Octopus Overlords

LordMortis wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 1:39 pm Milestone: Ate lunch outdoors at a restaurant.

Scuzz wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 2:20 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 1:39 pm Milestone: Ate lunch outdoors at a restaurant.

We ate out at a place we hadn't be to in nearly a year and half last night. Damn that was nice. Nothing fancy, just good food in a loud setting with other people. Even the wife is starting to get comfortable with it. Then we hit a local brewery for a beer before going home.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 3:50 pm I am much more sensitive to those boundaries than I was even in the before times, when social hygiene and the pulmonary discharge of debilitation wasn't a thing.

The forces of money and power would certainly like us to forget all about this year and go back to exactly the way things were, like a teacher intoning, “All right, class, back to your desks,” while the first flurries are falling outside. Maybe we will; insights are evanescent, and habit has a leaden inertia. But a lot of people went very far away over the course of this past year, deep into themselves, and not all of us are going to come all the way back.

Rumpy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 01, 2021 7:57 pm My next one will be in late September.

The US vaccinations have slowed to a crawl, ~500,000 the past 2 days, worst since the early days of the campaign. Yesterday was not a holiday.
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations
The next challenge—B.1.617.2 (gamma)—is just getting started here. Our best shot to get shots way up.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 4:07 pm

Rumpy wrote: ↑Tue Jun 01, 2021 7:57 pm My next one will be in late September.

Possibly sooner, if you wish. Starting this week, the Ontario government is phasing in accelerated scheduling for second doses.

Rumpy wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 5:53 pm Yeah, possibly, though they didn't give me the option, which I thought would be a possibility given I was close to the acceleration. My receipt says my second dose is in September. Would be nice if they would email if and when second doses are available. They have that information on file anyway, might as well use it.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 10:47 pm We need some kind of device that can point these people out and put a sign of SHAME on them somehow. Maybe like the balloon dialog above their heads like in comic books.

Rumpy wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 8:56 pm And as far as reminders go, last night they were asking if I was Ok to receive emails and update, and if they have the second dose appointment on file, wouldn't it be so hard to to give a friendly reminder when the new moved up available dates are available to register for? I mean, I kind of feel like it's a bit of a inconvenience that they would have you re-register if you're already in the system.

Kraken wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 10:05 pm Went to outdoor dinner at the bar tonight, as planned. Nobody was masked, not even staff, but we were on the patio so that's fine. At the end of the evening, though, I decided to get a growler to go. We walked into the bar unmasked and waited there for 15 minutes while they tried to find a cap that would fit, failed, filled the growler anyway, and provided a loose cap. Since I'm not drinking it tonight a loose cap would not do; $24 worth of draft would've gone flat. So they redoubled the search and finally succeeded.

It wasn't crowded, but that's the first time I've been indoors among strangers with no masks in sight since March '20. It was a big step for me. It's literally the first time I've put my trust in the vaccine.

Kraken wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 10:05 pm Went to outdoor dinner at the bar tonight, as planned. Nobody was masked, not even staff, but we were on the patio so that's fine. At the end of the evening, though, I decided to get a growler to go. We walked into the bar unmasked and waited there for 15 minutes while they tried to find a cap that would fit, failed, filled the growler anyway, and provided a loose cap. Since I'm not drinking it tonight a loose cap would not do; $24 worth of draft would've gone flat. So they redoubled the search and finally succeeded.

It wasn't crowded, but that's the first time I've been indoors among strangers with no masks in sight since March '20. It was a big step for me. It's literally the first time I've put my trust in the vaccine.

hepcat wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:20 am They dropped the mask mandate at my gym if you're vaccinated. I tried working out without a mask, but it just felt weird when there were so many others wearing masks. I ended up putting mine back on, even though I'm vaccinated. I suspect most of the other folks there succumbed to the same feeling.

hepcat wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:32 am Also, the mask has really upped my ventriloquist game. I'm not sure I'm ready to give that up yet. Senor Sassy is a big hit!

hepcat wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:36 am I'll get the GoFundMe page up.

But I swear to God, I see even one mime post a reply about how bad they've always had it, I'm shutting the damn thing down.

hepcat wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:20 am They dropped the mask mandate at my gym if you're vaccinated. I tried working out without a mask, but it just felt weird when there were so many others wearing masks. I ended up putting mine back on, even though I'm vaccinated. I suspect most of the other folks there succumbed to the same feeling.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:18 am My wife and I ate indoors at a restaurant for the first time in probably 16 months. We had planned to eat on their patio but it was pouring and we're both vaccinated so we elected for indoor dining. The place was almost empty anyways so that helped as well.

In other news, the local Whole Foods that we shopped at dropped its mask mandate as of May 29th per Massachusetts dropping its statewide mandate as of that day. Went there this morning and essentially everyone (including myself) was still masked, except for one Whole Foods employee who was bagging.

Lorini wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 11:51 am It just feels rude to be around people you don't know without a mask. At least it does to me. I wonder how long that will last because clearly many people are choosing to keep their masks on. Of course the crazies who scream at people with masks on just makes you want to keep your mask on so you can hit them with a nerf bat.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 10:59 am Except for the pools. No masks there.

YellowKing wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:26 pmI'm just at the point now that I either have to trust the science completely, or not at all. I can't live trusting some parts of the science and not trusting other parts based on....what? My gut feeling?

It doesn't mean I'm going to go out of my way to breath in someone's face, but at some point I feel like I've got to stop playing a guessing game with all this stuff. I'm not qualified to guess at it. So in Fauci/CDC I trust, and let the chips fall where they may.

YellowKing wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:26 pm I've decided I'm not going to feel guilty about not wearing a mask if CDC guidance says that as a vaccinated person I don't have to wear a mask. As a rule-abiding person, I don't feel the need to change my behavior to avoid looking like someone who doesn't follow the rules.

I'm just at the point now that I either have to trust the science completely, or not at all. I can't live trusting some parts of the science and not trusting other parts based on....what? My gut feeling?

It doesn't mean I'm going to go out of my way to breathe in someone's face, but at some point I feel like I've got to stop playing a guessing game with all this stuff. I'm not qualified to guess at it. So in Fauci/CDC I trust, and let the chips fall where they may.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:33 pm

YellowKing wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:26 pmI'm just at the point now that I either have to trust the science completely, or not at all. I can't live trusting some parts of the science and not trusting other parts based on....what? My gut feeling?

It doesn't mean I'm going to go out of my way to breath in someone's face, but at some point I feel like I've got to stop playing a guessing game with all this stuff. I'm not qualified to guess at it. So in Fauci/CDC I trust, and let the chips fall where they may.

I'm with you. And have struggled with this with some family members who are having trouble listening to the CDC now that the CDC is saying things for vaccinated people are safe* but the virus isn't gone.

* - for a reasonable definition of safe.