Not so Nasty News October 2nd

Item #1: Weather

Long term records for our area indicate that a serious frost (28°F) has about a 60% chance of happening by October 1st. We have not had even the lesser frost (32°F). Therefore, the garden, such as it is, still grows. The next 10 days look to be frost free, too.
There are no reporting stations that fit us well. The nearest place is 500 feet lower (5 Miles away). The next is 22 miles away and 300 feet lower. The higher the elevation the faster the ground cools when the sky is clear.
I’ve been planting Dahlias each year and taking the blooms to places, such as the Senior Center. They generally do not over-winter here, but this spring one did not get that message. We haven’t had any place to take them, so as the blooms fade, I cut and toss them into the compost.
This week we had to make a stop at a friend’s place – so along with 5 pounds of onions, I picked yellow squash and a ½ dozen blooms for her. All is well that ends nicely, I say.

Item #2: NO!

If I have to explain this, you are not a cook.

Item #3: Which line?

We had routine eye exams. Well, not exactly routine. Masks are required.
With a mask, if I look up and breath out my glasses are fine. Looking straight ahead or down, breathing out causes the glass to fog over. The fog takes about 3 to 5 seconds to clear.
Sometimes the answer to “which line can you read” was “None of them” or “Wait a second.”
My eyes are changing so slowly that I do not need to get new glasses, and otherwise the eyes are fine (for my age).
The other nice thing is that the current glasses, now several years old have not gotten scratched. To buy those, we went to a place where Nancy knew the Doctor/owner. She might or might not have known we went. The fitter-guy was nice enough, but the glasses seemed expensive. Previously, I ordered glasses at Costco; best cost place.
The Costco glass (supposedly having a hard coating) scratched badly, such that I seriously wondered if the coating I paid for was there.
Thus, there will be a quandary next time I need glasses.
[The other issue is that Costco is 50 miles away, while the EBRG place is only about 8 miles and we usually go in once a week.]

Item #4: Helpful road signs

Item #5: What do tests mean?

There is a problem with the testing, and reporting of, the “cases” with respect to COVID-19.
Simply, there are “false positives” and no one seems to know exactly what percent that is.
But consider that it is around 1% {0.8% to 4% is cited; but some estimates are higher}, and a nation does 1 million tests per day. Suppose nobody in the million tests has an active infection. Then, with a false positive rate of 1%, 10,000 will be incorrectly identified as “new cases”.

Every single day.
With this in mind, I suggest we find something else to worry about.

And that, for this week, is the not so nasty news.
John