Pandemic - What have you learned or observed? Shared Experiences!

[postit4you]

I enjoyed the peacefulness of less human noise. The cars with the too-loud music or noisy mufflers. The lack of plane and train traffic along with their noise. The fact that many people did not have several weeks of food and household supplies! The fact that citizens did not have a little money put aside for emergencies like this.  Both of which were always recommended by our government for natural disasters. A greater perspective on how broken our health care system really is. That cash is no longer King but the debit card now is. That you can wear a mask in a bank and not get arrested. ( this one blows my mind ) The emptiness of streets, parks, and many other areas are haunting. That people valued toilet paper over food and stood in line for hours to get more. That the Earth was healing itself quickly due to less human activity. That countless millions can work from home without their daily commute. That IPads were a valuable tool for the elderly and those too fragile or at risk to go into society. 

Perhaps this was a gift to humanity (less all the death and suffering) to open our eyes to a world that we collectively can make changes to while we have time to do so. I envy all who were able to stay home and reconnect with yourself, family. We all wish for more time from the daily duties and here were given this for those of you lucky enough to be able to experience it. I mean no disrespect to anyone who has experienced pain or suffering during this time only to seek others' experience in this one in a lifetime ( hopefully ) event.  Please share respectfully

[femmefan1946]

Although my community (Oak Bay BC) is known as "the place where senior citizens go to visit their grandparents"  and has a very elderly median age, less than half of pedestrians are masking.

Social distancing on the other hand is being respected except in grocery stores, where everyone just looks confused. (" I don't want anything in the pet food aisle. I want cereal and butter.")

There are more bicyclists on the streets. This may be because the weather is warmer, or because we have new bike lanes in front of our house, but there are a lot of family groups.

The buses are almost empty, although BCTransit is currently free.

My corner grocer/deli is doing good business.  The local supermarket less so. Seems that people are using the local businesses as much as possible. Again, this is a fairly wealthy community and price is not an urgent matter.

The worst one for not masking is Oak Bay Man, who wears cargo shorts year round, socks with his birkenstocks and a Tilley Hat covering his bald spot.  There is a 50/50 chance that he has a ponytail.

[needsmorerobots]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

The worst one for not masking is Oak Bay Man, who wears cargo shorts year round, socks with his birkenstocks and a Tilley Hat covering his bald spot.  There is a 50/50 chance that he has a ponytail.

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 Not sure what's worse, Covid or the ponytail.

And I'm waiting til the pandemic is over before I take a trip back to Osaka Sushi, Penny Farthing or the White Heather Room for eats.

I don't live there but I love Oak Bay.

[reallynicestamps]

Try Oak Bay Seafood too, next to The Whole Beast.

They have sit down and taxout and their fried fish batter is lovely, although Willows Gallery has better coleslaw and chips.

I like the Penny Farthing and Osaka Sushi.

[darak10]

Edmonton, honestly not a lot has changed....of course past restaurant / store closures and shut down of all community events haha.  traffic volume during main shutdown period (April to mid may) not noticeably down much, continually wondered where everyone was going.  What used to be mostly unused / unoccupied public green spaces & trails near my home now have constant traffic and presence.  No one here seems to respect social distancing (especially in grocery stores) except Asian people, who I notice take very visible, almost overcompensatory, precautions around others.  The lack of attention people are paying to social distancing can be rather bothersome.  Social distancing is being enforced in stores very well, staff are very diligent.  Restaurant staff are fantastic but overly apologetic, we and I totally get what's going on.  Staff at a bulk barn near my place are taking it way too seriously, I have termed one guy specifically the "bulk bin nazi" akin to the Seinfeld character for being way too overzealous.  More and more people are using masks I have noticed over the last couple weeks.   I'm not using one unless I need to go to doctors office.   Overall though I'd say folk here are pretty mellow about it, probably because well, um, until now the virus has barely registered here.....1.2 million metro population and 600 cases?  thats an infection rate barely above zero.   No wonder why they want to host NHL games here, its the perfect place in Canada to host them.  No one I know or anyone these people know knows anyone who has gotten it. Had a customer in Connecticut tell me the other day he had a coworker who got it who had to quarantine as a result for two weeks and get tested (negative test), thats as close as I've come to it so far.  

[brettjet38]

What did COVID19 show me...

...that we need BASIC INCOMES for everyone, period,

What do you think will happen when COVID19 returns this fall?!

https://www.liberal.ca/policy-resolutions/100-priority-resolution-creating-basic-annual-income-desig...

And, do not worry, the NDP, the Canadian Senate, The Fraser Institue, The Doctors Association of Canada, the FTQ and a whole slew of other CANADAIN institutions also want one...

...it's the only way forward. The economy will never survive another COVID19 shut down, then what...

BASIC INCOMES, now!

[rcrawford34]

In our  city I am finding most are Social Distancing and following the guidelines  set forth by the Govt and Health Board.   In our area we have approx 95 or so Positive results  and  2 Deaths.  Right now they say there are only a handful of cases that have not been resolved

Our Health Board seems to be on Top of this as much as one can be.  Last week They got a Shout Up from our Premiere for how they are testing for it.  In the city proper there is a Drive Thru Site for tests set up open 7 days a week for 6 to 8 hours per day, They have expanded to out lieing  communities and do it  once a week or so

Wearing masks seem to be split.   I tend to see more Seniors wearing them (which I am one) than younger folk but do see them wearing them too.  One thing abut Masks is how some are wearing them  They only cover their mouths and leave their noses exposed. May be wrong but I think that sort of defeats the purpose of wearing one

Overall our City is quite friendly  Many nod exchange pleasantries etc  in the good times but find this happening  more right now. Not stopping to talk but many acknowledge each other  are pleasant and add encouragement to each other.  Course have seen some that seem to be stressed to the Max and display it but seems to be in the minority. Seen some and can understand  one does not know what they are actually going thru

It has been quieter here getting a bit more activity now and we seem to have a bit more wildlife appearing in the downtown area.  Last week  the excitement was a Bear Cub wandering around about a block from the downtown section   That added some entertainment to the area

With Restaurants being allowed to open outside  to allow some to expand to the road the City has shut down about 1 1/2 Km of the main street for the Weekend.   Not a lot of them were ready to do so so it's few and far between.   The ones that can properly do it in other areas  are on the sidewalks and they appeared to be busy.   Just read this opening was a resounding Failure yesterday,  Very few people went on that street and businesses that are not food related lost what business they had  Some were shutting down early  there was no traffic. Guess they will have to see what happens today and tomorrow .  Could have been the weather it was Chilly yesterday 

Personally I have lost one person I have known for 25 years or so due to Co Vid-19. Strange we have not been in touch with each other for awhile but a few weeks before she passed I started to think about her and was planning to get in touch with her. Really regret not doing so when I thought of it .  But who would have thought this would happen?  To me shows one if possible reach out to those you have not been in touch with Hopefully nothing will happen but I am sure they will be glad to hear from you know you are okay and appreciate that you thought of them

weavers 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Seems to be more folks on the dot ca and dot com discussion board than in the past at any given time. Not sure if that is good or a bad indicator of what is going on with eBay!!

-Lotz