Taking a break? - Page 3

I would definitely second everything you guys are saying .... most especially the part about this ain't the flu ! This is something else. Trust me ... you don't know the half of it ... none of us do yet.

We've been all but spared in this area and it's both a good thing and a bad thing. I'm thankful that the people i know aren't getting sick but the downside is that it hasn't hit home yet. It's gonna have to get up close and personal for a lot of folks before it becomes real to them.

The next part is a little hard to explain:



I'm working with the public every day and i just wish some folks would take a little more pride in themselves. I totally get that the face mask & glove thing is weird. ( Try working in them all day long ! ) I also get that not wearing a face covering has become a political statement. ( You ain't tellin' me what to do ! ) Lordy ..... i'm as about as contrary as they come. The guvmin't and i get along just fine as long as we stay out of each other's way.

To me: This isn't about any of that. It's a point of pride. I don't care so much about my own welfare. I just don't want to be the weak link in the chain. I just don't want to be the numb nuts that did something stupid and got someone else killed.

Don't be that guy .... ya know ?

Most of the service tickets I'm working are in hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes and doctors offices. Wearing PPE seemed weird at first but you get used to it and it's required at most places I work. I wear a face mask even when I go to the store. People look at me like I'm crazy but I really don't care.

Originally Posted by jimicrk

Most of the service tickets I'm working are in hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes and doctors offices. Wearing PPE seemed weird at first but you get used to it and it's required at most places I work. I wear a face mask even when I go to the store. People look at me like I'm crazy but I really don't care.

Where I am, I haven't seen anyone out and about without a mask for a few weeks. Everyone and everywhere requires it. Stores have signs up saying if you don't have a mask you aren't allowed in. It would be people without masks getting weird looks here

Florida is very similar, KSS. My County is probably 65-70% retirees, so most wear some form of cover. We have special shopping hours for Seniors, and they definitely take advantage of that to stay safe. But as soon as the stores open to the general public and young folks don’t cover up, Seniors head straight home. Super smart on their part!
As I said before, I’m 61 and blessed with great health, but you had better believe that I will continue to only venture outside and into the community twice a week at most. As a teacher, I still have the option to work from home. I just feel for so many in my family, like my son the police detective and my brother the ER coordinator, who have to be right in the thick of things every day.

It's similar here too. Maine has the distinction of being the oldest state in the nation. A lot of folks have chosen to retire here because there's a fairly good quality of life.

Our gas station is in the same parking lot as our grocery so i watch folks come and go all day long. The grey haired people, myself included, are generally good about using a mask and gloves. The fishing industry here is pretty big and it's a high risk line of work. The fishermen tend not to mask up. I think they would consider that a sign of weakness and fear. They're a bold and fiercely independent lot. It would be useless to try and tell them anything so we don't have a requirement that people wear masks before entering the store.

About all i can say is thank gawd for the economic stimulus programs. This would normally be the worst time of year for us from an economic point of view. Money gets scarce after Christmas and we're all flat broke by the time spring rolls around. Compared to what we're used to ..... we're rolling in clover right now. The lockdown hasn't hurt us much but folks are getting restless. The time has come to gear up and get back to work out on the water again and so that's what they're doing. We can only hope that the market for our seafood products is there this summer. The future seems very uncertain right now because of all of the global supply chain disruptions & restaurant closings.

Our other major economic driver is the hospitality and tourism industry. That's not looking good right now. The general perception is that all of those "people from away" bring disease every year. We've still got to figure that part out because this COVID-19 thing is particularly bad.

My wife works in the grocery store as a cashier. She's been on paid furlough for over a month now. The covid numbers in our county are pretty good . Going by that metric ... it's hard to justify not returning to normal operations once again. They called her back in to work yesterday. That's something she's struggling with after being at home for so long. I think we're both going to have some sleepless nights till we can get used to the new normal.

"Going to the beach or non important activities can wait. Life is precious. Be smart. Be safe. " - APA

Hey!

Leave my beach out of this. I can't not go to the beach, I live on a sandbar!

It's my daily exercise. I take my cooler for a walk, lift 12 to 24 weights, then we walk back home. An trust me, I social distance. I don't want my cooler infected. You think corona is bad? Make me cooler-less an the world shall be plunged into 20,000 years of darkness.

We closed my sandbar til....two days ago. To everyone but locals. We had all of 9 cases.

Tourists didn't like it. I did though.

What about work you say? Simple...I live on a sandbar, it's not like I work 20 hours a day. I can always find time to go build a sand castle, pretend fish(Just a stick an a comfy spot with the old cooler. Pair of shades, nice napping time. Don't judge me) or find other stuff to do.

Plus I work for myself. Vacation came early this year, oh well. Everyday is a vacation for me. I break things for a living, get paid for it, and I live on a sandbar. By the way...Arthur the tropical storm says hello. Ya'll just got corona. I got a bloody tropical storm and a plague! #thestruggleisreal

My yards were closed. Didn't bother me. What metal for the yard i have is just hanging out waiting on me, thankfully most of my stuff is sold to buyers an not the yards. Yey for buyers!


How to end this post...

**** it! I'm off to the beach!

Sirscrapalot - Is allowed to go to the beach, an is allowed to play in the water and sand....just can't do it with anyone that doesn't live with me.




PS - I do have a mask, an I do wear it when in places that require it. or when I can't socially distance. I'm not a complete idiot. More like half of one.

For the record....while I've gone out during all this, I always did so within the rules set by my state and county.

An we didn't have groups of people on our beaches like uh, I dunno...maybe Florida and California? Hence why our beach could stay open. We locals get a little crazy at times, but we're not stupid like a bunch of college age kids who think their immortal.

Stay safe folks.

Sirscrapalot - Anyone into Mexican food? I"d love to sit and taco about it. - Not me, but I love a bad pun.

Well .... i decided to take a break from my regular job. It's a shame ... i really liked that job till Covid-19 came along. Then it got sucky. There was just way too much risk for an older guy to be dealing with over a hundred people a day. Ayuh ...that's a good job for a young fulla !

It's not such a bad old life here on the homestead. It's springtime ... the birds are singing and the sun is shining. Early to bed and early to rise cause there's plenty of work that needs to be done.

I think i'll just sit this one out till there's a clearer picture of what things look like after they start opening things up again. There's gonna be death .... lots and lots of death .... according to our fearless leader.

It's just seems like common sense to step off the tracks if there's a freight train coming at you. There's brave and then there's stupid.

Come visit the sandbar!

Everyone else and their brother is...

.....

Sirscrapalot - Why would you come somewhere, knowing everything is still closed, an then complain about such? It's like being mad water is wet.

Similar thing here. Memorial Day is the traditional start of our summer tourist season but our seasonal residents started filtering in a couple of months ago.

Jeez .... that's all we need. More folks from away potentially bringing the Covid bug with em'. Heaven help us if it ever gets loose here.

Yeah ... some of our offshore islands tried to close their borders in the early part of this but the Governor landed on em' pretty quick. She was our former AG and knows the law inside and out. Turns out it was unconstitutional. They got smart though. The ferry boats put in more restrictions on the number of people they could carry so as to comply with social distancing laws. All the natives have their own boats but the seasonal folks can only come over one or two at a time on the ferry.

You can't stop em' but you can slow them down.

[QUOTE=Patriot76;302223]

Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

Patriot....I know you shared you worked in education before but I don't recall you sharing the history teacher part.

I think me, you, and the cooler would have a good time shooting the ****, well not literally but you know what I mean...


To be honest I was a jack of all trades and master of none as an educator. The same strategy is used in scrapping. In my fifth year of undergraduate work I met my advisor for the first time. One more year provided an education degree with a major in history and six minors. I would have stayed in college forever, except the girls quit paying attention to me.

I would love to have a Corona with you and since we do not discriminate, I have access to plenty. We could talk about whatever you want. If you want to talk socialism, I will have more questions than answers. I will save the opinions on this topic to serve with the cognac. I prefer Hardy Cognac Printemps, if you have any around. Don't worry I had to look it up, I am a beer man that enjoys a boilermaker once in a while.

Cognac is always welcomed by me.

I ever make it up your way, trust you will get word from me.

Far as discussion....expect to laugh a lot. I got jokes for all topics. I must admit...history was always my favorite in school. Still is even after being done with school for a very long time. Not many topics I avoid, it would limit my humor.

As always, I got a chair an cooler awaiting you for a visit.

Sirscrapalot - Incoming double post..

Originally Posted by hills

Yeah ... some of our offshore islands tried to close their borders in the early part of this but the Governor landed on em' pretty quick. She was our former AG and knows the law inside and out. Turns out it was unconstitutional. They got smart though. The ferry boats put in more restrictions on the number of people they could carry so as to comply with social distancing laws. All the natives have their own boats but the seasonal folks can only come over one or two at a time on the ferry.

You can't stop em' but you can slow them down.

Our Gov here didn't seem to care. We had a few out of state property owners ***** an threaten to sue, but it didn't so much, as they still kept the sandbar shut down til it was decided things were improving enough to open back up to first out of stat eproperty owners, an then tourists just recently back on 5/16.

Things are still shut down though. So doesn't do much good to visit yet unless your working on your house.

I've seen people get arrested for trying to run a check point. Not sure where the idiot thought he'd go. Even if he had made it across the bridge he would've gotten caught. Now he's facing several felonies. Not sure trying to get on the beach is worth all that.

It makes me happy I don't rely on tourists or out of state property owners to make my money. Sadly others do though.

Here's to the second half of 2020 being better then the first!

Sirscrapalot - Mask up before you go go... - Me changing lyrics to songs.

Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

Our Gov here didn't seem to care. We had a few out of state property owners ***** an threaten to sue, but it didn't so much, as they still kept the sandbar shut down til it was decided things were improving enough to open back up to first out of stat eproperty owners, an then tourists just recently back on 5/16.

Things are still shut down though. So doesn't do much good to visit yet unless your working on your house.

I've seen people get arrested for trying to run a check point. Not sure where the idiot thought he'd go. Even if he had made it across the bridge he would've gotten caught. Now he's facing several felonies. Not sure trying to get on the beach is worth all that.

It makes me happy I don't rely on tourists or out of state property owners to make my money. Sadly others do though.

Here's to the second half of 2020 being better then the first!

Sirscrapalot - Mask up before you go go... - Me changing lyrics to songs.

Ayuh ! I'll mug up for that one Cappy !

Translated from Downeast : It's coffee break time. I'll raise a mug and toast to that one my friend.

It looks like i'll be working on the wood pile for the next month or so. I've been so busy with my regular job that i didn't have time to get to it over the last few years. The logs kept coming in but there was no time to process them. I guess they should have given me a gold watch when i got done. Now i've got time ! Besides ... i could have scrapped it for the PM's.

The Maine blackflies are out in force today. ( They are our official state bird. ) Ayuh ... Blackflies and tourists generally show up at about the same time every year. You can slap one but you can't slap the other !

It's a tough thing to manage. The more you lock things down and try to control things .... the more unstable the community becomes. Folks get feelin' all bottled up and then start acting out against it. It started with more domestic calls early on. Nowadays there are more stories in the state news about murders and other crazy things. If we keep going on this track we will eventually become another Iraq or Afghanistan.

I'm totally bewildered these days. How do you map your way through this mess ?

Life is so much simpler out on the woodpile.

( Ahh well .... back to work. )

P76 is from rural SD so nothing really changed there. I'm from "metro" SD and nothing really changed here except there was no in-sitting dining, bars after a while, and most churches did on-line services. Mask wearing got up to maybe 50% out and about, but is now falling. Menards, a home building type of store out the Wis-- don't know beyond the Midwest how far they stretch-- now requires a mask to enter and will make you buy one for a buck if don't have one and don't walk out on them. I use an old tiger-stripe Vietnam era camo bandana (the camo is Vietnam era but the bandana is newer than that) when I'm in most stores. The wife is high risk so wears a mask about any retail place but has certainly been out a lot. South Dakota never did a state-wide lockdown and even in "metro" SD, things were pretty open. I and most of the staff of the facility I work at have been banished to work from home except for super essential peeps. I was one of the last professionals they forced home and told my supervisor that sooner or later the virus will be there in some form so all this micro-managing of where it came from and so on will become obsolete. But it keeps a number of the bureaucrats busy and in their world, that's "work"-- sorry, not in mine. I haven't been too interested in scrap metal given the overall crappy prices-- I wouldn't be scared to picked it up, especially if it was outside for some days. I've been trying to organize my space out in the garage better so I can break down and store more of the better stuff. I haven't been to the steel yard since sometime last fall, a penny and half or less a pound doesn't excite me. Maybe in June...