bfishn

Still puts me in the right place.

Plural Squirrel 😉

One of these days you're gonna need a bigger net...

Long ago, 11-12 yrs. Most people would be over it by now, not me.

Yeah, I trust them too. General Industry has different OSHA standards than construction that I'm not familiar with. I assume the medical profession does too. I suspect a pulse oximeter reading of my own (not so) bad self after 90 seconds of jogging in place might be unacceptable even without a mask. 😵 I do think that there's a good number of N95s that got grabbed up by the general public that would be far more effective in the hands of those that can and do use them correctly, and are at far greater exposure risk. I've been thinking about the similarities between reactions of a construction crew to OSHA directives, and the recent public reactions to COVID19 safety protocols; *"I'm not doing that, and you can't make me". *"That'll cost more than we'll make on this job". *"That's just plain stupid". But the end result is the same; *Those that comply generally have longer, healthier, more productive lives than those that don't. *The cost/benefit ratio of protective measures is often far different than the direct cost. *No amount of PPE will save your arse from a lightning strike to the head.

i had to learn about N95s when OSHA's new Silica in Construction rule went into effect a couple years ago. For them to perform as specified, there's a lot more to it than just buying and wearing one. Fit test. A trained & licensed mask tech checks several makes and models of N95 half-masks on the user to find the best fit for that person. The user is given a card to carry showing the make & model number they'll need to use. Quick user fit test. Once a mask is selected, the user dons one and sharply inhales as much and as quickly as possible. When properly fit, the mask will suck up hard to his face, much like a solid covering would do. The user is instructed to perform this test every time he puts it on or adjusts it to insure its performance. Qualitative fit test. Also performed by the mask technician. The user dons and fits his mask, and is instructed to open his mouth and stick out his tongue (inside the mask). The tech then uses a nebulizer containing one of 4 approved test vapors (bitter, sweet, etc) and sprays the test vapor a specified distance from the mask, counting the metered doses until the user reports he can taste it. Each vapor type has a specified number of doses required to be acceptable. This test must be repeated annually. The user must understand that the mask is a filter, and to be effective, 100% of their breath must pass thru it, with no leaks around the edges. That means facial hair, even a mid-day stubble, is out. The above is what a construction worker exposed to respirable, crystalline silica dust is now required to go thru. Keep in mind that silicosis is a cumulative disease that often takes years of exposure to manifest. That bears little resemblance to virus protection, where a single exposure could prove fatal. The N95 specification requires them to catch at least 95% of respirable particles down to 0.3 microns in size. A naked covid particle (called a virion) can run from 0.06 to 0.14 microns, plenty small enough to penetrate an N95. Fortunately, virus particles of concern (those expelled with an infected person's cough, sneeze or speech) are encapsulated in spit/phlegm/body fluids, increasing their size to above the 0.3 N95 spec. The 95% @ 0.3 spec is the minimum requirement, and most N95s actually exceed that by a decent safety margin. N95 users in construction that do it right typically hate them. Properly fit, they're pretty hard to breath thru at rest, and really bad when working enough to breathe hard. It's bad enough that concerned employers are spending a lot of money on alternative methods (like wet saw cutting & HEPA vac attachments on concrete drills). Bottom line, if your N95 leaks around the edge (even just a little bit), they're no better at preventing COVID19 spread than a surgical mask.

Someone did that to my rig at Big M once (also the only one in the lot). I say "someone" because all he left me was a mangled fender.... no name, no number, no "ooopsie, my bad...

...or the constipated mathematician who worked it out with a pencil?

... didn't have time to address the 'still down by the dam' thing... The ones that run the rivers already did that and are falling back, some likely at the dam already, with the flows we've had. The ones that run the big, lower-end arms (like Indian) never really left. 😉

Like a lot of fish, if they don't get the right conditions (and stripers never do on Beaver) they never release their eggs. Not too uncommon for walleye either.

I was gonna throw Mary Pickford in the mix till you said that.

Just wrap it in tin foil. If you can't find any around the house, use some from your hat. 🤣🤣

BTW RPS, good on you! (Australian version ) Any one of those masks could be the one that keeps somebody on the right side of the dirt. You need to switch the shades to wrap-arounds though, never know when to expect a sidearm spitball. They keep your fingers away better too. Like all of you, I've pondered my best course of action for the near future. I've settled on; Help others when I can. Stay out of the way when I can't Keep my head down, my eyes open, and my mouth shut.

I went there for gas last Saturday, having already given up on TP. On the way to the pumps I saw 2 carts with TP, so, expecting to be disappointed again, I parked and trotted in one more time. The guy was putting the last of several cartons on the rack (most already gone), and I scored a 12-pack of Charmin! Never in my life would I have expected to be so happy about something as seemingly trivial as TP. When I was a little farm kid in No. Mo., we still used an outhouse, and I couldn't wait till the latest Sears Roebuck catalog came in the mail so we'd have a new batch of thin paper pages... those slick, shiny pages really sucked!

I can deal with the zombies, it's those gnomes that freak me out.