Can't get rid of me, can ya?

Ahhh freedom! Hope it was the best ice cream ever!

It was damned good. Went over to Stewarts. Had a scoop of "Death By Chocolate".
Absolutely amazing. 

It was damned good. Went over to Stewarts. Had a scoop of "Death By Chocolate".
Absolutely amazing. 

I miss Stewarts! I used to go there when I lived in NJ. What state are you living in? Glad to read you arrived safely and are out of quarantine.

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Thanks! Yeah, we're a little north of NJ here. Found a lovely apartment that we are camping out in. It's definitely in the suburbs, so public transport is iffy, but the senior citizens center will get me to shopping, etc., if I call on their dial-a-bus. So it's good. Our stuff is due to arrive tomorrow afternoon, and I'll be up to by eyeballs in packing boxes again. But at least I can unpack them as I see fit.

The Covid rate here is  still extremely low. I was afraid of what is now happening in Scotland  was going to happen. We knew there was going to be a limited window of time to "bug out" and so we left, although with regrets on my part.  People we saw in Glasgow before we left were almost uniformly ignoring the basic advice, and the bars (and  streets outside them) and shops were packed. You can't be drinking alcohol and do social distancing - drunks lose the ability and judgement necessary.  Once they sent the kids back to school it was inevitable - even  if they didn't catch it in the classroom, hanging around with their pals before/after school was going to massively increase the transmission rate. And then  there's those idiot uni kids... who did exactly as expected. I also expect they'll go home - even if forbidden to do so. And spread it further.
 
Hope all of you make it through this wave safely. We are thinking of you and wish you the best. I wish there was something I could do more than wince when I read the UK news.

Hope all of you make it through this wave safely. We are thinking of you and wish you the best. I wish there was something I could do more than wince when I read the UK news.

I'm glad you've settled in okay.  But I'm really perplexed by our respective perceptions of things.  I have the exact same feeling when I read US news that you have about UK news... I wish there was something I could do more than worry about my friends and family back home who don't have the option of getting out.

I think part of it is that the UK news, if not highly censored, is carefully curated for the in-country population. The government officials who should be in charge of the Covid response don't tell the general population a lot. And it does seem that more often than not what is disseminated is inaccurate or badly out-of-date information. It does leak out, the "real" bad news, eventually, but in very general terms "the masses" (to use the trite euphemism) seem to be generically ignorant of it all and seem to want to remain that way. And they seem to expect that the government (or someone) will tell them what is best for them and what to do / when to do it. As long as the pubs stay open and they can take their holidays abroad.

That's a really unhealthy situation.

(Here, at least, we've got Fauci and Cuomo, and "everyone" knows that if it's coming out of the White House it's a crock.) Where we are right now the infection rate is running about 0.8% of newly tested (and they are doing a LOT of testing). In other parts of the USA it's much higher, of course. (One of the reasons we came here instead of going there.) We have friends in the "red" zone and are worried sick about them.  They, on the other hand, seem to be much less worried about themselves.  Ah to be young and stupid again....

The last numbers I saw for Scotland were absolutely abysmal. 800+ new cases (11.5 % of newly tested) overnight?  That, combined with the upcoming flu season, the marginally functional NHS (bless them, they do what they can), and the train wreck of Brexit.... Yeah, sadly, here is much better than there. As things are now.  I do worry about you guys.    Nicola seems to be an honest soul and is doing her best, but I think she's being ignored by the public-at-large, really. (Judging from the amount of people ignoring her advice that I saw/see.) [As for England's politicians... God help you all.    At least we are due for a major upheaval in the next few months and we'll be rid of that buffoon  currently in office. You're stuck with yours as the status quo for the foreseeable future, from what I can tell.]

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/