Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

I confess that I have been on a golf course (though I have no polyester, no plaid and don't drive very slowly in a Caddy while smoking a cigar). The aspect of golf I did like was that one's guilt at contributing to so much environmental destruction is assuaged by the constant arrival of young women, dressed as if they worked at the Twin Peaks restaurant chain, who are carrying cold beer and tequila shots. It's like being in Mad Men for the day. Based on my exposure to people who play golf, Trump is the archetypal golfer, not only in physique and sense of fair play but in treatment of the staff, I would be aghast if any of my children (one of whom worked at Hooters) were to consider a position in such a degraded environment, but for a moment it was guilty fun, like Filmore's.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

God damn you are a doomsayer :lol:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...fc25e63b69.jpg

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

"Your hardest." Hmmm. :unsure:

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

It's funny because she works 5 days a week in retail talking to people all day long and I'm WFH and hardly go out except for our once a fortnight food shopping trip to Costco.

On a scale of 1 -10 where 1 is not bothered, and 10 is being in 24x7 panic mode, I'm about a 3 or a 4 when it comes to concerns about catching it. Social distancing and wearing a mask when requested is my attempt at trying my 'hardest'.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

I think your "hardest" sounds like common sense to me. :thumbup:

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

I think I'm about 8 on the panic scale.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

You are in the UK though arn;t you? Its a different demographic and culture than here... I come into contact with a lot less people here than I would of done in the UK.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

100% agree with you there.

If I lived in Leicester right now, I'd be a 9 or a 10.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

Likewise - or possibly a 9+.. knowing that my arteries are between 71 and 100% blocked already, and having had one stroke, brain bleed, brain damage blah blah blah, with an increased risk of having another, the last thing I need is to catch Covid 19 and have one blood clot.... which would likely be the end of me. I'm not ready to go yet!

I get so frustrated by people who don't believe in the virus, don't believe in the need to social distance or protect those at home who are self isolating. I was invited to a birthday party on Sunday - "oh we are allowed TEN adults - the kids don't count - so we're all good to have the party!" They have forgotten that their immediate family - i.e. children, childrens partners, grandchildren and themselves already add up to 10 people - let alone the 7 other people (and their extended families) they have also invited and the 2 great grandparents who have the birthdays - both almost 80.. and the other great grandparent who has health issues and who they visit daily in the home they are in...... they don't understand the concept of Social Circles at all - they live in a very small 1.5 bedroom condo and will have around 20 people there including all the children (some of who are under 2) :( https://www.ontario.ca/page/create-s...uring-covid-19 I explained why I couldn't attend and they said 'oh come over next weekend instead and sit on the balcony and have drinks with us!' Sigh.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

Yes, but I don't think it's country so much as local incidence. It's also about how we as individuals perceive we will survive it. Personally, I'm somewhat fatalistic, and assume that if I get it, there's a strong likelihood that it will be severe.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

I tend to side with if I get it, it might be severe, considering my past history with other types of respiratory illnesses leading to pneumonia.

I don't have any underlying issues that I am aware of that would increase my risk from the list of underlying issues on various government and health websites, but just my past history of pneumonia from what started out as fairly benign respiratory illness, has me a bit concerned of what may happen if I got it.

But then who knows, for all I know I have had it and never showed symptoms, this is one tricky virus. Florida with their ramp up in testing is finding a fairly significant amount of people with the virus but no symptoms, I tend to wonder if BC opened up their testing more widely if we would see larger increase in cases. But I guess if hospitalizations are low, there isn't a reason to increase testing. Right now they only test people with symptoms.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

It's like :banghead: with some people.

The worst part is you'd expect many of them to know better. :nod:

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

Gosh, you are a survivir Siouxie !

Surprised you don't dial strainght into panic mode 10...I would if I had that kind of history.

Yes, it dumbfounds me that so many people cannot understand the basic concept of a highly transmissable virus. It's total head in the sand territory. If it only infected the individual (as most health risks do) then fine, but when it can infect great numbers of other people, there really should be a higher duty of care.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

Show people articles like this when they are having birthday parties or gatherings.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7107152/t...y-coronavirus/

"It’s believed that one relative, not knowing they were infected, interacted with seven others at the party. These seven members then spread the virus to 10 others."

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

Bad time of year to stop large outdoor gatherings. My Daughter attended two 'graduation' parties this weekend, both outside thank goodness.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

Not that we would ever been invited to a large outdoor gathering of any sort, but even if we were, I'd skip it at this point.

As far as I know though in BC aren't gatherings of any kind capped at 50 still?

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

Yes I believe they are.
Doesn't apply to grade 12 end of year bush parties though :lol:

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

What's that, some sort of depilatory event? :ohmy: :rofl:

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

Fascinating documentary if you have a spare 20 minutes.

A socially distanced documentary from Scottish Filmmaker Conor Reilly.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

If there is ever a 6G, and I survive 5G, I will put up a sign saying, "I thought 5G was going ti kill us all."

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

I think Elon will have chips planted in our brain by then, and we won't even need a mobile phone network!

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

When his cars don't confuse Burger King signs for stop signs, maybe, just maybe...ha ha

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

Lots of people are utterly clueless - any contact is bad, no contact outside of the family members you live with should be the goal for everyone - and trips out only when necessary.

I think we have done pretty well on that front - I think our daugher has been away from our home only once in the past 3 months, and that was to get her braces repaired, and Mrs P only 2-3 times. I only leave to get food, which I try to keep to one trip per week, and occasional trips to Lowes for essentials, and I wait until i have a list of things, and try to time my trips to a quite time of day.

That's how it works - it only takes one person to spark another hotspot. :nod:

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

And with the study released today, seems the predominate strain now spreading in the US is 3 to 9 times more infectious, but doesn't appear anymore lethal or cause more severe illness, just infects and spreads faster.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

If your daughter was compelled to attend school, what would be your thinking/action? We're facing that in September. Given my paranoia (warranted or not) it concerns me.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

The school situation is very confused in Ontario. It doesn't help that, despite generally positive things to say about the Ford government's handling of the Covid crisis, the education ministry (and in particular Stephen Lecce, the education minister) have been singularly, spectacularly, completely incompetent throughout - communicating poorly, consulting irrelevant people, failing to engage with teachers or classroom assistants in any meaningful way, and deferring decisions about what will happen next until it's too late for anybody impacted by those decisions to do any kind of planning. Teachers, ECEs and EAs that I know are tearing their hair out - they effectively have to plan for four different scenarios, writing lesson plans for "reduced cohort" classes that may be in school every other day or every other week; preparing for online classes with "meaningful synchronous interaction" without any definition of what that means; allowing for the possibility that a full return to school may happen at any time. And in the middle of all this, they've snuck in a revised curriculum for grade 1-8 mathematics, which somehow has to get rolled in to all these plans.

I don't know how I'd feel about it if there was a mandatory return to full-time school in September. I suspect that there'll be some sort of part time reduced-cohort classroom thing with online learning in between. I'd be reluctant for my kids to be back in a full classroom with 30 other snivelling sweaty monsters, but it's been a real struggle in terms of mental wellbeing for the last three months of this year and the cobbled-together online learning stuff they've been through. It's certainly a conundrum...

My older teenager (about to turn 17) has been mostly responsible about social isolation. He has a group of two or three buddies who will meet up and go off on their bikes around the trails, or to a soccer field to kick a ball around - these excursions, while not necessarily completely socially distanced, are certainly better than hanging out together in a basement to play video games. We're grateful for good internet and online multiplayer gaming... in fact, most of their real-world activities are planned in the chat boxes of whatever game they're all playing together. Middle child and youngest are both more physically isolated, although still connected to friends online through gaming platforms. Middle child has mostly been happy being at home, but just recently has met up with friends just to hang out outdoors. On one occasion they headed (well, OK, muggins here gave them a ride) to a second-hand clothing store - she found that being in a wheelchair actually aids social distancing, because other people tend to give her plenty of room!

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

Early on we stayed in most of the days, only going out maybe once a week, but as things opened up and returned more normal, we go out more, almost daily to do instacart shopping for some income, we try to distance in the stores but its basically impossible to do as the stores are busy and crowded.

But with so few cases the risk doesn't seem terribly high, and they seem to be managing it well enough where you can go out.

We have are in phase 3 now which is basically the last phase, as phase 4 is return to normal without any restrictions but that wont happen unless the virus disappears, there is a vaccine, or viable treatment, so phase 3 is the last stop on the train for now.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

Of course there is always the possibility of infections spiking again, or of the virus mutating causing a need for a change in protection methods. I go to two different clubs every day for a beer and chat with a few friends, and so far nobody we know seems to have it.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

It's still far from clear what is going to happen when the new school year starts in August and little Miss P seems to have mixed feelings - on one hand she does miss being in school and is looking forward to getting back to classes, and seeing her friends, but is also very cautious about the pandemic.

The school is also kean to get the students back too, but as the number of new infections reported daily in NC is continuing to track steadily upwards, I am already expecting that her school will not reopen in August. There is also a middle ground possibility that the school is considering, where the school opens but only for some of the students each day, so perhaps a day-on-day-off schedule (personally I'd prefer a week-on-week-off schedule if they go down that route). In any case the school has already stated explicitly that, in the near term at least, students will not be compelled to return if they don't feel safe, so ultimately the decision may be upto little Miss P under discussion with Mrs P and me.

That said, and all things considered, I expect that we will go along with what the school arranges, i.e. that little Miss P will return as and when the school reopens.

For context I would point out that little Miss P attends a private school, which means two things [1] the school has almost total freedom to decide whether and when to reopen, and [2] the students are more engaged than school children in general, so getting them to abide by addtional SD, mask, and hygiene rules may be a bit easier and/or with better compliance than for schools in general. :unsure:

The school also went to a full on-line program before the end of March - after schools were shut on the Thursday they only missed the Friday and the next week was spring break, and then they started up with on-line regular schooling on the following Wednesday the week after, after a couple of days of piloting and snagging. "Full on-line", doesn't mean sitting in fron of a camera all day, but there are camera sessions, and then tasks, projects and self-study tasks set, and work to turn in for assessment.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

Indeed and BC seems to be doing a good job at watching, and changing things as needed.

Nothing is set in stone, but we haven't had a spike yet thankfully so hopefully this trend continues.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

My sisters kids were supposed to go back to school mid July, but its been postponed to mid September. (they are on year round schedule, so their summer break is late May to mid July.)

They have been out of school with limited education since March I believe now, her kids schools never went to online and apparently still don't plan to.

Re: Going for a latte in the new normal
 

Thanks for responding, Mr P. It sounds like a good school, and as you suggest meeting friends is important too. If good protective measures are in place, that's a reassurance. I like the idea of one week on, one week off, or even better a fortnight on and fortnight off (given the nature of Covid).