Stir crazy!

[Danneaux]

In response to a query on another Forum board...

PS:- Dan, I hope that you are well.?

Better now, thanks. I had lobar pneumonia confirmed by x-ray back in January/February making for "walking" pneumonia (or in my case, also "cycling" pneumonia ).

I'm taking the usual precautions here as Coronavirus bites deeply into the US' Pacific Northwest. We are still allowed to walk and cycle while observing proximity restrictions, but I don't expect that to last as things worsen. Everyone is currently urged to stay home, all nonessential businesses are closed and all congregations of people are banned under penalty of fines. I wore a mask and gloves yesterday when I had to venture into one pharmacy to pick up a prescription and used the drive-thru version at another. The few essential stores remaining open have either banned cash sales outright or have stated a strong preference for credit out of fears the virus will linger on money...and then everyone stands within half- to one-meter of the cashier and presses the same "ACCEPT" button on the credit card machine!

Stay as well as possible, everyone, so you can cycle on whatever kind of bicycle you prefer.

Best,

Dan.

[Mike Ayling]

Dan wrote:

Better now, thanks. I had lobar pneumonia confirmed by x-ray back in January/February making for "walking" pneumonia (or in my case, also "cycling" pneumonia ).

Mary is just getting over what was diagnosed as dry pneumonia which was onlt detected bt a CT scan which I suspect may be si,ilar to what you had.

She was on anti biotics for about two months but is now much better.

Mike

[Andre Jute]

Swipe cards here don't require any contact. However, after every third swipe transaction, the card must be put into the machine and the card owner must enter his PIN. Perhaps that has been extended to more transactions; certainly, the upper limit of any individual swipe transaction has been increased from 30 to 50 euro for the duration of the coronavirus.

[PH]

Swipe cards here don't require any contact. However, after every third swipe transaction, the card must be put into the machine and the card own must enter his PIN. Perhaps that has been extended to more transactions; certainly, the upper limit of any individual swipe transaction has been increased from 30 to 50 euro for the duration of the coronavirus.

You must have expensive shopping habits.  The European regulation that came into effect last year requires a second form of verification (Not necessarily the PIN) every 150 Euro.  That may only last you three transactions, but it does me about 15 

[Mike Ayling]

Swipe cards here don't require any contact. However, after every third swipe transaction, the card must be put into the machine and the card own must enter his PIN. Perhaps that has been extended to more transactions; certainly, the upper limit of any individual swipe transaction has been increased from 30 to 50 euro for the duration of the coronavirus.

I have become quite a fan of tap and go as we call it here and seldom use cash.
However I noticed that the scrotes att Aldi Oz have charged me 0.5  percent for tapp and go.
Next time I will put my card in the slot and enter my pin as usual.

Mike

[PH]

Lovely and sunny for the last few days here in Derby,
I do a bit of cycle couriering, Just Eat, Deliveroo and some obscure ones you probably haven't heard of.  Mostly takaway food, but some grocery and non prescription medicine.
Since Monday all the takaways have shut and most of the students (Who make up 60% of customers) have gone home.  So I have no jobs, yet I'm still paid a retainer to remain in the pick up zone (A couple of miles square) and be available.  I don't like it, it's both incredibly boring plus I feel a bit exposed, I wouldn't mind if it was busy. I sit around in a deserted town for a while, then ride round in circles for a bit, then sit around again.   I could afford not to work for a while,  but I fall between the gaps for the governments billions, so no handouts for me.
I volunteered for some NHS delivering, though it seems that's been oversubscribed, and the rumour is they'll call on the younger ones first.

[Mike Ayling]

I have just got home frm my physio (little knee cartilidge so I have to strengthen my leg  muscles)
First he took my temperature which proved normal before he got to work.

Anyway he said that half his patients  had cancelled and he was hurting financially.

Mike

[Danneaux]

A number of businesses here (US) are folding from the loss of customer traffic and it seems to have hit bike shops hard. I just received emails from three well-established firms that are going out of business or on the cusp of it.

Best,

Dan.

[energyman]

My bit of the UK is full of sunshine at present.
Out on bike yesterday saw/met numerous pairs of cyclists and walkers all keeping their distance as instructed by our biking PM.
Came across a mother and teenage daughter (?) cycling on wrong side of road into oncoming traffic apparently to keep maximum distance from everyone else.
Not too sure if that was a good idea.
(bike shed is immaculate now !)

[JimK]

I was out on a relatively unimproved rail trail yesterday. For maybe 20 yards I was reduced to walking the bike! It was just bare dirt and somehow had dried in an extremely lumpy condition - maybe cattle had come through while it was wet, hard to say. I saw a couple individuals walking dogs, a solitary stroller, a lady on a horse, and then when I got to the end of the section of the trail that is open.... beyond that point is closed March 1 to August 1 to let the birds do their thing(s)... there were three cycles in spandex with pretty fancy bikes, hopping over the gates out of the restricted zone. I've been out in that district a fair amount, and even on a weekend I never see anybody. I'd say people here are outside more under the conditions! Our governor is just announcing this afternoon some new more restrictive directive... I have yet to see the text, but I saw a summary that said being outdoors is still fine, just keep your distance from others.

[Andre Jute]

Ireland is in lockdown since last night, with people allowed out of their homes only to drive to work (if their work is essential), to shop for food, to visit the doctor or the pharmacist, and "briefly" for exercise within 2km of their homes. Fortunately I have a very agreeable figure of eight ride that falls (arguably) within 2km of my house, yet is long enough to last 40 minutes, and is all lonely farm lanes on which you exceedingly rarely meet anyone on foot, so it should be safe enough.

[PH]

A number of businesses here (US) are folding from the loss of customer traffic and it seems to have hit bike shops hard. I just received emails from three well-established firms that are going out of business or on the cusp of it.

Best,

Dan.

Yes it's a tough time for a lot of businesses, I'm sure many of them won't survive.  When we get through this it will be a different world.
On the up side, the market stall I sometimes buy fruit and veg from have started doing deliveries, apparently they've had a record week!

[rafiki]

We are at the end of our first lockdown period in Spain, about to begin the second. It is a tight lockdown but those with jobs which cannot be performed from home have been allowed to go to that work. From Monday even those workers must stay at home so the means of production apart from essentials and the essential services will shut down for 10 days.

A few of the Guardia are becoming a bit edgy. My wife was standing at our front door which opens onto the street last evening and was one step onto the pavement to listen to children singing from their balconies for the emergency services. A police car stopped and told her she must step back into her doorway not 'stand in the street'. With that in mind I have modified my dog walking route to keep it almost within sight of the house as some have been fined for being too far from their houses.

[Matt2matt2002]

Ireland is in lockdown since last night, with people allowed out of their homes only to drive to work (if their work is essential), to shop for food, to visit the doctor or the pharmacist, and "briefly" for exercise within 2km of their homes. Fortunately I have a very agreeable figure of eight ride that falls (arguably) within 2km of my house, yet is long enough to last 40 minutes, and is all lonely farm lanes on which you exceedingly rarely meet anyone on foot, so it should be safe enough.

Thanks. I like the figure of 8 idea.
No distance guidance here in Scotland, yet.
I'm sure it must come.
My allowable, usual ride yesterday was 40 miles. More or less 20 in the same direction.
I'll work on a figure of 8 run in preparation for further clamping down.
Like your good self, I can use country roads where I see more livestock than folks.

[Andre Jute]

I'll work on a figure of 8 run in preparation for further clamping down.

Considering that I live in Ireland, with the aid of ordinance maps I'm trying for the proverbial 4-leaf clover ride, but it isn't so easy without riding through at least a good part of the town or riding further uphill than down. (I did say it was proverbial!) However, some roads I would normally not go on, except on Sunday outside of churchgoing hours, because they carry heavy, fast motor and truck traffic, become usable if not relaxing for cyclists in these unusual times. I might even have a kind word for Google Maps soon. (Normally I am of the opinion that the entire Board and top management echelon of Google should be in jail of trying to steal all the copyrights in the world until a wide-awake American judge saw through them and put the kibosh on that scheme.)

Like your good self, I can use country roads where I see more livestock than folks.

Bring some of the livestock home for dinner, then you won't need to go out again to shop. Last night a young hedgehog, this year's crop down in the orchard where a couple of families live, was eating cat food put out for the stable cats, looking up calmly at me, which it wouldn't be if it knew what I was thinking, which was that hedgehog would bake nicely in clay, with the clay bringing the quills with it when cracked. Churchill, who kept a duckpond at Chartwell (most biographers gussy it up as a "goldfish pond" or even a very unlikely but presumably in their minds posher "carp pond"; trust Andrew Roberts to get it right), once when duck was served averted his eyes and said to his wife, "Would you mind carving, my dear. It was a friend of mine."

Still, as I wrote on RBT:
Of course a writer starts with an advantage. His vocation is sitting alone in his study for fourteen hours a day. He doesn't even notice Chinese Virus Lockdown until someone tells him about it. Stir crazy isn't a symptom for a writer, it is a rich living.