It’s clear that there’s an activist element in the US, supported by some politicians, that will resist any and all restrictions. Which is a polite way to say that we have a lot of idiots who threaten us all and – to continue the baseball analogy – ensure there will be many, many extra innings in the standoff with covid. Frankly, I would welcome in the US some of a the discipline and maturity we’re seeing in Asia, Australia, New Zealand and much of Western Europe. We’re certainly not behaving like a developed, first-world, nation.
I was thinking about how Covid 19 has affected global thinking and how it will affect us behaviorally in the future. Also thinking about how the horrific Australia fires have really also affected people there - even though they deal with bush fires annually, the level of threat just went up enormously from this past season’s fires.
I was quite shocked to see two HD youngish women (under 35 but not teenagers) in the aisles helping customers and not wearing masks. H said he drove by HD on Saturday and parking lot was full; he went to Ace Hardware and waited 10 minutes to enter the store (only allowing # of people in store based on store square footage) but felt OK shopping there. Sunday morning 9 am I went to HD to get outdoor plants and also a few items H forgot to get, so I was in the regular part of the store and their outdoor as well as in the fence garden areas. Parking lot was very full. I social distanced well, just as I do in the grocery store visits. ALDI’s signs say their shelf stockers wear masks and gloves - well they might have in the past, but weren’t wearing them Sunday - but the carts were cleaned and attendant there with them before you enter the store.
One can only do their best to sometimes keep socially distant from the careless folks.
H and I have a walk route where we don’t go by many people, but a pet peeve is someone looking at their phone with ear buds in and not looking where they are going – and this is with older adults too. A guy almost ran into us despite us stepping aside – next time I am going to say ‘hey’ in a loudish voice when the person is feet away.
Well Umich is opening back up for elective surgeries and we got scheduled for late June this morning. Plus our pediatrician is back to their normal clinic rather than the well clinic they had set up a bit away from us.
My friend who is a tech there says they’re down to about 90 covid patients, from 200 not too long ago.
Fingers crossed that it stays like this and we don’t see a spike.
We’re trying to figure out summer plans. We’re obviously not doing the week long water park trip we normally do but maybe we’ll go to a beach up north or something. We’ll see.
I’m scared there’s going to be a huge spike after memorial day.
I want an app on my iphone that would scream out “Keep your distance” or “You are too F close to me,” whenever someone is less than 6 ft away from me.
A few recent observations and experiences here in southern Palm Beach County, Florida.
As in most places, people by and large seem to be following social distancing rules - for the most part. My observations tend to be of those who aren’t, in order to give people who are still sheltering in their homes a sense of what is going on out there.
Two days ago, we ordered takeout for the fourth time in the past six weeks. A repeat visit to the pizza place I mentioned here a few weeks ago. As before, I went in to pick up the order. Last time, there were three guys in there, none with masks, except the delivery guy who later arrived while I was paying. This time there were four guys in the kitchen, and behind the counter. No masks, no gloves, and no social distancing whatsoever. Pizza was just as good 
Same story with the gyro place we ordered out from last week.
Yesterday, my wife and I “snuck” onto the closed beaches and I am glad we did.
Took a long walk in the late afternoon, said hello to at least 50 or 75 people who were out doing the same, got a 20 minute swim in, saw some small groups lounging about on the sand, chairs set up, clearly there for a while. There were even two people kite-surfing! No sign of any enforcement or police presence once you got off the main coastal route. The scene was definitely not as busy as usual this time of the year, but clearly the beaches are starting to de facto open up here. It’s nice to see some common sense being applied. The risk of catching or spreading COVID on these beaches is approximately zero, and that might be an overestimate.
Also yesterday, the one place where I ever had to wear a mask (the local gas station convenience store) had a few people in there without masks, and the clerk/cashiers did not say anything. This was unlike a few weeks ago, when I had to improvise a mask by wearing my wife’s headband that I found on the car floor - I know, everyone on here told me it was dirty and germy, but clearly they did not understand that you could bake a ham inside a car left in the sun here.
Last, traffic has been much busier the past week, increasingly so every day it seems. Yesterday, it took forever to make left hand turns against opposing traffic - that hadn’t happened in a month for me.
2nd inning, even if said with a smile, isn’t very comforting to me.
There are 9 innings right? I just googled and the longest baseball game was 25 innings. I am glad they are actually being realistic to say we are in the 2nd inning.
I watched that 25 inning game…I never thought it was going to end!
That’s not the feeling I want now.
People hear what they wanted to hear. So what’s new?
So, in the worst pandemic of the last 100 years, and after at least 5 months since the initial introduction of the virus to the United States, approximately 0.02% of the US population has died from it. Back out the NYC metro area and it’s less than 0.01%.
I never thought of myself as particularly special, so I always thought it likely I would be in the 99.99%. I am glad I never got too worried. In my large, extended family, the only “casualty” has been my brother-in-law, who for some crazy reason has become so anxious that he had to be prescribed Xanax for the first time in his life. Oh, and my very elderly inlaws, who by the time this is all done with will have on average probably lost more than 20% of their remaining lives to isolation and boredom.
That was me from 28 April. Maybe it’s a long inning, or we are now in the bottom of the second. And I miss baseball.
How could it be any later than the second, when we started seeing this in January and won’t have a vaccine for another year or more in all probability? And the CDC could well be upbeat about the fact that the worst projections of the IMHE model were not seen. That doesn’t mean things are good, just that they had been forecast to be a lot worse.
Things will still be terrible for some time, and we’ll have to learn to live with the risk and the faults of our fellow citizens in not mitigating them to our satisfaction.
I’m seeing a lot of sloppy mask wearing. They really should cover your nose, people.
Admiral Stockman (Perot’s VP pick) wrote in his book about the POWs in Viet Nam who fared the worst emotionally - they were the ones who were optimistic - we’ll be out by Easter, by Fall, by Christmas…and when it didn’t happen they just broke down. The ones who fared best had the attitude that this will be terrible for a long time before it’s over and we’ll have to work hard to survive it.
An Austin, Texas park ranger was shoved into a lake while trying to get park goers, who were also illegally drinking and smoking, to social distance.
Thankfully the ranger was unhurt and the moron arrested.
His lawyer claims this 25 year old child is embarrassed and has respect for essential workers during these trying times?.
He deserves some jail time.
@OneMoreToGo2021 I hope your little bubble stays intact. Right now, my best friend’s brother is on a ventilator in Maine, fighting for his life. We have the sixth lowest rate of infection in the country, yet I still know someone seriously affected by this virus.
I saw the mug shot. Not to shock anybody, but he didn’t look sorry. At all.
Didn’t you already say the exact same thing about a week ago? Running out of new material?
[quote]
These are very good odds. I tend to think of myself as not very special, so I see no reason why I will not be in the 99.80% who would survive. /quote.
And the snarky crack about your BIL is offensive and incredibly insensitive. Depression and anxiety during this time is a very real problem. Thankfully there are lots of resources, many on line, for people struggling with depression and anxiety during this pandemic. https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/health/anxiety-coronavirus-turns-dark-wellness/index.html
This reminds me of my favorite quote in one of my favorite books, Mann’s The Magic Mountain:
“It is ultimately a cruel misunderstanding of youth that it seeks its heart’s desire in freedom. Its deepest desire is to obey.”
If you have nothing to do during lockdown, that book is not a bad way to pass the time…
Obviously, no one wants people to die…
But even 250,000 deaths would be less than 0.08% of the US population. In the worst pandemic in at least 100 years.
Human beings have dealt with viruses for more than 2,000 generations. We really have become almost insane in our willingness to trade freedom for the promise of security. This goes far beyond soccer moms insisting that their kids wear knee pads when out bike riding or schools treating the bringing of a peanut butter sandwich for lunch as practically a capital offense…
^^^ OK. You first.
Well-the governor has called that kids will not return to school this year in NJ. I am not surprised but at the same time…I had hoped that they might reopen in June.
And personally-my aunt just left Florida and drove back to her NJ house. She’s been in FL where she owns a home - she has been there since before Christmas. I told her that I thought it was crazy to leave FL to come to NJ but she is uncomfortable with how FL gov is handling the virus, the lack of masks and social distancing and the attitudes of her neighbors. So she came back here!
Latest observation today from the gas station convenience store I usually stop in every morning.
Five customers in the store, including two police officers who were obviously hanging out, enjoying some courtesy coffee and shooting the breeze for a while. Neither officer had a mask, and they were standing and talking to each other literally within three feet, probably within two. One was Hispanic, the other white. The front door of the store very clearly says “Must Wear Mask Inside”.
For a second I thought maybe they were partners, so who cares - they are in the car together all day anyway. But when I walked out there were two police cruisers. One was labeled “SUPERVISOR” right next to the “To Protect and Serve” motto.