Coronavirus

Sounds like you all need swabs.

NC is reopening restaurants tomorrow. I would love to go out to eat, but there is no way in hell I'm going to a restaurant and time soon. Let alone this weekend. It's going to be fucking crazy.

Here in NH places are allowed to serve but to guests sitting outside only. I'll give them the weekend to see how things shake out then start going next week; plus since I usually eat alone I don't want to take up a whole table. The local taco truck will come back next week, I'll hit that for sure the day it opens, been missing it badly. Unfortunately the BBQ truck has given no indication of when , or if, it will reopen. Between the owners high risk health issues as well as not having contactless payment , price and availability of meat, and other niggling issues I fear he may not come back this season. Pity, some of the best brisket I've had across all of New England.

Governor Walz is allowing restaurants to start doing outdoor service as of June 1. Naturally the hospitality industry is not thrilled with half a loaf, and there is a big slapfight brewing over large gatherings for religious services (still will not be permissible). The GOP leader of the state senate is bleating about religious freedoms while the experts are pointing to the danger of singing--for instance, the Washington episode where almost 90% of the people at a choir practice got infected by one person shedding the virus. Apparently the Archdiocese of St. Paul is simply refusing to be bound by the orders and Catholic churches in Minnesota will resume conducting in-person mass.

JoelCFC25 wrote: The GOP leader of the state senate is bleating about religious freedoms . . .

This is settled law from the 1900s, so all the bleating is about garnering votes. I'd wager they hope nothing changes so they can continue to complain about how badly they're being used.

Little Italy in Baltimore is looking to close down streets to vehicle traffic, so that the restaurants can spread tables out for safe dining. Given the weather here for the last three weeks I think this may not yet be a good way to fix a problem, but hey, Baltimore's "Spring" (which usually lasts about 18 hours before the god-awful heat kicks in) could be right around the corner.

The locals are complaining about not being able to drive up to their homes with groceries and the like, but I think with some timing choices (say, roads closed from 4pm on or only on weekends or frankly, by the restaurant staff helping with carrying stuff for the elderly) I think they can work it out. Sounds like a good idea but it will still be weather dependent and be more difficult to manage.

That said, people are figuring out ways to make this work. The take-away from all of this is that business owners are thinking broadly and getting things done.

JoelCFC25 wrote: Apparently the Archdiocese of St. Paul is simply refusing to be bound by the orders and Catholic churches in Minnesota will resume conducting in-person mass.

I wonder if Catholic church practices contributed significantly to Italy's ordeal with the virus. The communion ritual seems like an especially terrible idea during a pandemic.

Churches are getting killed financially by this.

Useful article from the WaPo:

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/...Jbfrjhd9jQc7uyiX4xlg

The mayor of Minneapolis just made masks mandatory in indoor public spaces for anyone over the age of 2.

Weeks ago, I read that 60% of the people who are dying from COVID-19 are men, even though men and women were equally like to catch the virus. I don't know if that is due to a gender difference in how the disease affects us, but it might be a result of men traditionally being more reluctant to seek medical care. Anyway, last night I was buying a vacuum cleaner at Target (ruined my old one last year by using it as a shop vac), and saw something new: male/female couples where only the woman was wearing a mask. I saw three couples like that. And it wasn't necessarily about politics, because only one of the three couples was white.

There's also a theory out there that relates to having two X chromosomes, and X chromosomes have immunity characteristics. But it definitely could be environmental too so who knows.

Males in general have weaker pulmonary systems throughout life. If you talk to a NICU nurse they'll tell you that baby boys are much less likely to survive than baby girls. Given this virus' MO it makes sense that men would get hit harder.

But on the prior note . . .

I walked into a liquor store and found the owner, a young guy apparently of Southeast European or Middle-Eastern descent by appearance, was behind the counter with no gloves and no mask. When he asked what I was looking for and I told him he came out and grabbed the bottle for me. So . . . out the door and down the road I went to the next liquor store.

At liquor store number two, middle-aged military-cut white man that would have looked perfectly at home with an AR-15 and a Trump hat was fully geared up in safety gear, admonishing customers to obey the grid lines on the floor, and working the credit card transactions in a no-touch process. He reminded me to wipe down the bottles when I got home "just in case". This guy was clearly tending to details, be it out of concern for me or for his business, and frankly I don't care which as long as it gets done.

So you can't judge a book.

Shellhead wrote: ...Anyway, last night I was buying a vacuum cleaner at Target (ruined my old one last year by using it as a shop vac), and saw something new: male/female couples where only the woman was wearing a mask. I saw three couples like that. And it wasn't necessarily about politics, because only one of the three couples was white.

Not so much politics as thinking he's too tough for x. You see the same thing where the girl on the back is wearing a helmet, and the guy on the front isn't. Fuckin' stupid.

Maybe the guy only has 1 helmet and he is prioritizing the girls life over his? We used to call that normal male behavior.

Or she is wearing the helmet to limit how messy her hair gets.

Anyway, some of you folks really need to take a step back and consider how you are viewing your fellow countrymen and the insults so casually tossed around. This thread is so full of internet vitriol it makes me question the value of the site as a whole when I want to think about gaming. At least it is mostly contained in this thread.

Just my opinion.

On the Corona front Texas is mostly up and running. Went tubing (or 'toobing' as they like to call it) yesterday. Everyone pretty much stuck to their group, though as the river fills up that is hard to do. A giant rubber ring around you does sorta reinforce some social distancing though. The shuttle bus back to the car is a bit problematic, who knows how and when they clean that thing. I still see almost 100% mask wearing inside stores but virtually none in restaurants (which is obvious) or just on the street. Wearing a thick mask in this weather is like high altitude training.