Corona virus, what's different for you.

Interesting times here. The Adelaide Fringe (massive comedy/performance/arts festival) that happens here in February/March was the last big Australian event last year before everything locked down. The final weekend actually happened while all the other event cancellations for the year were being announced and got to see some performers do their final festival shows of the year.

Now it's back again, and it's kinda surreal how normal everything feels for the most part.

We're still doing QR code check ins, and venues are at half capacity, but apart from that there are massive crowds of people on the streets, and I've probably been averaging going out to a show every day for the last couple of weeks, most of which have had good size audiences. You can almost forget what's happening in the world until you realise that all the international performers who you would usually see on the street aren't around.

I don't work in an assisted living facility, but once in a while will have an appointment for someone who does. Our work policy dis not allow us to enter any place that has even one person who is covid-19 positive. We do have a questionair that asks if anyone has covid-19 or, is positive, or has been exposed. People are not always truthful. My state does have an online record that is updated daily with the number of covid-19 positive residents and staff. So I check that record of I know I have an appointment at one, or if I arrive at one. If it shows that there are no positive cases, I'll still ask at the front. If I get a yes, I thank them and leave. I then call the resident and tell them due to positive case or cases I an twitter required to cancel their appointment or reschedule two weeks out. Or may need to call the person that set the appointment and tell them them the same.

About half understand, but some insist I keep the appointment. If that happens, I repeat myself and give them a number to call, where they'll get told the same and hang up. Then I call block their number on my work phone. Then same thing if the south appointment is anywhere else.

If I get to an appointment where someone appears sick, the same thing.

Some people get really, really, really angry, and have left angry voicemails. Oh well.

I got a text message today that said I was eligible for the vaccine. I went and checked at the locations where they're giving them out and nobody has any open slots for the next two weeks.

probably because a lot of other got that text too - "ya snooze, ya lose" as they used to say. No open slots is actually good though, because no vaccines are going unused.

First dose down!

Any priapism?

Them vaccination boners are fierce

Awesome! A little off topic but that shirt....did you recently take a shotgun blast to the chest? Not judging - if so, you are one tough SOB that's for sure.

okay I had to google that word. So....should there be any? I just want to plan my day, that's all.

It's a common side effect.

or as I like to call it "business as usual."

I hate PCR tests. I have to have them to come back into France from Switzerland, but I hate them. It's just routine.

We are supposed to go to Switzerland tomorrow, because my mother-in-law is in the hospital, dying of cancer. So my wife and I both got PCR tests yesterday afternoon. (It was the first time for her.) Just routine.

Except my result came back positive! I don't know how it could be positive. I am so careful about contact with other people I am almost a hermit. The only person I see at all close is my wife, and her result is negative.

It could well be an error, but it still means I can't go to Switzerland, and am going to have to self-quarantine (again! -- I had to do that back in December, too, after being in contact with someone who was infected) for at least ten days.

Not really. The entire jewelry industry operates on "memo." A designer will send a piece for a pre-determined length of time and if the piece sells, the store pays the designer. If the piece doesn't sell, the store sends it back. Roughly 50% of the entire inventory of the store I used to work at was on "memo." Some of it for 10+ years.

Well, Mom fell and cracked her pelvis, sternum and a rib. She was in the hospital for a few days and now she's in a rehab place. Nobody can visit, of course, so it would be pointless to go down there, but my sister is complaining about me not being there anyway, because she has to take care of everything and hasn't been able to visit her daughter in Florida for two years. Now's not exactly the best time for that anyway, ya know?
The phone in Mom's room has a constant loud BUZZZZ on the line, so it's hard to have a conversation. She got her two vaccine shots, so I'm not worried about that at least. She could barely walk before she fell (which is why she fell), but they're hopeful to get her walking with a walker again, so she may be able to go home again, but we don't think she should be living alone any more. Of course I'm 900 miles away so my sister gets to take care of everything again.
I'm never going near an airport again if I can help it, and any visit would probably have to be open-ended, not planned for a specific time. So if and when I HAVE to go down to help, I'm looking at a 12 or 13 hour drive. It looks pretty straightforward to get there, just a succession of major highways all the way. I'd have to do it alone, since we just got a brand new puppy (she came from Alabama, and she'd probably think we were returning her ). My wife is freaking out thinking of me driving all that alone (so am I!). And I can't imagine what shape my sciatica will be in after all that. But I'm probably gonna have to do it more sooner than later. Psyching myself up for it.

Scheduled my first shot for a week from today.

My first is Sunday. Second is about a month after that.

I'm a little worried - not about the vaccine itself, just the side affects. I hate pain. I truly dislike being sick - no, seriously, worse than any man with a common cold.

Is there female priapism? You may want to plan for that.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/124...m of the clitoris,of vulvar and clitoral pain.

As I said in another COVID post, I got my Pfizer shot around noon yesterday - no side effects. But this morning I woke up with a sore throat, which I still have. I googled it up and a sore throat is not one of the vaccine side effects. Just a coincidence? I haven't had a sore throat in many months, but I get one about 18 hours after getting my shot? I don't get it. Yes, side effects vary but a sore throat is just not one of them, at least according to the many sources I found.

A little update here. It turns out we wouldn't have gone to Switzerland today after all. My sister-in-law called last evening with the news that my mother-in-law has died. She lived to be 85 years old and was clear in her mind and doing very well up until about two weeks before the end, so we can't complain, but what's sad is that due to the pandemic my wife hadn't seen her mother in over a year (though they talked on the phone almost every day; there's at least that) and we won't be able to go to the funeral.

I am one of the few people I know who appreciated my mother-in-law more than my own mother. (And I liked my father-in-law even better, but he died four years ago already.) It's sad to think there will be no more visits with her, but at least she had a relatively easy end.

I'm sorry to hear this. I just got a call this morning that my oldest sister died. She had a stroke in Jan 2020. We weren't close, but funerals are for the living, not the dead. I won't be able to attend and comfort my nieces and nephews and other siblings because Michigan (I'm told) has a restriction of no gatherings larger than 10 people and between my sister and her husband, they had 8 kids. plus their spouses and their kids ....

I really hope this past year doesn't get lost in the history books the way the 1918 H1N1 influenza (Spanish Flu) did. I hope our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren are taught and when the next pandemic comes along, they fight it from the beginning rather than making it political and being selfish.

My condolences to you both, and I'm very sorry you can't go to properly grieve.

That's gonna be bitch of a drive. If you're going south, you're going to go through Atlanta, the gridlock capitol of the south. If you're coming from the southwest you'll have to go through Little Rock and Memphis...a stretch of Interstate that's so crowded with truck traffic going in and out of Memphis that it's lined with billboards telling truckers involved in accidents to call ambulance chasing lawyer John Morgan. If you're going west to east I-10 you won't have to fight gridlock, but the segment in the Florida panhandle between Crestview and Tallahassee is known as the "dumping ground" because murder victims get thrown out of cars and often take a long time to find. Good luck.

Happily I don't have to go as far as Atlanta. She's about an hour west of Greenville/Spartanburg SC.
The route looks like 287 to 78 in NJ, to 81 near Harrisburg, pick up 77 after Roanoke, then get on 85 in Charlotte. That goes straight down to Mom's area. It looks like I can loop around Charlotte on 485 and avoid the metro area. My father did this kind of driving a lot - he had a real wanderlust. But I ain't him!

And atlanta gridlock has improved with covid (it's still not at pre-covid levels).

White-tailed deer test positive for COVID-19 in lab studies (msn.com)

Wow! Forbin are you vaccinated yet? Your risk category goes to eleven! So spreading Lyme disease infested ticks isn't enough for these critters?

Got a shot of J&J through work!

Bambi's revenge

Bit of a tickle in my throat and a little sneezing today, arm is sore if I hold it out and horizontal, that's all

Nothing to worry about. That just the micro-sensors connecting to the GPS network. Once everything is hooked up, you won't feel anything any more.