Covid discussion (restaurants, costs, gyms)

[ExAustin]

The covid situation is getting real bad. My father's best friend and wife just caught it. Have been on oxygen and feeling crappy ever since. His advice: DON'T GET IT.

I noticed the folks at RT's Deli are starting to wear masks. They've been pretty anti-mask since the beginning, so this is new. I like the food but I haven't gone inside as often as usual. A lot of their customers don't wear masks either.

Restaurants seem to be the very worst places of all. Masks off, no ventilation, everyone talking and eating. Gyms are probably just as bad. Even with masks on, lots of heavy breathing and no ventilation.

The best analogy I've heard is that covid is like cigarette smoke. You have to imagine everyone is smoking. Masks help, but if there is no ventilation it builds up indoors and you can catch it through your eyes if it gets thick enough!

I don't wear swimming googles when I go grocery shopping yet, but I might. With winter coming the ventilation problem is going to get worse.

I see a lot of people indoors with masks under their noses, badly fitting masks, etc. It's a disaster in the making. Our ignorance (intentional or not) is ruining our economy. Just not good.

Winter is gonna be rough for America. Hopefully by spring we will begin to beat back the virus. Just can't get here soon enough.

[16 Acres]

I agree. Not enough people wearing masks and the one that do, not enough wearing them properly. My defense? I basically don't go to any more places that necessary. I (we) never go out to a restaurant. We've only been out to eat twice since it hit and both times were drive-thru's and we ate in the car.

And I'm 100% Republican. But I am not going to let any kind of ego get in the way of common sense.

Not wearing a mask is a risk to hurt yourself and others as well as hurting the economy, in my personal strong opinion anyway.

Even the ones that don't believe in it, is it that much trouble to give it the benefit of the doubt?

My best hope is to just ride it out until we can get vaccinated and beat this horrible thing.

[ExAustin]

Glad to hear you are following common sense on this. If the virus was all a Democratic hoax to prevent Trump from getting re-elected, then why is the "hoax" still ongoing now that the election is over? Food for thought.

The GOP has been hijacked by a small but extremely influential team of political strategists who have cleverly (if diabolically) figured out how to shift the common ire to matters of self-preservation, for their own gain, no matter what it costs the rest of us.

We all have frustrations in life and we all habitually shift the blame to other things, people, ideas, etc. "Life would be perfect if it wasn't for the (fill in the blank)". We do it all the time. Happiness is elusive. That's just how it is.

Yesterday, it was the hippies and the commies and the dope. Today, it's the masks and the libshards and the immigrants. Or maybe it's the wife/husband, bills, crappy weather, whatever.

Sadly, "it" was never any of those things. "It" always comes back to ourselves... and now a great many people have been convinced to self-sabotage and risk death in the name of defeating "it". Which isn't going to work. Lots of people have been recorded on their covid deathbeds saying, "This can't be happening. This isn't real. This isn't....... beeeeeeeeeeeeep."

Sad to see. Makes me worry we are all too stupid to self-govern our democracy. Years ago in 1992 I remember overhearing someone say they were going to vote for Ross Perot because, "Murica needs a dictator".

Well, 'Murica just had its Ross Perot and it hasn't gone so well. Every state is doing their own thing with conflicting and confusing regulations which don't line up with common sense. More ignorance... more economic damage... more delays.

Congrats for listening to your own sense of self-preservation amid all the noise. If everyone did this (and all indoor spaces were verified for proper ventilation & mask requirements), we'd have already beaten back the virus by now.

Keep it up man. Holding on for a Spring miracle here. In the meantime, batten down the hatches. S**t is serious now.