Sux indeed Ray! We've been doing the math on a number of quarantine scenarios over the last couple of weeks. My brother in law, an Oncologist, is keeping us up to date on the protocol and Sheila's sister is an RN in charge of CDC guideline protocol for the State of Illinois so she's been weighing in as well. There are so many variables that it all turns my mind into a pretzel. A person can have symptoms but test negative if they go to get a rapid test which only tests for the antibody because the antibody may not be developed enough to be recognized by the rapid test yet, so then they assume it's just a cold and go on their way spreading it to whomever. Apparently you can be contagious several days before you are symptomatic so that adds complexity to how long one needs to quarantine. We spent Christmas alone because Sheila was in contact with one of the kid's girlfriends, outside, and her Mom became symptomatic and tested positive the next day. At the moment we are not quarantining, but constantly waiting for the next phone call from someone who tested positive and crossed paths with someone else, it's ridiculous. Our in the family Dr's are telling us that even if you get the vaccine, it's not fully effective for weeks to months so you need to follow all the protocols anyway. Now the new strain has been discovered in Colorado, supposedly 70% more transmittable, so that's encouraging.
JR called me yesterday and said he had picked out a 40' motor home so we could travel and avoid some of this craziness. I'm trying to cogitate on that plan of attack at the moment. I'd like to get a late model A-36 but our family has just grown too big for that to be an effective mode of transport and really we'd need two 40' motor homes for the RV plan to work. That huge $600 stimulus check will keep us going until late morning of the day it arrives so that's a big help, but I'm buoyed by the knowledge that Pakistan is getting ten million for "gender studies".................and The Smithsonian is getting two new museums...........You know, maybe we don't deserve to survive....................
Sorry, I just don't have a TOPP photograph to go with that post.............maybe a stock shot of a flipping mushroom cloud would be appropriate............
I agree with you Jim. My SIL's mom is a retired surgical nurse and his sister is an HR executive who has to keep up on the contact tracing CDC standards and all the associated protocols. After we called with the wonderful news of our contact with COVID, my daughter and SIL called them both to try to get a definitive answer. While they both said it "should" be OK they both gave differing quantifying answers. That is the problem, no one knows for sure.
Remember, no one on this earth is a COVID "expert". That is because no one has managed the disease from start to finish, much less with any sustained success rate. Therefore I have implemented the Eddie Ray default: Common Sense. That is something I have found to be rare these days. I don't think mask work with any efficiency over 40%, either for protecting you or protecting others from you. I do believe keeping a distance and short as possible contact with people are above a 60% efficacy along with washing your hands after touching something you don't know who may have handled it. I have been taking sports photos since June with 3 to 5 events a week in populated gyms and stadiums. So far, my common sense approach has been successful. Is that science or luck? At this time, since there is no valid standard to compare it to, I will call it luck. The superstitious Eddie Ray will continue to pray luck turns into science.
The episode was "Time Enough At Last" with the lead played by Burgess Meredith.
I thought it was a fourteen day quarantine?
Sadly I am public facing and there are still far too many people walking around with their nostrils exposed, happily sharing all their germs with everyone around them... and now this new variant is even more contagious than the original?
Hospitals are getting to the point of having to triage patients on survivability, not something they WANT to do, but have to do, with limited staff and space to treat people.
Ray Swindle wrote:
With the recent surge in US COVID cases and SW Airlines not continuing the vacant middle row policy, our Arizona daughter/family decided not to fly here for Christmas. They would not drive this far to visit us. Therefore, the wife and I boarded the dogs, packed up the car and drove 15 hours to Phoenix. When we were 20 minutes from their home, my wife received a text from a friend who had recently visited us stating she had been tested positive for COVID. The day we arrived was 9 days from when our friend visited us, so we made the decision to drop off our packages and stay at a hotel. The next day had been 10 days, so later that afternoon we were able to visit our kids. This virus sux.
Our kids visited us las October and our son in law was iffy about buying a set of books by a British author on the history of the British Army. My SIL is a history professor and a book collector. (The Twilight Zone did a show with a character that could have been my SIL. The world had been destroyed, but the library and the character was saved from destruction. He marveled at the books in the library at his disposal. Then, the worst thing happened, the crushed his glasses and could not read.). My wife and I encouraged him to offer the UK gentleman with the book collection how much he was willing to pay and suck it up. Well, he did and the UK gentleman accepted the offer and sent the books. The books were written in the latter part of the 19th century over a 30 year period into the early 20th century. Most are first edition books with some second edition.
I was looking at one book with an Oxford Library identification label pasted inside the cover. I told my SIL the seller stole it from Oxford . Not getting the joke he told me the seller assembled the books from various sources. The author is John Fortescue. The set includes the books documenting the British Army history, plus about a half dozen separate books containing maps. Very interesting stuff. I took a pic of my SIL with his new collection...
Yes, Burgess Meredith, aka The Penguin!. One of my favorites.
The droopy mask syndrome is all the rage from what I can tell. Plus, I have strangers who "try" to walk up to me then pull their mask down to talk to me. I used "try" because I learned to walk away or back up with their steps as soon as their hand goes to the mask.
NightOwl Cat wrote:
Sadly I am public facing and there are still far too many people walking around with their nostrils exposed, happily sharing all their germs with everyone around them... and now this new variant is even more contagious than the original?
Fortunately here we don't see much of that. I can't remember the last time I saw someone without a mask indoors, and I would say over 90% wear the mask properly. It's different inside restaurants of course, but I haven't eaten indoors in months.
The bigger mask challenge is when outdoors for a walk. We're supposed to wear masks then too, but my glasses fog up and that becomes a hazard as well. I was out walking the dog and stepped on a rock I couldn't see, twisted my ankle, and fell. So I wear the mask around my chin until I see someone approaching, and then I raise it and take off my glasses. I've tried the anti-fog products and they are effective when it's fairly warm out, but when it is cold they don't work. I'm all ears if someone can recommend a product they like.
Hope everyone has a safe New Years Eve tonight. Although I know 2021 will be much like 2020 for at least 6-9 months, I'm still looking forward to putting 2020 behind us.
I have a co-worker that tested positive. He had his normal sinus infection and went to the doctor for some meds. They tested him and then gave him steroids and antibiotics, told him to take vitamin D, C, and Zinc. He felt fine within three days of getting the meds. His wife tested positive and has no symptoms. It's funny because he has been the most paranoid of all of us, lives on hand sanitizer and vitamins. Wears a mask everywhere with religious fervor, etc, etc.
It has been 10 days since we last around him, all of us in the office are well and have tested negative. This in itself is a small miracle since I've heard from many sources that the quick tests are 50% false positive at best.
The other day I came to the realization that 2020 is the first year in memory that I have not had the opportunity to go flying in any sort of craft. That little fact just adds to the 2020 suck factor.
Oh well....as my Army buddies tell me....gotta Embrace The Suck.
Racked up some flight hours in the DCS F16 always with some nice weather so I was King of the sky
Today I thought lets turn on the weather with wind etc well it was from hero to zero in 5 min
Back to school
When I get slogged By the Sturm und Drang of CV, I watch the film The Frozen Chosin. Puts it all in perspective for me. And at my age? Gotta die of something. Meanwhile, I’m living my life. YMMV
My NYE consisted of working 12+ hours, coming home, eating something, and falling asleep. Woo hoo! We've been told by management that we are not allowed to refuse service to people not wearing a mask. Our work areas don't allow for six foot distancing from each other, either, particularly when we're sorting parcels out to the routes, sometimes 5-6 of us circling around one machine to scan, then run them over to the appropriate hampers.
It's a matter of not just my health, but I have a friend who is going through lung cancer treatments, and facing surgery. I've not seen her in all of 2020, but I did drop off an angel food cake and some precious TP for Thanksgiving, at her doorstep. I would hate for her to catch it from someone who was less careless with their mask... like that wedding in Maine that wound up killing people in nursing homes because of the transfers of infection.
"Only 55 people attended the Aug. 7 reception at the Big Moose Inn in Millinocket. But one of those guests arrived with a coronavirus infection. Over the next 38 days, the virus spread to 176 other people. Seven of them died.
None of the victims who lost their lives had attended the party."
I've got lanyards for my masks, so it lets me hang it around my neck when I'm in the break room. I tighten them, and the condensation doesn't float up to my glasses. I actually wear a gaiter and a mask, doubling up. Mask wearing outside for me doesn't fog my glasses, must be the style of mask I have? I'm outside putting up the trays of letters for the different routes, using lots of energy when I do this, as our station has the racks for the routes outside the building.
Happy New Year everyone. 2020 was awful in many ways, but there was some good in there, too.
msalvetti wrote:
Fortunately here we don't see much of that. I can't remember the last time I saw someone without a mask indoors, and I would say over 90% wear the mask properly. It's different inside restaurants of course, but I haven't eaten indoors in months.
The bigger mask challenge is when outdoors for a walk. We're supposed to wear masks then too, but my glasses fog up and that becomes a hazard as well. I was out walking the dog and stepped on a rock I couldn't see, twisted my ankle, and fell. So I wear the mask around my chin until I see someone approaching, and then I raise it and take off my glasses. I've tried the anti-fog products and they are effective when it's fairly warm out, but when it is cold they don't work. I'm all ears if someone can recommend a product they like.
Hope everyone has a safe New Years Eve tonight. Although I know 2021 will be much like 2020 for at least 6-9 months, I'm still looking forward to putting 2020 behind us.
anthonysemone wrote:
When I get slogged By the Sturm und Drang of CV, I watch the film The Frozen Chosin. Puts it all in perspective for me. And at my age? Gotta die of something. Meanwhile, I’m living my life. YMMV
Anthony, talking about Chosin Reservoir, I just finished reading the book "the Last Stand of the Fox Company", for the 4th time, I think. Incredible hardship, bravery and sacrifice.
Went out to photograph the last sunrise of 2020 and the first sunrise of 2021. It's interesting to learn that there is no real consensus on whether the decade started on 1/1/2020 or 1/1/2021..
We can't have that, so even if it isn't related to our usual topics....
Sometime New Years eve our heater decided it no longer wants to work. Been without the furnace for almost a week now. The service people have been busy so the first appointment I could get was for tomorrow afternoon. It's so nice to be told that you have to wait a week to get someone out to get the furnace working once again.
On the positive side, the temps here haven't fallen below freezing, usually just dropping to the low 40's, and rising to the low-mid 50's during the day. Also, we have a couple small "room heaters", that we haven't used in years, but if left on constantly will get the main living areas of the house to the high 60's. Can't wait to see the next electric bill .
Sorry Ken! Good to hear from you and thanks for waking up MA2A. Today is cool and drizzly here, matching my mood perfectly after the final nail in the coffin was hammered in in Georgia last night.
. Not getting the joke he told me the seller assembled the books from various sources. The author is John Fortescue. The set includes the books documenting the British Army history, plus about a half dozen separate books containing maps. Very interesting stuff. I took a pic of my SIL with his new collection...
