Humanoid Robots in South Carolina

Shiny, silver human-shaped robots the size of lightweight boxers are getting ready to start shuffling their way through BMW’s US factory floors. The carmaker recently reached a commercial agreement with the robotics startup Figure to bring its eponymously named “general purpose” humanoid robot to BMW’s manufacturing facilities, starting with its Spartanburg, South Carolina location. 

The agreement puts BMW in a race with Tesla and other automakers who’ve embraced a vision of humanoid robots in an effort to further automate their already tech-filled facilities. It’s clear the robots are coming, but nobody really seems to know exactly what to do with them just yet.   READ MORE...

Last Day In Destin

Everything that we do has a beginning and an ending without fail and today represents out last full day on the Gulf Coast of Florida.  Northern storms have finally found their way down south and have impacted this area adversely with falling rain.  For the last several days, we have been faced with overcast skies and afternoons where the sun unsuccessfully tried to break through...  but, it never rained, and we remained under the umbrella all day...  watching the rhythms of the Gulf crash along the shoreline.

As mentioned before in previous posts, my wife and I are not impressed with this area even though we like the deep white sands.  The restaurants are more expensive than other areas we have visited and remind us of prices you find UP NORTH in cities like WashDC and NYC...  and, while we have enough income to pay these increased prices when we want to, we would rather visit coastal areas like Myrtle Beach, SC where restaurants have cheaper prices and the cooked food is just as good.  Higher prices does not necessarily mean better taste.

It takes my wife and I over 8 hours to drive down to the Gulf and if you are wealthy, you can fly in 3 hours...  but, a better area for us to visit with LOTS TO DO is Myrtle Beach, SC which we can drive to in a little over 6 hours...  The beaches adjacent to the shorelines are about the same as are the living accommodations but the price to rent a condo is a couple hundred dollars less and the meals cost $10-20 less which includes at 15-18% tip.  The road traffic is about the same as well

THE BIG DIFFERENCE between these two resort areas are THE THINGS TO DO whether or not my wife and I want to take advantage of them...  they are still available to us whereas this is not the case in Destin.

GOOD BYE FLORIDA...

Traveling to Myrtle Beach, SC

My wife and I left for Myrtle Beach, SC at noon today and as we were making our way towards the Interstate realized that this is our first vacation for the last 9 months.  This was partially due to COVID-19 but mainly due to the fact that we just did not want to go anywhere...   Two years ago (2018) we booked passage on Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas, and traveled to Europe where we visited Paris, France; Geneva, Switzerland; and London, England.  

While we really enjoyed our cruise on the World's largest cruise ship, we did not much care for our trip to Europe which started with the confusion at the Charles De Gaulle Airport and continued with the residents of Paris not really caring for Americans.  We visited all the typical tourist sites and enjoyed that but directions were weak and the city itself was dirty and drab.

Once we returned home, we donated our luggage to our Church for a yard sale and used carry bags last year (2019) when we vacationed in Destin, FL and Myrtle Beach, SC.  We realized (both my wife and I) that vacationing in the USA was much better than going overseas...  one concept that caused this to be the case was NO ICE available in Europe when asking for a drink.  Public Restrooms were sparse and something had to be ordered if you wanted to use the restroom in a restaurant.

BUT, what really got us going was that there were NO FREE REFILLS and the cost of everything was about 25%-30% higher in most cases.

We decided quite easily that vacationing in the USA was much preferred over anywhere else and in that vacationing choice, our best area is Myrtle Beach...   our second choice is Destin, FL and if we need to make a third choice, it would be Daytona Beach, FL.

On our way to MB,SC when we stopped to eat at a FAST FOOD, there was only DRIVE THRU available and no one could use the inside restrooms.  If you need to use the REST ROOMS, you need to stop at a State supported REST AREA or a TRUCK STOP...  and, if you stop at the latter, you don't have to buy something in order to use the restrooms.

We stopped for the night at a MOTEL and the first thing that we did was put on gloves and with disinfectant cleaned all the surfaces that we would touch and put the remote for the TV in a baggy.  When we get to MB,SC tomorrow and get into our resort room, we will do the same thing there.

This is going to be our NEW NORMAL...

A New Month

2020 has seen 5 months pass by and needless to say these last 5 months will not be forgotten any time soon in our minds, our actions, our behaviors, and by the historians who will document us and at some point-in-time will write about us...

What do you think JUNE will be?

• more of the same
• a little different
• another direction

These last 5 months I only left the house if I had a doctor's appointment or a chemo treatment until the last 2 weeks in May where I went to a restaurant and also to a wedding.  This month, I have just as many doctor's appointments cheno treatment in two weeks that I had in 4 months...  plus, we are going to Myrtle Beach, SC for two weeks.

Regardless of how we find our apartment, my wife and I will enter the room with gloves on and will clean the room again...  that is to say all surfaces that could be touched and make sure that we put the remote in a zip locked bag....  we will request that are room not be cleaned everyday but that towels be delivered everyday...

As far as the beach chairs are concerned, we will not worry about that because of the exposure to the UV rays of the sunlight...  and, will probably go to restaurants and dine-in rather than take-out because that part is being well managed.

I fear this will be our new normal...