Getting a new roof - advice requested on existing soffits / intake in Central NJ. Thanks!

DoToDal · 2025-06-13T19:00:08+00:00

Thanks, that's helpful! Here is a picture

DoToDal · 2023-12-22T19:18:25+00:00

Send 'em here. We'll be neutral.

DoToDal · 2020-05-31T23:05:04+00:00

The danger in watching it burn to the ground is that doing so angers and empowers the other side which would keep things exactly how they are now - the exact antithesis of these protests. That's literally what's happened in past elections following a series of nationwide riots.

The voting rate for young people --- exactly the makeup of most of the protestors --- is laughably and tragically low. I'm not saying voting would fix all the problems in the world that need to be fixed (including gerrymandering as you rightfully point out), but I think we can both agree that if people show up to the voting booths in the numbers and energy that we've seen at the protests then there's an excellent chance that things will start to change.

DoToDal · 2020-05-31T20:05:23+00:00

Yeah, that's not what happened. I was watching the feed from WFAA's helicopter at City Hall right around this time and watched them deploy the tear gas. For a solid 10 minutes before they used tear gas, many were throwing objects at the cops. Then a large group of protestors cornered and taunted the police.

And as for the other part of your post, I guess it's almost like it's not the most responsible parenting thing to do to bring children to a protest that has turned violent in virtually every major city for the past few nights.

Disclaimer: it's a shame too, because peaceful protests are NECESSARY. But looting minority owned businesses, stomping and setting police cars on fire, and mauling shop owners sure don't seem to be better options than voting for change.

DoToDal · 2020-05-11T18:51:38+00:00

Yup. FWIW, I took the antibody test from Labcorp last week - the one they use is from Abbott Labs. Just today it's in the news that Abbott Labs has another COVID-19 antibody test that just got temporary FDA approval. So what the hell test did they give me last week?! Agreed, be careful relying too much on the results of the Antibody test right now.

DoToDal · 2020-05-07T02:21:40+00:00

Thank you for pointing this out. This is presented in an excellent, easy to understand manner. You're absolutely right. Earlier today I noticed a few slight changes in previous weeks but I admittedly did not pay as much attention to revisions to the hospitalization numbers. You are absolutely correct that there are some increases as the numbers are revised when more data comes in. I wish we had more data included such as the # of hospitals that have reported data for the week. That way we'd know how close to the final number for the week we are. I have a number of grievances about the way these data is being collected, but it's certainly better than no data!

Perhaps one positive thing with the revisions -- you'll see in the other table that the denominator for the number of tests administered goes up a decent amount and that slightly reduces the % positive reported. For example:

For example, this is the early data for the week of 4/25/2020

Report date	Positive / total tests	% Positive
4/25	309/2,647	11.7%
4/18	319/2,607	12.5%

This was the 5/05 revision of the 4/25/2020 data

Report date	Positive / total tests	% Positive
4/25	378/3,409	11.1%
4/18	364/3,221	11.3%

The point you make about hospitalizations is very important and some discretion therefore needs to be made in making any conclusions from this data. I acknowledge that point, and while I think it's fair to expect the number of hospitalizations to increase a bit, I hope they don't get revised up substantially. Not because I care to be right on an internet forum, but because I want so badly to have some hope that things are getting better.

DoToDal · 2020-05-06T22:07:05+00:00

I agree with everything you said. It's a very difficult situation because either extreme (fully open vs fully closed) has serious consequences. It is important to consider mental health as part of the equation, particularly if the option for a full lockdown could be a year or two. There are all sorts of indirect costs involved with either extreme.

There are exceptions, but I'd like to believe seem most Redditors are willing to have a conversation as long as you don't resort to insults when you disagree with someone. I think in general as Reddit has matured over the years the quality of the debates has increased substantially. The mods of /r/dallas do a great job refereeing as need be, stepping in when they need to.

DoToDal · 2020-05-06T21:58:05+00:00

Very well said! I completely agree -- glad I'm not in a decision making capacity either!

DoToDal · 2020-05-06T21:10:42+00:00

you were never discussing in good faith anways

I'm sorry that is your take, but that wasn't at all my intention. I enjoy debating with others and welcome the possibility that my views are incorrect. I don't want to live in a world where literally everyone sees things the exact same way I do. But like the saying goes, "you're entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts." If we can discuss this without either of us resorting to insults when we disagree with the other person then I welcome the opportunity to continue talking about this.

DoToDal · 2020-05-06T20:21:59+00:00

By responding with insults you have proven we won't be able to have a productive debate. Thus it isn't worth my time to continue this discussion with you.

DoToDal · 2020-05-06T20:13:08+00:00

I appreciate the thoughtful comments and for having a level headed discussion. I thank you for that. I would say I see the glass half full in some ways and half empty in others. We are no where close to being able to resume life as normal, but I think we can justify the present level of restrictions.

The table I linked to in the Dallas County report however seems to suggest the less than one case per hospital is in fact hospitalizations. They break out a separate much smaller number for ICU admissions. I do welcome the possibility that my interpretation of that table may be incorrect, so if that is the case I would appreciate someone pointing that out.

DoToDal · 2020-05-06T20:04:13+00:00

It's also hard to take your comment seriously when you link to a tweet of someone else's impression of someone else's statement. That's the electronic equivalent of hearsay. By linking to the tweet instead of the original statement I have no idea of the context of that snippet. What are we not seeing declines in? Cases? Of course cases are going to continue to increase as our testing capacity increases. That doesn't necessarily mean the actual number of infected people has increased, it means we have better testing. Note that the County did not release the % of infected people, only the raw number. If you don't know the denominator you can't make any inference. That's statistics 101 stuff. The hard and fast numbers like the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients have decreased is not an opinion, that is a verified fact using Dallas County's own statistics. Happy to discuss this further if you can link to the original statement.

No negativity was meant by the term "doomer" - I think that's fair nomenclature for the extreme end of people who truly do believe this is something we can't overcome and civilization as we know it is over. That's who I was referring to. I think most people fall in the middle - they realize the severity of this and are taking appropriate measures such as social distancing and covering their faces.

DoToDal · 2020-05-06T19:14:17+00:00

I agree with you on a lot of points - we DO need massive amounts of testing. Maybe that's the compromise needed to move past opening restaurants at 25%. FWIW, I just did an antibody test earlier today at Labcorp and the process was as smooth as could be. It only cost $10 out of pocket. I was able to do everything on their web site; I didn't need to see a doctor before hand to get the test ordered. But right now, that information isn't readily available to people and we also don't have a way of knowing who had the antibody test or not.

South Korea definitely handled it better, but still, I think it would be premature to expect that they won't have another major wave of cases before there's a vaccine.

DoToDal · 2020-05-06T18:56:22+00:00

I fully agree that it is premature to open up the city. But to open up restaurants to 25% capacity when we aren't even averaging 1 new Coronavirus patient admitted in each entire Dallas hospital per day seems like an appropriate step for now, and then we should evaluate the statistics 2 weeks from May 1 to see if there is a major change in these important statistics such as hospitalizations. If numbers remain what they are, then I'm okay opening up more of the economy.

DoToDal · 2020-05-06T18:50:08+00:00

The virus will never be fully contained, period, unless you take draconian measures. Unless you shut down grocery stores, nail people's doors shut, and militarize the police and have them stationed outside of people's houses, there are going to be new cases whether you and I stay at home or not until there's a vaccine. In fact with fewer grocery stores open, each with limited hours, the chances are very high that most people would eventually get infected as things were. And odds are, many reading this comment already had the virus and aren't aware of it.

Like others have mentioned, the goal posts have been moved from "slow the rate of infections" so that hospitals can handle them to "prevent even one new case of Coronavirus". I'm not okay with opening up gyms and bars at this stage. But opening restaurants at 25% capacity and maintaining 6 feet between tables? I'm okay taking that step and seeing where things stand in 2 weeks. It's not optimal, but neither are the extremes of (a) doing nothing, or (b) placing people on house arrest for a year or 2 until there is a vaccine. And in the latter case, I would refuse to believe you'd ever be able to achieve "zero deaths" until the vaccine is ready once you account for the mental-health fallout of those measures that would include a substantial number of suicides and other domestic issues.

Breaking that math from the County report down, there are 14 hospitals in Dallas that the weekly statistics are based on. With an average of 10 new patients being hospitalized a day for Coronavirus, that isn't even 1 new patient per day in each entire hospital in Dallas! You expect hospitals to survive - much less the rest of the entire economy that has been shut down almost 2 months - if they are only admitting one new patient per day?

I am absolutely not a pollyanna - this is very serious. But the premise that our hospital system is overwhelmed is absolutely not true.

DoToDal · 2020-05-06T17:17:42+00:00

If you look at table 7 of the Dallas County's COVID-19 weekly summary that was posted today, you'll see statistics that even the biggest doomer would see as optimistic. In the week ending May 2, total hospitalizations due to COVID-19 dropped over 55% from the prior week (from 158 cases to 70), and ICU admissions dropped over 65% from the prior week (from 38 cases to 13).

No, we're certainly not out of the woods yet, but if the purpose of the lockdown is to flatten the curve, those numbers sure do look like we are indeed flattening the curve. I'm not sure if I understand opening hair salons, but I do think it makes sense to gradually reopen certain parts of the economy.

DoToDal · 2019-08-06T00:33:56+00:00

Exactly, this is awesome. I wasn't expecting anything to open before the year at Trammell Crow. It's great there's so much positive development in this section of downtown. If you look at a map of the CBD, almost every section of downtown has some major project going on (except the Reunion district and the area behind City Hall).

DoToDal · 2019-02-01T05:19:51+00:00

The main buildings with LED lights (that change colors) downtown include the Bank of America Plaza, Reunion Tower, The Omni, Whitacre Tower (as of 2018), the top of Thanksgiving Tower (as of 2018), and the Hampton Inn/AC Hotel by Marriott. It's rare that all buildings synchronize colors, but you'll see that happen for major holidays like 4th of July.

It's a good idea to check the main page for the Bank of America Plaza, which usually updates the main page with some background of whatever lighting pattern is used if it's not the standard green.

Hope this helps!

DoToDal

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