Saturday, June 27, 2020

Storms, Power Outages, Surprise Visits, Deep Fried Plantains, Radish Bouquets & ....

Restaurant Meals In the COVID19 Era...

June 26, 2020

I know the title seems long, rambling & confusing but all of those things are relevant to events in my life since I last posted here, a few days ago.

Life seems to be returning to normal (cautiously optimistic that it is), because "normal" things have started happening again, like surprise visits from family members bearing some prepared deep fried plantains (because they know I love them, probably as a bribe for the help 😉 - seriously though it's not really likely) requesting help with something.  A neighbour just popping by with an armload of radishes freshly pulled from their garden, the day before a wicked storm cut our electricity off for a long period of time. Doing errands and noticing some of the restaurants diningrooms are open once again and deciding to go to our favourite one first, to have a yummy meal and it was. Still licking my lips while digesting it. It gives us hope that this stupid virus won't overtake us the way it's doing in the innumberable news stories that follows below.

Speaking of which, I have decided that since here in Quebec Canada things seem to be quietening down and life is slowly but surely returning to normal (though the physical distancing & hand washing measures haven't been lifted yet), I will only be posting the most important and strangest COVID19 related stories once a week from now on. If there should be an upsurge in the cases in Quebec or Canada, causing a retightening of the measures and lockdowns, I will resume the comprehensive coverage I've tried to provide on a continuing basis here. Otherwise as I said it'll be a once a week posting about COVID19. Though I may make more frequent posts than that, but about other topics that may be of interest to some of the readers here too.

I do still intend to fulfill my promise about the Gates conspiracy, article once I've had time to do thorough research on the subject.

In the meantime stay tuned and don't go anywhere as I'll always be back with another post.

Now on with the myriad of news stories I've collected since I last posted here. Get your reading glasses on, grab a cup of tea and settle back in your favourite chair as this is going to be a long one, as this is the last comprehensive, thorough posting there'll be for awhile or possibly if all goes well here in QC & Canada, forever.  (All we can do is hope and pray).

Final Comprehensive COVID19 Coverage Posting

COVID-19 taught Canada a costly lesson — that early border closures can work  Like I've been saying anyone who spent a half hour in med school would've known that. So why didn't Tam and why did she ignore her own training?

Arizona Mega-Church Set to Host Trump Rally Falsely Claims Its Air Filter Zaps COVID-19 How can anyone claim that an air filter zaps the virus? If that were true we wouldn't have so much problem with the virus as everyone would have that air filter installed and so the virus would be zapped out of existence altogether.

Fauci: Next few weeks critical to tamping down virus spikes Good luck with that Fauci. It's only been 3 days since you said this and you've already lost total control of it, going by the headlines coming from the US.

Anthony Fauci doesn’t see COVID summer lull as Sun Belt cases swell

Breaking with Trump, Fauci says U.S. will do 'more testing, not less'

EU May Ban Travel from US as it Reopens Borders, Citing Coronavirus Failures

SCREW THE RULES Three in 10 Americans have ‘broken coronavirus quarantine rules to have sex’  I'm just wondering how the hell they know this.

Germany Orders First Local Lockdown Since Easing

Florida’s Reopening Party Season Is Already a COVID-19 Fiasco  Really? You think? What ever gave you that idea, I wonder....

Trump team weighs a CDC scrubbing to deflect mounting criticism  Typical politician. It's never them that's wrong, it's always someone else or something else, but definitely not them, themselves.

Texas Children's Hospital admitting adult patients to free up hospital beds in Houston  That's saying one of two things..... Either they have a huge number of COVID19 cases, or their hospital for adults has very few beds to start with.

Key Support for the Economy May Be About to Buckle  That's why we felt it necessary to go have a meal at our favourite restaurant tonight. We don't normally buy much outside of a grocery store or pharmacy even before the pandemic hit, so we don't spend a lot at any kind of store other than those two. We don't frequent m/any places on a regular basis anyhow, so we don't really have a lot of local businesses to support, other than restaurants, the movie theatre and some parks (but because we're residents of the area, the parks are free to us) and that's basically it. So we're rather limited in the amount of support we can give to our local economy.

The decline of the U.S. dollar could happen at ‘warp speed’ in the era of coronavirus, warns prominent economist Stephen Roach   I thought that that was what usually happens to the Canadian dollar in relation to the US dollar. One second it's worth so much and then the next thing you know it's not worth anything. Sometimes it feels like it's the Canadian pesos instead of Canadian dollar.  So if the US dollar drops what's that going to mean for the Canadian dollar?

Trump tells aides he supports second round of stimulus checks, but White House divisions remain

Common COVID-19 mistake: The 'one thing' a doctor would 'recommend against'

South Korea becomes first country to announce second wave of coronavirus

COVID-19 in Canada: Military troops in long-term care homes could have been asymptomatic carriers, Ford won't let Ontario go 'hog wild' like the U.S.

Trump Deportations Helped Spread COVID 'Disaster' to Central America

Top US health official Fauci warns of 'disturbing' new US surge It is disturbing. So disturbing in fact, that even though we don't live in the US, I was wondering if we really should be going out to a restaurant so soon, given the resurgence going on elsewhere where they opened up already.  Anyhow the way the restaurant was set up and stuff we felt pretty safe.

As it happened: England lockdown easing 'not risk free'  I don't imagine it is  anywhere in the world. Risk free that is. Life itself isn't risk free, there's always risks no matter what you do.

'Coronavirus hit our business like a hidden tsunami'

Hairdresser: 'We've built a waiting list of over 2,000 people'  Wow! Just wow! I was afraid there would be a long waiting list around here too, so I cut my own hair mostly with my eyes shut or just by feel and I have to say even though my methods may not be conventional nor wise, it didn't turn out half bad. In fact my son, the avante garde fashionista (he started working when he was 13 because he didn't like the clothes we bought for him and wanted designer clothes, that he bought & paid for himself) thought I'd gotten a regular haircut from a hairdresser the last time he saw us. I cut it myself figuring oh well if I botched it, my husband could either use the razor on it and give me a buzz cut, or maybe I would be able to see a hairdresser in the near future maybe. Anyhow as it turned out quite good and it was free and easy too (considering I just grabbed hunks of hair with my eyes closed and chopped them off) and when I heard that most hairdressers in the region are tacking $10 onto the price of their cuts as COVID costs, I figure I just saved myself a good $40 plus tip. So I'll be cutting my own hair from now on, I think.

Coronavirus: Warning thousands could be left with lung damage  Doubtlessly, considering the scars seen on x-rays from it. Some of it looks quite severe and I can't see how it wouldn't leave lasting damage.

Coronavirus: German outbreak sparks fresh local lockdowns

Coronavirus: How coming-of-age rituals were interrupted - and reinvented  I think it's sad what most Montreal area highschools tried to pass off as graduation ceremonies. I mean how lamebrained and lazy could they get? And most of the teachers in sweat shorts and t-shirts handing out the certificates etc.... Really? Couldn't any of them afford to buy decent attire or at least rummage through their closet for a dress or dress pants with a shirt and tie to try to make it look somewhat special? Gawd what a sorry sight most of those ceremonies were that we saw on TV. There was one school, I don't remember the name of it, that had a pretty decent ceremony, almost resembling the convocations done in the auditoriums, except it was done outside on the athletic field, and all the students wearing their gowns and mortar board caps, instead of the stupid drive up or walk by on the sidewalk crap the rest of the schools tried to pass off as convocation ceremonies. I would've been so disappointed and probably cried if I were one of those kids getting that type of ceremony. They might just as well have stayed home and had their certificates mailed to them.

How Asia's biggest slum contained the coronavirus

Li Wenliang: 'Wailing Wall' for China's virus whistleblowing doctor   I thought he was a very brave soul when I read what he was trying to say to the world. Then when I later learnt he died, I felt very bad for the loss to the world and to his family. I wish the doctors in Canada could've been brave enough to defy the idiots at the helm and have warned Canada about what was coming in advance of it getting here and then been brave enough to contradict the genocidal maniac in charge of Public Health Canada and said "no washing your hands is NOT enough, you need to wear masks - N95 masks or better in order to protect yourself from this disease".  But we seem to have mostly yellow-bellied chickens for doctors in this country. Nowhere near as brave as Li Wenliang, even though they don't live in as nearly a repressive regime as he did, and are allowed to speak out by law, but they didn't.

'It’s going to be really tough to keep a traveller down': Canadians will face another 'huge challenge' with COVID-19

How COVID-19 has changed Canada's economy for the worse — but also for the better

How one of Toronto's COVID-19 hot spots is struggling through the pandemic

Pandemic relief money no help to Corner Brook woman living on disability   I'm pretty sure that the disabled along with the elderly were pretty much excluded from help from the Feds. The amounts given to those groups were basically insults compared to what was given to all others. Even under-aged kids who basically have no bills of their own to pay got more than the elderly or the disabled. So go figure.

Closed borders leading to more dangerous street drugs: OPP

Will my hot flash set off a temperature check? Your COVID-19 questions answered

Anderson Cooper Calls Out Trump’s COVID Hypocrisy: He’s in a ‘Biological Bunker’

Sammy Hagar Is Willing to Play Despite Pandemic: ‘Sorry to Say It, but We All Gotta Die, Man’   'Cept that we don't have to die all at the same time, man!

Children unlikely to pass COVID-19 to each other, says provincial health officer

Couples moving at a faster pace as relationships intensify in lockdown, experts say  That's what happens when you spend a lot of time together, usually, you bond together more. Sometimes it's the reverse where you just start hating each other's guts and can't wait to be rid of each other, but I think that's rarer than the ones who bond tighter together.

Gas industry sees strong demand post-COVID, LNG shortfall by mid-decade Going by the increase at the pumps in the area, I'd say there's probably a strong demand here too.

Tokyo Virus Cases Jump to 55 With Workplace Clusters in Focus

German minister stresses coronavirus risk despite low infection numbers  I hope he's right for their sakes.

Japan's success in curbing COVID-19 cases now hampers search for cures Maybe they can enlist the aid of some of those 55 people to see if whatever medicine they're working on, cures them.

The Future Of One-Night Stands In The Age Of Coronavirus  Another one of those angles.....

Las Vegas Casino Workers Beg Guests To Wear Masks As Nevada Cases Rise Why don't the owners of the casinos just post a sign at the entrance that masks are required for admittance, like their signs saying "no shirt, no shoes, no service".

Movie Theaters’ Botched Mask Messaging Ignited an Avoidable Political Controversy

California Breaks Record For New Daily Coronavirus Cases, Hospitalizations Surge

Gold Falters in Ascent Toward $1,800, Buffeted by Rising Dollar

‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ Producers Blame Last Week’s Production Shutdown on COVID Testing Lab Even soap operas are affected by it too, apparently.

Warren Buffett says this is how to financially survive the coronavirus  I guess everyone these days, needs some financial advice on how to make it through this pandemic, so who better than Warren Buffet to get it from?

More than $20,000 in COVID-19 fines issued, but few details on violations  That's nothing in comparison to what Quebec issued....

COVID-19 Will Rage 'Like A Forest Fire' In Unprepared America, Top Doc Warns Looks like that "forest fire" has started already.

One new, travel-related case of COVID-19 in New Brunswick: person in their 50s

'Don't be a Sheep': Washington Sheriff Suggests Residents Defy Statewide Mask Rule It seems like the cops in America love breaking and defying as many laws as possible, by all the latest news stories and this one doesn't take the cake because the black deaths by cops takes the cake, this one is just another one of those twisted COVID19 angles.

Coronavirus: Women denied abortions because of the pandemic

Coronavirus: Domestic violence 'increases globally during lockdown'  This is the flip side of the story about bonds strengthening during the lockdown.

Coronavirus in India: Inside a Mumbai hospital ICU

How to pack for a road trip during a pandemic  Just in case you're thinking about taking a road trip vacation across the province or country this summer, these tips in this story might be of interest to you.

In person, online classes or a mix: Colleges' fall 2020 coronavirus reopening plans, detailed  Same as here in Quebec. From what I can understand the classes will mostly be online but some will be in class.

Big life events keep happening, even in a pandemic  And some have been hard to even acknowledge let alone celebrate or mourn or just commemorate.

Coronavirus pandemic could lead to up to 500,000 fewer US births, study suggests Another aspect of it, that most people weren't thinking about or realized. I know  I didn't think about or realize it until I read this story.

Covid-19 devastates remote village in Amazon That's too bad. Things like this should not be allowed to happen. It just cuts down on our diversity as a species.

Restaurant menus are getting smaller. Here's what some big chains are dropping  The restaurant we went to earlier tonight, used their takeout menu rather than their in restaurant bound menu. The takeout menu basically contained their "fast food" items like pizzas, subs, sandwiches and a few other things, and not their larger more expensive meals like steak and seafood dishes, which is what we would've preferred, but oh well, what we had was still good too.

People in their 20s and 30s are spreading the virus

Public restrooms: What you need to know about using them safely amid the pandemic  Around here, you'll be lucky if you can find one to use, safely or otherwise.

Coronavirus: Fact vs Fiction  This is a page with links to podcasts that discuss various facets of the disease and how we deal with it.

Wall Street thinks the economy will recover fast — here's why  And others like the IMF etc thinks we're looking at something much worse than the Great Depression of years gone by. I hope they're wrong and the Wall Street gang is right.

As COVID-19 cases rise, these are the symptoms to look out for. They include diarrhea and nausea.  Pretty soon they'll add things like peeling skin, strained muscles, hearing loss and you freaking well name it. I've never seen a disease that's had a constantly growing list of symptoms, like this one. I'm beginning to think that what they're seeing and maybe misdiagnosing as COVID19 is really a variety of different illnesses but the person also has a case of COVID19 along with those other illnesses. 

South Korea sues religious sect over COVID spread as it grapples with 2nd wave

Utah governor pushes back on health official warning 'complete shutdown' is needed to curb COVID-19 spread

This couple is helping NYC's homeless amid the coronavirus pandemic   Speaking about NY..... I got super angry today when we were out in a local shopping plaza's parking lot and saw a pickup   truck with a couple, driving around in it with NY state plates on it. Obviously they'd been to some store or establishment there and were leaving, when we arrived. But I thought our borders were closed to Americans! And I especially hoped they'd be closed to of all places NY travellers coming here, since it was the state with the highest cases & deaths until just recently. And we're letting them in here to come shop at our stores? Why????? I thought that was illegal. After all the Mounties are ticketing people who stop in Banff  while driving through Alberta on their way to Alaska, because it's supposedly illegal for Americans to stop and shop or do anything in Canada. Yet that pick up was driving around in a shopping plaza's parking lot. So clearly they'd been to some store in that plaza and were leaving just as we arrived.

Without training and EI updates, many on CERB program will remain unemployed for a ‘long time’

Can your employer really cut your pay for working from home? If my employer tried to cut my pay because I was working from home doing their work, I'd start charging them rent for the "office space" being used to do their work and for a fair portion of the utilities bills and insurance and if I had to pay a business license or tax to the city because I'm working from home, that too. Trust me, they wouldn't get away with it that easily.  I mean after all, fair is fair. If by me working at home, along with all my colleagues they're able to closed down some offices thereby saving themselves, the cost of a hefty lease on office space, the utilities, and insurance on those premises, I'd make sure they paid mine or they could look for some other desperate sucker to do their work for them. I think that's what this whole collapse economy was about. To make workers so desperate they'll settle for any old crappy deal employers wanted to foist off on them.

Health Canada posts recalls for three more hand sanitizer products  You should take note and make sure your hand sanitizer isn't listed here.

Quebec reports seven new COVID-19 deaths, 49 new cases as testing nosedives  Maybe they're taking Trump's advice on "the way to cut down on cases".

COVID-19 in Quebec: What you need to know on Tuesday

COVID-19 Contact Tracing App Emphasizes Canada’s Health Care Divide

COVID-19 lockdown reveals human impact on wildlife, researchers say

Trump visits border wall to drive immigration message amid coronavirus and civil unrest

Palm Beach ‘Patriots’ Are Ready to Die for Their Freedom to Breathe Mask-Free

Public-Health Officials Targeted, Live and on Facebook   This is just wrong, unless these public health officials can be held accountable for it being in the country in the first place, like here in Canada Tam and Haggdu. They should be held accountable in a court of law for all the deaths they've caused here in Canada due to their negligence and outright lies and bad advice given to Canadians about how to protect themselves from this disease because they'd prefer to ship our PPE to China or hoard it for themselves.

Hospitals Are Counting Beds Again With Virus Cases Rising (1)

Rural Missouri pastor: Virus ‘just started to sprout up’

HORROR SCENES Coronavirus bodies stashed in BIN BAGS right next to patients as Brazil death toll tops 50,000

‘Coming back and biting us’: US sees virus resurgence

Washington state to require face masks after county runs out of hospital beds

SECOND WAVE HITTING Virus cases surge back to where they were at peak of outbreak as five states hit record COVID numbers  This is not a second wave! It's a resurgence of the first wave.

As Texas hits all-time high in new COVID-19 cases, Gov. Greg Abbott tightens outdoor gathering rules

Family party spreads coronavirus, infecting at least 12, California county says Very sad.

Virus Surges Across U.S., Throwing Reopenings Into Disarray

Tri-State to Require Visitors From COVID Hotspots to Quarantine We should do the same thing to anyone coming from NY as well. I mean how the hell did that pick up get into Canada in the first place? I thought the borders were closed still. I'm still fuming about that, because I can just see our area becoming the next hot spot of the world thanks to them and the lax customs officers at the border.

‘Herd immunity music festival’ to take place in July, against the advice of medical experts

The New Escapism: Isolationist Travel

The Dalai Lama on the coronavirus, Donald Trump, and "old thinking" in America

Don't open the door!: Japan haunted house goes drive-in  Slightly ahead of their time I guess, but hey why not, lots of kids will love something like that come Hallowe'en.

The Second Great Depression  You can't shut all the economies of the world down and not expect severe repercussions of some kind from such actions.

IMF says global economic collapse caused by coronavirus will be even worse than feared

Parks Canada website dedicated to camping during COVID-19  The Parks Canada official website detailing camping requirements and rules at their parks this summer due to COVID19.

Corona Is One Of 2020's Top 100 Baby Names Because Of Course  This is another twist on the Coronavirus story, which is just cruel and inhumane punishment to name a kid after this disease. I mean can you hear the taunting and name calling in the schoolyards now? Being told to stay away from the other kids because the kid is just a virus and they don't want the kid near them to make them sick and all sorts of taunts and stuff like that!?! That's just plain mean for a parent to do something like that to their kid. The parent probably thinks it's cute and funny now, but wait until they have the kid coming home for the millionth time from school crying, with injuries or wrecked stuff on account of it. Maybe then they won't think it was so cute and funny after all, but it'll be too late then unless they want to go through major expense to change the kid's name to something more decent.

I have a few more posts to make on this before I'm finished with my comprehensive coverage, as I wasn't able to post them all in this message tonight, because like everyone else, I do need to sleep once in awhile. So check back later for more....