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Florida Man with Comorbidities Says ‘End the Lockdown’
I agree with @seawriter: end the lockdown. Although I’m not a young man, I’m not in the age group for which the novel coronavirus is a serious threat. But I (lucky me) have some of the comorbidities that put me in the high-risk category.
- High blood pressure? Check.
- Type II Diabetes? Check. Well, actually I dieted my way out of diabetes and have slid back into “pre-diabetic” status. Still, I’m counting it. (Thanks US Government food pyramid, which I followed rigorously! Thanks for establishing dietary guidelines that almost guarantee diabetes. Don’t worry, though. I’m sure that’s just a one-off. I so trust your virus guidelines)
- I am obese, at least according to the US Government (junk science) standard of the Body Mass Index (BMI). Of course, I’m in good company; by BMI standards, every professional athlete in the NFL, NBA, and MLB is either obese or morbidly obese. This (junk science) means of calculating–what? Weight health? Health by pound?–doesn’t take body composition into account. Great standard to use, there, USG. Between your (junk science) BMI and your food pyramid, you’re about batting 1,000, aren’t you? So willing to let you turn my life on and off (Clap on, clap off!) with your guidance, direction, and determination.
According to US Government (CDC) standards, I am at a high risk of dying if I get the ‘Rona.
Don’t care, open it up. Open it with fanfare and parades and pipers piping. Hardpoint our vulnerable populations. Then let’s get on with life.
Let me tell you how fervently I believe we need to end the lockdown: I went to work yesterday (yay!) and had a long talk with a brother about whether we should shutdown the lockdown. He was skeptical about the whole way we are doing business (with shutdown shenanigans) but, as to a full reopening, he honestly stated “I’m not there, yet.”
Then he asked me, maybe it was supposed to be a “gotcha” question, “Would you go to a gym, right now?”
Brother, I’d go to a dojo right now and do some close grappling for two hours with 20 total strangers.
Open. Up.
Published in General
Nurse Ratched was more sympathetic. Whitmer is entirely
sympathetic.This ‘rona closure set me free from the salon. I’ve been waiting for a few years to figure a gracious way out. I’m salt’n’peppa now, kind of liking it. Finally people will believe me about my age.
I doubt all of us would, but if it stops Biden, I don’t have a problem with it.
Agree. Also people tend to be social animals and part of work is the social component – fairly significant part of liking your job is liking and being friends(or at least friendly) with your co-workers. Additionally, not everyone is constitutionally able to work from home…the work space provides needed structure and support. Soooo, perhaps there will be MORE working from home but probably not as much as now (as in quarantine time). Regardless, if there are more people working from home there will be more supervisors and managers as “span of control” issues are time intensive so a given manager can only supervise a finite and quite possible smaller group than if all are co-located. More managers and supervisors add expense for the same amount of productivity so from a profitability stand point it might be a wash.
Come to think of it, I paid upfront for a one year membership and have been locked out for two and a half months. Hopefully they give a refund or add back the time to the end. If they are taking my money then I deserve to have a gym to workout in . . . or if I’m honest with myself, a gym that I can make excuses not to go to.
My gym suspended dues for when they were closed.
So did my wife’s, but she didn’t pay for a year up front like Vance did.
Yeah, it was cheaper if you paid all at once so I thought that would save money. Sounded good in theory. Now all that their website says is the standard “We’re in this together” claptrap and then it asks if I would like to donate to help those in need. No mention of what might happen when things reopen.
Since my income was entirely unaffected I decided that I would continue to pay for things I wasn’t able to use. It wasn’t their fault we couldn’t go and there is a whole 5th Amendment and insurance intersection that has to be navigated since the govt denied those business owners the ability to make a living.
So I kept my subscriptions, tuition, and memberships current. Now that we have opened up, I gave my barber a huge tip (representing the haircuts I would have gotten.)
I was willing to pay double – even triple – for my husband’s haircut this week. I’m pretty sure he was more than usually generous.
I would have done the same, but they suspended payments for everyone unilaterally. They’ve been in business for 43 years, and seem to be on a solid financial footing.
I work out every day, hiking mainly. Yesterday I hiked Tom’s Thumb in North Scottsdale, about a 2000 elevation hike that takes some 3 hours up and down, some hard slogging. There were a few other hikers, including my 20-30 something daughters. Most of the hikers were half my age or less and I doubt any were older. This morning I did a 5 mile hike up and down a ridge in South Mountain Park in Phoenix (my go to place for hiking) then I did a 1.5 mile walk in a local park with my wife. I let my weight do its thing and I don’t worry about it. I eat well. I drink. I have a resting heart rate under 50.
Looks like one of the dummies that had been nodding vigorously at every Fauci flourish has discovered real public health. HHS Secretary Azar just published an opinion piece in the Washington Post: “We have to reopen — for our health.”
My dad’s career in which he was extremely successful was in selling computers. He started out selling the mainframes, then he went to the micros, then the networked minis, then finally the PCs. His work was twofold: get the company to buy the computers and then get the employees to use them. :-) The second part was often harder than the first. He became really good at talking people into using these dang machines–into changing their methods and workflows. He had a wonderful sense of humor, and people really enjoyed the time he spent with them. He had to work with people’s reluctance to relearn their jobs.
The period we are in right now in the virus crisis seems to have some similar characteristics, and it seems to be as much about sales and marketing as it is about the lockdowns, which are, thank goodness, going away steadily. Businesses don’t have the authority of the government. The government could order people to stay home, but businesses can’t order them to start going out again. :-)
These last two months, people quickly adapted to not spending money and not going out. From what I’ve read, many took up gardening and bread baking. :-) It will take some finesse in the business world to talk people into going out again. But once people become used to doing so again, once they realize how much they are missing by staying home, they will put up with the minor inconveniences brought about by the new ways of keeping germs from spreading in public places. Personally, I am looking forward to flying again but with more elbow and knee room. That is a good change. :-)
I think the lockdown will simply go away over the next week or two. Governments will get tired of the whole thing too. :-)
I am so envious of the hikes. Only hiked in Arizona once, but loved it.
How did that woman ever get elected? She seriously looks like the Wicked Witch of the West.
She manages to do the crazy eyes look all the time.
Sure, we gonna use safe words for this?
A source of concern here is how it will affect commercial real estate prices and the ensuing effect on the tax revenue for cities and states. Services previously taken for granted will, of necessity, no longer be economically viable. I foresee a grab for the available revenue involving the libs for social programs and the realists for money to maintain a city’s basic requirements like fire, police, etc. Because of the already hard hit to small and large businesses, a serious decrease in tax revenue is already punching local and state governments in the gut.
Midwest, not West.
BTW – I just checked the BMI calculator. I am obese.
Let not your heart be troubled. Like I said earlier: junk science.
The least complex version of the answer is that Michigan goes between competent Republicans and relatively charismatic Democrats.
Jim Blanchard (D) two terms
John Engler (R) 2.5 terms.
Walks Like a Duck Jennifer Granholm (D) two terms
Rick Schneider (R) two terms
Gretchen “Dear Leader Nurse Ratched” Whitmer.
She may break the trend and get us a Republican sooner than eight years from her installation.
I just checked mine. It suggests I may be a small planetoid.
In a perfect vacuum.
My BMI calculator is a mirror and, sadly, it is pretty accurate
I suspect that I am at star level
Nobody’s perfect.
Neutron?
She looks like Cruella Deville…..not kidding……