Not so funny real life Capt Trips thread

L-Jam3 · Post by **L-Jam3** » Tue Feb 28, 2023 1:54 pm

It's been mentioned before, but the utter political failure can be reiterated here. If TFG showed even the tiniest modicum of concern and attention, he could've used COVID as a Rally 'Round the Flag moment and would've sailed to reelection. He didn't even need great success, he just needed to show that he was doing something. Anything. But because he's too dumb, too incompetent, and too lazy, hundreds of thousands of Americans are dead from this who didn't have to. I'd argue that some cogent action would've saved as many lives as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Tue Feb 28, 2023 2:20 pm

L-Jam3 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 1:54 pm It's been mentioned before, but the utter political failure can be reiterated here. If TFG showed even the tiniest modicum of concern and attention, he could've used COVID as a Rally 'Round the Flag moment and would've sailed to reelection. He didn't even need great success, he just needed to show that he was doing something. Anything. But because he's too dumb, too incompetent, and too lazy, hundreds of thousands of Americans are dead from this who didn't have to. I'd argue that some cogent action would've saved as many lives as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

I maintain that if Trump had done even a C+ job managing the Covid Response, he would have breezed to re-election.

Instead we got him touring the CDC and saying "I'm a natural at this", and hijacking those WH daily briefings and asking about injecting bleach.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Tue Feb 28, 2023 2:47 pm

P.D.X. wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 1:43 pm It was an intentional lab leak though to make t look bad so he'd lose an election and then chyna wouldn't have to deal with a usa president that was tough and would stand up to them.

broken clocks and all

100% agree this was Trump's angle and based on nothing other than shifting the blame away from him and pandering to his base. I also think in Trump's eyes, the racial attacks were a bonus as it improved his ratings and deepened his cult's support. It was dangerous and despicable and done out of self-interest and laziness (it's easier to lob words than actually try to contain a pandemic). What I have a problem with is the banning of discussing information that is now considered likely true and the tarring and feathering of journalists who tried to investigate, labeling them as RW conspiracists.

HaulCitgo · Post by **HaulCitgo** » Tue Feb 28, 2023 3:04 pm

Broken clocks but maybe if the hour hand still worked. Jon Stewart didn't seem to think the theory was all that difficult ... Look at the building!

No clue where one would get confidence in Beijing. Govt interference, lack of transparency, obstruction don't usually lead to increased compliance. If the likely scenario is true that also means active coverup from highest govt levels.

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Tue Feb 28, 2023 3:19 pm

If you want to spike your blood pressure while simultaneously collectively patting the vast majority of this group on the back, go back and read our discussion and insight during the first few months of this shitshow in Feb/March/April of 2020.

The Trump stuff is absolutely infuriating. It's so far from hyperbole to state as fact that his actions lead to the death of 100s of thousands of Americans.

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Tue Feb 28, 2023 3:26 pm

I'm tempted to start a thread and pull out some of the greatest hits. There's a post about the night that ESPN announced that the NBA was suspended, and there's now a 30 for 30 (or something of that ilk) featuring SVP and producers, players and many others talking about that night.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Tue Feb 28, 2023 4:48 pm

HaulCitgo wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 3:04 pm

No clue where one would get confidence in Beijing. Govt interference, lack of transparency, obstruction don't usually lead to increased compliance. If the likely scenario is true that also means active coverup from highest govt levels.

100% chance that if the lab leak is the cause, CCP knew and tried to cover it up. Also doesn't help from a compliance standpoint when Trump pulled the funding on the CDC program that included US government oversite on the safety precautions in the lab. He bragged about it before the pandemic, and it sounded like a catastrophically bad idea at the time. Kind of like his Tweets bragging about removing regulations on safer brakes and smaller trains when they are carrying toxic waste. Just more examples of GOP cutting funding, then blaming the Dems when the funding cuts cause major problems that end up costing exponentially more money.

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Wed Mar 01, 2023 8:57 am

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:52 am

I don't trust the numbers from the red states.

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Wed Mar 01, 2023 5:18 pm

the "where did all the people go" should be rather self-evident - even to economists...

phxgators · Post by **phxgators** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 11:12 am

Well, 3 years in and it finally got us. Oldest tested positive over the weekend, wife yesterday. I'm expecting to be next soon, but hoping our youngest avoids it since he's more recently boosted.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 11:51 am

phxgators wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 11:12 am Well, 3 years in and it finally got us. Oldest tested positive over the weekend, wife yesterday. I'm expecting to be next soon, but hoping our youngest avoids it since he's more recently boosted.

Good luck. Coworker just left after getting it the second time. Thankfully I wasn't in his office for 30 minutes yesterday.

rass · Post by **rass** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 5:42 pm

Good luck phx

phxgators · Post by **phxgators** » Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:40 am

My turn! The 11 yr old is now in charge of the house.

All in all it could have been worse for the wife and oldest. Lots of congestion, but my wife at least is starting to feel better today.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:42 am

Good luck. Lots of iPad and "I don't care, whatever you want" for meals.

phxgators · Post by **phxgators** » Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:56 am

Yep. He's a good kid. We'll be playing some games online, probably DoorDash dinner. More worried about his loneliness while we're isolated than anything, but facetime will help with that.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Wed Mar 15, 2023 11:22 am

That was the tough part. You don't want everyone else to get it, but you kinda do.

phxgators · Post by **phxgators** » Fri Mar 17, 2023 9:30 pm

Everyone is bouncing back. The mental fog was real for a couple of days there. Perfect time to zone out to the tourney I guess. Youngest finally had some mild symptoms but never tested positive. We did relax our isolation at the onset of his symptoms for his mental health more than anything.

We were supposed to be busy with Rapids/kid's fencing tournament/theater this weekend but nothing instead. Personally, I'm not really good about sitting still, so hoping to continue to regain energy over the next couple of days. Hopefully we're all mostly back to normal by the end of the weekend.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Fri Mar 17, 2023 10:06 pm

Glad to hear everybody is on the mend.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 6:46 am

Hope everyone continues to improve PHX

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Fri Mar 24, 2023 4:46 pm

Dammit.

rass · Post by **rass** » Fri Mar 24, 2023 5:08 pm

/thumbsdown

(feel better)

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Fri Mar 24, 2023 5:20 pm

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 4:46 pm Dammit.

Et tu, Steve?

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Fri Mar 24, 2023 5:32 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 5:20 pm
Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 4:46 pm Dammit.
Et tu, Steve?

Yup.

This is all I fucking need, too. There's been so much drama and trauma over the past six weeks.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Fri Mar 24, 2023 8:12 pm

Sorry, man.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Fri Mar 24, 2023 9:41 pm

Fucking Ireland.

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 2:24 pm

A_B wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 9:41 pmFucking Ireland.

It ended up not even being Ireland. While I was on the Swamp getting psyched up for a trip to Ireland, my son was deciding that he'd rather spend the extra days of our visit in Switzerland. So we spent 5 days based in Bern, Switzerland, in addition to a couple of days in Heidelberg and a couple of days in Freiburg in Breisgau.

These places were fantastic, except that my mom's cancer spread way faster than we or she anticipated. She had decided about a week before we left to stop doing chemo because the chemo was making her miserable. We agonized over whether to take the trip at all, but ultimately did it because it was our only chance to visit our son during the year, my mom did not want us to cancel, and she seemed to be in good shape anyway. My mom was a big time traveler over the last 25 years of her life. And there was no way we could postpone the trip by a couple of weeks - that would have sent a horrible message. So we reluctantly went to visit our son. My sister came up here from Phoenix to stay with my mom while we were gone.

My mom ended up dying on the morning of our return flight. Earlier in the week my sister had suggested we come back early - so we rebooked our flight to come back three days earlier. Then she said my mom was fine and we should not come back early. So we re-rebooked the flight to restore our original itinerary. But about two days before we were to fly back, she took a big downhill turn, and then she died the morning of our return flight.

Which ended up being another nightmare because of France and Air France. Two days before we were to leave, we got an email that the first leg of our return flight (from Stuttgart to Paris to Salt Lake) was canceled. My mom was still alive at this point, so there was no way we could extend our trip. So we re-re-rebooked it, to fly from Frankfurt to Paris instead of Stuttgart to Paris. Ok, fine. But when we get to the airport, Air France tells us that the flight is overbooked, and we have been put on standby. On a full flight. So we couldn’t make that flight.

So, we call Delta, and re-re-re-rebook our flight, so now we’re going from Frankfurt to Detroit and then SLC. It will get us in several hours later, but my mom had died that morning, so there was less of a rush.

But Air France had our bags. We had checked them at the counter when we were told we were on standby. There was plenty of time to retrieve the bags and reroute them for us – and we even had AirTags in our bags, so we could tell the Air France people exactly where the bags were. Nope. They wouldn’t do it.

So the flight back ends up okay, except that the Find My Items app tells us that my wife’s bag went to Paris without her, then appeared in *Kazakhstan*, then ended up in Osaka, Japan. She’s at the end of her rope and freaking out, in part because the stuff she bought on the trip was all in the suitcase, along with expensive medications and other property. And we didn’t actually have baggage tag numbers because the guy who checked us in for the overbooked flight to Paris didn’t give them to us. All we had were name tags (which ended up being enough.) Meanwhile, my bag sat there in the Frankfurt Airport for two full days after we left. The bags ended up getting to us a few days after we landed, so all’s well that ends well with that part of the saga.

We later decided that the bag’s appearance in Kazakhstan must have been a blip where the Air Tag somehow had a signal for half a second.

So, anyway, after 25 hours of travel, we get back home.

Meanwhile, a couple of days before we were to leave, my daughter called to tell us that my son’s cat, Woody, who she’d been watching while he was in Heidelberg for the year, had lost weight, wasn’t eating, and was very lethargic. I had her take a day off work to take Woody cat to the emergency vet because no appointment was available at the regular vet. $900 later, they didn’t really have much concrete information as to what was wrong with him. But I had to tell my son all this right away, because he was really mad when I hadn’t told him right away that my mom’s cancer had come back and he found out from my sister. He’s emotionally fraught already, and Woody is too young to be expected to die, and he feels guilty and shitty because he’s abandoned the cat. The first day we’re back in town, which of course is a Saturday, we take Woody to a different emergency vet. He was very close to death. But they gave him some fluids and treatment, and after about four hours there and another $700, we took him back home. By Monday, he started eating again and moving around much better. But after another couple of days, Woody went downhill again. Meanwhile we’re reporting his status to my son several times per day, dragging him through the emotional wringer.

Long story short, we had to put Woody down yesterday. Which my wife had to do on her own because I had to isolate due to Covid. (I’ve been staying at my mom’s now-unoccupied apartment. So I got that going for me, which is nice.)

And to top all this shit off, the weather in Germany and Switzerland was absolutely terrible for the entire trip except the last two days. And oh my hell, Switzerland is expensive. And the restaurants all shut down between 2 and 5 pm.

In conclusion, let me say “fuck cancer.”

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 2:34 pm

Man, that’s a really rough story. So sorry.

rass · Post by **rass** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 2:44 pm

That’s horrible man. Condolences, so sorry.

Johnny Carwash · Post by **Johnny Carwash** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 2:51 pm

Condolences, Steve.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 2:58 pm

Fuck, Steve. Sorry. That’s like 4 individually awful things all stacked.

phxgators · Post by **phxgators** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 3:19 pm

Wow Steve. So much going on for you. Hope your covid recovery goes quickly. Isolation on top of everything else sucks.

HaulCitgo · Post by **HaulCitgo** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 3:24 pm

Sorry to read that. I'll keep your family in prayers

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 4:36 pm

Thanks, guys.

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 6:11 pm

steve, I am so sorry - thoughts to you and everyone in your family.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 6:20 pm

Oh man, that sounds awful. All of it. So sorry.

Giff · Post by **Giff** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 6:24 pm

Damn Steve. Really sorry you’ve had to go through all that. Just shit.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 8:21 pm

Don’t think he needs to know that last part, Giff.

Giff · Post by **Giff** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 8:23 pm

He’s had a lot going on. Just trying to be helpful here.

rass · Post by **rass** » Sat Mar 25, 2023 8:24 pm

DMB fan with a scat hang up. Impossible.