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Post by Bean on Sept 1, 2020 6:53:45 GMT
Nearly put 2021 there - I'm losing track of time!
We had lots of cold and rain weather last month, but today is due to be pretty decent (only up to 19c, but dry with some sun), so my plan is to pop the pigs out in their runs later and grab a good book and soak up a few rays.
This is the last official week of the school holidays, and with schools and more offices reopening, life next week will be quite different to the last 6 months!
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Post by 3piggles on Sept 1, 2020 19:08:22 GMT
Happy September, everyone It's currently about 26C here, but still dry air. Starting tomorrow, we're back in the tropical humidity, so while it's not supposed to get a whole lot hotter, it's going to feel yucky. Rain, also, which we've been getting, lately, so more of that would be nice. Once we get to the weekend, I think it's supposed to cool a bit, and dry out a lot. We're in the change over to Fall, so few, if any heatwaves, and a lot more low humidity Schools have started, here, but not the way they did last year. Some are going in person, some remotely, and some are being home schooled. Granddaughter started yesterday, but she's going remotely, and doesn't go in person until next Thursday, and then the students who have been there in person start going remotely. At least, unlike when the pandemic hit, the schools have had time to get remote teaching up to snuff. Not all the students have decent wifi, or decent computer. I think those students can go in person, as they don't really have remote access. That's being worked on. There was a news segment on two little girls dressed in masks and raingear, sitting on the parking lot curb at a Taco Bell, using the Taco Bell wifi to do their school work. Of course, that segment has gone viral, and it's good. I just wish one of the immediate options had been the manager of that Taco Bell, and of all the other fast food restaurants in the country, creating a school section in their restaurants, for the kids who need wifi. No free food, but the students should be allowed to bring their own snacks, lunch, drinks, if needed. That didn't happen, but it still might(all digits crossed).
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Post by Bean on Sept 2, 2020 7:47:14 GMT
A bit of good will certainly goes a long way, but I understand restaurants already have their work cut out adhering to extra hygiene measures because of covid-19. It's something that would probably need to be organised properly from the top, with kids registering and booking in rather than them being able to wander in on a casual basis. Especially if they're using facilities like the bathrooms.
Our schools just seem to be going for getting them all back in with extra measures to have kids mixing as little as possible with other classes/ year groups. I guess we'll see how it all goes and what changes need to be made after the new routines have been given a chance. I'm not overthinking it, this year has shown there's little point in expecting/ planning anything at the moment (unless you're in charge of something anyway!) - you just take whatever rocks your way each day!
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Post by 3piggles on Sept 2, 2020 15:55:35 GMT
I'm not approving or disapproving of how the schools and businesses are being opened. It seems we did a real knee jerk reaction at the beginning of the pandemic, not wrong, necessarily, as we needed to control the spread of the virus, but not necessarily what has to be done constantly to keep the virus from spreading. Sanitizing, wearing masks, regular hand washing without the hand sanitizer, etc., may be the way of the future, and be more than adequate to control the spread of the virus.
So far, our colleges have had two problems. First, a whole lot of students didn't get their virus test results back in time to start school on campus, so had to start remotely. That was because of the backlog of tests in some places. That's being addressed, but there are only so many tests to be completed at one time, without more testing equipment and people to run the equipment.
Also, schools have found they can regulate student activities, such as wearing masks, when they are in classes, and in other places on campus. They can't regulate the mask-wearing or hand washing once the students are back in the dorms, or if they leave campus. One student living in off-campus housing holds a party attended by 100 students not wearing masks, all of whom return to their dorms and visit all their friends rooms, telling friends and their roommates all about the party, then go to the communal shower/bathroom area, etc., and those 100+ students just spread it to 200-300+ people in a matter of hours. If they stopped for pizza to bring home, burgers, etc., that's even more people exposed.
It's basically the same as when the beaches reopened, and people flooded the beaches in some areas, causing huge spikes in the virus rate. As a society, we need to learn how to motivate people not to do the things that cause the problems, and that's not proving to be something we can do with education alone. Too many people don't believe what they're being told, or refuse to be told they have to take precautions. I think we have a long way to go before we get this under control, and a lot more days of unemployed workers and students attending school remotely.
We have yet to find the balance we need between rights/privileges/needs/wants.
It was on the news the other day that the virus can live in dust for a long time. We're trying to figure out how to dust high places the vacuum cleaner hose won't reach, as those places really need to be done, but we can't just upset the dust and let it all fall down on our living space. I think we're going to have to tag team each other with hubby doing the high areas, and me doing the low areas, as the canister comes off the wheeled/beater bar part, but I can't climb the ladder and hold the canister and hose at the same time.
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Post by Bean on Sept 3, 2020 7:19:36 GMT
We have a set of measures in place, but loads of people are increasingly disregarding them and doing what they want anyway, with no worry of consequences for themselves or others. We never have the chance to see if the measures we have in place could really work. It's clear that generally enough people are making sacrifices to keep the rate low enough so we're not in total lockdown. But it's frustrating thinking how much quicker we could be finding ways to establish a safe new normality if everyone had taken it seriously.
To me, schools seem like a more controlled environment, but I don't have much confidence in many university students maintaining any kind of social distancing. Some universities are doing remote learning until at least the new year, but from the ones I know about that are doing that, the students are all still planning to move to the new accommodation they've already signed for and get a taste of university life anyway.
I'm still trying to just focus on making sure we do the right thing, and not worry about what other people are doing!
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Post by 3piggles on Sept 3, 2020 21:58:24 GMT
It's sad that the students can't enjoy campus life with masks on. Most social situations I remember from college involved a lot of talking and drinking, and some eating. We had a lounge called the Rathskeller, and used to meet there between classes, have something to drink, maybe something to eat, and discuss out day so far, and what we had planned. We could have done most of that with masks on. Sitting in classes works fine with masks on. Walking to and from works fine with masks on. Taking them off to eat or drink is a whole lot different than just not wearing them at all. I think the US colleges hit by pandemic flare-ups are really cracking down on how much socializing there can be, where, etc., but obviously can't do anything about off campus socializing. Having some one to take everyone's names for contact tracing is about all they can do, and even that has lots of holes in the process. No one notices everyone who stops by a party, stays for a little while, and leaves. I can imagine the results of asking college students to sign in at parties, lol
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Post by Bean on Sept 4, 2020 7:25:42 GMT
Our attempts at an app that does that automatically haven't gone well, and lots of people have objections to the privacy aspects of it (although we've all given that up already, often in many more ways than we realise!).
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Post by 3piggles on Sept 5, 2020 0:02:53 GMT
Perhaps if the students stopped acting like bratty children, they wouldn't need to be monitored. The worst part about any of it is that, while college is a time to have great college life experiences, it's also the last buffer before you become an adult with no more safety net. So students need to find a balance between the parties and the responsibility, and that's not happening
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Post by Bean on Sept 6, 2020 7:32:31 GMT
And that age group certainly aren't the only problem!
I ordered some plants a while back, which will be arriving soon. I also bought some bulbs which slowed it down as they weren't in stock yet, bulbs I thought I could plant in the lawn for some early spring colour. I'm thinking of using the map of our land that the architect did for our extension to mark off where I put them, as I'm terrible at remembering stuff like that. I bet the squirrels will get them all out of the ground before spring anyway haha!
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Post by 3piggles on Sept 6, 2020 23:29:49 GMT
We lose a lot of bulbs to the squirrels, but they aren't as destructive if we provide enough food into the Spring. Once they have natural seeds, they stop going after the bulbs. Wish I'd known that before they ate the 100s of bulbs bordering the front walk, at our first house. That was beautiful. Found a Pro setting on my phones camera, and tried it on the front light. I haven't figured out how to get a taller field, but did figure out how to get rid of the lamp glare. We don't have the scarecrows up, yet, but the corn stalks look spooky cool on the light, as if the light is a full moon.
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Post by Bean on Sept 7, 2020 7:27:31 GMT
Yes, I thought I was looking at the moon at first - it's a great lamp!
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Post by bazookagoof on Sept 17, 2020 0:39:46 GMT
Managed to catch a rat with one of the traps! The other one went off, but no rat- I couldn't reuse it, so I tossed it away.
I had another one I set earlier this week using peanut butter as bait, but unfortunately the ants managed to spirit the whole lot away in a day!
They must like the creamy stuff.
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Post by Bean on Sept 17, 2020 7:23:01 GMT
Oh I'd have liked to see the ants carrying off the peanut butter. Not so much the rat business, but I hope your problems with them are soon over.
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Post by 3piggles on Sept 17, 2020 15:40:34 GMT
Did the ants carry off the peanut butter, trap and all, lol So many cartoons have made them out to be super strong, carrying away whole picnic baskets full of food, etc. Had you seen the rats lately, or were you just trapping for what might be there, and caught one? Do you know if there's more than one rat, or if the same rat set off the other trap without getting caught? Just curious if they're a major problem, or a passing one. I think we discussed this before, but do you know why they're in your neighborhood?
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Post by bazookagoof on Sept 18, 2020 0:37:04 GMT
They say if you see one rat, there's probably more- so I bought multiple traps in the hopes of keeping them from invading the house. I saw one dead one in the road earlier this year, and caught one with the trap- but I'm willing to bet there are a few more out there.
And no, they only carried away the peanut butter- they were kind enough to leave me the trap.
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Post by 3piggles on Sept 18, 2020 19:40:30 GMT
Lol, I had a mental image of them carrying off the trap, too
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