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RE: Coffee Quality?
So, I decided to drink a cup of coffee and it didn't have the same aroma as before. I wonder if the manufacturer has gotten worse or if it's me?
...I noticed the same thing. From the three well known brands we buy regularly. Over the past maybe 6 to 7 months, a bag of roasted bean from any of the three randomly had the post-roast smell and taste of a mediocre bean.
From what I have been able to determine, producing countries gauge the dried bean size, and blend with numerous other finca's beans, then sack it, and ship here to North America. So, we are likely NOT getting a bean grown from a single finca (coffee farm). I imagine that you can find a State-side importer that can guarantee you a pre-roasted green bean from a single coffee farm (say, a bean grown at 6000 feet, in high mountains of Guatemala for proper acid content). You can then buy a home-scale roasting machine, and roast it yourself, then grind and brew.
I've actually participated in the picking of cherries one season at a coffee finca on the slope of a volcano in Guatemala. Then, depulping (concrete vats filled with water and hand-crank depulper, and after, raking out the depulped beans on 100 foot long black plastic tarps on the ground, and occasionally raking the tarped beans to expose to the sun to more thoroughly dry....etc
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silversand
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09/06/22 09:21am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Starlink
....the SpaceX T-Mobile partnership (using T-Mobile mid spectrum band) will allow texting (MMS / SMS) in every dead coverage spot in the US (and, Hawaii and US VI). Timeline: appx 1 year through beta....
SpaceX and T-Mobile want to partner with carriers in every country in the world to patch dead coverage areas. This, for example, would offer a national cell carrier in Mexico to offer SMS/MMS in remote places like the bottom of Copper Canyon, and across the Chiapas back-country (without the need to buy/rent a sat phone and expensive sat phone comms fees).
...this apparently will only be possible with V2 satellites going up soon (replacing V1.5...speculation is that V2 may add appx 140-160 Gbps throughput per unit) read here-->
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silversand
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09/06/22 08:29am |
RVing in Mexico and South America
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RE: 2019–2022 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC POSTINGS
Have they released the price per immunization for these unproven serums?
....if you take a look at the "Current CDC Vaccine Price List", the mRNA Covid vaccines for adults are all priced in the same range as cost per dose Twinrix, Havrix, Vaqta, Engerex-B, Tenivac, Boostix....and private-sector delivered Fluzone, Fluzone Quadrivalent, Fluarix, Flucelvax Quadrivalent...etc. Between ~ $20 and ~$40 a dose.
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silversand
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08/26/22 10:01am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: 2019–2022 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC POSTINGS
An FDA change to vaccine authorization allowed Pfizer and Moderna to apply for BA.5 booster approval without key data
Fortune
"But unlike previous applications, Pfizer’s and Moderna’s filings are missing one piece of information: clinical trial data of their vaccines".
"That’s deliberate. In June, the FDA asked vaccine manufacturers to start developing BA.4 and BA.5 boosters for a fall vaccination campaign. To help the drugmakers hit that fall deadline, the FDA said the companies did not need to include data from a clinical trial".
“It’s very similar to what we do with influenza strain changes where there will be a couple of amino acids difference,” Dr. Peter Marks, who helps oversee vaccines for the FDA, told Reuters in late June. “We don’t expect any difference in the safety that we’re going to see,”
....so likely we will see as many new vaccine variant solutions as needed for cov-2 here forward. One, maybe 2 a year...
I'm particularly interested in nasal spray 1st line nose and throat defenses.
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silversand
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08/25/22 05:35am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: 2019–2022 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC POSTINGS
July 19 2022
Subject of research: ....intranasal immunization; mucosal booster vaccines
"Previous studies have examined the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine induced humoral and cellular immunity in the nasal mucosa (15, 16). However, it is still controversial whether intramuscular mRNA immunization can induce meaningful neutralizing antibodies and tissue-resident T and B cells in the nasal tissue (17, 18), potentially in part due to the limited amount of fluids/cells that can be sampled in nasal washes or nasal swabs".
We focused on intranasal immunization in mRNA-immunized mice, in keeping the contention that induction of mucosal immunity likely occurs in previously vaccinated individuals who will be willing to receive mucosal booster vaccines.
Respiratory mucosal immunity against SARS-CoV-2 following mRNA vaccination
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciimmunol.add4853
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silversand
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08/23/22 07:31am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: 2019–2022 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC POSTINGS
Dateline Aug 11; update and new data on prevalence, mechanisms and biomarkers, and potential treatments for "long Covid":
here-->
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silversand
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08/22/22 10:20am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: 2019–2022 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC POSTINGS
Perhaps a combination of viral evolution (or lack thereof) and varying levels of induced immune responses (for example mild/asymptomatic COVID-19 infections induce weak immune responses).
...what if "humans" don't mount a strong immune response, like a viral incursion in the upper respiratory tract only by Omicron or, a cold virus (ie. the body sees the virus as a low threat = very mild Covid or mild cold = undetectable post-infection antibodies (weak immune response) ) ? So, humans just continue to get moderately / mildly re-infected over and over again by ever-mutating cold and cov-2 viruses (among others)....
(Slifka; Oregon National Primate Research Center)
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silversand
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08/17/22 11:31am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: BYO camper to South America - Pros and Cons?
....you may want to contact Leave Everything and Wander through their Youtube channel ( LEAW ), and enquire what they plan to do with their truck camper rig now parked in Argentina (and ask about its condition). They had to abandon ship during Covid, and left their vehicle parked at a friend's ranch in Argentina. They are based now out of the Italian Alps.
Luck! Have a super expedition.
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silversand
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06/28/22 10:05am |
RVing in Mexico and South America
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RE: 2019–2022 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC POSTINGS
....anecdotally, in our region of extreme southeastern Quebec near the Vermont frontier, 40% of the people we know closely have gotten infected (and confirmed) with Covid over the past 12 days.
This would infer that some high level of spread is now underway. Recently. And, our CLOSEST friends are giving us daily updates: fully vaccinated all with mRNA, in excellent shape and athletic, no known preconditions, and the infections are BRUTAL and debilitating from whatever this variant is.
We are back to N95 now 100% masking in indoor public places. Just when we thought we were free and clear. Quebec has been mask free for appx 2 weeks now :M
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silversand
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06/23/22 12:27pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: 2019–2022 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC POSTINGS
....I think that Danny Altman, Professor Department of Immunology and Inflammation, Imperial College, London expressed the situation well in poetic words:
"Professor Danny Altmann, from Imperial’s department of immunology and inflammation, said: "The message is a little bleak. Omicron and its variants are great at breakthrough, but bad at inducing immunity, thus we get reinfections ad nauseam, and a badly depleted workforce."
"Not only can it break through vaccine defenses, it looks to leave very few of the hallmarks we’d expect on the immune system – it’s more stealthy than previous variants and flies under the radar, so the immune system is unable to remember it."
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/237315/omicron-infection-poor-booster-covid-19-immunity/amp/ link here-->
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silversand
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06/23/22 12:21pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Jack Failure Disaster
Nice camper by the way! Can't wait to see pics of the final painted shell.
Without doing an on-site forensic, did the legs lower onto a thick mat of long-leaf pine needles (I've slid badly on pine needles in the past)? If the jack's landing pads were lowered onto the teflon-like slippy needles on hard packed ground, they (one landing pad) could have just slipped out (like walking on ice), and caused a cascade of instability with the other pads/legs, and the weak point, the jack attachments, just let go one at a time (even well connected)....Just a thought....
For it not to have sustained major structural shell distortion/damage falling from (near full?) jack extension, that camper must be built like a brick. Looks like a keeper to me.
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silversand
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04/13/22 06:31am |
Truck Campers
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
I agree with you, this thread has got way off track, let's as Moisheh suggests keep it about Canadians returning home and the silly mandates that Trudeau and Company want to push on all us Snowbirds.
...yes. Sorry. Back on track....
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silversand
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03/26/22 04:48am |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
If the employer decides not the government mandated
The document does not say the employer must require vaccination.
The South African government created the framework and legal space in which private employers can engage mandatory vaccinations within their enterprise. The horse before the cart.
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silversand
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03/25/22 02:27pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
More believable study than simply comparing rates in states with and without mask mandates
....we will have to agree to disagree on this. To me, the proof is in the infection rate of an entire population with strict mask laws (ie. Rhode island RIDOH Executive order mandatory masking indoors; recently lifted), in the case of Rhode Island, a population of ~1.1 million. How effective was that Executive Order in the face of Omicron BA.1 ??
IF masking had worked, in say, Rhode Island (or, Quebec; or Ontario; or...or...or...or...) during the Omicron onslaught, regardless of other Executive Order restriction in this (and other States and Canadian Provinces), it would have, well, worked! In spite of everyone in the State wearing masks indoors, the Omicron infection numbers tell the story. The fact that NOTHING mitigative worked shows in the massive infection rate during Omicron.....everywhere in the World. Even in countries that are approaching staggering (in a good way) fully vaccinated status: Canada: 81.4% | 80%+ in UK (with 38 million boosters given!) back just as Omicron was hitting, those countries then had indoor masking. What did indoor masking do? If it was effective at all, we would not have seen the MASSIVE and unprecedented Omicron infections we just saw (and AGAIN are seeing as I type, 1 in 19 Britons are presently infected with SYMPTOMATIC Omicron LOL!). I'll bet this infection level gets to 1 in 3 by next week, at the present climb in infections. But intensive care admissions are very, very low (for the last BA.1 round) in the UK and Canada (because of highly vaccinated populations).
Here....lets look at it another way: why is masking failing to make a any dent in Omicron's onslaught? If masking is a panacea, why haven't the "pandemic" numbers reversed? Masking with fully vaccinated (say, 80% fully vaccinated) populations make little and no difference in the global Omicron waves. What *third* mitigation do we need to implement to reverse the pandemic? Anyone?
Can anyone think of anything? Short of locking down the entire planet's human population for 1 or 2 years from today forward (and destroying life as we know it....but why, in the face of vastly declining Covid deaths, even in the US?).
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silversand
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03/25/22 02:00pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
Go read it.
Link
No mandated vaccination
You have an outdated document. My document supersedes yours, and is signed and dated: 28/05/2021: here-->
See N044700 Page 51, Section 2.
"If the employer decides that vaccination is mandatory in respect of the employees....etc...etc...
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silversand
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03/25/22 01:31pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
....In the Johnson County, Iowa mask study:
"Among the limitations to this study is that many persons could not be contacted or declined to cooperate with public health investigations. There are almost certainly substantial differences between case-patients and contacts that we were able to interview and those who declined to provide information or were unable to be reached. In addition, all of the data, with the exception of test results, were self-reported by either contacts or case-patients. Self-reported data can be unreliable. During investigations, case-patients may have had an incentive to provide false information to prevent friends, co-workers, or classmates from quarantining; or they may have demonstrated response bias by telling interviewers what they thought we wanted to hear. Although bias cannot be ruled out, we believe that persons who cooperate with public health investigations are more likely to provide accurate and honest information and to follow other public health guidance, such as social distancing and mask use"
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silversand
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03/25/22 01:13pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
South Africa (beta and omicron) does not have a government vaccination mandate, some employers do.
South Africa has a vaccination mandate, as outlined in: DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR document NO. R. 499 11 June 2021, entitled:
Consolidated Direction on Occupational Health and Safety Measures in Certain Workplaces. Section 27(2) under the Disaster Management Act law, enshrined by their parliament. Quote: "To prevent and combat the spread of Covid-19 in certain workplaces in South Africa.
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silversand
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03/25/22 12:55pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
The reason I provided the published study is that is was more controlled in evaluating the benefits of masking; comparing the likelihood in onward transmission with vs without masking as opposed to statewide data "polluted" with and without mask use.
...of course tightly controlled mask efficacy research in a lab will show under ideal lab conditions what a mask can "do". However, this is utterly useless / meaningless under REAL mask use in the wild!
Forget about ideal laboratory mask research (humans don't live in labs, supervised by PPE experts). An improperly fitted, sized, and recycled mask in the real world in the wild, is about as protective as a space suit with a pin hole in it. The only metric to look at is: ....in places with mandated by law mask wearing, what are the ongoing infection numbers? Why use masks AT ALL (outside of the hospital/health care environment) if these infection numbers are as high as unmandated/voluntary mask wearing jurisdictions?
Global vaccination mandates:
....global vaccination mandates in my context means what jurisdictions around the Globe have mandated vaccination (NOT a single supra-national enforcement agency). Mandates have to be investigated country by country. Other than some war-torn African and Middle Eastern nations, can you name a SINGLE country where there has been zero vaccination mandate? Jeez, even places like Slovenia, had some form of Covid vaccination mandate. Some countries were "soft" on enforcement, like Belgium (for cultural reasons)...others brutally strict, like Canada (locking their citizens down in house arrest: the severity driven by Provincial rules).
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silversand
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03/25/22 11:09am |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
....there has been no significant difference between US States with mask mandates, and those 35 States without mandates. Just look at the case rates. have a look at any of the reputable statistical data (Johns Hopkins, etc, etc). Even worse, one of the location in North America with the highest fully vaccinated levels in the World, and strictest mask mandates (Quebec, Canada) had an astounding Omicron BA.1 infection ratio of 1 in every 3 inhabitants.
The problem with "mask wearing" is the following: ....universal country-wide masking suffers from four big flaws. 1) the general population does not wear masks properly; 2) the general population may not/do not have proper fitting masks; and 3) among the general population, cloth masks still predominate; and 4) how many wearers change their masks EVERY TIME they make a sojourn out of the house (filthy and degraded mask filtration)?
IF masks are so significant in preventing transmission, why in the world did states with strong mask mandates like Rhode Island (1 State among many) experience in January an Omicron surge among the highest in America (at least as high as States with no mask mandate)?? Look at the UK, with one of the strictest masking mandates in the world; how did they fare during Omicron? Mask mandates and general population masking seem to be one of the least consequential Covid mitigation endeavors in the war against this pandemic.
There was a randomized masking trial in Bangladesh, that demonstrated that surgical mask wearing by the cohort studied only reduced the symptomatic infection rate by 11%.
There is something going on that is, as yet, not understood in the realm of rise and fall vis societal pandemic mitigation measures! Even with near perfect compliance (ie. Quebec) with near 100% lockdowns (ie. Quebec), 100% masking by law (ie. Quebec), and 100% travel bans (ie. Canada). None of that worked at all.
In ending, have a read of this systematic review and meta-analysis designed to determine whether there is empirical evidence to support the belief that “lockdowns” reduce COVID-19 mortality. SAE./No.200/January 2022.
The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise.
"A LITERATURE REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS
OF THE EFFECTS OF LOCKDOWNS ON
COVID-19 MORTALITY"
Here-->
-18,590 studies are identified
-three levels of screening 34 studies ultimately qualified.
-Of those 34 eligible studies, 24 qualified for inclusion in the meta-analysis
....the conclusion: "While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument"
THIS is why I (and many others) say future Global vaccination mandates will fail miserably; they will be rejected outright by world populations. An do you know what? That is very, very sad.
On edit: I AM a proponent of voluntary masking; however, EVERYONE needs to take a course on proper mask fitment and post-wear disposal
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silversand
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03/25/22 08:40am |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
As everyone here knows, I am a HUGE proponent of vaccination. Let this be said right up front.
With that being said, and Omicron BA.2 being pretty well in the top 2 most contagious pathogens known to man, it is absurd and ludicrous to believe, or let anyone convince you that mask wearing (and I am talking about N-95 NIOSH masks, not Korean masks) will protect you against ingesting via breathing BA.2. Unless you have a professional fit your N-95 perfectly, you will be inhaling large quantities of atmosphere around the nose area. Even worse, IF you have not shaved, face stubble and any genre of beard will render the mask fitment useless.
This is the big one: ....does anyone actually believe that with Omicron BA.2's level of contagion at up to 12 persons per virus shedder, that they will have a chance in Hades in ever identifying their source of contagion? I highly doubt it! You could have contracted it from someone walking by you on the street, someone who vacated an elevator you entered 10 minutes ago, someone who walked by you in an underground parking garage, any one of a MILLION scenarios while you are even wearing your improperly fitted mask, or, while you were outdoors near 1 single infected person.
This is the big two: though the vaccination (IF you have had 3 shots!) is effective in preventing symptomatic Covid "most of the time" but over a VERY short period of 4.5 to 6 months, 3 shots will NOT prevent you from actually contracting BA.2. 4 boosters has almost no measurable efficacy past a handful of weeks (see the recent article on 4th booster in Nature). I don't know why our politicians can't seem to understand that, and, everything above? If anyone thinks that another Covid vaccination campaign will gain traction, those politicians are sorely wrong. Another global Covid vaccination campaign will fail miserably. That's too bad, because we WILL see another pandemic from maybe anothr specie of SARS, maybe something unrelated and worse; and the next pandemic may be many, many, many fold more deadly than Covid was; like not 15~18 million global mortalities, but maybe half a billion. And, because the sum total global governments failed to be sensible about the house arrest of their citizenry and failed miserable to fund their own health care systems over the past decades, no, half Century, the latency caused by rejection of some yet undeveloped vaccine for the next global pandemic campaign, may condemn the World.
Sars-cov-2 won folks. Get over it. Death rates from BA.2 are so low, they are now blended with the hundreds of other mortality statistics that tend to kill off humans. IF you are vulnerable, YOU make arrangements for home delivery of everything. Don't go out period. Let the rest of less vulnerable humanity go back to "normal". Set up virus surveillance not just in Denmark and the UK, but in every country on Earth, pulling samples from the hospitalized cohort. At least better surveillance will warn of some new pathogen coming at us in the future.
That is about all I have to say about Covid, as Covid pandemic enters its death throes, to likely be heaped upon the pile of endemic virus history over the next year or two.
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silversand
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03/25/22 05:43am |
Snowbirds
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