My parents are both in their late 80s and suffering from severe health problems. My mother especially is having cognitive issues. I feel like we are not going to have very many more holidays with them. It seems important not to let lefty idiocy make what time that they have left be squandered.
We had Covid twice as well. The first time, my wife’s sister and he husband Col. Bob came up to visit and stayed with us for a week. They both looked ill and were hacking around us all week while not taking even the slightest precautions to prevent spreading whatever they had to us. The subject of Covid came up while they were visiting. Col. Bob explained why he felt that he was completely justified kicking his subordinates out of the military for not taking their shots. He also explained how diversity was the US Military’s greatest strength.
I thought that I had bent over backwards to express my opinion on these subjects without offending him. But he has never actually forgiven me for not acknowledging that he was right, and I was wrong. So, while my wife’s sister comes to stay with us frequently, he never does anymore. When we first met him decades ago, he expressed conservative points of view. I wondered how he had managed to advance through the ranks at a time when conservatives were being purged.
When they got back home, they both tested positive for Covid and we got a nasty phone call from him blaming us. When he called we had no symptoms, but a few days later we came down with something that was a little worse than a typical cold.
I thought that this minor bout would give us natural immunity. But our dental office had been closed down for a month by a nastier version the next year. When it opened back up we went in for our tooth cleanings and exam. The dental hygienists and assistants were much more slovenly than usual. We noticed that they were not even bothering to change their gloves after sticking their fingers in people’s mouths. I made a comment but was assured that the entire office had been completely disinfected so there was no danger. Within a few days both my wife and I became very ill. And despite me taking horse paste and a bunch of vitamins both of us were quite ill for a month. It was never something that felt life threatening, but it was very miserable.
Actually, I am happy with the performance of the 4 routers that I set up in a WiFi7 mesh system except for dropped WiFi calls on our cell phones when I walk from one area to another. The only other issue is that I have some lights and cameras which do not respond for a while after a power outage. The primary router and our cable modem are hooked to am uninterruptable power supply, but the slaves go down and it takes them awhile to reestablish all of their connections.
I purchased three super cheap uninterruptable power supplies from AliExpress for them that use two 18650 cells each, but they actually hook to the DC inputs on the routers and I need to find the proper connectors or cut them off of the power supplies that came with the routers. I have not got around to doing it yet.
I am not sure what is going to happen to AliExpress with the Tariffs. Up until the other day orders less than $800 were basically exempt from customs. They cleared immediately. I don’t really mind paying an additional 20% but I am afraid the current 2-to-3-week delivery times will extend to who knows how long. I am hopeful that the Chinese will roll over quickly... and open their markets but who knows.
My longtime friend who has been a customs broker for decades is delighted because he believes his business if going to increase exponentially. He of course said months ago that small parcels from China were being used to smuggle fentanyl into the country. He wanted AliExpress and other retail outlets located in China along with Chinese sellers on Amazon and eBay to be shut down at that time. His actual reasons seemed more than a little self-serving.