Day 337 of “Flatten the Curve” – Valentine’s Day Edition

Today marks 337 days since the institution of the infamous “Flatten the Curve,” AKA The Deep State’s Plot to Drive Us Crazy, Make Us Stupid, and Take Over the World.

15 days, they told us, for 15 days/roughly two weeks we need to work from home, close non-essential business, cancel concerts, baby showers, cat shows, etc., yada, yada, you know “the thing” (to show my solidarity with a certain awe-inspiring president) in order to give hospitals a chance to gear up for huge, terrible, overwhelming waves of ‘rona patients.

Instead, 15 days has now become 337 days. We can argue as to the exact start date of the implementation of Operation Curve Flattening. I am punctuating it from the first day I began working from home.

Since my last post on this subject, two weeks ago, the following has taken place in the world vis-à-vis the dread virus ‘rona:

2. Those NYC restaurants that are still in business can finally open up, a wee bit anyway, to indoor dining. (BTW- can those of you in NJ report on things there? I once lived there. And how is it in the rest of New York?)

3. Speaking of NY, some Demonrats are actually upset with the governor for killing the elderly there.

4. Newsom is going to face a recall in California over his coronavirus policies.

5. If you happen to live in a state with a good governor, such as Florida, you are going to be punished by Premier, er President Biden. You will not be able to leave, nor will your children be able to visit you.

6. More and more reports are coming in about the mental health toll that the lockdowns are taking.

7. Teachers are threatening to not go back to in-person teaching unless kids are vaccinated.

8. San Francisco is suing teachers to make them go back to teaching in person because so many students are committing suicide.

I usually post this thread on the 15th and 30th or 31st of the month, but since February is a short month and today is Valentine’s Day, I am posting it today. The next post will be on Feb. 28 and the big one-year anniversary post will be March 13.-- The 13th, how fitting.

I figured out that I had made a bit of a calculation error in the number of days we are at due to not taking into account February being short. In counting backwards from March 13, a Friday no less, of last year, I have determined we are 28 days from March 13, 2021.

March 13, 2020 was the day my workplace made sure I had what I needed to work at home. They set up the work-issued laptop, around ten that morning, and said “Okay, you’re good to go. Get out of here.”

It was supposed to be for two, maybe four weeks, but now we know the rest of the story.

I’m sure we can argue as to the start date for this farce, and hence, the one-year anniversary date. I had to make an arbitrary decision for this series of posts in absence of an official national Flatten the Curve start date.

I wonder what we will see in the way of “celebrations” of this milestone and articles written about it. I wonder what different anniversary dates people will come up with and why.

I wonder too what kind of Valentine’s Day people are having. Here in Ohio, a couple who wants to go out and enjoy a meal and bottle of wine at a nice restaurant can do so, although one of their favorite places that has been around for 30 years may have gone out of business. But there are enough other restaurants around, and some where the staff and clientele actually act like normal people, to allow the couple to enjoy themselves. Sometimes you have to wait a half hour or so to be seated, even though whatever capacity limits are supposedly in place really aren’t being honored. Depending on where you go, they may or may not want you to wait outside or in your car and will call you when your table is ready.

But going out to dinner with your love only works if you have a love to go out to dinner with.

I imagine that for a lot of couples events of this past year have revealed just how different they are in personality, values, and political philosophy, and now they can’t stand each other. Many couples did not form at all—it is kind of hard to meet your future mate at college, or get a boyfriend or girlfriend you ultimately break up with but remain good friends with, if your college insists you spend all your free time in your dorm due to the ‘rona.

Here’s a report from central NJ (New Brunswick area):

Masks are required to enter any business. Many people wear masks from the moment the get out of their car, to the moment they get back into it (even when there’s no one anywhere near them, and even when it’s 25 degrees). Some idiots wear masks in their cars, alone. Some are double-masking, and some wear a face shield as well. There are useless sheets of plexiglas hanging everywhere. In restaurants, we all have to play this stupid game where the moment you sit at your table, you are no longer capable of transmitting COVID, and we can all sit there in the same room, speaking, laughing, etc., for an hour or two, but the moment you get up from the table, you’re a superspreader and must put your mask on. Many businesses, including restaurants, are now taking your temperature when you enter (and if “asymptomatic tranmission” is really a thing, what’s the point?).

So, it is as stupid and ridiculous in NJ as it could get, I think, though I have little doubt that our brilliant “leaders” will soon disabuse me of that notion.

even when it’s 25 degrees).

Viruses like the cold temperatures too. There's no difference. The thing about cold weather to remember is that it drives people indoors, where the ventilation is not as good. Actually, same is true of hot weather, if it drives people into the air conditioning.

To keep the fear going, “mutation” will now arise.

So far (as reported from Germany), we have:
The British-mutation,
The South African-mutation, (both as ‘deadly’ as Covid)
And just out, the Manus-mutation (Brazil - which is THREE, count them, THREE times as ‘deadly’)

This latest ploy reminds me of the ending of the movie “WarGames” when all the Thermonuclear scenarios were scrolling up the screen:
Taiwan Misdirection,
India Pakistan War,
Hong Kong Variant,
SEATO Decapitating, etc.

There were dozens of them and one wonders if the government’s “mutations” scare tactics won’t grow to be as many.

Thank you for the report.

I am well familiar with the New Brunswick area.

For how long have people in NJ been able to eat inside a restaurant? We have been able to since around Memorial Day, I think. Everything is such a blur anymore. Anyway, it has been a while.

We play the same games in Ohio with the idea that the virus can only infect you when you don’t have food or a drink in front of you.

I see more people wearing the mask from the store to their car now, but I think it is because it is winter and is just a good way to keep your face warm. In normal times, we would wrap a scarf around our face.

They don’t take your temp at businesses here in Ohio, unless you work there.

For some reason, I have this sneaking suspicion that more people in New Jersey wear masks when driving than they do in Ohio.

I have seen little in the way of double masking or face shields with masks, although some people do the face shield thing instead of a mask.

People seem to have stopped caring if they end up within six feet of people.

How skeptical are people in NJ about this whole thing?

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