Good luck with both the test and the surgery! Speedy recovery!
7 Likes
Blessings all the way around!!! Praying for protection and a speedy recovery to excellent health!!! 
6 Likes
Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadian friends!
In spite of the pandemic there are still plenty of things Iām thankful for. I wish everyone a safe and healthy holiday.
6 Likes
I am actually curious how travel will be effected for thanksgiving in the US and if people will be doing Facetime/Zoom thanksgivings. Also I know charity helps several families eat thanks giving dinners but I wonder how they will do that during this pandemic as well.
2 Likes
Well, I live in Minnesota. Iām originally from California so I typically donāt go there for thanksgiving. I did buy a ticket to visit with family in summer 2020. Obviously didnāt happen. Planning to go in 2021 but thatās looking less and less likely.
My wife is from Wisconsin, north of Green Bay. That is a hot bed right now. I think I can call Wisconsin the current epicenter. Donāt like it being so close to us. We talked this weekend and likely wonāt go to thanksgiving there. If we donāt, we likely wonāt do zoom or anything. Well call and say hi and just celebrate with our family at home. We have 4 kids so thereās plenty here to pay attention too.
I am going on a vacation this week. We wanted to do something with the kids. Going to Rapid City South Dakota. There are things we canāt do, but a lot of scenic drives and outdoor stuff so weāre hoping this goes well. I think timing is okay as things are climbing everywhere - in one month, would I be able to or want to travel?
9 Likes
The coronavirus test was negative. The surgery went swimmingly and Iām home recuperating (mostly sleeping, you know how cats are!) 
14 Likes
Glad to hear the good news. Hope you have a full and speedy recovery. Take good care of yourself
6 Likes
Very good news indeed hope you continue to feel good.
3 Likes
Yay Rook! Glad all is well!!!
2 Likes
Missed a bit of the above discussions.
As much as part of me would love to say āI told you so!ā when others dismiss my warnings and end up getting sickā¦ I do not wish ill will on anyone who doesnāt necessarily deserve to die from a nasty disease (that even goes for politicians and other assorted miscreants). 
@Rook very good to hear that you are doing okay!
@littleKAF good luck with your vacation stuffs!
I havenāt been able to visit my own family in years, definitely not happening this year. As for viral epicenters? The city I live in is essentially a petri dish. 
Half of them probably think that masks were devised by the New World Order in order to listen in on our private thoughts.
The other half only care about āviralā stuffs insofar as it relates to the number of likes they get on their social media pages. 
Plz send helpā¦ I am probably going to die hereā¦
4 Likes
Good to hear you are recovering well, @Rook.
The thing that is surprising me now is the extreme, I would say over caution, of many people in my broader circle.
Yes, I am old! But after the first lockdown, Sydney has had few cases (usually a handful each day) so they can now be individually traced. We have restrictions about eating out (1 person per 4sq ms indoors) and hygiene protocols everywhere. Masks often worn but not absolutely compulsory. And yet, I know a number of people who are still not ever venturing out. I think this anxiety and over caution is going to last a long time and is really not helping their mental health
Me? Donāt go out much, and do all the precaution stuff when I do, but no longer totally locked up. Most meetings are still Zoom though but a couple of day drives into the country make everyone happy and remind us of what is out there. I think I have the balance between caution and life as it used to be, but some people are really struggling with the balance. Others of course are behaving as if there is no issue and that is another problem. 
5 Likes
My son called Monday night thinking he was going to lose his job because Human Resources called him in for a meeting with his bossās boss. Tuesday morning he called with the news he is one of a very few people who got to keep his job, but the company is centralizing and he & his family will have to move out of state. I am so proud of him.
But honestly, I donāt know how many more losses I can take. Leaning hard on God who has always been faithful, but my heartā¦
:
6 Likes
Congrats to your son and I hope things turn around soon for you.
4 Likes
I feel there is a bit of a disconnect hereā¦ not just between those of us who are in different countries, but even amongst us who are in the same countriesā¦ so many disconnectsā¦
And no itās just just because COVID has forced people apart. In most ways, people have been āapartā for many years before the virus ever appeared.
The disconnect Iām speaking of is the fact that some parts of the world took the virus seriously, and have gotten their numbers down to a point to where āexcess cautionā is no longer necessary.
So maybe some people in my area read a news story that says Antarctica hasnāt had any new cases of Coronavirus in several weeks, and they think, ācool! The virus is gone! Happy days are here again! Letās all go out and celebrate!ā
ā¦ and Iām sitting here saying āguys? we donāt live in Antarcticaā¦ the viral levels are still very high hereā¦ plz donāt start throwing ācoronavirus is deadā parties just yetā¦ā
The county I live inā¦ a month or so ago we were at level āredā, meaning āHOLY CRAP BE CAREFUL, HALF THE PEOPLE HERE IZ INFECTED!!!ā and people finally started to heed the warnings and wear their masks and limit their social gatherings, and eventually we dropped down to level āorangeā meaning āLots of people iz infected, but you are probably safe as long as you are carefulāā¦ people saw orange as a green light to start being idiots again. And sure enough, as of this morning, we are now red again.
This is perhaps mostly just a U.S. issue though, as many other nations seem to have been able to get ahold of their outbreaks. Really not going so well over here though.
EDIT / ADDITIONAL:
Without veering too much into political territoryā¦ some of my non-U.S. friends have asked me, āwhy does it keep spreading so much in the U.S.? Donāt you guys have like a health agency or something?ā
Yes, we do, we have several. With several different jurisdictions. And every jurisdiction has its own mandates and suggestions. And people are mostly free to wander between jurisdictions. And even if theyāre in a jurisdiction where there are mask and quarantine mandates, they have the ārightā to intentionally ignore those mandates if they feel like itāsā¦ likeā¦ infringing on their rights or something.
Long story short, I am thankful that this is just a semi deadly virus and not a fully deadly one. Because if it was of the fully deadly variety? All of us here in the U.S. would be dead by now.
EDIT #2:
To put into graphic meme formatā¦ yeah okay borderline morbid, but I donāt know how else to get a friggin point across anymore without going extremeā¦
5 Likes
I read this literally as āAntarcticaā¦coolā
The irony of your bubonic plague memes wasnāt lost on me either. Missed you TGW. warm smile
4 Likes
I like this thread because it helps bring perspective to some of the reasons why I come across as being constantly frustrated. āWhinyā, ācomplainyā, etc.
Itās not just the game that is bringing me down. I play games to try to escape the horrors of real life. Real life is depressing. I donāt want to focus on the fact that it sometimes feels like the world is collapsing around me, and that Iāll inevitably just end up crushed in the rubble as another uncounted casualty that nobody else cares about because itās 2020 and thatās apparently how the world works these days. Somebody died? Meh. People die every day. Was it someone important? No? Then who cares? There are still billions of other people who havenāt died yet.
Iām sure somebody cared about that person. Possibly several people did. And even if nobody at all cared about themā¦ if they died needlessly in a death that could have been easily prevented with a bit more compassion and a little less recklessness? Shame. Shame on all of us for being so callous and selfish, to reach a point to where people no longer seem to give a damn about each other at all.
If that is the direction the world is headed in, I am glad that Iām no longer young and healthy. And āvibrantā and reckless and selfish and stupid.
When the world starts looking at peoplesā lives as mere numbersā¦ and completely forgetting that there are usually real people with real lives, real families, and real feelings behind most internet profilesā¦
Well then. It appears as though we have reached an impasse.
Itās sad, I watch these movies and television shows about apocalyptic scenarios, and in almost every one, you quickly see the people turning on each other and becoming even more dangerous than the apocalyptic scenario itself. I used to think, āthatās ridiculous! why donāt these people just come together and solve the problem instead of killing each other?ā
Because that is not how human nature works. Those shows and movies got it right. That is exactly what would happen if the world ever faced an apocalyptic scenario. The world governments wouldnāt āget togetherā and try to work on a solution, they would all bunker down and probably nuke their own citizens. Those who survived the initial craziness would go around killing each other for the scarce remaining resources.
āIām not madā¦ not anymore. Not even worth the energy. Now Iām justā¦ disappointed.ā
3 Likes
This was the end of Outbreak before the heroes saved the day.
Hugs to everyone/anyone who has had a crazy day/week/month/year. We WILL get past this.
6 Likes
I see what you did there 
3 Likes
