fun fact, the winter a year before covid first hit (so 2018-19) my local doctors and urgent care put in place a policy of "if you think you have the cold or flu, please wear a mask" and a supply at the door next to the sign. people more or less respected that, and the few jerks that didnt were considered outliers and assholes for it

they tried that last winter and had to take the signs down after a week after people physically threatened the front desk people multiple times a day

May 10

We headed to Crater Lake fairly early because it is a 3 hour drive. It is always a scenic drive On the Volcano Scenic Byway.  We parked behind an RV from Alaska and the lady who was in that RV came up to talk to us about our RV. She has friends who are looking for a leisure travel Van. We head a nice long chat and went over to look at Crater Lake.  It's impossible to really describe and I am sure the pictures won't do justice for the sights we saw. There is still up to 8' of snow around the buildings.   We found a campground along a river that was nice and quiet until after we went to bed.  We had no idea about any train tracks somewhere near us, at least 4 trains rumbled through that were not very loud, except for the train whistle. We met our neighbors who are from Beaverton. He is a retired financial guy and his wife Faye finally retired from part time work at the church so they could travel. He was in the army from 59 through 61 and extended for a year because of the Berlin wall and the Cuban missile crisis. He was supposed to go to Germany but got a fever 3 days before the unit shipped out and the shipped unit out without him and 2 of his buddies. He never worked in his MOS (military occupation specialty), in artillery again. He spent 2 years in the active reserves and  2 years in the inactive reserves and got called back to active duty again. What a “lucky” guy. His wife worked as a ground crew member for American Airlines for 10 years then took a leave of absence for 5 years so she got credit for 15. They flew a lot to Europe mostly to France and travelled as much as they could on her D1 pass. The campground owner Steve has Scottish Highland cattle on his 140 acres because they eat the BlackBerry bushes and all the other brambles that no normal cattle will eat. He doesn't even have to feed them during the wintertime because they just disappear into the BlackBerry bushes and stay healthy during the weather. If he gets a male cow, they eat it. On the way to this campground South of Roseburg Oregon. we saw a great deal of devastation from recent for fires. It actually looks like it happened in the last year not later than 2 years. There is a lot of cleanup and trying to salvage usable lumber. We rounded one curve and there was the stump of a tree lying across the guardrail that was at least 2' in diameter that had just been cut out of the road not long ago from the looks of the cut. I can't imagine how long the delay had been before they got a crew out with the right equipment to move that log off the highway. Just another trip of discovery for us seeing such beautiful scenery and meeting so many nice people it's hard to describe in words or pictures.

May 11

We left mid-morning after another good conversation with Rich and Kay. We headed for the coast and got here midafternoon after stopping to get some to die for Apple walnut fritters at a local bakery. On the way here, we saw a spot that is called the Dean Creek Elk viewing area. Supposedly up to a 140 elk use this area as grazing ground. We didn't see any when we stopped on the way to the next campground. The campground is nice, but the bathrooms are closed and it's only private campgrounds that are having their bathrooms closed according to the host. We found out later that was probably a cop out to keep from cleaning them. This is an RV resort that people stay at year-round a lot of time. After dinner we went back to the elk viewing area Around 7:15 and saw about 40 or more cows grazing in the field. We hung around for about 20 more minutes hoping to see a bull, but none showed up. At least we can say we have seen elks and cross that off our list of wild animals. Tomorrow we head north a couple of hours to depot Bay. We hope to see some whales from the shore and will definitely take the 1 and 1/2 hour whale watching Tour, if we can book one.

May 12

On our way out of town we decided to go by the viewing place one more time period There were 40 or 50 cows out there but again no male elk. We headed North to Depoe Bay to try to do a whale watching cruise. We had checked with a campground just North of there who said their bathrooms were open. It was one of campgrounds in our group for big discounts. We drove there and found out that they had no cell phone signal. Even though I don't keep up with the blog as much as I would like to, we still need cell phone signal. We came back to town to another campground. Their bathrooms are open and it was a nice campground. They didn't offer a discount for veterans and I started to leave but Elizabeth wanted to stay there so we signed in. Marilyn gave us a 10% discount because I was such a nice man. Her words not mine. She also suggested a whale watching tour with a marine biologist area We were going to book a 12 o'clock tour, but we would have been on the boat for an hour and a 1/2 without anything to eat so we pushed it forward to the 10 o'clock tour. We got a text later saying that the 10 o'clock tour had been pushed up to 9:30 because they expected heavy seas that afternoon.

May 13 Whale watching trip

We were worried about a place to park the RV so we got there very early and parked in front of the jump off point. The leader was a very nice marine biologist who was passionate about her work we got a 15 minute lecture on whales before we went down to get on the boats . We got on the big boat which is a navy seal assault boat that had been retired. They asked who wanted to sit up front and we volunteered. It was a raw day and going to be cold and windy no matter where you were sitting. There are a group of whales come North from Mexico and hang around Depoe Bay while others continue on to the Alaskan water for feeding in the summer.ie Carry the biologist had named all the whales who stay around the area.  It was foggy and around 46 degrees when we left. Sees were chopping but not too bad at first.  We went buoy that had some sea lions on it. Then we meandered around following the other boat and listening for spotters looking for spouts. Carrie had also trained a dog that she rescued to smell the whale spouts which smell like the worst fart you've ever smelled and the dog Coda had been trained to detect those smells from an early age. Coda ran all around the boat from side to side and front to back sniffing the air, but we never saw a whale. We saw a lot of kelp and birds. The marine biologist says if we come back in August-September, the whales will be swimming up next to shore and we heard the same from locals later. So much for good timing. The Internet said whales should be here now!  We will head north trying to find some more whales because they only move at 4 miles per hour and we can overtake them. As we came back into the dock area we saw a mama seal and her baby seal who just been born that morning. On the way back to ,the dock Carrie asked if we were ready for some bumpy rides. We had no choice but to say yes and she opened up that seal boat with its twin 200 (I guessed at the size) HP Evinrude engines. We were hitting the bottom of some waves and riding over the top of many of them. It was a very fun ride for me and Elizabeth enjoyed it somewhat. We decided to eat in town and got to a restaurant just dead opened so we didn't have to wait area I had a seriously good clam chowder Elizabeth had a beer-based Tillamook cheese soup. It was in a brewery so we had craft pilsner for lunch. Everything was very good and I took a nap we got back to the camp after setting the RV up.  I spoke to our neighbor to our South who is a retired Air Force avionics technician, meeting his children here for the weekend into two other RVs.  We had a nice chat about the military, his travels around Europe and working on F-15s and 16s. He also gave me some insights into the Olympia peninsula where he and his wife had lived for many years. Our neighbor to the North is a retired civil servant, mechanical engineer who helped build the submarine base in San Diego and worked there most of his career. We briefly discussed COVID and his wife who is a nurse says they were waiting to get the Johnson and Johnson shot because it doesn't use MRNA to send signals to your body to protect yourself from the virus but actually uses a strain of the virus to make you immune to it like a flu shot. He said it wasn't really worried because it only affects a minor percentage of the population who have comorbidity issues most of the time. He and his wife have been full timers for several years in their 5th wheel. Again, you meet some of the most interesting people just by casual conversations. You know how shy I am so it's hard to meet strangers.

May 14

We drove north to the Washington border and found refuge at a National Guard base with an electric only hook-up for one night $15.  It’s clean, quiet and near the “latrine”.  Elizabeth prefers bathhouse/restrooms.

The New Model Media Star Is Famous Only to You

The Media EquationWith short videos and paid newsletters, everyone from superstars to half-forgotten former athletes and even journalists can, as one tech figure put it, “monetize individuality.”

Recent videos by, from left, Gwen Jorgensen, Leonard Marshall and Terry Francona available on Cameo, a service that allows fans to buy personalized messages.Credit...CameoPublished May 24, 2020Updated May 25, 2020, 3:43 a.m. ETBack in March, I was trying to persuade my dad to stop taking the subway to work in Manhattan and join me upstate. So I paid $75 to Leonard Marshall, a retired New York Giants defensive lineman we both loved in the 1980s, to send the message.“I put a few guys in the hospital, Bob,” he told my father solemnly. “I need you to play defense in these crazy times.”It worked, and my father hasn’t been to Times Square since.I had reached Mr. Marshall through Cameo, a service that allows you to buy short videos from minor celebrities. I also used Cameo to purchase a pep talk from an Olympic triathlete for my daughter ($15), an ingratiating monologue for my new boss from a former Boston Red Sox manager ($100) and a failed Twitter joke delivered by the action star Chuck Norris ($229.99).Cameo is blowing up in this strange season because “every celebrity is really a gig economy worker,” says Steven Galanis, the company’s chief executive. They’re stuck at home, bored and sometimes hard up for cash as performances, productions and sporting events dry up. The company’s weekly bookings have grown to 70,000 from about 9,000 in early January, it says, and Mr. Galanis said he anticipated bringing in more than $100 million in bookings this year, of which the company keeps 25 percent. The company expects to sell its millionth video this week.Cameo is, on its face, a service that allows housebound idiots to blow money on silly shout-outs. Seen another way, however, it’s a new model media company, sitting at the intersection of a set of powerful trends that are accelerating in the present crisis. There’s the rise of simple, digital direct payments, which are replacing advertising as the major source of media revenue. There’s the growing power of talent, trickling down from superstars to half-forgotten former athletes and even working journalists. And there’s the old promise of the earlier internet that you could make a living if you just had “1,000 true fans" — a promise that advertising-based businesses from blogs to YouTube channels failed to deliver.In fact, in this new economy, some people may be able to make a living off just 100 true fans, as Li Jin, a former partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, argued recently. Ms. Jin calls this new landscape the “passion economy.” She argues that apps like Uber and DoorDash are built to erase the differences between individual drivers or food delivery people. But similar tools, she says, can be used to “monetize individuality.”Many of these trends are well developed in China, but here in the United States the passion economy covers everyone from the small merchants using Shopify to the drawing instructors of the education platform Udemy.In the mainstream heart of the media business, both artists and writers are moving quickly to find new business models as huge swaths of the media business have been wounded or shut down by the coronavirus pandemic. At Patreon, the first and broadest of the big services connecting writers and performers to audiences, the co-founder Jack Conte said he was delighted recently to see one of his favorite bands, Of Montreal, release music on the platform.“Traditional music coming to Patreon is a watershed moment,” he said.In the news business, journalists are carving out new paths on Substack, a newsletter service. Its most successful individual voices — like the China expert Bill Bishop and the liberal political writer Judd Legum — are earning well into six figures annually for sending regular newsletters to subscribers, though no individual has crossed the million-dollar mark, the company said.For some writers, Substack is a way to get their work out of the shadow of an institution. Emily Atkin felt that need intensely when a climate forum she organized last year for presidential candidates, while she was a writer for The New Republic, collapsed amid a scandal over an unrelated column about Mayor Pete Buttigieg that appeared in that publication.Image

For writers like Emily Atkin, formerly of The New Republic, Substack is a way to get their work out of the shadow of an institution.Credit...Rozette RagoNow, said Ms. Atkin, who writes a confrontational climate newsletter called Heated, she’s “shockingly hopeful.”“I don’t have any layoffs happening at my newsletter, so I’m doing better than most of the news industry,” she said.Ms. Atkin, who is 11th on Substack’s ranking of paid newsletters and was more willing than Mr. Bishop or Mr. Legum to talk in detail about the business, said she was on track to gross $175,000 this year from more than 2,500 subscribers. Out of that, she’ll pay for health care, a research assistant and a 10 percent fee to Substack, among other costs.For others, Substack is a way to carry on with work they’re passionate about when a job goes away, as Lindsay Gibbs found when the liberal news site ThinkProgress shut down last year and took her beat on sexism in sports with it.Now, she has more than 1,000 subscribers to Power Plays, paying as much as $72 a year.Both of them started with $20,000 advances from the platform.“The audience connecting directly with you and paying directly is a revolutionary change to the business model,” Substack’s chief executive, Chris Best, told me.It’s hard to imagine even the most successful writers, like Mr. Bishop and Ms. Atkin, posing a major threat to the titans of media anytime soon, especially as a few big institutions — whether in news or streaming video — dominate each market. But the two writers’ path to success points to the reality that the biggest threat to those institutions may come from their talented employees. Updated May 20, 2020 How can I protect myself while flying? If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.) What are the symptoms of coronavirus? Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days. How many people have lost their jobs due to coronavirus in the U.S.? Over 38 million people have filed for unemployment since March. One in five who were working in February reported losing a job or being furloughed in March or the beginning of April, data from a Federal Reserve survey released on May 14 showed, and that pain was highly concentrated among low earners. Fully 39 percent of former workers living in a household earning $40,000 or less lost work, compared with 13 percent in those making more than $100,000, a Fed official said. Is ‘Covid toe’ a symptom of the disease? There is an uptick in people reporting symptoms of chilblains, which are painful red or purple lesions that typically appear in the winter on fingers or toes. The lesions are emerging as yet another symptom of infection with the new coronavirus. Chilblains are caused by inflammation in small blood vessels in reaction to cold or damp conditions, but they are usually common in the coldest winter months. Federal health officials do not include toe lesions in the list of coronavirus symptoms, but some dermatologists are pushing for a change, saying so-called Covid toe should be sufficient grounds for testing. Can I go to the park? Yes, but make sure you keep six feet of distance between you and people who don’t live in your home. Even if you just hang out in a park, rather than go for a jog or a walk, getting some fresh air, and hopefully sunshine, is a good idea. How do I take my temperature? Taking one’s temperature to look for signs of fever is not as easy as it sounds, as “normal” temperature numbers can vary, but generally, keep an eye out for a temperature of 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. If you don’t have a thermometer (they can be pricey these days), there are other ways to figure out if you have a fever, or are at risk of Covid-19 complications. Should I wear a mask? The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’t replace hand washing and social distancing. What should I do if I feel sick? If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others. How do I get tested? If you’re sick and you think you’ve been exposed to the new coronavirus, the C.D.C. recommends that you call your healthcare provider and explain your symptoms and fears. They will decide if you need to be tested. Keep in mind that there’s a chance — because of a lack of testing kits or because you’re asymptomatic, for instance — you won’t be able to get tested. How can I help? Charity Navigator, which evaluates charities using a numbers-based system, has a running list of nonprofits working in communities affected by the outbreak. You can give blood through the American Red Cross, and World Central Kitchen has stepped in to distribute meals in major cities. That dynamic was on display in a confrontation between Barstool Sports and the hosts of its hit podcast, “Call Her Daddy,” as my colleague Taylor Lorenz reported last week. Media company stars, with big social media followings and more and more ways to make money, are less and less willing to act like employees. (“The ‘Call Her Daddy’ girls would be making over half a million dollars a year with me,” Mr. Galanis of Cameo said. “High Pitch Erik from ‘The Howard Stern Show’ is making low six figures.”)Substack represents a radically different alternative, in which the “media company” is a service and the journalists are in charge. It’s what one of the pioneers of the modern newsletter business, the tech analyst Ben Thompson, describes as a “faceless” publisher. And you can imagine it or its competitors offering more services, from insurance to marketing to editing, reversing the dynamic of the old top-down media company and producing something more like a talent agency, where the individual journalist is the star and the boss, and the editor is merely on call.ImageThe popularity of “Tiger King,” starring Lauren and Jeff Lowe, left, led Cameo to sign up Kelci Saffery, right, who had a lesser role in the documentary.Credit...CameoThe new passion-economy media companies are converging in some ways. The ones like Patreon and Substack, which operate primarily in the background, are now looking at careful ways to bundle their offerings, their executives said. Medium, which allows you to subscribe to its full bundle of writers, is looking for ways to foster more intimate connections between individuals and their followers, its founder, Ev Williams, said. Cameo, which has a front page in its app and website but is mostly selling one-off shout-outs, is shifting toward a model that is more like subscribing to a celebrity: For a price, you’ll be able to send direct messages that appear in a priority inbox.“We think messages back and forth is where the puck is going with Cameo,” Mr. Galanis said.Is this good news? The rise of these new companies could further shake our faltering institutions, splinter our fragmented media and cement celebrity culture. Or they could pay for a new wave of powerful independent voices and offer steady work for people doing valuable work — like journalists covering narrow, important bits of the world — who don’t have another source of income. Like the whole collision of the internet and media, it will doubtless be some of both.In Silicon Valley, where the East Coast institutions of journalism are often seen as another set of hostile gatekeepers to be disrupted, leading figures are cheering a possible challenger. Mr. Best, the Substack chief, told me that the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, whose firm has invested in the company, said he hoped it would “do to big media companies what venture capital did to big tech companies” — that is, peel off their biggest stars with the promise of money and freedom and create new kinds of news companies.One of the things I find most heartening in these unequal times, though, is the creation of some new space for a middle class of journalists and entertainers — the idea that you can make a living, if not a killing, by working hard for a limited audience. Even people who play a modest role in a cultural phenomenon can get some of the take, which was what happened with the Netflix documentary “Tiger King.”When the documentary hit big in March, Cameo signed up 10 of its ragtag cast of, mostly, amateur zookeepers. That came just in time for Kelci Saffery, best known on the show for returning to work soon after losing a hand to a tiger. Mr. Saffery now lives in California, and lost his job at a furniture warehouse when the pandemic hit. To his shock, he has earned about $17,000, as well as a measure of recognition, even as the requests are slowing down.“Every day I’m at least getting one, and for me that still means that one person every day is thinking, ‘Hey, this would be cool,’ and to me that’s significant,” he said. As for the money, “that could send one of my children to college.” Read More Read the full article

Coronavirus pandemic means social distancing — it doesn’t mean you can’t hug your kids

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/coronavirus-pandemic-means-social-distancing-it-doesnt-mean-you-cant-hug-your-kids/

Coronavirus pandemic means social distancing — it doesn’t mean you can’t hug your kids

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has required people to stay indoors and practise physical distancing, but is it OK for parents to cuddle their children?

In many cases, yes.

If you live in the same home and are not exhibiting any symptoms, you can “definitely share the same space with your kids,” said Dr. Margaret Quinn, a clinical associate professor at the Rutgers School of Nursing and director of the pediatric nurse practitioner program.

READ MORE: How COVID-19 is spreading across Canada

“In general, if the household is healthy… and everyone’s home together — parents are working from home and kids are home from school — then yes, they can sit on the couch together and have that hug and cuddle,” she said.

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“Kids right now need their parents — and they need a good cuddle.”

The important thing to keep in mind, however, is that families need to practise good hygiene to curb the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. This includes frequent handwashing, not sharing food or utensils and using your own towels and pillowcases.

4:21 How to properly wash your hands

How to properly wash your hands

“Those are basic infection control measures, whatever the illness or the outbreak,” Quinn said.

“I tell parents that all the time: they really should not be sharing drinks and food.”

What if you’re in self-isolation?

If you’re self-isolating due to recent travel or possible exposure, or if you have COVID-19 symptoms, you should not cuddle or kiss anyone in your household.

[ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ]

If you have tested positive for COVID-19, you should also physically keep your distance from your family members. Health Canada says anyone who is sick should stay in a separate room or keep a two-metre distance from others.

READ MORE: Will homemade masks protect us from the coronavirus?

“If the parent is showing symptoms of any illness, whether it be a sore throat, a common cold or they may be positive for COVID-19, that’s not the time to be snuggling with your kid,” Quinn said.

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If a child is sick, Quinn said health precautions still need to be taken.

“Whether it’s COVID-19 or strep throat, if a child has an illness… of course there’s a risk to other people in the house,” she said.

“Practise handwashing, no sharing of [personal] things and no sleeping in the same bed when the child or the parent is sick.”

4:31 How parents can cope with kids at home during COVID-19 outbreak

How parents can cope with kids at home during COVID-19 outbreak

Health Canada says “children who have mild COVID-19 symptoms are able to stay at home with a caregiver throughout their recovery without needing hospitalization.”

“If you are caring for a child who has suspected or probable COVID-19, it is important to follow the advice for caregivers,” the government agency stresses.

How does coronavirus affect kids?

In Ontario, at least 68 people under the age of 19 have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the most recent Health Canada data.

This includes an earlier case of a baby boy in early March, who health officials said is under the age of one and listed as having contracted the coronavirus through close contact.

READ MORE: How to talk to kids about the novel coronavirus without scaring them

Previous research suggests children may be less affected by COVID-19, or if they are infected, they may not exhibit symptoms.

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This means that a child’s infection could go undetected, possibly spreading the virus to more at-risk adults.

To prevent possible transmission, everyone — including kids — need to wash their hands and not touch their faces, Quinn said. Adults need to model this behaviour to their children.

4:37 Protecting children during the COVID-19 outbreak

Protecting children during the COVID-19 outbreak

“Using reasonable precautions in the house is what we have to promote to kids and acknowledge that this is a tough time for them as well,” she said.

“We have to be thankful for what we have with them. And if they’re home with us and making us crazy, that’s OK; we have to stay healthy as a family. That’s important.”

Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:

Health officials caution against all international travel. Returning travellers are legally obligated to self-isolate for 14 days, beginning March 26, in case they develop symptoms and to prevent spreading the virus to others. Some provinces and territories have also implemented additional recommendations or enforcement measures to ensure those returning to the area self-isolate.

Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing — very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.

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To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent handwashing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as much as possible and maintaining a distance of two metres from other people if you go out.

For full COVID-19 coverage from Global News, click here.

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© 2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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