Coronavirus prep

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  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,187 Member
    earlnabby wrote: »
    Re: Halloween

    Weather was decent (last year we got 8" of snow) so I set up a bowl with treats and set it up at the end of my patio. I got cheap treat bags and put a few treats in each bag so the kids wouldn't be digging in the bowl, just grab a bag. I dressed up and sat on the patio six feet away so I could greet the kids but stay distanced. My neighbor took her kids out and said there weren't as many kids trick or treating and not as many homes had treats. She also said there weren't groups of kids like usual, mostly it was kids with a parent or two. Nobody was covid masked. I got the same number of kids as other years but the demographics were different . . . there were a lot of teenagers on bikes, some in costumes and some not. As long as I had candy for the little ones, I didn't care.

    On the other hand, my night was made when Winnie the Pooh rolled up on a bike.

    Oh, please say you have a picture of Winnie the Pooh on a bike! :smile:
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,887 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    TonyB0588 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    jenilla1 wrote: »
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    Gotta love California. Our new guideline to get us through the holidays. Ha

    88ogbro67wco.png

    Sorry had to Google since I thought it was internet BS.

    So what is done if someone waves a middle finger at one or all of the guidelines?

    Nothing. It's not enforceable. They're just hoping that people will see the guidelines and be more thoughtful and cautious this season. Maybe try to adhere somewhat to it. Better than putting out no guidance at all and people just think it's business as usual.
    How do you think that? Scofflaw?

    Not enforceable law...there is no legislation and no statute. There is nothing for law enforcement to remotely hang their hat on by trying to enforce any of those things. They are guidelines and the best that can be hoped for is voluntary compliance. The government can't regulate whether or not you have family or friends over to your personal property in any number outside of noise ordinances and such...but even then, law enforcement would be walking a very fine line.

    I've talked to some law enforcement as we have county sheriffs doing security at my office...they can't do anything...it's none of their business whether someone has granny and auntie and their cousins over to their own personal property for a BBQ...they don't have a legal leg to stand on trying to do that.

    Different countries, different laws I guess. During the initial reopening after the lockdown earlier this year, we were told we couldn't have more than 3 persons come to the house who were not part of the same household. So it was okay to be a husband and wife with 8 children living there, which makes 10, but us as a family of 3 could only have a maximum of 3 visitors to our house which makes 6, although 6 is less than the big family of 10. And it was enforceable, just as the curfew before it was enforced.

    I'm in the US, curious how this enforced? I mean curfew I can understand if someone is out past the curfew time the police can stop. How are activities in private homes monitored?

    Very similar to activities in a club or a bar or restaurant. We've had a few prosecutions for exceeding the allowed numbers in clubs, lack of distancing in bars, and failure to enforce mask-wearing in restaurants.

    No one is going to go around knocking on doors to check every house, but if there are 10 cars parked at my property, something is worth investigating.

    But that's typically not the case. One can go into bars and restaurants and see what they are doing. One typically has no sign of law-breaking at private homes even where there are strict rules like those in CA. For example, here (which is likely one of the more compliant areas of the US overall), there were at one point some huge house parties, advertised online and otherwise, and those got shut down. These are huge and easy to detect if people are watching for them. (Worth noting -- and as Ann said, this is just the facts, not a political opinion -- that when that happened it was reported on Fox as if the mayor was crazily trying to shut down people having a few guests over, ignoring what "house party" meant in these cases.)

    But if someone has several people over for a holiday party, there's going to be no obvious sign unless a neighbor is spying on your and calls the cops. This is especially true if (as normal this time of year, given the weather), the gathering is inside. Where I live, people don't have driveways and you can't pull up in front of the house, so there's no "10 car in front of the house" giveaway. I had a 20 person holiday party in December of last year (obv don't plan to this year), and no one would have known as we weren't noisy. I have one guest spot, everyone else took public transit or car pooled. So rules about the size of holiday gatherings -- although I support them -- seem to me basically unenforceable.

    This summer in my neighborhood, house parties were yard parties including PA systems cranked up to live band decibel levels. We could feel the bass in our basement 100 yards away. Our noise ordinances include decibels levels at the property edge, so it is very easy to know when someone is too loud. The mayor hadn't wanted to give out fines for this, but finally concluded that these parties (and an especially egregious 500 plus "mansion party") were contributing to my city being # 2 or 3 for cases in the state, and instituted a curfew and a green light to levy fines.

    Most of these happened the next street over where we do not know the people. Several of us have talked to the one family on our street having loud parties. They are considerate when sober but not so much once the alcohol gets flowing and have weird views like, "It was the son's birthday" and "Once you're a homeowner you get to have parties."

    While it hasn't been an issue since the weather got cold, we'd been planning to move to my elderly mother's town at some point anyway, and have moved our timetable up.

    This is pretty different from where I live. In my neighborhood most have lots of 125x25 (standard Chicago) or 125x30 (what I have), and are being pretty compliant. The house parties I mentioned are in quite different neighborhoods. My prior 'hood (which was basically Wrigleyville) has been an issue, but not due to house parties, but bar violations.
  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,723 Member
    Re Australia question Some people have second homes. They had to stay in one state if the borders were locked.
    There were some exemption for essential travellers, but going to a holiday home was not one of them.

    Same for us, here in Italy, you could not go to vacation homes. People would check and report you (everyone knows which homes are vacation). Police stopped cars on the road, and you had to have permission for where you were going--work, humanitarian (helping an elderly relative), etc. This was during Lockdown last spring. We are going into another Lockdown. The numbers keep climbing. My husband's cousins are all down with COVID. Luckily we haven't seen them for over 3 weeks.

    Oh no :( I hope your dh's cousins all recover quickly and without issues.
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    Theoldguy1 wrote: »

    Hope everyone stays safe this week. Have a feeling that this will be a very violent and scary week in the US. I plan on drinking quite a bit on Tuesday night. Hopefully, AZ will make pot legal on Tuesday -- we have a ballot initiative for up to six plants or one ounce on Tuesday's ballot. I could use some pot brownies on Tuesday.

    Oh, big news too -- the wife's doc appointment went better than expected. The doc seemed pleased with her progress already on her blood work. He wants her to lose a little weight, but overall, was really impressed with how proactive we are related to exercise and diet. Her potassium was just under the "normal" reading but most of the rest of the numbers, including blood sugar, were now decent. So huge relief but we're continuing with eliminating most of our added sugars.

    Unfortunately agree with the possible violence.

    Did have a question. If legal pot is on the ballot Tuesday where are you going to get the pot brownies on Tuesday :)? In IL it took a while for the dispensaries to get up and running.

    Good luck to your wife.

    LOL, teasing about the pot. I didn't react well to it when I was younger. If it passes, we'll be able to grow 6 plants for personal use. I'd have to look more into it, as (I think) they are saying you'd have to have it in a locked cabinet, child proof, even if you don't have kids. And it can't be out in the open, which would actually make it quite easy to grow in AZ if you could put it in the open.

    My wife qualifies now (with Fibro) for the pot if we bothered to get it medically now. But growing it would certainly be much cheaper.
  • SModa61
    SModa61 Posts: 3,447 Member
    Re Australia question Some people have second homes. They had to stay in one state if the borders were locked.
    There were some exemption for essential travellers, but going to a holiday home was not one of them.

    Same for us, here in Italy, you could not go to vacation homes. People would check and report you (everyone knows which homes are vacation). Police stopped cars on the road, and you had to have permission for where you were going--work, humanitarian (helping an elderly relative), etc. This was during Lockdown last spring. We are going into another Lockdown. The numbers keep climbing. My husband's cousins are all down with COVID. Luckily we haven't seen them for over 3 weeks.

    Thanks. So both Australia and Italy are approaching things similar to parts of the US.
  • SModa61
    SModa61 Posts: 3,447 Member
    I’m pretty sure that people all over the US have vacation homes elsewhere. Here (Minnesota) many people winter in southern states, and have summer homes on lakes in Minnesota. At the time of lockdown, there were restrictions, but whether or not they were enforced, who knows. It’s pretty much go where you want within the US. The logistics for enforcement seem difficult. My sister has been to California several times during this to visit her grandchildren. I have a friend who leaves for 6 weeks in Arizona in two days. My husband’s cousin is leaving for Arizona until April on 11/15.
    The airlines are going to be opening middle seating, if they haven’t already. Cruise lines are resuming sailing in US waters, with no passengers, yet. Does anyone remember how this started? It seems kind of hopeless sometimes.

    I did not mean to imply that the northeast was the only area. I was just speaking to the region I am in and where people here tend to travel.

    We happen to have three homes; Massachusetts, Maine, and Florida keys and have experienced restrictions at times during these months. In the Spring, the keys locked down their access with a checkpoint. To enter, one had to produce proof of ownership/residency. All renters already there, with less than a 1 month lease, were thrown out with couple day notice and one area (Key Colony) threw out anyone with less than a 3 month lease, even if you were already there and had been there since before COVID started. We returned to Mass beginning of May, and was required to quarantine 14 days even though Massachusetts was a higher risk state than where we just came from. Shortly there after, Maine began a moratorium on people coming into the state. If one entered, 14 day quarantine or proof of negative covid test was required. It applied to many states for the first 2 months, then only targeted Massachusetts the last. Now that the summer season is over, Maine has lifted their restrictions, but I fulling expect that they will put them back in place once ski season arrives. Massachusetts continues to have their own travel restrictions that requires anyone traveling from a state of higher COVID risk (not easy to look up - or at least for me) is required to 14 day quarantine or proof of negative covid test. Hubby just went through that last week after bringing his mother back to her home in Florida. He got home that Sunday night, quarantined until Wednesday for an incubation period and make the test useful, and then took his test. Thankfully negative. Current Massachusetts fine, if caught, is $500/day for not quarantining.

    For flying, fly JetBlue for now. They are still blocking middle seats until end of year, and one statement sounded like into 1st quarter next year. Now, if they would stop handing my husband cheese-its for their pre-assembled snack. :P
  • cgvet37
    cgvet37 Posts: 1,189 Member
    cgvet37 wrote: »
    cgvet37 wrote: »
    I started going back to the gym in July. I don't wear a mask. I use common sense and wipe everything down, like I did before. My family and I go out to eat as well. If the establishment didn't require a mask, I wouldn't wear one. The virus is not going away, and I'm going to live my life with common sense.

    I hope this means that if you or your family get sick, you will not seek medical attention and just 'live it out' at home.

    I'm pretty sure I had it back in February. Yes, if one of us were to get sick, we would stay home. Like I said, common sense. I don't believe in thin paper masks. I don't believe in everyone just staying home. The virus is not going away.

    This is WHY it's not going away. It's frustrating that some of us haven't seen our family for months and other people are just going to the gym without masks. You can't even get a sense that "we're all in this together" because some people are acting like there is no "us" to even consider.

    So, wearing masks is going to make the virus magically disappear? People should wear masks during Flu season, maybe the Flu virus will go away.