Whatcha doin????

I’m, this particular storm has never been there before

 

Winter is much too early this year. -11C this morning.

 

For those who are celcius challenged that is 12.2F

 

Yikes. My condolences.

 

Back in the woods today. Had planned to go a couple of days ago but the temperatures were a bit warm for it - the local bank's board said 90 degrees. Today it was in the 50s from what I could tell so I did my regular hike. Last October alone I think I did that loop eight or nine times, so far this year I've done it twice (and a kinda half-loop when I took a friend's foster son to the woods to wear him out). But then I've done a lot of walking around town, which isn't the same but it saves the drive and getting dressed in my hiking gear.

I'm running at something like 26 miles of walking in three days, which is more than normal. Two days ago was a fast walk, yesterday was the same loop but about a minute a mile slower, and today was much slower because I'd swapped paved roads and rolling hills for rocky paths up the side of the mountain. If I'm honest I think I prefer the mountain.

 

I see no reason to run if I'm not being chased.

 

A few months ago I'd have agreed with you but having pushed walking to the point I can't go much faster without tying my legs into knots I decided to give jogging a try and found it surprisingly enjoyable to feel my system working that bit harder.

 

Yeah, new limits imposed over the province. I think they still want to make sure kids are in school though as there is still no move toward limiting that. The tail end of last year was pretty tough on a lot of families.

 

More COVID hysterics over here as well. Declined a flu shot, so I'm sure I'm on some government black list now.

 

Here they are talking about our school district going remote-only. That will make life nice and easy for working parents. It seems one side is frantically covering their rears by trying to eliminate any and all risk, however small. The other side is trying to keep up with it all and get on with life somehow. It's far from clear what working parents are supposed to do if their children are suddenly home all day and one of the working parents has to stay home.

 

It's not exactly hysterics, as the daily case numbers are higher than the first round in the spring - that may also be part of better and quicker access to testing.
As for parents, well society has pretty much demanded productivity above all else, so everyone has to be working. Makes it tough when something else collides with that notion.

 

I think to a large extent it is hysterics - unless the plan was a total lockdown with absolutely no interaction between families until every single person in the world tested negative repeatedly (to avoid the chance of a false negative) I'm not sure what people expected to happen when restrictions were lifted. The whole point of them was to "flatten the curve" - not so much to stop the spread but to slow it to a level that hospitals weren't maxed out and stacking bodies in ditches or some such. But then some bright spark had the idea that we needed to squash the curve to the point it was almost, but not quite, gone completely so we suffered ever-more social and economic pain. Then when things started to open the virus started to spread and people seemed surprised by it even though it's hard to imagine any other possible outcome.

Where parents are concerned it seems that the first few couples who decided they could both work managed to buy some extra life quality, but now it's more or less required that both parents work because it's so hard to afford much of a life without two incomes. Perhaps something like this will encourage people to rethink the mentality that we all have to be at work all the time, earning money to pay someone else to do the things we might once have done ourselves. Unless you really enjoy your job it seems silly to go to work to earn the money to pay someone else to clean your house, pay someone else to raise your kids, pay someone else to make your lunch and so on.

 

It seems hysterical over here because:

- It was denied by a SAGE scientist that 'increased testing - as indeed testing has greatly increased - is not the reason for a higher positive infection rate stat'. A real herpity-derpity, that one.
- There's almost no discussion on how many of those infected are in fact asymptomatic, which, last I heard, meant that they were unlikely to transmit the virus.
- There's almost no discussion on how many people in hospital diagnosed with COVID had it before going to hospital, or got it while they were there.
- There's almost no discussion concerning the possible death rate, or the survival rate, just widly huge numbers, like 50,000 cases a day 'by October'. Didn't happen.
- There's all sorts of nebulous talk about 'long COVID', decreased IQ once the virus is caught, etc. etc. etc.
- There's no discussion on COVID vs. other respiratory diseases (which now all seem to be COVID by default).
- There's no discussion over whether increased hospital admissions closer to winter are normal (i.e. among the older population who contract respiratory illness). I thought it was, but apparently it's s ~second wave?
- The government keeps talking about 'in it together', but no one knows what that means. Except that if you're not 'in it together' a Draconian lockdown will happen. Apparently that's not a threat.
- The government keeps talking about avoiding another lockdown, while we're constantly being put in lockdown.
- Some governments are doing things like banning the sale of 'non-essential' items, like clothing, but cigarattes and alcohol are fine, and Amazon can sell whatever it wants.
- The government keeps focusing on closing pubs and restaurants, but I've yet to see evidence that these places are significant sources of infection (that follow the rules, so what does that say about the rules?), vs. work, church, school, etc.
- There's plenty of discussion on how herd immunity is impossible because it requires ~70% of whatever (a ridiculous claim), or that immunity is unlikely because the presence of COVID19 anti-bodies in a post-COVID person falls (but I'm not aware of the body ever keeping up high levels of anti-bodies for a particular disease long after it's gone). But oh yeah, a rushed vaccine is going to make you immune? If a vaccine will do it, and I've already have COVID, then I guess I'm immune.
- The response to the Great Barrington Declaration has been utterly ridiculous.
- There has been absolutely no science provided as to why X, Y, Z measure has been taken. Instead, we're shown numbers, worst-case scenarios, and then decisions that make absolute zero sense when considered in relation to one another. Oh, and then those worst-case scenarios don't happen.
- The vast majority of masks that people are wearing aren't doing anything significant, but we're wearing them anyway because...

And on, and on, and on. I had it early on. It was bad, but I survived. I do wear a mask, and I social distance, and I do all the things. But at this point it's hysterics as far as I'm concerned. If the government wants to convince me otherwise then they can start producing actual science to back up things like, 'no gatherings in groups of more than 6'.

 

Rules on pubs and restaurants make the whole thing descend into a farce.

Here in PA you can only order alcohol in a bar if you also order food. Because apparently the virus knows whether you're eating or not. Technically once you've finished your meal you can't order any more beer because apparently you suddenly become contagious once you finish the last bite. And then come the silly matters about closing hours - if bars close early the virus doesn't get anybody.

As for the "groups of 6" that makes no sense either. You can meet with five totally different people from five different households but if you're a single person meeting a household of six people that makes 7 people and that's bad.

Recently I read a report that said 70% of newly diagnosed COVID patients followed all the guidelines - covering their face, distancing etc - and they still got it. It doesn't make me feel any more inclined to struggle to breathe through a sock over my head, while I struggle to make myself understood and understand anyone else from six feet away as they mumble through a cloth.

 

From an article on the BBC News site, regarding people breaking lockdown rules:

But Prof Keith Neal, an infectious disease expert at Nottingham University, says it shouldn't come as a surprise that people react in the way they do. Both young and old are suffering, he says, from not being able to meet up with people. "This degree of isolation is not allowed in prisons under human rights legislation."

 

First snow day in 34 years for our school.

 

We didn't have snow days where I were a lad. We had to walk through six feet of snow, uphill both ways, to school and that was after working a full day in t'mines.