MsMaven, thank you for bringing up a bright spot! Colds, flus, etc are down all over because of the increase in hygiene measures. That is a good thing.
Did anyone else here go caroling door-to-door years ago? We did it a couple times, and it wasn’t unusual to open the door close to Christmas and find a group of people singing on your doorstep. Seems like a good thing to bring back now—gets people outside and sociable, but the carolsrs and audience don’t mix, so little risk of transmission, as long as they stand back a bit to sing.
It seems to me that more homes have outdoor decorations here than in the past. If that’s a Covid thing, I hope it continues.
LisaP, I’m smiling at the thought of your masks announcement. At gyms here, you’re supposed to keep your mask on unless you’re exercising, but no one does. The employee on duty will occasionally tell a few individuals to put their masks on & we do, until the next exercise.
Mask discipline here is much better than what we saw in the US a couple months ago. No one had one on in the grocery stores. Groceries here have bouncers: no mask, no entry. We’ve had a voluntary tracing app for months; the vaccine record one is new. A couple weeks ago there was a backup at the gym because instead of just scanning our cards to get in, we had to go to the desk to show the attendant the app and an ID. No one understood this, so one person after another came in and tried to scan for entry as usual. A few nights later it was back to usual. I joked they were testing us, changing the rules to see who actually shows up at the gym regularly. For me it is indispensable. Growing muscle increases my metabolism, which counteracts the effects of an under active thyroid.
