A Thirteenth View from The Apocalypse

Another month FLIES past… Whoosh… I think we all knew it was coming. Really, we did. With schools back (mostly) and Universities filling up (mostly), with at least some pubs and restaurants serving food, with parties happening across the country inevitably the infection rate went up…. And up….. and up. Until someone had to make the call – eventually – to close it all down again. So here we are in Lockdown V2.0 and it feels just like old times.

Of course things haven’t slammed shut with the shock of last time. Most people are now used to the restrictions and (mostly) abide by the rules and the advice. Plus the fact that a lot of industries that CAN have its people work from home have transitioned to that style of working in a big way. Other industries that can work safely are doing so. Unfortunately for a lot of people though this is going to cause a LOT of heartache and businesses are already signalling staff cutbacks. To be honest it’s going to be a pretty bad Christmas for a lot of people going forward. The latest Lockdown is due to last 4 weeks and is scheduled (at least for now) to end on 2^nd December. Whether we’ll have any more national lockdowns after that date is anyone’s guess. Luckily (or selfishly) the new lockdown doesn’t actually affect me too much. I can still shop for food and other necessities locally. My longer trips had already been shelved so no impact there. About the only thing I’ve had to change are a few planned pre-Christmas shopping trips. No biggie.

Generally things here are fine. I’m still healthy and COVID free (as far as I can tell anyway!) as are my family (the last time I spoke to them) and friends/ex-colleagues. I’m reading lots – still hitting about 2 books a week – and gaming a fair bit (still Oxygen Not Included). Still watching too much YouTube and still catching up on DVD boxsets. Hey, it’s what (approaching) winter is for, right? I still haven’t managed to arrange a Flu shot this year as they’re still concentrating on the over 65’s so I’ll have to wait a bit longer. But, thinking about it, the risk is probably lower this year because of the behaviours in place because of the Pandemic. We’ll see, I guess.

So, there’s surprisingly little to report really [grin]. Things are moving forward, slowly, and (at some point next year I guess) we’ll get to the other side of things eventually. A sort of ‘new’ normality will emerge sooner or later. Some things will have probably changed forever – work practices and the reduced use of cash spring to mind – but other things will probably come back soon enough. I wonder how soon we’ll get back into the habit of shaking hands though. Will that have gone too?

Naturally my first response to anything like a global pandemic – where I don’t need to keep something handy for a snap head-shot – is to read up about it. I’ve done a bit of that so far but there will be more coming soon. It’s good to know about these things especially if (or when actually) we get hit by another one.

In other (unrelated news) it looks like America has a new President-Elect in Joe Biden. Good, I’m pleased. I’ll post something on my 2020 Election thoughts in a little while. Naturally (being me) I really feel the need to at least try to understand just WTF is going on in the USA. I think I have SOME idea but that will need more research. Watch this space [lol].