From monday (12th april) pubs in the uk are allowed to open for beer garden service.

So I'm at the golden cup in yoxall last night, making sure they've got wifi in their beer garden.

At one point I was in the tap room - and noticed a couple of sets of long, low wooden trestles that i'd never noticed before (these guys have been clients of mine for at least 15 years). 

And then it suddenly hit me - it's where the beer barrels usually stand !

So I went back into the bar and played this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFpGQoOBrLY

The beers getting delivered saturday.
But being in an english pub, with no beer - is an experience I never thought I'd ever have.

What surreal things have happened to you in the last year or so ?

My grandfather died alone in a hospital (not from Covid-19) because visitors weren’t allowed... then I couldn’t travel 60 miles to be at the funeral service without risking my pregnant wife catching the virus... and by simply traveling 60 miles, I would’ve had to self quarantine and would not be able to be at the hospital for the birth of my son.

Watching the social reality change in the space of a couple of days.

Going shopping right after the numbers from Italy started getting bad everything was different. You could feel the tension. The rice and flour were gone. It wasn't any one thing, it was everything. The herd was skittish and anything was liable to set them off stampeding.

perpetualstudent wrote on Apr 10^th, 2021 at 8:17am:


That one was as big as anything. And realistically, this might sound crass, but for the most part this pandemic has not been all that bad. This isn’t airborne ebola. This isn’t smallpox or the plague back in the day when entire towns were wiped off the map. It’s horrible but not to that level.

IF we get a new strain that ups the virulence and lethality to much more significant levels it won’t just be what we witnessed. It really will go full on Mad Max.

When the vast majority of police and other social services break down and when the hospitals can no longer find nurses and doctors who will work or are still alive, that’s when this precarious thing we call civilization falls apart in a hurry.

the discussion of the vaccine passport which will basically put borders within a country and will divide citizens in first grade and second grade.

Additionally pretending like these vaccine passports wont be co-opted for more nefarious reasons is also, to me, similarly silly. Once in place there will at some point be corrupt politicians calling for using it for some reason for which its not intended.

My guess is countries will start limiting where you can go, where you can shop and what services you can use without it. In short it will become a powerful control mechanism for the populace.

   As social animals we aren't built for long term quarantines and social distancing.  This particular aspect of the pandemic is a little tougher on old people.  For one, we have to be more careful than younger people because we are less likely to survive a bout with Covid.  I've taken this more seriously than many of my young friends.  I know people who have rejoined their bowling leagues (with precautions, but it's still a social gathering) and even had weekly outdoor parties.  Not me.  I'm fat and old with asthma.  I'm hiding until this is really over.  Another consideration is that tanking a year and a half, two years, or how ever long this takes isn't as bad for a young person who has plenty of years left.  To us old farts two, three, or however many years this takes is a significant portion of whatever miserable little time we have left.  So not seeing family, friends, or enjoying life to its fullest for this time is a big deal to us. 
    I'm not saying that we seniors have it worse than anyone else.  Many people have lost their jobs, businesses, homes, etc.. Many are suffering.  But wasting years being shut in sucks for old people with few years left.

The heart of the pandemic was very peaceful here CA. So nice actually. Whole families walking down the street. Parks filled with people, granted staying away from each other, but filled. People were disconnecting from the rat race. I loved it.

As for the conspiracy part, no, covid is real. But it is also over diagnosed by a long shot. Look at the stats on flu cases. They have dropped to almost zero in the last year. The only logical conclusion is that most flu cases have been co-opted as covid cases.

I have personally seen patients dying from other things who were marked covid deaths and ive talked to many others in the medical field who have seen the same.

But thats a conspiracy we can all get behind because if the government says hey were are going to help you out based on the number of covid patients then extreme pressure is going to be put on doctors to mark down anything with a sniffle to be covid.

People dont realize that during the pandemic that many hospitals were hurting very badly for money. Seriously...most folks here were not in them so didnt see. I have never seen anything like it. Just ghost towns. Formerly busy floors with most of the lights turned off and rooms closed. Most hospitals have to run at near max capacity to make a healthy profit. They werent doing anything close to that.

So you die with a gunshot wound but had the sniffles? Covid it is! Cha-ching and theres some extra cash. Its as simple as marking a box.

This isnt some grand conspiracy. Its just people being people. Happens all the time. The problem is it takes a real problem and makes it much harder to understand because we dont know for sure what the actual numbers are.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flu-has-disappeared-worldwide-during-...

So yea this over reporting is happening pretty much worldwide. Which also exaggerates virulence,  R0 and other important figures that we really should have some clue about.

To put it simply, Covid is real but its largely hidden in a fog of war. We simply dont know right now what the real numbers are.

One of the articles I read on this disappearing flu phenomenon said it happened asa result of social distancing protocols and masks. Um..I dont think so! Most people's masks could not stop a common cold bug with a hangover. And sorry but flu cases would simply not disappear like that even with everyone wearing fitted 95s and replacing them every few hours as is ideal. People still touch their faces, they still make mistakes.

There is a lot of weird stuff going on but that doesnt mean Covid is a conspiracy. It means people will take advantage of free money any time its offered.