SteveFord

I'm kind of cheap, maybe I'll find an old couch and use naugahyde on my Guild. I'm in love, I'm all shook up!

WOW! That's a sold out Madison Square Garden.

J-200s are really handsome guitars (except for that weird double pick guard Bob Dylan one). It's possible to have too much of a good thing! I think what I would like most, other than material possessions, is to be able to retire and see the country on a motorcycle like I've been planning. I don't know if it will happen or not but I sure hope it does.

Let us hope that herd immunity is such a thing with this virus. It's already mutated once so who knows. A hell of an experiment to risk with your population, I'll say that much. Pennsyltucky is up 1070 cases since yesterday, my little county is up another 18, Dauphin County is up 24. Our beautiful State Capital will probably overtake us in numbers by tomorrow. The county to the east of me, which is Lancaster, is getting creamed, they're at over 2000. There's one city, Lancaster, and the rest is mostly farm land with Amish and corn fields.

Right now things in the world are kind of gloomy. One thing you have to do is look ahead. For a while it was collecting vintage Stetson, Knox and Dobbs dress hats but I now have enough for maybe every week of the year. There comes a point where enough is just about enough. Just about. Maybe one or two more... Looking ahead, it's purchase another street bike and then a Gibson Firebird VII to replace the one I sold years ago to help finance some giant stereo speakers. A Martin D-18 or J-40 would be awfully nice, too. I've also never had a white SG Custom with 3 gold plated pick ups and an ebony fret board. I can do it if I work hard, eat all of my vegetables and don't blow it all on cocaine and hookers. So, what do you gentlemen have that you're looking forward to doing or getting?

You know, Senor Pepper, it might be time for me to do some guitar shopping. I still have to wait for this wretched virus to get done bumping us off and then I can pick up that Triumph I'm buying (why do I have 7 Triumphs, who knows) and then I'm thinking a red Firebird VII. I just checked eBay and Reverb and currently the prices are stupidly high. One will come along, though. It's not like they only made one of them.

Pennsyltucky is up to 50,957 (865 new cases) with 554 new deaths since yesterday. My little county is up 14 people since yesterday to 716 cases, the place where they had that astroturf movement Liberate PA shindig is up 43 since yesterday to 695. Slackers! Along with blood clots and strokes for the middle aged it also seems to be triggering all sorts of problems in children although all that appears to be preliminary findings. They first noticed the kids in England and now same deal in NYC. That bat on a Ritz cracker sure looks good, but no, I really should watch my girlish figure. Motorcycle season is coming up, after all.

Dauphin County is up 18 cases, York County is up 23 cases, total state is up 825 since yesterday. I would think that is a bad thing but I'm told that it's actually quite good because we now know that more people are infected which somehow means it's better than it was. At first glance one would think it is simply spreading like the plague.

They should be afraid of getting it, the hospital where I was taken following my heart attack last year has been converted to cardiac/COVID-19, everything else has moved to another facility and that's a big hospital. The CDC has a feature where you can see cases by zip code, my little town has 0, the town over had 11 last time I checked it. That doesn't sound like very many but it can spread like crazy. Count your blessings if you're in a rural area and it hasn't hit yet. The wife works for the local hospital system, it's a mistake to downplay the seriousness of this. Almost time to go to work so enough pretending to be Marcus Welby, MD on some guitar forum.

Declining daily deaths from the plague are always a welcome thing! Those are positive tests - 50,000 is a lot of people. I suppose the numbers could be much higher, I've only got the official statistics. Really a strange thing as you can get it and not know it all the way to get it and croak with a tube down your throat. I'm doing my best to keep from getting it but these local bozos act like it's not even around.

It's amazing how fast this spreads. York County 4/3/2020 - 121 5/3/2020 - 679 PA total 4/3/2020 - 8420 5/3/2020 - 49,267

We're still rising, of course. Up 13 cases in my county since yesterday, up 16 in the county where I work, up 2418 for the state. It was a nice afternoon so after work I took all of the bikes out for a short spin to keep the juices flowing. I figure as long as I don't crash and wear a full face helmet with an Apple Warmer attached it should be okay. That's a piece which attaches to the base of the helmet and tucks into the jacket. Like the rest of the planet I'll be so glad to put this behind me but it's going to be a while.

The meat packing plant comment was an attempt at levity. You may have read about the outbreaks at those facilities. I don't think those boys would be too eager to go to work there despite all of the hootin' 'n' hollerin'. Whoever thought you'd have scenes like this occurring in the United States. Here's another pic from Michigan earlier today: Here's the article if you're bored: https://www.yahoo.com/gma/michigan-rally-against-shelter-place-order-spills-capitol-193513207--abc-news-topstories.html At least I can work from home while the world goes crazy. Time to play the old Martin and call it a day. This is a guitar forum so here's a beauty pic just for the fun of it.

Meanwhile, happy Americans express their desire to return to work at the local meat packing plant.

I was never a Howard Stern, I liked Don Imus back in the 80s when I was doing a commute into NJ every day. The Richard Nixon skits were just hilarious but eventually the show just got too political and I stopped listening.

If I lived in a little town out in the middle of nowhere it would just be some terrible thing happening far away but nothing to be terribly concerned about on a personal level at the moment. Maybe later, maybe never. NYC, Philadelphia and Baltimore aren't all that far away and the areas right around me are getting hammered so yeah, it's a concern. The hospital where I went to following my heart attack has been converted to one floor cardiac, the rest COVID-19. All of the other floors have been moved to another facility (cancer, maternity, ER, etc.). The crud is creeping closer, the locals act like they're in the middle of nowhere. We're not. I understand the need to reopen the economy to stave off a global depression but it's a balancing act. I fear we'll rush into it too quickly and then wish we had exercised a little bit more restraint as we're not totally sure what this stuff is doing to us. Lungs and now maybe heart and maybe children? A relative works for the local hospital system so I hear about it a lot. This is something to take very seriously. Talking about the flu is a distraction, this is something a bit more worrisome, especially at this stage of the game.

I took a look at my spreadsheet and in April the number of cases in PA went from a around 400 to 44,366. I'm really thankful that our governor is working closely with the neighboring states instead of just saying don't worry about it, back to normal. It may not be much of a big deal out in rural states but in north east it's a different situation. Really a strange time to be living through.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html Here's the official tracking site for the US. I see GA and TX are just rarin' to go. Expect to see their numbers go through the roof. Howard Stern had an interesting take on disinfectants as a cure.

666 in my county today with 9 new deaths overnight. 529 in Dauphin, up 129 since the Liberate PA rally a week ago, 21 deaths overnight. 42,050 cases in PA, 1597 dead so far. The wife and I are still here and yes, we're taking this seriously. Read a piece that the virus gloms onto airborne particulates which helps explain the rapid spread in urban areas.

119 new cases in Dauphin Co. since that little pep rally. 593 in my county, 41,165 state wide. Saw Meet The (de)Press this morning, it looks like nearly the whole planet gets it and a vaccine may happen, it may not. It's also too early to tell if herd immunity is real or just wishful thinking.

I'm not sure how much help Gail will be, she passed away a year or two back. Ahmet is the one running the show these days. I really want Just Another Band From LA, Hot Rats/Waka Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo to be released soon.

• Some nonessential Georgia businesses — including hair salons, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys — are reopening on Friday, despite a statewide increase in coronavirus deaths. Since when are bowling alleys considered to be nonessential?

Not so fast. For all you historically correct down to the period plastics pick up sniffers, it turns out you've been saying it wrong all along: R0 (pronounced “are-nought”)

It's going through the Caribbean islands so I'd say don't count sunlight and humidity killing it off a whole heck of a lot. It's kind of like that great Mel Brooks song, Hope For The Best, Expect The Worst. We had 7 new deaths in our little county overnight, one of them was my wife's boss' grandmother. It's weird as the old lady was a virtual shut in so she must have touched something contaminated and it bumped her off.

If you have any vacation time you could probably get a smoking deal on airfare and cruise ship, plenty of fresh air and sunshine there. My old happy humping grounds, Greenwich Village in NYC, might be nice to visit this time of year. It's not too hot and humid so you don't get all sticky walking around. My nephew, who lives there, says that the streets are surprisingly deserted so you wouldn't have to fight the maddening crowds, either. You're right, why let a pandemic cramp your style? Don't forget, we like pictures!