I tended my grandparent’s grave yesterday and I walked past a few banks of family plots. In one family 4 out of 5 children died in 1918-19, two within two weeks. I can’t imagine what that must have been to live through.
Just an observation on this thread… Seems like people sometimes get lost in the back-and-forth and are responding to someone else’s response without understanding the context, i.e. without reading through the quoted part or prior posts for context. Or even without reading the full content of the post their responding to.
It just gets confusing.
Me too! A few weeks ago, my husband and I drove over to a big park. He went on a hike, and I rode my mountain bike. I was thinking I hadn’t touched anything, but as I was riding back, I realized I’d opened and closed cattle gates.
Then on another ride, as I was riding home, I realized I’d touched a beg button to trigger the traffic light. With the low traffic volumes, I’ve since taken to (very carefully) running a light instead of pushing a button, the same as I’m forced to do in situations where the traffic signals don’t work for bikes. Good jurisdictions have disabled the beg buttons and made the lights turn automatically for pedestrians, not so much for bikes.
I’m using my elbows a lot- elbow to open the gate, the mailbox, the door handle, and to push buttons.
I use my foot to press the pedestrian walk button.
Just back from a grocery trip at small natural food co-op. Very few people – it was mid-morning less than a couple hours after their vulnerable people shopping hour. Staff and customers avoided each other, waited our turns for an aisle if someone was using it (and nobody hogged). Did not see a single person without a mask.
No one-way aisles. There were distancing markers throughout the store, little red circles at six-foot intervals all over the place. There was a social distancing sign on the way in helpfully adding that six feet was about two grocery carts’ worth, very useful to someone like me with abysmal estimating skills.
I smelled the disinfectant on the shopping carts and handbaskets in the store’s entryway. The only quantity limit I saw was on fresh meat, two packages per customer. No yeast or flour. Did not look for household cleaners but was able to find the bar soap my husband likes. No limits on bath soap. The used carts and handbaskets were staged after the checkout area for staff to disinfect before staging back at entrance.
@dietz199 Interesting what you said about touching things. I found myself very self-conscious about the same thing. I tried to handle only what I bought without my usual “hmm, what’s this?” prior to putting it back on the shelf. Trying for every little bit of vector control possible.
@OneMoreToGo2021 - why do you want to go to a gas station convenience store every day? If I weren’t SAH, that’s still in my bottom ten desired locations. 
I lived with an outhouse for two years of my childhood. The house had a toilet, but there wasn’t enough water to use it.
As for what I am observing. I spent the morning pulling up knotweed from around our little pond. The joggers don’t wear masks and the path is only 2-3 feet wide. I really wish they’d jog somewhere else. We were well off the path most of the time thankfully.
Or for hardship cases, they could still waive it. In the 1980s my DH got a waiver for being a year too young b/c FIL was in a wheelchair.
Do they have a mask that also covers crows-feet wrinkles? I’d wear it.
I lived with an outhouse for my first 14 summers. My parents had a cabin we’d go to, with an outhouse. They then got a different summer house on a different part of the lake, with running water (but not, to this day and the house is still in the family, running potable water). We had a bathroom, but in shoulder seasons when the water was turned off, there was still an outhouse.
My brothers and sisters and I grew up and left home. My parents would still live at the lake in the summer and go back often when it was cold. At some point, maybe 20 years ago, they needed to rebuild the outhouse. So they did; I think they went to the county extension agent to find out the rules.
That outhouse is still there and still working.
I know I will get covidshamed, but our Macys was open today and I went. I had a return from an online order and desperately needed a new pillow. (could I have ordered online, yes, but I like to feel the sample ones before everyone else did). I felt very safe in there. Not a lot of customers (unlike the big box stores!), and everyone was wearing a mask, and everyone was social distancing. There was places on the floor where everyone needed to stand. I talked to the employees and only those that felt safe about returning to work or were not in the high risk category did. Many seemed happy to be back at work. I need to go to the grocery store later. I feel more at risk there. I know here in GA they are going to say that the numbers will be rising because we “opened up” But I think the numbers will be rising because of the groups of people gathering that are not suppose to. A few customers in stores, or even at a hair dresser versus a bunch of young people who had a large gathering broken up.
I got an email from Nordstrom giving some indication of how they will be opening when allowed. Items tried on will be put off the floor for a period of time.
Our gov will allow some stores to open on Friday, but not malls? So if the store is an anchor (like Nordstrom) with a separate entrance, will it be open or closed?
We have an outhouse at our cabin. DH is amazing and rigged up a pressurized water system so we have indoor plumbing. We use the outhouse a lot because flushing the indoor toilet uses up a lot of the pressure and we have to recharge the system off a generator or car battery.
Coincidental timing. Just read this in WashPo: “ According to a report released last year by DigDeep, in partnership with the U.S. Water Alliance, more than 2 million Americans do not have indoor plumbing. Far greater numbers do not believe that their water supplies are safe or cannot afford to pay for them.”
Well…the telemarket folks must be in states allowing them to work again. We got very very few calls a day…like maybe one…for the last six weeks or so.
Yesterday…ramped back up to the 6-8 per day.
That spam doesn’t need to continue…and I know I’m not the only one who didn’t miss those robocalls.
In reading my states, and that of others, multi-phase opening, it talks about what can open, but it does not talk about how we should shelter from each other. Groups of 5-10-50 etc.are mentioned, but what about family groups and the people who are working outside the home? Or the families with medical personnel? Are we supposed to no longer avoid them in Phase 1 or 2 or 3 or 4? I wish they would specify that on the lists, too. Otherwise people will make it up on their own.
I wonder, if we want small, slow spread, perhaps for mental health they open the parks and beaches, requesting 6’ apart, knowing, still, that more spread will happen, but not as much spread as opening everything. Would we a small growth in herd immunity and better mental health. I cannot imagine being in a high rise condo or apartment, let alone with kids!
Good article from the Chicago Tribune about teens waiting to get their drivers licenses.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/eric-zorn/ct-column-teen-drivers-license-plates-city-stickers-zorn-20200501-3ib5zwnh2fbgzlwic75zuklh34-story.html
There are both more teens taking the test each month than I thought, and a higher rate of failure than I expected too. So I remain wary about skipping the testing for now. Besides, where are the teens going to drive to, exactly? If they worked before the pandemic, most will already have transportation in place. Are there that many kids out there itching to start new jobs in grocery and big box stores? Feel like I am missing something here.
DD has been catching up on her driving hours during the pandemic, but mainly because she was so far behind in them before the crisis. As far as I am concerned, she can wait until the DMV opens to get her license. And I would be very pleased, when they do open, if they would take people by appointment. It is not a place where social distancing is going to be easy (or respected), but it is a place that will have a huge backlog of demand, despite extensions that have been granted.
Masks have just been recommended in my area after the initial and longstanding message of “masks aren’t necessary, save them for medical workers” so they generally have been slow to be adopted by most. It’s still more common to see people not wearing masks then wearing them though I’m sure that will change now. My local grocery store just mandated that all customers entering the store must have some form of face covering starting today but as far as I know they are the first and only retailer to make it mandatory. I have so far not worn any form of face covering when going out (which I’m doing very infrequently) and contemplated avoiding that store as I don’t have any formal masks. I did go today though as I had several errands to run and took a tube scarf. It worked well enough since our temperatures are still mostly on the cool side but I don’t anticipate that being a viable option once it gets warmer. In any case the grocery store was handing out disposable paper masks to those customers without so I opted for one to see how it would be. Well I couldn’t get out of the store fast enough. I found it hot and extremely uncomfortable. It wouldn’t stay in place and kept creeping up and butting up to my eyes. I had to keep tugging it back into place which I’m sure defeats some of the effectiveness of wearing it. I’m going to have to find a better alternative or I’ll never be leaving my house again.
This idiot (I think the term is justified) reopened his restaurant today after first opening on Friday in defiance of the governor’s orders and having his licenses revoked. I hope they throw the book at him.
https://wgme.com/news/coronavirus/maine-restaurant-reopens-despite-state-pulling-license
Speaking of indoor plumbing, the USDA put out this poster 100 years ago:
https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/speccoll/exhibits/show/poster-collections/item/223
And it’s appropriate today too, since lack of adequate water indoors is leading to higher Covid cases in the Navajo nation and other places.