Dark Winter ...

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by LRZ

A month ago, there were 17 positive tests (reflecting a 1.7% rate); this past week, that number had grown to 135 (8.0%), an 800% increase.

My doctor doesn't want me go to the gym, or to church, until the Connecticut positivity rate drops to 1%. Yesterday it was 5.16%.

When I go back to church he only wants me to go to a weekday morning mass and doesn't want me to receive communion.

Had a Zoom birthday party last week for my six year old grandson who lives on Long Island.

My daughter, a post-surgical nurse, works at a COVID testing facility on her weekend days off. I've only seen her through a car window since March, last time on Labor Day. I treat her and she treats me like she has "Cooties".

My other daughter, a doctor, invited me for Thanksgiving, but only for dessert, all wearing masks, on her back deck if the weather is nice. Just she, my son-in-law, and three grandsons. I'll be her only guest from outside of her household "cohort". Her maternity leave ended two months ago, and all three kids go to "Petri dish" day care. I have yet to touch my four month old grandson (who lives in the next town).

I may not go if we have dessert inside. I was always more worried about infecting others than about me being infected, until President Trump got COVID. Living in the White House he's well protected and isolated from strangers (he doesn't go grocery shopping, nor to the doctor, dentist, or barber) and yet he still got it. If he got it, I can get it, so now I'm worried about me (a sixty-seven year old cardiac patient with one heart attack already under my belt).

If there is interscholastic basketball in Connecticut (a big if), I'll wait until I see what the protocols are, and then decide. We (Connecticut) already know that the players (if they play) will be wearing masks.

I'd like to wear a mask (the CDC now believes that masks can also protect the wearer) and use an electronic whistle. I'd also like to see no street clothes (come to the gym in uniform) and no jackets being taken on and off. No getting to the gym early, or staying late, to observe previous, or subsequent games (get in, get out, get paid). Rule changes should be in place so that the officials never handle the ball (free throws, throwins, no jump ball). No pregame captains/coaches meeting. Partner pregame conference on the court (not the locker room) six feet apart. Halftime on the court. Hot single Moms will have to keep away from me.