****CARNIVAL CRUISERS: HOW ARE THINGS WHERE YOU LIVE???

[pe4all]

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy New Year.  NY has a surge of coronavirus cases - mostly due to family gatherings over the past few weeks, especially here on Long Island.   NYC closed down indoor dining again.  We still have not eaten inside a restaurant since March.  DD got us a Seamless gift card for the holidays which we will start using, and we use instacart for major grocery shopping.  Schools re-open Monday, and it will be interesting to see which open for direct student contact, and which decide to go directly to virtual classes.   One friend just had whole family - husband/wife, their adult son, their daughter/son in law and daughter's 2 small kids ages 1 and 3 - diagnosed with covid.  He caught it from his secretary in his law office who was asymptomatic and it spread throughout.  Luckily "light" cases - tired, loss of taste/smell, bad headaches.  Hoping vaccine gets here soon.....

[Bearsthatsail]

Looking forward to a better 2021.  We have had 3 cruises cancelled and hope April is a go.  This is certainly a nasty virus and we are locked down in Ontario, Canada.  The Canada-US border has been closed since March and rules are getting tougher for flying.   Pleased to be a healthy retired senior and not a young parent or small business owner.   Everyone will remember 2020 in different ways.  We have been cruising for many years and want it to be safe before it starts this year.   

[kittymommax4]

I’m a non-patient facing healthcare worker & just received my 1st dose of the Moderna vaccine.  I’m so looking forward to the day when we can go back to cruising the way it was pre-COVID!  I live in Massachusetts where the numbers are not great & there is still a travel ban in effect, and even though I mostly work from home we are not in a lockdown.  

[Honolulu Blue]

Thanks everyone for the updates from your locations.  A small update from Michigan... the Governor has expressed her desire to have all schools open for in-person learning by March 1.  I'll just say that I'd like to see it happen statewide, but the virus may have other ideas.  Some numbers look relatively good compared to other states, but there are lots of skeletons lurking around.

[RWolver672]

On Monday, our county let people sign up for the vaccine.  We both did and within a few hours, the count was over 2000.  By Tuesday, the count was over 10,000.  

 

Here's the crazy part.  Our county has had more cases than the county next to us.  They already have their allotment of the vaccine and our county hasn't gotten any yet.  

 

Add to that, my niece is a pharmacist and works in close contact with the health department.  She contacted them yesterday to see where the vaccines would be given out when they arrive.  Our county hasn't even figured out where to give the shots yet.  

[Honolulu Blue]

My fellow Michigander has covered the vaccine story in the post immediately above.  But there is other news, so I'll get into that. The numbers continue to tell the general story of "better than most of the rest of the U.S., but not very good".  A few activities are opening up today, and there's an open promise to resume indoor dining on February 1 if things remain not too horrible.  

[pppiglet]

Here in California we are up to 525 deaths a day.  They say 1 person dies every 6 minutes.  Inside dining still shut down and outside too in LA County.  I have been working this whole time in the office, but 1/2 work from home.  We've only had a few people at work get it or off on quarantine and everyone has not had any major problems.  We don't go out much, but we do have to wear masks in the stores.

Governor Newsom almost has enough votes to be recalled.  What a joke our governor is.  No one in our family or any relatives have had it.  You watch though, Biden will magically make it go away and open everything up as soon as he is in office.  

But I'll go with that since this means my cruise coming up in May might not be cancelled.  😁

[Host Carolyn]

Our numbers go up and up with holiday surge and no maskers although more businesses are finally cracking down on that and some finding that requiring masks is actually helping their business as folks who want to be out but cautious are patronizing them ...too bad they didn't do this last summer. ....vaccines starting up as enough doses show up regularly but distribution is a mess. Supposed to get first shot next Wednesday!!!. Modified lockdown till Feb. 2.  Hospitals about maxed out which isn't good😣

[RWolver672]

Just what we didn't need.  https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2021/01/19/moderna-covid-19-vaccines-spoiled-michigan/4219827001/

[Host Carolyn]

7 hours ago, RWolver672 said:

Just what we didn't need.  https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2021/01/19/moderna-covid-19-vaccines-spoiled-michigan/4219827

What can you say????  What a mess this is🙄  How can they be so careless???? Heads should roll for sure

[pe4all]

7 million in our first 2 groups eligible to be vaccinated here in NY.  250,000 doses per week. (just cut down from 300,000.)  Do the math.  It sucks. People with appts are being cancelled left and right due to vaccine shortage of 50,000.    We would be in 3rd group, along with another 5 million people. Looking at summer if lucky.   Sucks.  

[Aplmac]

Life on the Eastern Caribbean island of Barbados

remains waaay cooler than most situations posted above.

 

We are so so lucky! 

Our generally-breezy ambient conditions on the island

are a huge help of course, and a largely compliant population (99%)

without "freedom issues" to complicate things.

 

NIGHT Curfew in effect (lovely stuff!) 9 p.m. until 5 a.m.

controls the night crawlers who tend to do the silly stuff
so nightlife is quite limited, but we've survived this before *wink*

 

Make early reservations at restaurants, and be off the road at 9.

[d12j28]

18 hours ago, Aplmac said:

Life on the Eastern Caribbean island of Barbados

remains waaay cooler than most situations posted above.

 

We are so so lucky! 

Our generally-breezy ambient conditions on the island

are a huge help of course, and a largely compliant population (99%)

without "freedom issues" to complicate things.

 

NIGHT Curfew in effect (lovely stuff!) 9 p.m. until 5 a.m.

controls the night crawlers who tend to do the silly stuff
so nightlife is quite limited, but we've survived this before *wink*

 

Make early reservations at restaurants, and be off the road at 9.

I don't know, it's not that bad up here in central Maine. Just need some more snow to go snowmobiling! 

[Honolulu Blue]

Hi.  Me again.  Some news from the Mitten State:  

 

1. Some restrictions will be lifted as of February 1.  Bars and restaurants can reopen for indoor service.  There will be a 25% capacity limit and they must close by 10 PM.
2. Outdoor stadiums can seat up to 500 people if they can hold 10,000 or more.  Those that hold less than that can seat 20% of capacity or 250 people, whichever is less.
3. Our state Health Director resigned and was immediately replaced.  Hmmm.  I bet there's a story or two there, though we may never get to hear it.

[RWolver672]

14 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Hi.  Me again.  Some news from the Mitten State:  

 

1. Some restrictions will be lifted as of February 1.  Bars and restaurants can reopen for indoor service.  There will be a 25% capacity limit and they must close by 10 PM.
2. Outdoor stadiums can seat up to 500 people if they can hold 10,000 or more.  Those that hold less than that can seat 20% of capacity or 250 people, whichever is less.
3. Our state Health Director resigned and was immediately replaced.  Hmmm.  I bet there's a story or two there, though we may never get to hear it.

 

I read where he was offered a better job.

[pe4all]

1 hour ago, RWolver672 said:

 

I read where he was offered a better job.

I would not want to be a public figure in the health field, or state gov. at this time.  We all know what flows downhill.  Until the federal gov. does something to increase production of vaccine the U.S. will not be able to get back on its feet.  Too little too slow.  

[Honolulu Blue]

On 1/23/2021 at 6:30 AM, RWolver672 said:

 

I read where he was offered a better job.

 

Noted, thanks.  In other news, someone from Michigan apparently bought a $1 billion Mega Millions ticket!  To put it in terms we can understand, that could buy...

 

• About 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine (at $25 per)
• About 33 million doses of the Moderna vaccine (at $30 per)
• About 250 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine (at $4 per)
• About 50 million shares of CCL (at $20 per)
• About five Azamaras, if you can find them
• About 1 Vista-Class ship, new, built from the ground up
• Approximately 50 to 200 used up, worn out, cruise ships with a billion memories
• A cabin on a midrange world cruise (not on Carnival) per year for the next 5,000 years ($200,000 per).  But will we still need to wear masks then? 😁

Edited January 24, 2021 by Honolulu Blue

[marshhawk]

News from Dekalb County Georgia....I got an email from Northside Hospital last week that I was invited by one of the physicians to get the Covid Vaccine.  MY DH is 70, he had lung surgery last year, he fell several years ago and lost his vision in his right eye, he's had a heart attack 3 years ago,  he has skin cancer, was on chemo and now doing proton radiation treatment, and as you guessed it, i am the caretaker.  I took up the invite immediately.  However, when i followed the directions on how to sign up, well, you guessed it, it didn't work, so i emailed it to DH and he got it to work, and we got our part one vaccine last week.  

 

Dekalb is mandatory mask, but i notice a lot of folks don't use the mask to cover their nose, and when they are talking to store reps, i notice that they pull them down to talk, which of course is a complete waste of time and energy and mask resource.  If we do eat out, then if we notice any staff member not covering the nose, we inform the closest employee, that we will not be back until management enforces the cover the nose amongst their own employees.  Sorry to say, it's usually  the manager at fault.  But it does make a statement,., that is money they will lose, and now they know why.

 

Some of my favorite restaurants have closed, they didn't think outside the box, but most here are still open for either spaced out dine in, and / or take out.  Some folks dont bother with space, and again, we dont go back.  We are just outside Atlanta, which is much stricter than most of the state, but the reason we are dining out so much, is that DH has had radiation treatment daily, for a month and this is his last week.  After that it's back to creating my own menu

 

I did hear on the news this morning, that an American is dying from Covid every 13 seconds now. 

[bmorosco]

Doing well here in Upstate NY... I can fly to almost anywhere ...But still can not Cruise...hmmm makes me wonder!!

[Aplmac]

Barbados is now into it's second lockdown

being described by Government as a National Pause!
It's still lipstick on a pig but we're bearing up OK.

 

It's not so bad. We're allowed out of the pen

to do the beach thing for exercise, between 6-9 a.m. daily

so here are a few pics of the local suffering.....

 

[pe4all]

2 hours ago, Aplmac said:

Barbados is now into it's second lockdown

being described by Government as a National Pause!
It's still lipstick on a pig but we're bearing up OK.

 

It's not so bad. We're allowed out of the pen

to do the beach thing for exercise, between 6-9 a.m. daily

so here are a few pics of the local suffering.....

 

We had 15 inches of snow a few days ago, and are expecting 8 more tomorrow, with 2 more possible storms on the horizon.  So nice to see pics of people doing "normal" things - even if it is only for 3 hours a day!  Glad to see masks on in the pics.

[Honolulu Blue]

Very quick update... numbers are far down from their highs in November/December... our President will be stopping by Portage to have a look at Pfizer's vaccine plant... hard to imagine our Governor not being by his side during that photo-op... cold, snowy weather is keeping many of us inside and out of trouble... I need a cruise badly...

[Aplmac]

Our "National Pause"/lockdown just got extended by a further 11 days

until end February. Oh Bliss, Oh JOY!

 

You know what they say!....

[pe4all]

Our infection numbers in NY have gone down, but Long Island and the Bronx still lead the state in infection rate.   They just added "underlying medical conditions" to the 1B vaccination stage, so 3 out of the 4 of us in my family can register for vaccine.  Spent 14 hours yesterday when site opened trying to make an appt online, and on phone.  Finally got through on phone and we will all have our first dose (Pfizer) in 2 1/2 weeks.  We were hoping April or May.   We have a trip to Disneyworld (postponed 4x already) May 1, and thought we would have to cancel for 5th time, but looks like we won't have to.  Haven't eaten inside a restaurant in 11 months.  So excited to get a bit of normalcy back into our lives, even with wearing masks and social distancing.   Haven't eaten out in 11 months!

[RWolver672]

Our Grand Niece is a pharmacist and deals with the county health.  She found out that Rite Aid Drug stores was giving out the shots.  She went online and found that you could register for the shots.  She called me and told me what the online site was.  I went online at 1:20, filled in the info and got an appointment for the first shot at 2:45 that same day.  Wife went online after me and got her's for 3:00.  

 

We both went in at the same time.  I gave them my insurance card and ID and they told me to wait until them called me.  In the meantime, they called my wife over and took her cards.  About ten minutes later, they took both of us in and gave us the Maderna shots.  We were done by 3:15.  They will notify us of the appointment time in thirty days for the second shot.

 

I went on FB and posted the info.  Within a couple of hours, people were posting that they had all gotten appointments thanks to the link.

 

Funny thing was, I never felt the needle at all.  Next day I never felt anything.  Wife's arm was a little tender the next day but it went away the day after.