What are you doing?

[YB]

Very quiet on here. Is everyone OK? What is everyone doing?

[Meg]

ITCHING! that's what I'm doing! Guess there was poison oak / ivy in mom's weeds .... oh my ...had a patch here and there - but over the night wow ... it's in 3 more places! Got a call out to my doctor for SOMETHING!

How are you doing now? I've never had poison oak / ivy...but I don't do a lot of gardening!!

[YB]

Still not doing a lot, waiting for Corona virus to clear off.

Not seen fours on here for a while. Hope she's OK, last post mentioned itching/rash from poison ivy

[YB]

Where's Fours? Not been on for over a week. Hope everything OK. Usually she almost single handedly keeps this forum alive

[momckee]

Hello YB, is the virus really prevalent where you are? Don’t know how many cases we have here - haven’t seen anything about our area lately. Toronto has a bigger problem, young people maybe feeling invincible and getting together in groups. Will be so thankful when the trend flattens although we don’t have anything like the trouble they have in the States. Our borders are staying closed n the meantime.

[YB]

Things are better here in that the number of cases and deaths is much less than back in April/May. The problem is not knowing who to believe. Every day the media seem to roll out yet another "expert" who often has a different opinion than his predecessors in relation to whether it is getting better (or worse) and how its going to be in the coming months.

Life is far from what we have come to know as "normal" during our lifetime. No sporting activities or other entertainment, although this is filtering back slightly. Mrs YB and myself went shopping yesterday, first time since late March. Our daughter has been doing our shopping up to now and will probably continue to do the "big grocery shop" for some time as those places are very busy and despite the "rules" in place regarding keeping your distance many people seem to think they know best.

And you are correct Mo, the younger ones think they are invincible

[Dan M.]

Where's Fours? Not been on for over a week. Hope everything OK. Usually she almost single handedly keeps this forum alive

Didn't she say something a couple weeks ago about making a trip up to Michigan? Hopefully that's all it is.

[4AMNTN]

Hey. Hope y'all are having a gr8 weekend. I will be off to MI this week - Sherri is not doing any better & she is by herself - meds, therapist & Dr. currently but she WILL NOT HELP HERSELF - as has been the problem since May 13 (we're finding out more & more). And I understand - after everything over this summer - I thought the meds would help. Next is ECT & my older sister & parents want ME to talk her into that. I DO NOT like being away from home AT ALL. I leave the house only ONCE a week as it is now - just 5 miles to Publix, Walmart, Mexican to eat etc. My family knows this - but is still insisting that I go "help" her. So ... Going so far from home more than a couple of nights makes me feel like I'm being shoved off a tour boat in the middle of the ocean - getting ready for major surgery - be led blindfolded ... well you get the picture. (breathe)
thank you all for your concern - I'll text back in a week or so on that......

[4AMNTN]

I hope y’all are r good! Text u Sunday?!!! Please do me a favor & update me on YOUR lives. How are u & ur family? News? Exciting things? Please ... it would be nice to know.[emoji169]


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[YB]

Here goes then, news from the north of England.

The good news is that we are all in good health, none of the family are suffering from coronavirus. Having said that one son and wife were not good around new year time, both had extremely bad chesty coughs. Was this coronavirus? Some people are saying that the virus started travelling the world as far back as September 2019. The problem is that EVERY day I hear/read the opinion of yet another "expert". There are so many conflicting views it is difficult to know what to believe. Are things as bad as they seem, or better, or worse. Who knows.

Up until a few weeks ago the media seemed to take great delight in informing us every day how many people had died from the virus. Just how they obtained those figures and decided they were accurate I don't know. The authorities have now finally admitted that the figures were dodgy at best and probably downright lies. Example, a person caught the virus in April, was treated either at home or in hospital and recovered after a couple of weeks or so. A month later they died in a road traffic accident but cause of death was posted as Coronavirus on the death certificate, or at least it was mentioned on there and that person was counted as a Coronaviris statistic.

Mrs YB and myself are retired so work is not an issue, fortunately all the children have retained their jobs, in some cases working from home. The worst situation is my 22 year old grandson. He completed his University course in June but as yet has been unable to find employment. Understandably many companies are nervous about offering new jobs until they know what the end results of the virus will be.

Our daughter is doing our grocery shopping, we have only been once since late March. Shopping is not my favourite pastime but after all this time it would be nice to go to choose what we want.

The not so good news is boredom. It seemed OK in the beginning back in March. Plenty of outside jobs to do and the weather was just right for doing so. By mid April we, along with many others had tidy gardens, newly painted fences and gates, everything looking good. But unless you live on a massive ranch the outdoor jobs are soon complete.

Normally by this time of year we would have been on a couple of holidays, a few days early May and a week in late June. Nothing exotic but a welcome change from everyday routines. We would also have been on numerous, probably a dozen or so, days out but as things stand we have been nowhere.

So that's our news, Fours. Nothing exciting I'm afraid.

We look forward to hearing from you in due course and hope things take a turn for the better

[4AMNTN]

YB! Morning. Wow.thank you. That was a nice update - I can't imagine not getting out for that long. We had maybe 2-3 weeks like that? But as you know I'm flying around! Everyone had on masks - but otherwise it was exactly the same just A LOT less crowded. I have heard that too about newly graduated kids not getting a job this summer ... Our niece & nephews: 2 have jobs 2 are in school.... so as of yet it's just the younger ones talking about their friends. My parent DON'T stay in at all - never did; they wear masks but she's going somewhere everyday. They're 76 - trying to sell their house & downsize; moving to ALABAMA to be near my older sister. SO all this with my middle sister has pushed their dream back a bit. I would have liked to have gotten the "honey-do list" thinner these last few months - BUT. Some things have been on that list for 8 years. I don't think he's going to be them - ha! And we agree - the causes of death seem off to us. Dies of it? OR WITH IT? And our economy over here is suffering our education, peoples livelihood - it's awful that it's come to this. We feel it's somewhat political - a scare tactic. And THATS horrible. 2 weeks was all.... THIS is not working. (and not to mention all the rioting)
Do you have a favorite place to go - quick, nice, relaxing? People around here go to "the lake" which is Kentucky Lake (a.k.a. Tennessee River) about 1.5 hours W. then Smoky Mountains/Gatlinburg/Dollywood/Pigeon Forge are always popular that's about 4 hours E.
Thanks for taking the time to write! Anyone else?????

[YB]

Its not that we haven't left the house in all this time. Most days we go for a walk, what we call "around the block". This means we walk from home, rather than going in the car. The walk can take anywhere between twenty minutes and an hour and a half depending on the weather or how we feel. Around once a week we go out in the car, partly to get a bit of fresh scenery for the walk and partly for the car's benefit to charge the battery and to save the same bit of tyre touching the ground all the time.

I'm still undecided as to how bad this virus is. Have we been scared into following the official line or not. Are older people (which includes Mrs YB and myself) more at risk. Since I wrote my previous post a week or so ago there seem to have been a few more "experts" appear to give their opinions

[4AMNTN]

Anyone else ... I'd like to hear about Mo - your family, flowers .... y'all doing ok I hope.
Dan - you and yours? How ?chuck? Turtlebefree ..... are you still going to DisneyLand? Any recent rides?
Deanie: you?
Meg ... your house? your adopted pooch? wow it has been a while since she's posted.
Gis ... how was your golf? weather over there? any finished or to do projects?
Style ... anything new with you - esp throughout this weird/crazy year?
Brower, Eric
Fiona .... I'm sure has a lot to tell ....
LD, Monica, Vince, JD,

[Deanie]

Same ole same here. Hot hot hot. Trying to stay cool. Also trying to stay virus free.
Good thing is baseball is back and the Atlanta Braves are in first place in their division! Also, there will be UT college football....eventually.
Me and mine are well ~ thank goodness.

[Dan M.]

Anyone else ... Dan - you and yours? How ?chuck? Turtlebefree ..... are you still going to DisneyLand? Any recent rides?

My nearly 87 year old Mom tested positive for COVID, never got any symptoms then tested negative. two of my nieces also had it WITH symptoms, but have recovered. Other than that we are all well.

Chuck is still roaming the side yard. He'll be going into his hyperphagic phase soon (if he isn't already), eating to store calories for the winter. He goes dormant around the end of October/mid November and we don't see him for 5 months.

No Disneyland. CA is still in different phases of lockdown and amusement parks are trying to reopen, but the state is being very particular. There are signs that might be changing soon, but we'll see.

No riding, other than small jaunts here and there. I'm using the time to do some maintenance on the bike.