COVID-19 Check-in Thread Part II

[Bob Schroeck]

Peg and I got our NJ absentee ballots in the mail yesterday, so we're going to fill them out and get them sent off right away.  This is doubly important for us because we'll be out of state on Election Day, finally taking a delayed vacation on Cape Cod.

Cape Cod? Where? For me, that's actually a meaningful question because I spent a lot of summers there as a kid and my sister lives in Wellfleet.

Dennis Port, right on the ocean.

[DHBirr]

No significant change at Festung Birr.

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Big Brother is watching you ... and damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[Dragonflight]

No changes here. It figures life here is finally becoming normal, right as the city is starting the second wave of Covid. <sigh> Fun times ahead!

[Terrenceknight]

Been a while for me mainly because there hasn't really been any change on my end, my natural hermit tendencies combined with the low covid case count in my city means my personal lifestyle hasn't really been affected by the virus thankfully. Still figure I'd check in and say things are goin well for me. So far my province hasn't instituted mandatory masks outside of certain locations so plenty of folk around town here without a mask on and until they are mandatory I tend to avoid wearing mine because foggy glasses for someone whom already is a good part blind is infuriating.

[LynnInDenver]

OK, checking in again, still as near as I know we're COVID free in the house. Local hospitalizations are up in the high 170s now, I suspect in part because of the college outbreaks. Hoping it doesn't climb any higher.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Weekly check in time.  No change.

[Inquisitive Raven]

I'm here. Got my ballot and filled it. Now I have to manage to get to City Hall to drop it off.

[Wolff]

Still here, working overnights for a month or so.

[Inquisitive Raven]

Welp, I managed to get to City Hall and dropped off my ballot. May I say that the available signage to find the drop-off point is completely inadequate.

Hiking around Center City was a rather pointed reminder that I really need to increase my activity level.

[LynnInDenver]

Waiting for the ballots to come in the mail so we can deal with those... like always, we'll be dropping them into a drop box at City Hall, less than 5 miles away.

FOUR people in the grocery store without their masks on. FOUR. On the way out, a parking lot loudspeaker reminded about cleanliness, my husband made a Bladerunner reference, and I realized my sense of humor had pretty much evaporated while we were in the store because I had to rein in the urge to get after someone for being an inconsiderate little...

Ahem.

Otherwise, yeah, still chugging along, still trying to fight against the urge to start doing 100% of purchases online.

EDIT: And in the past few weeks, the hospitalization numbers have almost doubled - from 130 to 245.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Weekly check-in time.  Still no change.

[DHBirr]

My life continues.

[DeputyJones]

Life... it's a good cereal.

Still here.

[Mamorien]

I neglected to mention last update that the therapist I'd been seeing since early 2017 had accepted a job offer providing PTSD counseling to Our Troops (TM). Technically, he's still at Keystone Behavioral Health through Friday week, but I had my last appointment with him this past Friday and will have my first with my new therapist this coming Monday.

Obviously, I am, in general, still here, wherever "here" is.

[Inquisitive Raven]

FOUR people in the grocery store without their masks on. FOUR. On the way out, a parking lot loudspeaker reminded about cleanliness, my husband made a Bladerunner reference, and I realized my sense of humor had pretty much evaporated while we were in the store because I had to rein in the urge to get after someone for being an inconsiderate little...

Ahem.

Otherwise, yeah, still chugging along, still trying to fight against the urge to start doing 100% of purchases online.

Still chugging along, myself, but yeah, the temptation to buy everything online is definitely there. I've given up counting the number of people sans masks or with their masks under their noses or chins. I'm giving serious consideration to writing "Cover your nose and mouth" on a couple of my masks as a reminder to people around me.

[classicdrogn]

Haven't been active the past couple days due to getting stuck in gaming mode again, playing G1 pokemon - this time maybe I'll actually finish the Kanto region before getting distracted by some other shiny thing? It's only been about twenty years since my first attempt!

For the record, that first attempt was only a couple of hours and not saved, because my nephew wanted to show me how awesome Bulbasaur was right from the start. He went from reading the "see spot run" series books out loud to being fluent specifically to play it, so I have laughed at people who say video games are bad for your brain ever since.

Considering that I almost always do take the plant type as my starter (despite never yet having finished one of the games) you could say he did a good job of selling the idea...

[hazard]

It depends on the video game. Shooters? Definitely not the sort of game to stimulate your reading skills. RPGs? Different matter entirely, most RPGs are pretty text dependent even when voice acted.

[LynnInDenver]

Watching the hospitalization numbers more closely... pretty much doubled the last three weeks, our R-factor is over 1 (which is long term bad), and it's mostly three counties - Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas, all of them covering various bits of suburbs of Denver.

We video called my parents tonight... there was a frank admission that we're likely only doing virtual holidays this year. We're still personally in station-keeping - no restaurant dining (although takeout and delivery are still options), keeping our non-essential retail store runs to once every couple of months just to try to give support to our local hobby stores. We're NOT getting enough human contact, but that's also not going to change. Going over to video calls helps that a bit, but that's another bandaid on a year that's pretty much made of bandaids now.

[ECSNorway]

Still here. Still looking for work. Debating plans for Thanksgiving.

And... FUCK FUCK FUCKITY FUCK.

https://teleread.org/2020/10/09/teleread...-accident/

[Star Ranger4]

*SIGH*

Still alive, but wishing I could shoot the governor of CA.

[classicdrogn]

You know what they say - if wishes were bullets we all would die. Still, I can't deny having some thoughts along those lines myself now and then, if in a different direction.

[Kilroy]

Still here, still persevering.

[Dragonflight]

Still here. Ottawa's not quite in lockdown yet, but this weekend, the top doctors in Ontario are on pins and needles, largely because of what the outcome of Thanksgiving might be (first weekend in October, in Canada.) If too many groups get together this weekend, this could be the start of another total lockdown. Even if it isn't, it's very dangerous territory right now.

It's getting to the point where I have to balance going to get groceries versus the risk of infection. I don't have a car, so I have to bus it. This currently almost always starts an argument with my roommates. They prefer to Instacart everything, but I can't afford the 20% extra they charge for deliveries. I also can't stop eating, either. So life is very frustrating right now.

[aku]

Ping. ... Three weeks on, still going ... Nothing really new to report here from Vancouver.

[DHBirr]

I remain alive and, so far as I know, uninfected.

Three days ago, I e-mailed my younger brother to verify that his daughter and her children are still living at the last address I knew for them.  This was so I could send his granddaughter a card for her twelfth birthday.*  His response (yes, they are) came yesterday, and he mentioned in passing that he was recovering from COVID.  "It sucks. I was lucky but it still sucks."  That this was the first I'd known of his illness should tell you all something of what a [engage sarcasm mode] close-knit family we are [end sarcasm mode].

* My younger brother has a twelve-year-old grandkid.  Ye gods, I'm OLD.  Save a spot for me on that park bench, Methuselah....

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No, it ISN'T what it is!