Dining Out and The Second Wave

Twice now I have been outdoors sitting on a restaurant patio having my non-alcoholic Heineken Beer. The first time was just my wife, two sons, and myself about the same week they opened the patios in our region. It was a joyous occasion just to be outside on a pleasant day enjoying the sunshine and catching some rays. We walked in with our masks on and as soon as we were given a table the physical distance between our table and the ones beside us was noticeable so we took our masks off.

The waitress came to our table wearing a mask and I have to say we should have all put our masks back on when we spoke with her and gave her our food and drink order. I guess the fact none of us were coughing or feeling unwell and we were outside made us think at least we could not give anything to her but then again being a waiter in her shoes would I have thought the same of strangers I was about to serve? So for that I cannot blame her for staying a safe distance from us.

I notice not one other table were wearing masks either and I bet quite a few did not even bring a mask with them as where we were wearing one was not mandatory. Encouraged but not enforced.

Now the second time we went out we were joined by four others who were like us the Dad, Mom and two sons who were in their 30's and approaching 40. We talked on the phone earlier in the week and we decided to meet up on this patio a few days later on what turned out to be a sweltering day.

I worked with the two sons at the Brampton Keg and had not seen each other pretty much since 2015. We knew the parents and we had a great visit. The funny thing was that their Dad and myself have had health issues that make us high risk when it comes to catching the Covid-19. So although each of us have been doing things with our own family,  other than that seeing others up to then has been pretty much out of the question. We wore our masks going in and going out of the restaurant but while we were eating and talking all the time we did not.

Talking to one of them I said you know I was having second thoughts about seeing you guys because I began to listen to the fear that we hear of everyday about this virus. A virus we do not know when will  end. Even though we hear reports of progress on a vaccine,  they are all in early stages and the hope that each lab talks about is creating I think more angst in the public because now everyone thinks it will not be long before one surfaces. I will believe it when I see it.

In Guelph here where we live today we have 14 active cases with 4 new ones reported yesterday. We have no hospital cases. The chances of getting the virus are slim. So knowing that put me at ease. At what point do we not go out though? Let me ask you if you only had 14 active cases in a population of over 120,000 would you still venture out or let fear over come you and stay in? With still physically distancing, washing your hands, wearing a mask, and being with people you know and trust in a social bubble would you still stay in and self isolate?

If you answered yes to that question then get ready because this pandemic is not going away. If you are waiting for a vaccine before they have any made enough for you to get vaccinated it might be two years away yet.

Here is what I think about it all. First of all my step father died of the coronavirus in a senior's home and despite the fact he was 89 this virus did not have to take him a week before his 90th birthday. I know of 5 others who have had it and badly. One thought he was going in a body bag. So catch this virus and no matter what a certain president says it is not the sniffles. So we all know someone who knows someone else who got this and how it affected them. No joke.

For your sanity though, unless you absolutely cannot risk it and your condition is not good at all we all need to get out while the summer is here because you know what is coming. The second wave.

In September when they attempt to get the kids in school at some point during the week if there is any transmission going on at all this coronavirus is going to spread. It is a known fact from other countries that high school students spread this quite easily. Asymptomatic of course. Then they come home and infect their family members. Watch for vulnerable teachers and other school staff as well. The worst case scenario is if a lot get sick and the schools have to close again. They say the Spanish Flu it affected the young worse than the adults. So the truth is the schools have not reopened since March so our kids have been protected but now we are sending them back in September. We do not know what can happen. Hopefully not much.

But if the schools have to close again and parents work schedules are all messed up again we are back to square one or more appropriately phase 1. Because at that point probably bars and restaurants will close, gyms, gatherings will get smaller again etc. etc. Most importantly day cares will close so at least one parent will have to leave her job or work from home. Economically a second wave could really put the nail on that for a long long time.

Well now with BC showing increasing infections, Alberta the same having the most since May we are already heading in the wrong direction before all this begins in September. Quebec and Ontario are still struggling. Now the curve rather than staying flattened is turning up again.

September and October are the two months to watch right now for me. If we get by those good before the flu season hits we will make it all the while keeping our borders closed too. School starts then two weeks later symptoms appear after incubating.

This is going to be interesting and right now for the time being I have to say I ate out on a patio twice but the likelihood of me eating out again is highly unlikely anytime soon.

Let's hope we are ready if we get hit again. Meanwhile if you can,  go out and order some Nachos while you still can.

Okay Here We Go in Ontario

Today is phase 3 in many parts of Ontario with the exception of the Niagara, Windsor Essex, Hamilton, and the Greater Toronto region which remains in phase 2 for the time being.

Here in Guelph we are part of phase 3 which means indoor dining, groups up to a 100 outdoors and 50 indoors are acceptable, plus probably the most important and difficult reopening to manage bars can reopen.

The bars where the young people congregate, drink a few, let their guard down and begin shouting at one another. In a couple of weeks to the beginning of  August people will be going to bars to watch the Blue Jays ( who by the way look like will be allowed to play their home games here ), the defending World Champion Toronto Raptors, and the Toronto Maple Leafs. All expected to go deep in the season and playoffs, well I don't know about the hockey and baseball, but definitely the Raptors. The fact our numbers are very good is how Toronto and Edmonton became hub cities for the  NHL. Congrats to us.

Players coming in under strict testing and quarantine I am not worried about. It is the cheerers in the bars watching the big screen television that concerns  me. I do not see how physically distancing can be enforced nor how this virus will not spread without wearing a mask in such an environment.

So look for spikes in cases. It is inevitable. In Quebec specifically Montreal they have had a bit of a spike due to the bar patrons. As soon as they opened everyone had to get tested who had visited a number of bars probably on Crescent Street. It is happening everywhere. In Tokyo and Seoul and the States as well although it has become a political issue there so we will put them aside.

So get ready and don't panic if you see the numbers spike. We have to do what we have always done and that is physically distancing, wear a mask, and wash your hands especially if you have been in a bar.

Canada had over 400 new infections yesterday with Alberta showing over a 100 noting Calgary as a hot spot. Saskatchewan had the most ever new infections in one day at 45.

Some doctors think we should have opened the schools first then opened up the bars and indoor dining. Wouldn't have made a spot of difference, only sunk businesses into bankruptcy.

Hey maybe we should all listen to Donald Trump and his advice on how to kill this coronavirus. Remember this?

Why Not in North America?

A few weeks ago I was speaking of raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour. Then maybe employers would not have to compete with the CERB to get people back to work. In other words GIVE PEOPLE INCENTIVE TO WORK FOR YOU.

It shouldn't be the other way around. The employer should be giving the incentives to the employee and saying this is why you should work for me. You will work for me and be happy. I will give you full time hours and ensure that you will be able to have a work/life balance.

I will charge higher prices for our burgers but other people will be afforded a higher pay as well so they can afford to buy a burger at our premises. You will also see the gap between rich and poor become smaller.

Now I have some real life examples for you where your hard working tax dollars will be put to good use as well rather than pay Trudeau and his cronies a lot of money so they can get speaking engagements for their relatives.

My sister came and visited us one time for a few weeks from Iceland. Her vacation was paid for but you will never guess by whom? The Government! You see every Icelander gets a minimum 5 weeks vacation per year but you know how here in this low paying joke of a country we live in the employer gives us 4% vacation pay per year on our measly part time minimum wage job and when you add it up it will not even pay your electricity bill. Well this particular year when she came she arrived in July. She changed jobs in May and told her employer when her vacation time was coming up soon. Her employer said fine. Why you asked was because the government pays your vacation pay. You see everyone in Iceland is entitled to vacation and if you choose not to take it your weeks are added on to the next year. And so it goes. Meanwhile I am sure her pay was more than we had as waiters because she worked full time at no less than the above salary. Probably earned more on her vacation than most do working at crappy low paying jobs. If they can afford to go anywhere. Oh yes Iceland works on the average more hours than we do a week. Why not? I would too for a decent affordable living with holidays to boot!

Dentist are free till you are 16. Everyone belongs to a union there but unlike here my wife will tell you they actually get along. Great medical healthcare as well. You can see by the way they handled the coronavirus.

Healthcare systems are phenomenal in Europe as well. In Switzerland when I worked there I had strep throat. Everyone has a number so they see a doctor and you give them the number. You go to a pharmacy and you give them the same  number. The doctor has already booked the follow up appointment with you a week later. None of this good bye and hope everything works out and give us a call if it doesn't heal properly. No money was exchanged.

Yes you pay higher taxes but look at what you get! I have seen it elsewhere but no leader here  has the balls to put this forward. Employers will yell $20 an hour!! So if everyone is making a minimum of $20 what difference does it make? Yes everything will cost more but maybe then people will maybe save more rather than use their credit card to buy things they will never be able to save up to buy. Buy things they only need and if you want to make more income there is hope. Here a manager at Burger King would make less per hour overall than someone behind the cash. So what is the incentive there? Pay shit and you have no loyalty. Give part time hours you lose staff weekly. It is up to us to change our thinking. But you know we cannot do this cause it's everyone for himself. Greed here is rampant in North America. No one gives a crap for their workers because owning a business here is like buying yourself a job. Except for the Walmarts of the world who pay awful and are the cause of the problem. Most business owners cannot even pay themselves a salary. Anyway that is my rant and I am sticking to it. It is a complete joke and waste of time to bring up.

Taxes will increase substantially and the  UBI will come because that is the easy thing to do. It is too late but I should have said to the wife let's move to Iceland. Hindsight is always 20/20.

The One Thing That Could End it for Trump

Through all the pandemic woes that is happening to the south of us in the United States the race between Biden and Trump still in my opinion is neck and neck. With all the deaths and infections in the States you would think this would be a slam dunk for Biden in November.

Yet it still appears to me that the Trump voters are still digging in their heels and Wall Street is oblivious to everything and keeps going up despite any dire predictions that come daily through the media about shutting things down again as the rate of infections keep going up. I guess as long as the Fed keeps propping up the economy with more stimulus at least it gives the impression that nothing is wrong at all.

The one thing where the people who support the Republicans might draw the line though is if the Trump team insists on schools reopening and the Red State governors follow through on Trump's wishes. I think that is where the line in the sand will be drawn.

If schools do not open safely and the child is put in any risk at all especially in the highly infected areas such as Arizona, California, Florida, and the list is growing bigger by the day then you will see a backlash like no other directed at Trump.

First of all schools must have an on line learning option available. I doubt the governor of Florida has even thought about that. Just get the schools open! The minister of Education, Betsy Devos sounds like on line education is not even an option. Why because she has no plan. She is quite useless in fact. So should not be a Minister of Anything.  The Center of Disease Control is told their guidelines are too tough by Trump and VP Pence. They had to back track a bit so their message becomes muted.

This is a disaster waiting to happen. If the parent is given the option of sending their kids to school where the rate of infections are rampant or keeping them at home for their own safety the choice is clear. As someone pointed out we closed the schools in March when there was less infections so why send them back now when there are more?  Also the teachers will not want to go ahead with in class learning either. The risk to them will be high as witnessed by three Arizona summer school teachers who all got Covid and one died.

This will shut down Trump's economy again which he so desperately wants to be running a top gear come election time. It will not happen. Day cares will shut down again which are crucial to getting the economy going again so both parents can go out and work. At this rate it will not happen.

Quite simply as noted in the video below physical distancing of 2 meters is not possible in a class full of students. So there has to be some on line learning at home done anyway. Day cares require the same physical distancing so they cannot have the same number of children. Here is a common sense photo of why schools may have to learn from home.

Here is a video outlining the challenges ahead and how this reopening is putting politics ahead of safety. If Trump forces schools to reopen and it is a disaster voters will have had enough to pick Biden especially if some young kids start dying.

Here is an Article by Conrad Black a Noted Conservative Explaining How I Feel as this Pandemic Drags On

Before providing you with the link it would be wrong to not give the Canadian and provincial  governments some credit on how they immediately provided relief to those (us included ) with the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit once we were told to stay home. Thank you for that and we all understand why you had to put the country in a huge deficit in order to do that.

But now since a few weeks we have pretty much flattened the curve and yet still we find ourselves very timid in reopening. Ontario had 122 new cases today and Quebec had 100 which pretty much makes up all of Canada. Like for instance Manitoba had 0 cases today. PEI had 1 new case. Anyway in all of Canada when all the numbers are in today out of a population of 37 million we will have under 400 new cases.

The CEO of the Ontario Medical Association today said that here in Ontario he thinks we are moving into Phase 3 too quickly and that we should get the infection rate lower. He is worried about the availability of hospital beds that may be threatened if indoor dining and bars are starting up again. I see a doctor who is frequently on the television giving some push back on moving on to phase 3 too soon. But then I saw a doctor who said realistically that there will be clusters of cases here and there and we should expect that so that is where the contact tracing and testing come into play to snuff them out. It should be expected and I agree.

I think this app the Feds and Ontario were pushing had some problems so that could be a concern now as that was supposed to debut last week but I haven't heard anything since they had a few glitches to sort out. There is a lot they are not telling us. Maybe the last shipment of PPEs masks and that were defective from China again? I do not think they are coming straight with us.

If they decide to reopen and there is a little surge I believe they will shut it down here again and go back to phase 2. If they do that you can fold up the economy and pay us all to stay home and the ones that are paying taxes thank you for putting food on our table because unless this provincial and federal government has a plan we are done for. We were heading down that road before the pandemic and it looks like we will continue on that path.

In the article he mentions that why not let countries who have done a lot better than us fly into Canada instead of making them do a two week quarantine when they arrive. So there goes the tourism industry. Yet we can be so proud of hosting NHL hockey teams coming here from hugely infected cities from the States to play here. My wife could not go to see her sister's wedding in Iceland ( doing much better ) or be able to visit her aging parents because we couldn't lift 2 week quarantine for them to travel here. We can go there but they cannot come here because who is coming on a two week vacation to spend all the time in quarantine.

But immediate family members can go back and forth over a supposedly closed border with the States ( the worst by far ) to visit their relatives. What gives? It is bullshit!

We now have infection case in Newfoundland from someone coming back from States and the one from PEI is from the States as well. What closed border?

This Ontario reopening plan boggles the mind. Indoor gatherings of no more than 50 so movie theaters with like 10 cinemas can only have 50 people in total amongst them all watch a movie at the same time. Like why open at all?
                                                          Here is the Article

You Will Be Surprised at Who is the Best Country to Handle the Coronavirus

The video below on the link is dated back to May 30th but even today they have had only 370 cases and still no deaths. Yes that is right zero deaths.

In so doing they pretty much took a big hit economically but only after a couple of months the kids were back to school and everything reopened. All but their hotels because they are just waiting for the rest of the world to catch up.

Everyone is wearing a mask but there is not too much physical distancing as you will notice by the traffic. This country borders with China where it all began but they were so fast getting on top of this they were already putting measures in place before the World Health Organization even declared it a pandemic.

The two big things is they were ready with the government quickly putting into effect lockdowns and the citizens all got on board. None of this civil rights stuff but as you will see it is not a democratic country like we have over here where people think for themselves only and screw the other one.

We could have done better here in Canada. We had advanced warning. There was no plan. Basically we are still shut down because we are still not ready to open. Not enough PPEs or maybe we want to get it to zero new cases before we reopen fully.

This country medically wise has a lot less than we do but they kicked it's butt!

Anyway have a look at this video and get your answer.


Click to Find Out 

Osoyoos British Columbia

So lately I have been pretty heavy duty on my posts so let's lighten it up today. Enough about returning to work, phase 3, UBI, and all that other stuff.

Back in 1990 I spent a summer working in the Okanagan Valley in a small town called Oliver located in the hot southern part of British Columbia. I remember it was so hot everyday that all I did was pay $3 to get in the public pool everyday just to cool off.

Instead of everyone heading down over the border just a 20 minute drive from where I was to get into the U.S. more Americans would be heading north to the Okanagan to get their sunshine and park their RVs. The closest town to the border was a place called Osoyoos. Located just 2.2 miles from the U.S. and adjacent to the First Nations Reserve the name means the "narrowing of the waters" in the local language called Syilx'tsn. 

Definitely a place to retire over 43% of the population are over the age of 65. Situated on Osoyoos Lake it's elevation marks the lowest point in the valley at 967 feet or 276 meters. The average summer time temperature is 17.0 C or 62.6 F making it the warmest place in Canada. Temperatures can exceed 35.0 C at least 17 days during the summer. It is like a dessert because where I was in Oliver it never rained all summer and Osoyoos was the same. Air conditioning was a must.

I have looked for it on google but have yet to find it but from what I heard when I was there they even grew bananas in Osoyoos it was that hot and dry. The one thing I can say that made the heat tolerable was unlike here in Southwestern Ontario their humidity is quite low. That also made the nights bearable for sleeping as well.

Tourism and agriculture are the two main industries in Osoyoos. Irrigation made tree fruit growing possible in this dry arid climate with  cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums, pears and apples all being grown.

For the tourist you have the warmest freshwater lake in Canada being Osoyoos Lake with the temperature averaging 24.0 C or 75.0 F with many beaches to go with it and also some golf courses for the avid golfer to choose from.

With mild winters too wouldn't this be an idyllic place to retire? Only just over five thousand people in total I could handle this place no problem. Golf, beaches, fresh fruit stands everywhere and also I forgot the wines of the Okanagan right there you cannot beat it. The only problem is it is too far away from Ontario. 

When we moved from Vancouver to London Ontario way back in 2000 the wife and I camped there for 3 days. It was pretty nice. Below on the Osoyoos website they have a video cam of an osprey nest live. An osprey is a hawk with a big wing span. You can check other things going on just click
Osoyoos.

Osprey Web Cam