Coronavirus

About 5% of the people at the gym today were wearing masks, including me. About 10% at the grocery store. The pandemic is definitely not over yet, but most Americans are over it.

Meanwhile,

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/05/28...-memorial-day-surge/

That sucks, Uba. My wife and I went to Vegas over Memorial Day for the AEW shows. Got COVID somewhere along the way so now I'm home basically unable to sleep much because of the damn cough. This is our second bout. The first was January 2020 before vaccines. I will say the vaccines help A LOT because while I'm coughing, I'm otherwise pretty much fine.

Our CEO came down sick with Covid about ten days ago. He worked from home and got over it, then came into the office yesterday for a half day, wearing a mask. It was his last day in town before going to our Pennsylvania location for a couple of weeks, so he felt it was necessary to come in.

About a week ago, my leg muscles became sore and tight, and stayed that way for about a week. I work out regularly at the gym and have been doing a lot of extra squatting while doing seasonal chores, like painting and pulling weeds. Then I spend long hours sitting at work at a computer. So I figured that it was just that plus general aging. But now I wonder if I had a mostly asymptomatic case of Covid. Legs are almost completely normal today, and I otherwise feel fine.

@ubarose

Thank you, friend! Nice to be back. I've been lurking for a long time.

My late brother was pretty far along the spectrum and age 60 was very hard to deal with; I can only imagine dealing with somebody at age 86 with those issues. Good luck,

One of my local gaming groups has a facebook page. Somebody recently started a thread about the low turn-out in May and June, and speculated that it was just a scheduling problem that might be solved by picking a different night to meet. Sorry, I'm not hanging out in a small, busy game shop with a bunch of non-masked people right now. In maybe a month, I might be willing to host them for a session.

On the other hand, I am going to a birthday party tomorrow that will have at least 40 people present. But it's going to be a backyard barbecue situation, and they have a big backyard. But I will probably bail in the early evening, as the mosquitos drive folks indoors. It's a ranch style house with a fully-finished walkout basement to the backyard, but will be crowded with 40 people inside.

ubarose wrote: @Msample
Thank you. It is so hard to find people who understand the challenges of seniors with ASD. We can’t even get home care for my step-mom who is in a wheelchair, because she has been essentially blacklisted from all the agencies due to her behavior, which people just don’t understand. My Dad is her only care person now, and he usually takes care of these details. His being ill with COVID and clearly pretty “out of it” has really made us aware of how much he “covers” for her. It’s very worrying.

Wow. My brother had a home nurse towards the end and she was great; but his behaviour was more odd/not communicating than it was hostile/difficult so I guess your case sounds worse.

For only the second time since 2019, I went to a party, which was an outdoor backyard cookout. The married couple hosting is a punk husband and a goth wife, so it was punk music by day and goth music after dark. The other guests were mostly punks and goths, so I wore my House of Voodoo t-shirt and some purple Raad high-top sneakers with roses and skulls. Even though there were only a dozen people at first, and we were all outside, it took some beer and at least a half-hour before I could relax and stop worrying about the pandemic.

Eventually, there were two dozen people, plus a few kids playing inside. The wind kept blowing smoke from the grill in my direction, no matter where I sat or stood, but I am rarely fazed by smoke. Half the people present were smoking or vaping, so hopefully all that smoke helped block virus transmission. I was there for five hours. Recent waste water testing indicates that virus transmission is declining again in our metro area.

A couple of people at the party were talking about a concert that they attended at the beginning of June. Apparently half the people that went to that show subsequently came down with Covid. For the last decade, I have been hoping to see the Skints in concert, and they are finally doing a show in Minneapolis next week, but I have decided against going. I didn't have tickets or anybody to take anyway, so hopefully the Skints come back next year.

I took some time away from the internet after a recent event. I wrote poetry and it was a pleasant distraction so I recommend the disconnect.

Company meeting today; they want everyone to come in Mon-Thu for a picked week each month minimum. I was kind of expecting this as cities being empty is bad for the economy so they no doubt get political pressure to cut WorkFromHome. But then my boss' boss' boss' boss held his own meeting afterwards and said he refuses to enforce it at all because it's stupid.

I run a property management business. 2 years ago, while trying to navigate my states rules for business reopening and essential services, we closed the front doors, put up an appointment only sign, moved a bunch of furniture and made a study/daycare room for my daughter in the back, and then continued on with life as normal, mostly - We already did 90% of what we do via phone/fax/email/internet. I still had to meet in person to sign leases and for showings and onboarding.

And here's what I lost, 2 hours of walk ins that consisted of :

Locals that wanted to tell me that they absolutely did not meet my screening qualifications, but felt that their story was compelling enough that if they told me personally I would ignore their recent eviction or their frequent visits to court.

Solicitors - There's like 6 or 7 semi-retired "publishers" that have moved up here - each trying vainly to find some other old suckers still sitting behind desks that might throw some money at Old Media bullcrap. There's a dozen worthless "magazines" and circulars that sit in hotel lobby bins, mostly, and at the counters of the restaurants dumb enough to purchase ads. Don't get me started on the phone directories. Restoration companies. Title companies. Contractors. Every kid that decides that his trailer and a lawn mower is his ticket to financial freedom. (although, I will admit I miss the last one....we are in a labor desert atm)

Tourists : "oh my gosh and jeez what a lovely town you have here. Herb and I think it's the bee's knees. We're thinking of renting a place next summer..."



At this point, I can not foresee a change in circumstances that would elicit me to change our current practices - I have had the most profitable 2 years the business has ever had - I'm a compassionate guy and will never cut someone off, even if they obviously disqualify themselves in the first 30 seconds of the conversation. The sales guys, I give them 3 minutes and a cup of coffee to take with them...I used to do outside sales, so I just ask them to cut to to chase, ask them for the 30 second elevator pitch on how they are going to make me money or save me money and if I'm interested they can send me something to read. I replaced that 2 hours of all that bullcrap with working more directly with some of my realtors on lead generation, having time to do more planning, development - and put together some more effective advertising tools. I spend two hours a day working on growing my business. (or posting nonsense here) And it grew. Whodathunkit?


I've been working through a ton of survivor's guilt the last year....Knowing that we did as well/better than we have done previously, while going through the pandemic when our friends and neighbors have not had the same experience. We have closed restaurants and shops in town........it's a labor desert, and a child care desert, and there is no workforce housing. And it's probably going to get worse. But probably not for me and my little pod of people.