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Things are looking much better for Gary. His wife said he is responding well to the antibiotics and breathing treatments (inhaling something from a machine) for the pneumonia and he is feeling much better to. Hospital stay may not be as long as originally thought. That's good news.

When you build on sand with a 4 foot water table, everything is different. A broad footprint is good. Guess 100 million lemmings heading over a cliff can't be wrong.

I couldn't imagine not having a basement. All the infrastructure needed to operate the house, water, hvac, electricity and such takes up living space otherwise. Even a 100 year old house like mine can have the basement as viable annex for living or special use space. Not only storage but a workspace, special do not disturb area and so much more. Even my cottage has a full basement, accessed from outside at this point, but things can change. It takes up less real estate to stack rather than spread🙄 The mask and vaccine debate just goes to show that we will argue about anything, no matter how visible the evidence. One of the news talking heads called it 'cultivated ignorance', which I think sums it up nicely. I have friends and relatives on both sides of the issue so it gets added to the taboo subjects of politics and religion at any friendly get together. As I sit here at the cottage, watching the cloud of hummingbirds fight over the three feeders right outside the window, I think maybe we aren't so different. I am also so lucky to have acres on a river away from the crowds and not be constantly confronted with weighty issues.

Being from TN, and as someone who talks (tawks) with a thick southern drawl, I'm not going to say anything about how someone pronounces a word. Down here we like to add the "w" sound to words and draw them out as long as possible. When Dave (Daves89) came down from Wisconsin to visit with me we almost needed a translator to communicate with each other. 🙂

I have a heat pump and trust me, gas is best up north. I run space heaters in the rooms I occupy and usually leave the heat pump on 60 degrees to run it at the bare minimum. I kind of live like a cave man I guess, especially in the winter but it's what I do to keep my electricity bill as low as possible. My great grandparents had a coal furnace and my mom swears that was the warmest source of heat she ever experienced. I have always liked gas heat. It's a pretty instantaneous source of heat and is reliable.

Missed this thread. In Florida we do not have basements, water table is so high would be indoor swimming pools. My house is on the top of a "sand dome" and about 20 feet higher so does not normally flood. Hot air over Florida is still working, hurri/himmi/greekicanes don't come here, they go to Louisiana or Carolina. Vaccine: only reason I can think of for so many people refusing the shot is nature's way of thinning the herd. Plain stupidity is not enough. Had first two in Jan-Feb so ready for third in October. Hospitals are full and are being asked to conserve water. Governor must be taking something interesting because he does not want to allow masks in schools.

We are 15 miles from daves89 in WI, 48" (4 foot) frost footers are needed here if you do not have a basement. We have an 8' basement so we have 9' footings. Lager cellar we call it.

Like a rut cellah? Illinoisans say ruf as in roof. So Maybe rut instead of root.

I talked to Gary's wife last night. She sounded awful. She said she was the sickest she had ever been in her life. Pounding headaches and constant nausea without being able to throw up and muscle aches that made here feel like she had been beat up. She said Gary has pneumonia. The ICU nurse allowed her to talk to him just for a few minutes since he might have to go on a ventilator if he doesn't improve. The nurse told Debbie she should be prepared for Gary to be in the hospital for an extended period of time.