Non one’s been forced to do anything. There are certain jobs that require vaccinest… and there always have been.
And Don…I really don’t know what to make of you. Sometimes you are supportive and then other times, I just think you are probably one of the most negative, angry people I’ve ever come into contact with. I get you disagree with me but I don’t get your disdain and your judgemental comments…not just about this…about a lot of things.
And yeah…you bet…I was extremely irritated. I hate being late for things and I wholeheartedly disagree with them and everything they stand for. Their upside down flags. Their derogatory, ignorant signs. Their claim to be “fighting for freedom” and their disrespect for the people who have come before them who actually have fought for freedom (dancing on the grave of the unknown soldier).
And the numbers are correct. It’s a matter of public record. 93% of adults in my province are vaccinated.
D I was speaking more of the US. It’s not just jobs, it’s sporting events, concerts, plays etc. You are playing with fire when you allow these things to happen. Once the government wields its power and wins it doesn’t relinquish it. The people are frustrated because most of what we were told was wrong. A non vaccinated person is only hurting themselves. Yes I know they are also taking hospital beds but so are smokers and extremely obese people. Are these people going to be band from jobs, concerts etc? Could you imagine the push back and how these people would feel? Right or wrong you are entitled to your opinion that’s how a non vaccinated person feels. What about the people who were forced to vaccinate and had bad reactions and died? What would you tell their spouses, children etc? I know rare but it does happen.
So we were always told we needed 75% for heard immunity to kick in. If you are at 93% then Covid should be gone in your area?
Wow - the knowledge has evolved as we gained more scientific evidence about a brand new virus and as the virus mutated due to rampant spread? Shocking! You reveal a lack of knowledge about how science works and have clearly not been following the science. I suggest trusting the scientific community consensus which consists of people whose whole lives have been devoted to studying this stuff.
Even with Omicron, vaccinated people are less likely to catch Covid and since they have milder and shorter disease on average when they do, are also less likely to spread it. And they are so much less likely to be hospitalized that virtually all of the hospital-breaking surge is caused by unvaccinated people.
But masking and social distancing are also important tools and generally eschewed by the anti-vaxxers. And these restrictions are being lifted in many places NOT because the metrics say it is right to do so, but because whiny “free dumb” types have put so much political pressure. In my county for instance, yes, new case numbers are coming down but are as high as the PEAK of delta still. And the percent positivity rate on Covid tests is still 8.4% - far from the below 2% mark that is suggested, and way higher than the 0.5% mark that we had reached when we were truly in a lull.
I want freedom too. I want freedom to go to a grocery store where everyone is masked to protect me from contracting Covid and inadvertently transmitting it to a vulnerable patient or my friend who has had a heart transplant. Masking works best when both parties are masked. It should not be abandoned until numbers in our area are truly down to where they need to be by the science.
Sometimes I really wonder if you ever read what I write on here. I think people are dumb not to get vaccinated but they should have a choice. If you can’t understand stand why then there is nothing more to talk about. I’ll leave it to Don lol.
I’ve given up. You can’t argue nonsense using common sense. Trust the science. Right because they have gotten so much so badly wrong, outright lied and changed directions as much as I change my socks. I will agree on one thing, all of this was new, we had to learn, we didn’t know. Now only if that was the stance that was taken. Yet it was not. It was postured they are experts, they know more than we do, what they say goes and if you don't.agree we will shut you up remove your job and keep you from living life. Then time passes and they were so badly wrong about so much and now try to claim oh the science has changed - not we jumped the gun, made wild guesses (like 2 million deaths within months) and constantly changed the goalposts. Then they can’t figure out why no one listens or trusts them anymore. This is how civil wars happen. This is how Canada happens. Not getting vaccinated only hurst the person who didn’t get vaccinated. Not wearing a cloth mask hurts no one. Even CNN And MSDNC now admit it. But the die hards who have made masks a religion don’t want to let go - even two years later. If it all worked as advertised we would no longer be talking about it - because it would be gone like we were told. They were wrong, but what else is new. Government is never the answer to our problems because they are the problem. And as a result medicine and science is trusted less today than they were two years ago. Perception is reality. But see LH, you and I don’t understand. We don’t trust the science. Ba ha ha ha.
DonH Midwest Me 56 WAW-EXW 55 Met 11/95 / Married 5/00 Bomb 6/20/05 / She Filed on 6/2/06 / Divorced on 10/9/06 4 who'd qualify as GF since D & dated about 25 women since D
Truth be told, everyone and I mean everyone should have been on the same page in beginning. That’s why we are here still here 2 years later.
At this point, people can freely choose to vaccinate or not. Is it stupid not to? Absolutely. If you WORK with vulnerable populations. I do believe in a mandate. Just like my hep B and varicella and MMR was . I do feel as if I should be vaccinated working with sick people.
To go to a sporting event at this point? Go at your risk. If you feel like it might be dangerous for you, don’t go. The government shouldn’t be controlling that. The government should have had their heavy hand right in the beginning of this to nip things in the bud. But we didn’t. And we suffered. Now is not the time to impose the control.
We have 0 covid patients in house right now. We have a lot of alcoholics in liver failure though. They take up a lot of beds. Along with the non compliant diabetics , CHF’ers and COPDers. Actually our census is super low all together now and I get a PTO day tomorrow . woot woot!
Had a lovely brunch with my son yesterday. After, we went over to his apartment and I met my newest grand-kitten. She came from the shelter with a name that he's kept. It's a variety of Eastern European wine I'd never heard of that I'm going to try. She's very chill and friendly. The older cat is kind of grumpy about things but that's been her state of affairs the entire life. I'm glad that the integration is working out.
One thing he mentioned made me thoughtful. I had commented that it's now coming up on a full 6 years that I've been alone and I mentioned that even when he was living with me that I was essentially alone as I rarely saw him. He said that he was purposefully keeping a low profile. Must have been tough on him. I know he was unhappy about the necessity of living here and feel a bit bad that he was (presumably) minimizing his own needs at the time.
He also asked about S and her burning hurry to move in. He had presumed that her lease was up or something like that and was surprised that the actual answer was that she just wanted to stop paying rent. I remember at the time being very disturbed by how hard she pushed through and over my objections to all sorts of things.
---
Weather has been bouncing all around here in the last week or so. Saturday we had a blizzard, Sunday it was sunny and above freezing here, but an hour away where my son lives, heavy drifting and poor visibility. Certainly had high winds. There were numerous accidents and cars in the ditch that I saw. I did fill up with gas for the first time in a month - my word! - $75 to fill my little car. There are those who believe that we are headed for a financial cliff. I honestly don't know what I think on that. My boss is certainly in the "doom crew" camp and I know we've had to raise our prices on our products fairly substantially in the past few months and that's going to echo throughout the entire economy as everyone else is also raising prices on the basic commodities that we deal with.
The feel of spring is certainly making itself felt. I'm hoping that we'll be able to have our regular festivals like the Maple Syrup one a few villages over that I quite enjoy. Usually the sap starts running around mid-March. It's been a tough few years for the local community events. Fat Tuesday is a week next Tuesday. I'd usually go to the local Lutheran church where they would have a pancake supper. I keep checking at the grocery store to see if they have any paczki in yet but surprisingly no. "B" would make fugassa at this time of the year. I do wonder how she's doing and hope she's doing well. No real urge to reach out to her though - that chapter is well over and done.
---
My birthday is coming up in a few weeks with is also more or less the anniversary of bomb-day 6 years ago. Going to be starting my 7th year soon. Where does the time go. I was turning 52 then and now will be 58. I've ordered a cake from my friend at the bakery around the corner and invited my son to come and share. I'll have to see if my daughter will be available via Skype - the 3 hour time difference makes that more difficult than when we were in the same time zone or when she wasn't working outside the house.
Last night, unusually for me, I sat and binge-watched some TV and skipped making Sunday Supper. The A&E production of Agatha Christie's Poirot which I have seen before and greatly enjoyed. It brought to mind how my xW had changed over the years. Mid-marriage there were a number of interests that we shared including the TV series Murder She Wrote. I remember trying to encourage her to watch Father Brown Mysteries with me and she said that "she should like it" but just wasn't interested. Perhaps foreshadowing of the fact that her interests had diverged from what they used to be. She did still like murder mysteries etc but they got progressively more violent to the point where I re-arranged the living room so that I could still be in the same room but not have to watch what to me were some pretty disturbing programs.
The upcoming birthday and anniversary is making me even more thoughtful and introspective than usual. In many ways I've just been drifting and existing it feels. Wearing a groove in the floor as it were. Being home with just the cat for company for over a month hasn't helped I'm sure.
The current state of affairs is certainly not where I expected to be. Past me would have been thinking of retirement plans and doing active things with my spouse. I've not even gone for my regular walks in months. I can't help but feel that a lot of this is fallout from my time spent with S but that was well over a year ago. I pretty much never think of her and when I do, it's with a feeling of relief that she's gone.
Part of the birthday as well is that it is one of the major milestones towards being free of making alimony payments. That will coincide with my 60th birthday. So - like seems to be common for many of us, a number of things seem to bunch up around certain dates.
Like our new friend Stella, I still wonder from time to time if my xW has regrets or looks back. I'm pretty confident that the answer to that is "probably" - but will never know for sure. It was interesting to me that when I've visited my son - even at times that were more spontaneous - that there's nothing really in his apartment that seems to reflect her. Perhaps she is also just drifting and existing too. I'll never know.
It's funny - 6 years ago I would have thought that I'd be "old" at this age. I don't feel old. I might look my age - I don't know. I know that from many perspectives that I'm not old. But that number does get bigger every year.
I'm still reluctant to explore the idea of dating. 3 years ago when I did dip my foot into the pond I was excited about the potential of something fresh and having my life enriched in the process. Now it's more a sort of "blargh - don't want to have to deal with that mucky bog wallow". There are a couple of women of my acquaintance who I am confident would want to date me, I chatted with one of them for a while in the grocery store yesterday in fact. But generally avoid anything that could be construed as reciprocating any interest. I had a look and my last text with "C" was about a bit over a month ago.
I look from time to time at the online apps - see the same faces and where 3 years ago I would have thought "I wonder what it would be like to be with this person" - now there's just no interest at all.
Ah well - time to get active I think. Tea pot is empty. I think I'll go for a short walk and then sit down to tackle the trucking / filling plan for the plant for tomorrow. We hopefully will get rail service tonight. We've got 2 tanks that are pretty much full of product to load into rail and 4 that are close to dry that need to be filled.
On BD H52, W50 T27, M26 S21, D23 BD-9-Mar-16 D-15-Jan-18 Final-19-Apr-18 I am a storyteller. The story may do you no good. But a story is never for the listener. It is always for the one who tells
G- it’s great that your area is quiet. Mine is not. Our county still has about 80 Covid admissions per day and around 700 hospitalized Covid patients. Everyone should look at their county data to see what the situation is in their county. Most counties are NOT where they should be to stop mask wearing yet. And for those who “ believe “ masks don’t work but don’t actually look at the data, here’s just one of many looks at the benefits of mask wearing: “ A test-negative design case-control study enrolled randomly selected California residents who had received a test result for SARS-CoV-2 during February 18-December 1, 2021. Face mask or respirator use was assessed among 652 case-participants (residents who had received positive test results for SARS-CoV-2) and 1,176 matched control-participants (residents who had received negative test results for SARS-CoV-2) who self-reported being in indoor public settings during the 2 weeks preceding testing and who reported no known contact with anyone with confirmed or suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection during this time. Always using a face mask or respirator in indoor public settings was associated with lower adjusted odds of a positive test result compared with never wearing a face mask or respirator in these settings (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.44; 95% CI = 0.24-0.82). Among 534 participants who specified the type of face covering they typically used, wearing N95/KN95 respirators (aOR = 0.17; 95% CI = 0.05-0.64) or surgical masks (aOR = 0.34; 95% CI = 0.13-0.90) was associated with significantly lower adjusted odds of a positive test result compared with not wearing any face mask or respirator.”
For those who don’t understand the statistical terms: wearing an N95 mask reduces your risk of catching Covid 6 fold. (If everyone you were exposed to also wore a mask, this would be reduced 30-60 fold). A simple surgical mask reduces your risk by 2/3 (and again, if both parties were masked, the risk goes down many more fold). I’ve posted before about where yo find the video evidence of a study comparing masks and explaining how this works. But those who want to stupidly believe masks don’t matter also don’t actually look at those links and the research. For the rest of you - look at where your county is. Numbers are coming down but many are not yet where they need to be. Do the responsible thing to protect your neighbors, their children and their parents.
Andrew, there is never a bad time to talk about pie! But then again, I'm a fat girl who likes pie, so maybe I'm jaded. A big ole slice of pecan pie right about now would certainly improve my mood. (Puh-KAWN, NOT pee-can!).
Glad you shared a nice time with your son and met the new kitty.
I just celebrated my 52nd birthday a few weeks ago and I must say, 2022 is NOT my year, but hopefully you'll have a great birthday and an even more spectacular year. I hear you about being blah about dating. I was there after my D. I worked on myself and it took me about a year to get to a point where I was ready to date and then I almost immediately went from ready to blah. LOL I'm hoping you can find a lovely, slow-moving lady to share some time with when you are really ready to get back in the saddle, so to speak.
Me 52, H53 Bomb drop 9/29/2014 Divorce from XH final 12/17/2014 Marriage #2 12/31/2019 5 adult (step)daughters (3 from XH's first marriage, 2 from current H's previous relationships) 6 grandkids
A big ole slice of pecan pie right about now would certainly improve my mood. (Puh-KAWN, NOT pee-can!).
Thought of you when I had a slice of pecan pie for my lunch Friday. My son-in-law from Georgia is also very particular about pronunciation. I can understand that - the way that Americans pronounce foyer is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me
---
Decided finally to reach out to "C" yesterday afternoon and see how she's doing so sent a text. Got a response back - she was busy right then and would text back later. I've certainly come a long way where this doesn't bother me at all - just responded "Later then - back to my math". Years ago I'd be over-analyzing. We'll see if she reaches out in my direction. Or not.
Still not interested in putting myself out there in OLD - perhaps in part because seeing the same old faces, some with tinges of desperation on them is rather off-putting. One common thing I'm seeing is the same person putting up fresh profiles regularly - probably to get themselves to the top of the algorithm. I see a lot of cleavage - gotta market the goods I suppose and for some reason heavy eyeliner seems to be a thing in recent times. Makes some of them look like confused racoons
Part of me feels good because I'm confident that if I chose to that I could partner up fairly easily so long as I wasn't overly particular Not what I'm looking for though
---
Math is going to continue to be an increasing issue for me I think. One of our major competitors (they're about twice our size) and occasional supplier has declared force majure. For those who aren't familiar with the term it basically means that they are stating that they aren't going to abide by existing agreements due to conditions that are outside their control. This will most usually happen when there's a natural disaster like a hurricane that shuts down production or logistics. I doubt this is due to the very frightening international situation but is just the result of the growing chaos in logistics.
One of the bigger players in our market who we've been relying on to cover our shortfalls in production has made a similar but less profound declaration and has told us that the shipment we were counting on for our customers delivering over the next couple of weeks has now been pushed off by a couple of weeks.
Ick. So that means being very careful on what we sell in order to make sure we are covering our core customers. The phone is going to start ringing from customers looking for an alternate supplier. I was going through some of our pricing the other day as well and we're pushing out a nearly 25% increase on some of our lines in the middle of next month - in part to cool off demand and in part to cover our own increasing costs.
---
Going to be a good weekend here though I hope. I've decided to get myself a new signet ring. I had one that I was very fond of that was a 25th anniversary present that I stopped wearing when I stopped wearing my wedding ring. My hands have just been feeling the need to wear a ring, I can afford it so why not. I may try a new bread recipe shared with me by a friend rather than my usual defrosting a frozen unbaked loaf. I think I have everything I need.
Going to try something different for dinner tonight - haggis nachos. I have some haggis left over in the freezer from Robbie Burns day so will do that up as a plate with some tomatoes, cheese etc. One advantage of living alone is that I can make things like that without worrying about the opinions of others
Tea pot is just about empty so time to get moving.
On BD H52, W50 T27, M26 S21, D23 BD-9-Mar-16 D-15-Jan-18 Final-19-Apr-18 I am a storyteller. The story may do you no good. But a story is never for the listener. It is always for the one who tells
A big ole slice of pecan pie right about now would certainly improve my mood. (Puh-KAWN, NOT pee-can!). 
Not what I'm looking for though