Things Are Moving Here…
Nevada Has Done Well…
So far on this virus. But now they are talking about opening and you can feel the activity in the air. In fact, in downtown Vegas, the city has closed off a couple blocks of roads, one in the art district and one down near Fremont Street and set it up with tables under umbrellas for diners to eat outside from restaurants close by. The city did this. Cool idea. More cities should do such a thing.
Kris and I have gotten take-out the last three nights from our favorite restaurants to help them. It’s going to be a struggle for all restaurants, that’s for sure.
Tonight, around 11 pm, I was out for a walk and headed down to Fremont Street area. Lots of activity, even though the covered part of the street was still closed off and the casinos and hotels not open yet. But all the restaurants on both ends of Fremont were open and had customers.
And the bikes. Wow, everywhere people were out riding bikes. It was a nice, warm evening and the streets had very few cars, but it looked like a bike rally. Everyone having fun.
Earlier today I headed off to the grocery store, gloves and mask firmly in place. Got up to the checkout line and the cashier was behind a screen and had a mask and gloves on, but the kid doing the bagging had his mask down on his neck and no gloves. I watched him bag the guy’s groceries in front of me, then when I got to the checker I said, fairly loudly (in my annoyed voice), “I would like to bag my own groceries. That kid doesn’t have gloves or a mask on and I would rather he not touch my groceries.”
The manager of the store was on the register behind me and snapped around and gave the kid a look. Got a hunch I got him fired because another bagger came over quickly and told the kid to go to the back. The other bagger had gloves and a mask on and I thanked him for helping me.
People here have been great, but that kid today was the first of a number of times I have seen people starting to relax. And about half the customers in the store had masks, the others didn’t, but everyone was keeping good distance.
Casinos and hotels should be opening in a week or two. Numbers are right, but got a hunch that opening will be open/close/open for a while through the summer. Our governor and the gambling commission will have no problem pulling plugs if there are hot spots.
So hope everyone is staying safe. Don’t fall asleep at the wheel on this. I would hate to lose more friends than I already have.
3 Comments
Britt Malka
I agree with you. People tell me how they are “tired of the quarantine” and now they’ve had enough.
Well, perhaps the virus haven’t had enough.
Some here – I read them on Facebook, mostly people living in Tel Aviv, not here in Haifa where I live. They think it’s stupid to follow rules. It’s slavery to wear a face mask.
So stupid. They are slaves to their own egotism and childishness because they stubbornly refuse to follow rules.
Those rules are made to protect us, not to annoy us.
Anyway, a heatwave hit us here. It’s seriously hot – like starting a blow dryer in front of your face and breathing into it. So while it lasts, we’re not forced to wear masks out in the open now. We must still keep a six foot distance, though, but they have eased down on some of the rules.
Right, I’d better step down my soap box and get back to writing my first ever “into the dark” short story.
Stay safe.
Kate Pavelle
Yes about the off/on openings. As the number of cases increases after reopening, we’ll see a lot of flexibility as people navigate the new normal.
Some folks minimize this virus as an overinflated hoax. I wish they were right. It’s not just an inconvenient illness, it can have lifelong consequences even for people with low symptoms. My friend’s son had a genetic predisposition toward type 1 diabetes, but was in a preventive study and it looked like he would escape the family curse. He had Covid in February and was diagnosed with diabetes 2 months later. It plain shut his pancreas down. This is not the first case of this type I have heard of.
There’s a lot we don’t know yet, and people relaxing because the numbers are looking better are sadly uninformed.
Leigh Kimmel
Indianapolis has also closed some streets to allow restaurants to have outdoor tables. However, not all businesses on those streets are happy about the situation. Many non-restaurant businesses are concerned that it will decrease their traffic.
Unfortunately, life always involves trade-offs. And often the best possible trade-off just means that everyone is a little unhappy, rather than some people getting everything they want and others left with nothing.