Pandemic Report
The latest stats from WaPo:
The latest vaccine data from CDC:
So we're down to about 32K cases per day with some signs that cases are leveling off. Barry Obama's recent COVID-19, a breakthrough case, serves to remind us it's not over yet, CDC still hasn't backed off masking guidance for airlines and public transit and Pfizer is lobbying for a 4th shot, currently approved only for the immuno-compromised. However, there was a steep uptick in Europe over the past week, which has often foreshadowed US trends, possibly due to an omicron subvariant. I'm not crazy about booster statistics which are significantly below the fully vaccinated rate.
Other Notes
Inflation is crazy. When I drove past Costco on the other side of the street on my way to Sam's Club Sunday, I warily noted long lines of cars snaking around their fuel pumps. I had never noticed them before. In fact, it took me back to days of the 1979 oil shock. My intention had been to gas up at Sam's Club. I had just recently posted, joking about people lining up to save a dime a gallon. I must have driven past at least a half dozen corner gas stations on the way: no lines, no closed pumps in view. I had intended to fill up, which meant maybe 7 gallons in my hybrid with about 120 miles to empty. Not an emergency because I had driven by gas stations on the way. But no kidding. When I got to the standalone island at a corner of the mall there's like a mid block inlet with maybe 2 lines of 6 cars BEFORE the pumps--and the lines wrapped around the corners of the blocks to the inlets. There were maybe 16 pumps and 4 of those unavailable. I had never seen that before in 5 years at Sam's Cluh (I don't gas up exclusively there, but I might visit Sam's Club every few weeks and gas up every other visit or so.) I basically had to U-turn up a block to get in line. I seriously thought it wasn't worth my time to wait in line maybe a half hour.
I pride myself on being a bargain hunter of sorts, but to be honest it's getting harder to find anything cheap at Sam's Club anymore. I have idiosyncratic preferences: for example, I often find grass-fed/finished ground beef for maybe $5/lb. Not this trip, but I found a twin pack of Australian ground lamb (usually grass-fed) for about $6.50/lb. Not bad but not cheap. No $5 rotisserie chickens this trip. There's an exclusive brand of low-carb wraps I've bought for years at about $4.50. Apparently the label has rebranded the wraps as "probiotic" and it comes with a hefty $2+ additional charge.
I do most of my grocery shopping at Lidl. which is more price-competitive than Walmart and more likely to run weekly specials, but you have less variety and fewer name brands. It still surprises me with occasional price shocks. For instance, it used to sell a private label whole wheat bread loaf for about $1/loaf. Then several weeks back, it jumped to $1.50. Still not bad but Walmart has a value-brand loaf at that price range. Now occasionally I'll buy a can of pasta (as a low-carber, not regular), but I noticed the price jumped from maybe 60 cents a can to around 95 cents. It's still a lot cheaper than going to Olive Garden, but still--we're talking of more of a price jump than a nickel or dime.
But one unusual thing I've noticed; the used car market has gone crazy. The dealership has offered to buy back my newer car (in the third year of the loan), at a high price and put me into a newer alternative hybrid at a lower loan payment. Not interested, but I've never seen a dealer use that tactic before.
