Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 28 June 2020

Well, I have told my OH that if I catch Covid now and die of it, I am laying it firmly at Boris's door.

Wendy- I also have trigger fingers in both middle fingers that must be manually straightened; I agree that they are more annoying than anything else and a hairdresser appointment has higher priority!

Was so cross to hear about some of the breaches of the rules, such as 200 people partying in Leicester - I think it's done my blood pressure no good at all. There was a man on TV, shown going on holiday abroad and he was asked about the risks, and he said "I'm pretty fit so I doubt if I will get sick!!!!"

Words fail..

Clueless Lindybird.  Clueless.  Re Lulu, what I really don't understand is how the Dog Rescue place allowed an animal with an obvious(?) issue to be adopted in the first place.  When we surrendered daughter's rabbit last spring, they discovered (daughter had never noticed!) that she had jaw/teeth problems that rendered her unadoptable, even though she'd never had a problem scarfing up her food. It was a no-kill shelter full of lovely people so one of the volunteers became her permanent foster Mom.    Lulu does look sweet though and don't we all muddle through with various ailments anyway?  Meanwhile, sounds like you might want to drop the subject where your OH is concerned.  :-)

OG - It looks like you've all been busy. Like the idea of the rhubharb - love it in a fool..

AQ - thanks for the ongoing quotes, always some amusement in them but often with good advice

Lindybird - hope you managed to get your BBQ hardware and sticks for supporting the plants. Its dull and cloudy with showers down here too. I think its pretty much over the whole country.

It annays me too when I read of how people are flouting the advice given. Don't they realise that meeting in large numbers could trigger a possible second wave/spike in areas where its happening.

The government may have been slow in putting measure into place but at least they are now - with some relaxing of them. It seems to give people the nod to do what they want. Are they so ignorant they have only to look back at the Ebola crisis in Africa to see have contagious that was. This virus is almost as bad and the whole world has suffered. Sorry for the rant.

Bit of sunshine but mostly cloudy and the odd shower - seems its going to be like this for the next week.

OG – I wasn’t fussed by your comment. Nothing to forgive! I agree with border closures, even if it inconveniences a few people. What about the greater good of all.

ANNETTE – Reading quickly I saw you had a haircut by the carpenter. Oops, not quite LOL.

PAT – Someone in our newspaper wrote that they had travelled for 6 days around the state to help the economy. Alas many businesses had not bothered to reopen even though restrictions eased.

WENDY – I am surprised incoming passengers are not being quarantined. Can Aussieland (except for VIC) teach the world how it is done? Most states here are covid-free.

There will be a big outcry on social media after our state’s top cop said he did not think professional footballers are an essential service. Teams in Melbourne don’t want to relocate to a “hub” or quarantine when playing interstate. Numbers in Victoria continue high, despite or because of increased testing. But some people are refusing to be tested!!!!

In SA nightclubs are now allowed to open for drinking but not dancing. I joked to OH that if they did both, the drink would spill.

Just a thought

Don’t waste your time in anger, regrets, worries, and grudges. Life is too short to be unhappy. (Roy T Bennett)

AQ: Haha! Not sure who would have charged more for the haircut. :-))

VERY FRUSTRATING day here. Cable guy showed up to activate the hookup in spare bedroom where OH and his equipment will hide during painting, floor replacement in his office. First words out of the guy's mouth were "I can't come in." What? So why are you here? He has a mask, we have masks, but no...."It's Covid," he says with an attitude that really didn't sit right. Why did they set up this appointment? Maybe because the tech call center is in a state where they think Covid is a hoax? Who knows. So. We explain what's needed again. "I can work through a window." he says. Ummmm. OK. So we open the window, take off the screen so he can see the outlet in question. Second pronouncement from him (four feet away from the outlet), "That looks old, the whole thing probably needs replacing." What? "But," I say, 'the call center lady checked and said it just needed to be activated." "How does she know?" he demands. "That's like her guessing what color shirt you're wearing." (I'm now getting a bit pissy.folks.) He then asks us to disconnect the cable thingy so he can look at it. We all have masks, but he's passing his equipment back and forth through the window with no apparent concern about gloves or hand sanitizer. We disconnect the end bit and show it to him. "Well that looks clean," he says. Yes? And? "Can I see the actual end of the wall cable?" he asks. We hold it up, he inspects it with his flashlight (he's leaning in the window) and says it looks okay. Let's go find the connector box he suggests. It's up on the roof. "Oh dear," he says. "That means the splitter is in the attic" (and of course, he can't go up there because he'd have to come into the house). His solution: We could hire a handyman to come do it and no, the company won't reimburse us. What?! We're paying his company to do this.  I'm now really upset. He shrugs and affects concern, but I think he just wants to clock off for the day. He leaves. I rant around the house for 10 minutes then place a very polite call to the company's tech support people and explain (calmly) why I am sooooo bloody upset. The sympathetic young man apologized  but said they couldn't force their workers to enter homes and that, yes, we should have been told that when the appointment was made. He did, however, come up with two work-arounds, one of which, he said, the technician could have suggested (had he been interested enough). So we'll probably go with the low-tech, less expensive option. Rant over.

Meanwhile, Governor Newsom is shutting down bars and in-restaurant dining again, plus outdoor entertainment centers (including our lovely zoo, which only just reopened and required reservations). Hairdressers still open, but thank heaven I got my haircut anyway, just in case....

Lots of media discussion of how the U.S. has screwed up so badly in all this..... I could name one source.....

ANNETTE – You would laugh if you weren’t crying. I like the bit where “it is old, needs replacing”. A year or two or 3 ago, we called a plumber to fix a leaking tap. OH does not have tools or skills, etc. A previously good company has now diversified into electrical too. So, while plumber was here, he told us we needed a new hot water service, new main power board, oh our smoke alarm was only battery operated and needed to be hard-wired, etc, etc, I forget the rest. I think his quote was over $7,000 for starters. We said fix the tap and we’ll get back to you about the rest. Which of course, we haven’t. Not a smart man – he didn’t notice our second smoke alarm in other room.

It must be horrible to go back to strict restrictions. I do feel sorry for you. In Victoria new cases are higher again and all locally transmitted, none from overseas returnees. Police out in force to check people are doing right thing. It will be for a month.

Shortly we shall watch livestream of Dau’s f-i-l’s funeral. Luckily numbers at the funeral home are restricted as I really did not want to go where there could be a crowd. S-i-l insists on taking the Trio; I think they are too young, but who is asking for my opinion. Tomorrow is the burial in a country town. MissL is upset as it is the last day of term and she will miss the lunchtime disco. Poor mite, I feel for her. I did offer to babysit.