COVID-19 Check-In Thread Part III

[LynnInDenver]

Ottawa itself is doing okay, but Toronto and cities around it are going through the roof. Since Toronto is where the Ontario government lives, and where its spiritual home is, you'd think all of Ontario was going down in flaming wreckage because of this. They are facing full lockdown, or something very much like it soon, but I think we might avoid it this Christmas. It'll still be a weird holiday season of zoom calls and staying at home, regardless.

What worries me right this second is the looming American Thanksgiving. We had ours the first weekend in October. But with Americans celebrating next weekend, that brings up the ugly duck in the room - Black Friday.

I'm honestly expecting that it will be more the "I have to SEE my family for a change" than the sales that will be the superspreaders here. Many of the stores, last I knew, were planning on way scaling back the in-person sales and doing a week-long online event instead. In fact, we bought a television today as part of that (contactless pickup via website order, we aren't stepping into retail environments right now because it's not worth the risk, 1 in 49 may be infected in Colorado right now) to replace one downstairs on the four-player MAME cabinet... which we moved over to serve double duty as our video conference screen from the gaming table. We were already planning on doing the weird holiday season of zoom calls and staying at home.

Assuming the madness happens again, I fully expect Black Friday to really live up to its name this year, and kick off a superpsreader event like no one has seen yet. What worries me is that if the people put the mad need to spend money before health, America might well wind up celebrating Christmas with a plague event which looks like the Black Death Pt 2.

Yeah, I'm still expecting something of a temporary plateau followed by another week or two of increases, but based specifically on the family gatherings as people insist they can't be sick and wind up bringing COVID-19 to Grandma.

[Dragonflight]

You have a MAME cabinet? Serious envy here...

[LynnInDenver]

You have a MAME cabinet? Serious envy here...

Yes, we do. Four players. Not quite finished yet, but quite playable, we call it Legacy of the Stick:

   

And it does have a nice party trick:

   

We've also got a trio of Arcade1Up machines, Asteroids modded into Twinitron, a twin stick and spinner cabinet, Golden Tee, and Star Wars. And there's the virtual pinball machine Radiant Silverball. Some of it's detailed on my YouTube channel Lynn Makes.

[Labster]

When Black Friday comes
I stand down by the door
And catch the grey men when they
Dive from the fourteenth floor

When Black Friday comes
I collect everything I'm owed
And before my friends find out
I'll be on the road

When Black Friday falls you know it's got to be
Don't let it fall on me

When Black Friday comes
I fly down to Muswellbrook
Gonna strike all the big red words
From my little black book

Gonna do just what I please
Gonna wear no socks and shoes
With nothing to do but feed
All the kangaroos

When Black Friday comes I'll be on that hill
You know I will

When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna dig myself a hole
Gonna lay down in it 'til
I satisfy my soul

Gonna let the world pass by me
The Archbishop's gonna sanctify me
And if he don't come across
I'm gonna let it roll

When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna stake my claim
I guess I'll change my name

--(Becker/Fagen)

Everyone needs a MAME cabinet, seriously.

[Star Ranger4]

Last night was the first night of curfew.  The next door neighbor's party only went a half-hour past curfew, I guess that's something.  Thanksgiving Day is still looming.  This is going to be a long, hard winter of disease and toiler paper rationing.

Oh, and if you don't have your influenza shot, go do that soon.  Nothing would suck worse than getting both diseases at the same time, you know?

but if we are properly protecting ourselves against covid, how are we around anyone to get the Flu?

[nocarename]

but if we are properly protecting ourselves against covid, how are we around anyone to get the Flu?

Key part of the question right there.
That's for places like New Zealand, not places like Alberta which has been setting new records every day and whose Premier is hiding from (checks notes) everyone rather than instituting a lockdown.

[Wolff]

The area I live in has been upgraded to critical threat levels. I'm really glad that I'm off work for the next eleven weeks or so, and other than obligatory doctor's visits, basics shopping, and occasional door dash deliveries, I don't have to leave the house. I got a knee scooter, which is making moving around much more possible, because crutches + narcotics = fail, and my #1 goal in life right now is to not screw up the very expensive surgical repairs I just had.

[Inquisitive Raven]

Welp, I got my flu shot today. I'd normally have gotten it much earlier but a lack of seeing my PCP this year plus no travel-induced urgency means I wasn't pushing to get it done.

Oh yeah, I'm still alive.

[Dartz]

It wasn't the Covid that got me. I fell and bollocksed my knee.

Too much weight, off balance and something just noped and down I went. Can stand and just about walk, but no strength in me leg at all.

[DeputyJones]

Still alive, and still working. Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans!

[classicdrogn]

Balls. Hope you can get that sorted easily, or rather that it just takes a day or two of easing it along to sort itself, Dartz. Restricted mobility is never any fun.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Still here and in apparent good health.  Nothing's shown up in any rate.

[Dartz]

Seems fine.

I lamped around a building site for most of the day and borrowed some anti-inflammatories off someone with arthritis so that's keeping it swinging.


EDIT: Seems to be a false alarm. Borrowed some of me oulfella's arthritis meds - the good anti-inflammatory shit - and that's made it workable and brought the worst of it down. Not as bad as I expected given how hard it was to walk on Thursday, or Friday. Probably just stretched something or bruised it - taking the sting out of that cleared it up.

[Star Ranger4]

made too much food on thursday. Avoided stores (though most of the major culprits were shut down or pickup only) on friday.

Still alive.

[Bob Schroeck]

And I forgot to mention -- we got our COVID-19 test results back. We're clean.

[robkelk]

And I forgot to mention -- we got our COVID-19 test results back. We're clean.

Hurrah!

[classicdrogn]

Back in high school I found a button (the kind you pin on, not the kind you press) on the sidewalk that said "Member - Bermuda Triangle Exploration Team - 2021-1991" I suppose now we have some ideas what was so urgent it required time travelers to try to fix, though I have to hope it turns out we're in one of those timelines where time travelers can't actually make changes, because if a Florida Man presidency, COVID-19, and a new upswing in a cycle of police brutality and protests about it were acceptable collateral damage for heading off something worse I really don't want to find out what it was.

Or maybe time travelers rigged the election specifically to put someone competent in place for whatever comes next? It's as plausible as any other theory about it.

[DHBirr]

Nothing interesting at Festung Birr.

[Star Ranger4]

... except my brain interpreted it as festering brrrrrrrr....

[DHBirr]

...  except my brain interpreted it as festering brrrrrrrr....

[Shrug]  That works too, doesn't it?

[LynnInDenver]

Still ticking here.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Check in time.  Stiil working, still good.

[Kilroy]

I'm still well. I spent some time in the last two weeks trying to find a problem it turned out the customer did not actually have. Quite frustrating.


Kilroy

[Labster]

Did you find the problem anyway? I always tend to find something to fix, even in snipe hunts.

My team at work is doing its second reorganization in as many months. I’m getting merged with another team, looks like I’ll still be team lead because the other guy said “not it!” faster.

Everyone is still well, but I’m still searching for toilet paper.

[aku]

Still fine. For a bit of a laugh

 .
Source.