Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Listening Point - General Discussion :: The good news about covid19
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Harv |
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Hoaf |
Bushpilot: Great question! I don't want to minimize the impact this virus will have on many lives and livelihood. Some of the stories coming out are very sad and my heart goes out to those affected more than I am. Yet,I think this is a real opportunity to re-discover what matters, learn to live differently and be truly happy while curbing the insatiable appetite for spending, developing, and recreating in ways that are not sustainable. The good news is that we're forced into slowing down and even stopping. Ideal tiime to reflect and discover we can live our lives differently for the betterment of all. We'll see if the lessons stick. |
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bfurlow |
airmorse: "And then there is this... That was funny, thanks! |
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luft |
I'm a nurse and I am basically just working and sleeping these days. I leave my house for groceries, gas and work only. Luckily I love to read on my days off and I have 4 other bodies in the house to interact with so no feelings of isolation for me. My kids are socializing through social media/video chats and are so far ok with hanging at home. |
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OneMatch |
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Unas10 |
missmolly: "SaganagaJoe: "Now this is my kinda thread. I cleaned my place today and might go out for a drive. Now that I'm in the Brainerd Lakes area Ely isn't out of reach for a day trip, and with gas the way it is I just might do that one of these weekends. We lived on the hill above the Uniroyal tire plant in the late '80's. Gardners (?) bakery was right across the street from Uniroyal. A slight change in the wind took us from the aroma of baking bread to burnt rubber and vice versa. |
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missmolly |
Unas10: "missmolly: "SaganagaJoe: "Now this is my kinda thread. I cleaned my place today and might go out for a drive. Now that I'm in the Brainerd Lakes area Ely isn't out of reach for a day trip, and with gas the way it is I just might do that one of these weekends. We lived in the same neighborhood! North Hill, right? |
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deerfoot |
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quark2222 |
Illinois just shut down all non-essential businesses, as of tomorrow (Saturday). I rushed to the grocery store this afternoon for beer, wine, and Diet Coke. You know, the essentials. The store was more crowded than I've ever seen in 35 years. Took 35 minutes to check out. May buy stock in Albertson's, which owns Jewel/Osco food/drug stores in our area. They have to be making a killing, and they are not giving stuff away price-wise. Paper goods shelves were empty. A little bit of bad news is that they closed all state parks a week or two ago in Illinois. Tomster |
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Diego |
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h20 |
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nctry |
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Grandma L |
Last Sunday our pastor via e-church said, "For every hand shake missed and hug not given we are to reach out to a friend via snail mail, e-mail or preferably phone call." I now have my phone call list and am working my way through it. Great connecting with folks!! |
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bfurlow |
quark2222: "Gas is $1.68/gallon here in the NW suburbs of Illinois at Sam's today. Would have been $1.48 a few months ago, without the recent $0.20 gas tax increase. Amazing. If I had a 500 gallon storage tank at my house, I would say, "Filler up". That is good news for drivers. Wow, $1.68! I am in the west burbs and think the best I saw was 2.04 a couple days ago. I haven't been out though so that could explain it. Had a similar shopping experience at the local Jewel about a week ago during the first wave. It's been better since, and the stores have been doing a better job of crowd control in general. I am out of the office until May at the earliest, so just hunkering down, helping the kids through e-learning, planning a trip (maybe), and planning my garden. Got a nice LED light for staring my seedlings this year, so I am hoping for better progress! I also picked up a bunch of cool card based games that I think the kids will love if we can figure them out. Funny the things that one gets excited about when removed from so much electronic stimulus. :) |
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4keys |
moustachesteve: "I bet that my wife will finally learn how to play cribbage..." Technically I know how to play cribbage. ... However after more than 30 years, I have beat my husband maybe a dozen times. We have quit playing each other . |
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mcsweem |
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missmolly |
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GopherAdventure |
andym: "Life does seem more relaxed without the commute and I have a lovely view out of the window over my home desk. The cats love having us home during this period of mandatory telework. Recipe by chance Andy? Recently switched to a vegan diet and I’m trying to fill my recipe book up with good stuff, this meal sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing! Tony |
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timatkn |
I.e. which grocery stores raised their wages for frontline employees, what kind of support do they offer employees, how did they help out or offer...i.e. frost river reaching out to 3m to produce masks. My brothers company Air Gas opened up manufacturing to 24 hours to increase production and prioritizing medical oxygen over more profitable manufacturing gases. They are filling and stockpiling personal O2 containers at their own cost. My brother is a manager with a young family and now works Midnight to 8 voluntarily to help out. There isn’t an increased demand yet but planning for the future and realizing at some point if employees get sick it will hamper supply. I am sure their are other examples of companies helping out. T |
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24kGold |
Terry |
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Savage Voyageur |
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allfish |
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x2jmorris |
I drive 100 miles a day minimum so the gas is extremely helpful for me. My job is many times easier than it was prior to this and it won't close. I'm getting 3 grand? for free? That is a huge bonus for me. I'm saving a ton in childcare every week this goes on. I stocked up on food and supplies. So life is mostly good. Only con for me is that I don't get to see my father or grandmother as they are concerned of my exposure. This also means they don't get to see their grand children. That part is painful. |
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Unas10 |
missmolly: "Unas10: "missmolly: "SaganagaJoe: "Now this is my kinda thread. I cleaned my place today and might go out for a drive. Now that I'm in the Brainerd Lakes area Ely isn't out of reach for a day trip, and with gas the way it is I just might do that one of these weekends. Northwest corner of Summit Street and Centre Street, just behind Longfellow Elementary. |
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airmorse |
Link |
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Bushpilot |
The climate thanks us for stopping the need less pleasure travel. Coronavirus shutdowns have unintended climate benefits: cleaner air, clearer water. Empty skies after 9/11 set the stage for an unlikely climate change experiment I wonder if anyone will learn from this and stay closer to home? I am a glass half full guy. Any other good news? |
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mgraber |
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bobbernumber3 |
missmolly: "I think the lessons will stick and I base that solely upon lingering lessons of past pandemics. " Scratching my head on "lessons of past pandemics". Musta been a class I missed. |
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missmolly |
Hoaf: "Bushpilot: I think the lessons will stick and I base that solely upon lingering lessons of past pandemics. |
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Bushpilot |
Look at what happened to the Indians when to white man came to their country. 90% of them died. Sure the lucky ones died by the gun of the Europeans, but the vast majority died from disease carried by the Europeans. With global warming from peoples need to travel half way around the planet and virus they carry with them we are doomed. Maybe not in my lifetime I always said, but now who knows. It is like the planet is screaming at us "STAY HOME". |
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missmolly |
Bushpilot, you've gone from a glass half full kind of guy to a glass empty and broken, which is okay, as range is a good thing. I do think traveling less is wise. The Egyptian pharaohs never pined to visit Rome or Babylonia. America is big and beautiful and there's so much to see here. BeaV, who paddled to and across and down Alaska, once told me that he'd drive across a stream in Minnesota and wonder where it went and wanted to go, so he'd know what was around each bend. If a Minnesota stream can tug at BeaV, who's seen places beyond our skills and courage, we too should ride those nearby rivers. |
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Bushpilot |
After all 30 some civilizations have ended before us. I could be wrong on our demise. 40 years ago I figured it would have been a nuclear war. Still no cases north of Duluth, I am sure that will change. Have a good day. It is nice here in the northland and I am heading outside. |
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nctry |
Banksiana: "Bushpilot: "Duluth got their first case." I think another by Cass Lake |
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missmolly |
Unas10: "missmolly: "Unas10: "missmolly: "SaganagaJoe: "Now this is my kinda thread. I cleaned my place today and might go out for a drive. Now that I'm in the Brainerd Lakes area Ely isn't out of reach for a day trip, and with gas the way it is I just might do that one of these weekends. I lived on the other side of Birch Street, a house away from McDonough Park, on Fall St. |
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missmolly |
Here's another good thing about the coronavirus: As I wrote upthread, I've been deep cleaning my basement. A few years back, it flooded and then to prevent future flooding, men with jackhammers created trenches that led to a sump pump. It completely fixed the problem, but the mess has overwhelmed me...until now...when I have all this free time. So, I brought a quartersawn oak chair out of the basement. It's beautifully made, but I simply don't have space for it, but my very pregnant neighbor happened to be walking by when I brought it into the light. She needs it. She loves it. She rolled it home. Thanks, coronavirus, for motivating me, saving a fine piece of furniture, and getting it into beneath the bum of a young mama who just wants to sit! |
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missmolly |
bobbernumber3: "missmolly: "I think the lessons will stick and I base that solely upon lingering lessons of past pandemics. " Post-Black Death, according to Encyclopedia Brittanica: The consequences of this violent catastrophe were many. A cessation of wars and a sudden slump in trade immediately followed but were only of short duration. A more lasting and serious consequence was the drastic reduction of the amount of land under cultivation, due to the deaths of so many labourers. This proved to be the ruin of many landowners. The shortage of labour compelled them to substitute wages or money rents in place of labour services in an effort to keep their tenants. There was also a general rise in wages for artisans and peasants. These changes brought a new fluidity to the hitherto rigid stratification of society. The psychological effects of the Black Death were reflected north of the Alps (not in Italy) by a preoccupation with death and the afterlife evinced in poetry, sculpture, and painting; the Roman Catholic Church lost some of its monopoly over the salvation of souls as people turned to mysticism and sometimes to excesses. Anti-Semitism greatly intensified throughout Europe as Jews were blamed for the spread of the Black Death. A wave of violent pogroms ensued, and entire Jewish communities were killed by mobs or burned at the stake en masse. Here's more from How Stuff Works: The Black Death reared its head sporadically in Europe over the next few centuries. But by 1352, it had essentially loosened its grip. Europe's population had been hard hit, which had an economic impact. The workforce had been destroyed -- farms were abandoned and buildings crumbled. The price of labor skyrocketed in the face of worker shortage, and the cost of goods rose. The price of food, though, didn't go up, perhaps because the population had declined so much. The Black Death did set the stage for more modern medicine and spurred changes in public health and hospital management. Frustrated with Black Death diagnoses that revolved around astrology and superstition, educators began placing greater emphasis on clinical medicine, based on physical science. While schools initially had to close for lack of educators, the plague eventually drove growth in higher education. New schools were established, sometimes specifically mentioning in their charters that they were trying to address the decay in learning and gaps in education left by the Black Death. People who survived the Black Death era generally suffered a communal crisis of faith. Rather than becoming more religious in thanksgiving to God for their survival, people harbored doubts. They had turned to the church for an answer to the plague, and the church had been able to offer no help. Additionally, priests, who, along with doctors, had the highest rate of contact with the diseased, also had one of the highest rates of fatalities. Several new heretical movements sprang up. Those who still clung to their faith were more likely to do so in a very personal manner. Many began to build private chapels. Feeling, essentially, that God had turned his back on them, the people reacted to the end of the Black Death by turning their backs on him. They engaged in wild debauchery to celebrate being alive. They held gluttonous banquets, drank, wore extravagant clothing and gambled. It was clear through the art of the time, though, that people still had death on their minds. The danse macabre, or dance of death, is an allegorical concept that was expressed in drama, poetry, music and visual art. The danse macabre usually shows a procession or dance between the living and the dead. The range of figures shown is meant to show that death will come for everyone, and the various activities depicted are a reminder that death could always be right around the corner. Geneticists are continuing to document the effects of the Black Death on Europe's population today. Analysis has shown that genetic diversity in England is much lower than it was in the eleventh century, perhaps because so many people died in the 1300s. While the rest of Europe does not show a lowered amount of genetic variation, that may be due to increased migration patterns in other places. |
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SaganagaJoe |
My job is still good - the legal world carries on. I'm looking forward to reading, playing music, etc. Pancakes on the menu for tomorrow morning. God is good. Quartersawn oak chair....you got my attention there. Why can't they make stuff like that anymore? |
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andym |
An earthquake in the SF East Bay in 1868 taught many lessons that would have helped in 1906. They were largely forgotten. We seem to have trouble learning. On the good side, we've been hitting our home gym harder than before. Looking forward to being fitter at the end of this. |
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Pinetree |
nctry: "Some of these cases now seeing could of been incubating for up to 14 days and in Minnesota 1000 of people who had symptoms could not get tested.Banksiana: "Bushpilot: "Duluth got their first case." I think favoring rural area maybe the isolation of populations will help. I did go winter skiing in the woods up by Longville today. I made sure from Brainerd I had plenty of gas and stopped nowhere,but my destination. But was surprised by a lot of traffic on highway 371 today. I think a fair number of people are making contact still with others. |
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missmolly |
SaganagaJoe: "Now this is my kinda thread. I cleaned my place today and might go out for a drive. Now that I'm in the Brainerd Lakes area Ely isn't out of reach for a day trip, and with gas the way it is I just might do that one of these weekends. I was interviewing a woman who'd bought a tire factory that went on and on. She was piecemeal renting it to dozens of firms, but it was so big that there were vast floors and buildings not being used beyond storage. One of those floors was filled with hundreds of pieces of oak and some walnut furniture. I found the chair there, one of scores of high quality chairs. I admired it and she gave it to me. I'm guessing the other chairs are still there. If you want the owner's name and are willing to drive to Eau Claire, I expect they're still there and could buy one for a fair price. |
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missmolly |
airmorse: "And then there is this... Thanks for the laugh! |
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cyclones30 |
I was made for social distancing...fishing, biking, hiking, paddling, etc |
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missmolly |
Plus, some things haven't changed. I have nine flowering trees arriving on Monday and I can plant them as if nothing has changed. I'll still be going paddling and fishing soon. In Maine, like in northwestern Ontario, one can be the only one on a lake. The Black Death also cleared and cooled the air, for there was less lead smelting, which made for safer air, and as trees grew where farmers once grew crops in fields, carbon dioxide was pulled from the air, cooling the world. |
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sns |
I totally ruled Carcassonne. Got ruled in Ticket to Ride & Elfenland. So when the new economy relies on barter and board game skills, I will be in good shape. |
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sns |
Wondering if flying into remote Ontario lakes will get less expensive... |
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bobbernumber3 |
missmolly: "bobbernumber3: "missmolly: "I think the lessons will stick and I base that solely upon lingering lessons of past pandemics. " Um, well... ah. So, Wow. And, I guess that's way more than I can handle for now. |
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Pinetree |
$1.36 |
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billconner |
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andym |
And I'm enjoying cooking more. Last night it was broccoli, mushrooms, zucchini, summer squash, potatoes, and tofu in a Madras simmer sauce from Trader Joes, over some orange-Szechuan peppercorn pasta. One of my friends has all of his kids home due to college closures and posted a picture of family scrabble/wine happy hour. Later we will take a walk by the ocean. Yes, there is a ton of stress and I am not immune from that. And there are families that are truly suffering from the disease and impacts to the economy. But life has taught me to find the joy in each day. |
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Banksiana |
Bushpilot: " An artifact of testing (or the lack of it) rather than evidence of the virus not already being in our community. I've had two friends suffering from brutal long term "bronchitis" with dry cough and fever. They did not "qualify" for testing. |
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Birdknowsbest |
h20: "I'm reading a lot more books." As a full-time online book seller, thank you. |
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Bushpilot |
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moustachesteve |
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onajourney |
My boys are calling more often which gives me a sense of being connected. I also get to FaceTime with my grandkids. I'm even helping my granddaughter prepare for a May spelling bee using FaceTime. I'm retired (only working on call right now) and my friends from work are calling just to keep in contact. Even though I'm 65 I don't feel like a senior but maybe they think I am!! Finally we have 40 acres outside of Cook MN. Everyday I snowshoe on the trails in back of my house. The fresh air and exercise are great. I also try to do yoga in the evening to relax. Just trying to stay positive. Hang in there! |
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Unas10 |
Danse Macabre is also the title of a 1981 book of Stephen King's. It was his take on the history of horror fiction and why we love it so. It was a fascinating read at the time and I see that a newer version has come out with some additional material. And now, back to your regular programming. |
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Bushpilot |
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Banksiana |
Bushpilot: "Duluth got their first case." Again- first confirmed case. Its already out there but testing is so inadequate that the spread of the virus is largely untracked. |
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Bushpilot |
sns: "Bushpilot, how do you think Avgas prices will be affected? I am sure av gas will drop. Maybe a dollar. What general aviation pays at the airport is mostly mark up. Maybe a better to put it a handling fee. The more remote the more you pay. 2 weeks ago I paid about $8 a gallon in Red Lake Ontario. Filled up today for $3.70 a gallon in Longville MN. Av gas is always more in Canada. However the price the airlines pay at KMSP is wholesale and will probably drop 40%. I am sure the commercial operators in Ontario won't be charging any less. |
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missmolly |
Bushpilot: "The way fuel is dropping we will see gas for close to $1.00. Wholesale in Minnesota today is below a buck. The price for each gallon of gasoline includes the current state gasoline tax of 28.5 cents per gallon and federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon." I wish I could be excited about this, but like millions of others, we're staying home. I don't even like filling my car anymore, for I have to wipe down the nozzle and the touchscreen, but the virus could still slip through. |
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andym |
This basic outline works well for quick dinners. The sauce varies, could be a Mexican Mole or a Thai Peanut sauce. If I go toward Chinese then I tend to make my own with sliced ginger, soy sauce, and possibly garlic or sesame oil. And the served with rice or quinoa. Minnesota wild rice is, of course, the best. Tonight’s dinner was after an hour and 20 minute sunset walk on the bluffs over the ocean and then a two hour call with one of our nieces. So we were enjoying the things other people were also posting about. So it was pretty late when we ate and it was nice to have some leftovers to microwave. |
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andym |
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TomT |
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