This is brought on by my experience today where I choose (maybe unwisely) to do a few errands.

First let me say in my defense: I wear an N-95 mask. I stay 6 feet away OR MORE from people. I don't spend long period of times indoors. I wash my hands with soap and water I keep in my car's trunk. And I chose errands that were mainly outside.

Chore 1:Go to the outdoor mall and return a laptop to the Apple store.

Experience: Parking lot PACKED. Restaurants closed but people eating food as takeout on the benches in the mall (no masks while eating.)
People not eating are 99% masked.

Louis Vuitton store on the way in has a block-long line. Cartier line is long too - but not as long.

Apple store is modified so no browsing is allowed, lines are outside, and inside the doors are open and there is plexiglass. I spend 5 minutes outside in a line with very few people in it. In and out of Apple in 3 minutes.

Get in the car and I have to make a deposit at an ATM. I go to the outdoor ATM and there are 8 people in line. I wait in my car until they clear and do my business alone.

On the way out the TJ Maxx has at least 75 people in line to go in. The Ross has more like 20. 100 people risking COVID to go into a PACKED store for discount pots and pillow!

As I pass stores the parking lots are at least 90% full. Living Spaces PACKED. Costco PACKED. Vons PACKED.

I went hiking the day before and Mount Woodson was BUSY. I turned around before I got to top - people I asked said it was insanely packed at the top.

Do I need to fully quarantine again?

How's your city?

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Gone: My Discogs collection for The Roots:
http://www.discogs.com/user/tomhayes-roots/collection

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"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

I try to run errands early Saturday/Sunday mornings. Hit 4 stores last weekend and for the most part I felt safe. I try to use self checkout to even avoid interaction with the cashier. Depends on where you are *in* Atlanta as far as mask/unmask ratio.

Picked up cupcakes for a friend yesterday and there was a white girl and her mom AND THEIR DOG in the fucking store. No masks. Smiling and grinning. I literally wanted to punch them in the face, especially the mom. It's a Black owned business too so that added another layer.


Early voting starts today and I'm going to go vote at the football stadium. Hopefully on a weekday morning it won't be too crowded. And also, it's a stadium, I'm sure they have stuff properly spaced similar to the bball arena.

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

If bars and clubs were open here it would be packed bars and clubs with macks.

This weekend we went to a drive through Christmas lights show, just staying in our car the entire time. To get there we drove past several shopping centers and restaurants, parking lots all PACKED just like any other holiday season, lines outside the doors with minimal distancing and so-so mask wearing.

i think around april/may there was some effort but once the calls for opening up picked up and the governor rolled back restrictions people have done everything they can to push the restrictions.

i avoid going in store, i have gone into a store maybe 10 times since march. only do pick ups every other week but the parking lots stay full and whole families are shopping together.

no surprise our cases were around 1200 per day for a couple weeks. weve been around 300 per day the past week but i dont know if thats because people stopped testing or if they are being more careful. sadly the deaths numbers are up.

when you drive by stores and restaurants the parking lots are full, even places that were usually empty before covid.

i mainly go to Costco and the grocery store.

crowded but not insanely crowded and its masked up.

I use drive thru ATMs but only need cash for my trees so its rare.

Not sure how the malls are but I we need to take our Mac in to the Apple Store and the only one close is in the mall. Probably wait until after the holidays to go.

Not eating in any restaurants. I did meet a friend and ear on the patio by the lake back in September

but when we went to visit the in-laws outside Wilmington? man.. bars and restaurants PACKED. East Carolina is Trump land.

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

i get phone notifications. a month ago on regular day LA county was 800 or 900 cases in a day. a bad heavy day would be around 1200. Yesterday was almost 13,000

With the exception of outdoor dining being banned and there's technically a stay at home order but everything looks the same. I still go to Costco once a week, and the grocery store around once a week.

in my immediate area most people are good about wearing masks.

we def *need* to quarantine again but i think that ship has sailed.

that's what it feels like. I see masks under noses, no masks, crowds, lines.

maybe this will get better after the holidays?

Y'all buy those labels, I was born supreme

People seem to be looking for any possible excuse to act like it's over. With the release of the vaccine I'm guessing there will be even more pressure on state/local governments to "open up", even though the majority of people won't actually be vaccinated for months.

The first wave of vaccines is a lifeline to the hospital workers

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

We are in for a horrible few months

“So back we go to these questions — friendship, character… ethics.”

the holidays, but it likely won't.

Y'all buy those labels, I was born supreme

critical care) and ... he is 10 days into being bed-riddern with that coronavirus thing.

EDIT to add: Also, my hometown is Fresno, CA. So yea.

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But hell, what do I know?

“So back we go to these questions — friendship, character… ethics.”

I give Roy Cooper some credit I thought once he got past the election he'd lock it back down

<--- Big Baller World Order

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/dec/04/mandy-cohen/nc-covid-19-deaths-surpass-10-years-flu-deaths/

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

that was relocated here because the normal host city (Las Vegas) couldn't get it approved

lines out the door at restaurants and bars

Merry Christmas

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>that was relocated here because the normal host city (Las
>Vegas) couldn't get it approved
>
>lines out the door at restaurants and bars
>
>Merry Christmas

Yep. Houston is wild almost everywhere. If you go scoop up food via curbside, the restaurant might be straight up FULL. Folks will go anywhere that’s open. And it’s not stopping no matter what graph anyone throws up. Stores. Any kind of club or eatery. Whatever. It’s open? Folks are gonna be up in there.

Folks will also continue to create getdowns, get togethers, and anything else they can come up with to do with a bunch of folks. House shindigs are all the rage still.

Also, they’ll let folks roll up in the doctor’s office with a posse instead of making them WAIT THEY ASSES IN THE CAR. It’s wide open. And a bunch of folks think ‘even if I get it, I’ll be fine, so fuck staying at the house or being careful’.

the beginning of the increase from the Thanksgiving holiday:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/14/health/us-covid-deaths-300k/index.html

With all these people out shopping like it’s all good, and then likely traveling for Christmas, things are gonna just get worse and worse.

“So back we go to these questions — friendship, character… ethics.”

My pocket of town is doing okay, but the last few times I went to the supermarket it was lots of masks pulled down or off (including some of the butchers who had the masks under the nose...ugh). Traffic in my area shows that LOTS of people are out and about - and I don't live too far from a couple of prominent malls that I'm sure are overrun as shit right now (are they open? I dont even know).

Honestly, outside of walks around my neighborhood or to get coffee, I don't really leave my house. It's so goddamn unfortunate that we're going to be on strict lockdown again soon, but people are just tired of the pandemic - as if the rest of us who are following the rules aren't.

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17x NBA Champions

and now it's really scary out there. there was a day of 15,000+ cases last week. 9000+ cases is now the norm. That's up from about 1000 daily cases like a month ago, which was still high compared to other major cities/counties. So we've been stuck in the shit pretty much the entire time and now we've somehow reached catastrophic levels. We've had the mask mandate and bars/indoor dining/etc have been closed pretty much throughout the entire pandemic, yet our numbers have remained shitty. It's beyond frustrating.

But like you said, nine months in and lots of people still don't understand how a mask works, and what the purpose of said mask is. Went to get tacos at a truck a couple weeks ago and the guy working the pastor spit had no mask (not even below his chin, just no mask on him at all), which is just insane to me. And on walks in my neighborhood or when walking through the common areas in my apartment building, there are lots of fuckers on the phone or whatever chatting with the mask down around their chin transferring their aerosols everywhere. I have no idea how people still don't understand how airborne transmission of this virus works.

Obviously the problem is more complex than basic mask usage, but that and gathering with people outside of your household (like, was thanksgiving *that* important?) are such rudimentary things that we are clearly failing at. I'm probably naive, but I expected a liberal/progressive leaning city to do better. The Texas, Georgia, Florida, etc numbers are skewed towards under-reporting, but either way we're worse off right now. Worse off than places with little to no regulations in place. Like, strip clubs have been open in these places.