3 days in Q (uarantine)

As I have begun writing in the evenings - in present tense- and setting the blog to post in the mornings, I realize my posts seem to be 'off'... Hence, the post saying we Q'd  (Quarantined) 'last night' posted Sat am but was written Friday pm, meaning we actually Q'd Thursday at 7pm.

With that cleared up -!?!?!?   ie. I'm writing in the evenings and it posts the next morning.

I do want to say that although it's felt -and evidently, read- as though I've been being alarmist about Covid-19... I am neither an alarmist, nor a prepper. I have been paying attention though and when the powers that be so much as suggest something as extraordinary as closing all borders it is what they call a 'trial balloon', to gauge the people's reaction. No one reacted, so they know its 'on the table' as Trudeau said today...and THAT is politispeak for 'coming to a theatre near you'.... so I have been trying to warn other RVers that this was coming down the pipe. I would suggest that the borders will likely be closed on or before Wednesday. Sooner if Trump trumps Trudeau.

Moving on:
It's been fine so far. But it's only been 3 days, we have been fortunate that the outside temps even during the day have been rather cool so this has helped us adjust to our new reality and I hope it bodes well for us moving forward. We are homebodie types anyway.

I saw today that others in my Pickleball group have also Q'd now. We live next door to Washington state which is a hub of Covid-19 outbreaks and we are a highly sought tourist destination island, and we have seen tourists already for the last couple of weeks. As such, this part of Canada has been asked to Q already, while other areas like our hometown of Saskatoon have a bit more time.

That being said, I recommend being in front of the Q curve - not on the backside of it... pardon the pun ;)

Remember, they are now saying it's a longer incubation than originally believed. Most countries are locking down, significant events are cancelling, Canadian government has now officially warned Canadians to 'return home while you still can'... its not just about you - it's also about who you infect upon your return.

They in the US are now saying this will last 6 months up to 2 years... I sure as hell hope not but I think it could already have spread so far in the US that even if Canada's lockdown is effective no one will be allowed across the border until the US gets it under control. As stated previously, Trump's concern is the economy - he is a business man, after all. Health care is not his forte. Well at least it's warm down there.

The numbers they are quoting are completely skewed as they (here as well) have no tests available and are only testing those who are presenting ill, the tests and the people to take and process those tests are just not available.

It is important to keep in mind that getting 2 weeks supplies won't help much if you are infected today, Q tomorrow, then become ill yourself in 10 days and have only 4 days of supplies left.

Especially with all the closures, shops could be closed and no restocking available... also everyone who stocked 2 weeks worth will likely be restocking all at the same time - if that option is available. Being ill and having no food will not help your body fight off this bug and you won't be allowed in the shops if your ill anyway so don't mess about- get plenty of food - and decongestant - and kleenex. Assume you are already infected -what do you need? (stock illness supplies) stock as though you will be Q'd for 2 weeks and become ill in 2 weeks time. They are also now saying you could get this virus more than once. Yikes! I recommend a couple of months supplies and get things you can eat with a sore throat, soups and the like.

The only item on my list I could not obtain was a thermometer, our old one is dead - so we'll just crack an egg on the others head to check for fever.. LOL

Consider that the US has 350M people. Following what we've seen in other countries - China, 25% will likely become ill. For ease of calculations we'll use 300M people, hence at 25% = 75M infections and approx 5% are dying of it...=  3.75M deaths.

These numbers are based on China's numbers but at this point the US is more aligned to Italy with the lack of response applied to the problem - even to this day. China literally welded high-rise doors shut to contain this - you won't see that in the US, certainly not - in an election year!

For the record - and ease of calculation, Canada has approx 30M people so just delete one 0 off of the numbers above, not sure we did that much better than our US neighbours, so... at least our government is now learning from Italy's mistakes and asking us to Q asap, can expect around 375,000 deaths.

Tomorrow is going to be another brutal day on the markets, with pre-market trading already at the maximum capacity of negative 5% (- 1040 points). Of course, I say that but the market should not be as high as it is now anyway, and the players keep struggling to keep it propped up. Let her drop boys, it'll be a long rough road anyway.

On a lighter note:

Our temperatures, when I looked this morning are expected to climb after today and we will be out and about, so expect some pics... so excited to get out in that amazing sunshine.

A Saskatchewan Summer

You know your in Saskatchewan when...

a.k.a. 37C

 Our solar panels were bringing in 40.6 Amps

 

This is why I don't do selfies

My 'thing' is to tell everyone how cute I am... and I get away with it because while I don't have self esteem problems, I also don't think I'm all that. Perhaps it is just in my mind, but I 'think' I'm getting away with it. Maybe people just think I'm a nut. Whatever. 

However, while I'm proud of every wrinkle I've earned through my life so far... I don't really like pictures of them floating around in the world, real or cyber. It may also be the old school upbringing I got about not being vain... I don't know but selfies are just not a comfortable thing for me. I do try, I swear it.

It has been so incredibly hot here and having been on the East coast for the last 8 years we are just not used to it anymore, obviously. We've gone to the city every day and generally end up on Brad's Mum's deck, tucked nicely into the shade to get some reprieve from the heat. The poor woman probably just wants rid of us.

I actually faint in the heat, so I have to be very careful and make sure that I stay hydrated - more so than would be considered 'normal'. My body just does not retain fluid, which I always thought was a good thing  - until I returned to spend the summer in Saskatchewan! Holy Hell kinda Hot.

I think I wrote about our change of plans... we were going to clear out our house on the East coast in July, but we have decided to wait until August due to a s.n.a.f.u (literally). We contacted the campground that allowed us to store the RV here back in April, even before they opened and have taken a spot here for the month of July.

It's a nice campground, I wrote about it the other day. Not a lot to do around here and Brad is getting bored, so I went to the office to discuss a workamping option with them for when we return at the end of August. This campground stays open until the end of October which I find very shocking having lived in Saskatchewan since I was 5 - looong time, it gets damn cold here in October.

Anyway, Brad has taken to walking lately. He does a mile twice a day, which to some may not seem like much but with his back issues its quite a feat. We are not very active people, which we'd sure like to fix. I had planned to do PickleBall in Saskatoon but when we volunteered to work the PB Tournament here a couple of months back, nobody knew what was going on, I couldn't get a straight answer about whether to show up or wait for a call, someone was supposed to call me about it but never did and it put a bad taste in my mouth so we've just never gone. I actually miss playing and I know I'm going to get grief about not being any better when I get back to the Ranch in November, but I do it for fun and exercise, not to be some PB Champion, unlike some.

We had a comment yesterday from some regular readers asking about our smoking/vaping and how that was going. Well, I'm happy to report that we are both still vaping and haven't had a cigarette in 2 months, without even a hiccup. Even our Doctor is happy, while vaping is still more than our lungs were designed for (O2), at least we are not getting the smoke, tar and chemicals that accompany the nicotine of a cigarette. Vaping is just nicotine.... at least as far as anyone is telling us (the common folk).

When vaping first came out, I never imagined that I'd be doing it. I do not like to be a guinea pig for anything but with cigarettes being $19.10/pack we finally decided enough was enough. Vaping costs us about $100/month compared to the $900/month we were spending on cigarettes.

Also, we have reduced our nicotine levels fairly dramatically already. We both started out on 18mg of nicotine and have reduced down a couple of times putting Brad at 10mg and me at 6mg. The idea being to reduce and eventually stop altogether.

Camping in a Saskatchewan summer means wood fires, Off, hotdogs and hamburgers. These smells are wafting in and around the RV often and its a comforting smell I find. Not that I was a camping person growing up but I find the smell of wood fires and Off especially just speaks 'summer' to me.

Campland RV Resort

Brad's Mum came home from her holidays a few days ago so we found ourselves a camping site, hauled the RV out of storage and have set her up.

What a mess that was, we had so much stuff at his Mum's house!!! It all got loaded in the RV and had to be sorted through once we had her set into position. Oh, and cleaned at the same time!

Anyway, it is all done now and I have a month to triage a few areas and get rid of or better organize some of our stuff.

This is Campland RV Resort, owned by a husband and wife, the very people who allowed us to park our RV here back in April, before they even opened.

Campland offers full hookups, coin laundry, coin showers, swimming pool with spray park and EXCELLENT WIFI (extenders all over the park), a store (everything from pop/chips, sewer hose and connectors to firewood). The water pressure here is very high and you will need a regulator, which they sell in the shop, but it is 'City water' and all the pipes along the highway are relatively new so you don't need your water filter/softener.. It has been quiet here - even last night (a Friday) wasn't bad. Most people here are locals who skipped out for the weekend or a week with the family.

Its a nice campground to be sure, meticulously maintained. This is a new campground and they have done a really nice job of it. Once the trees get bigger and they put in a pickleball court....

Our view

Our spot

Anyway, it's a nice spot and close to the city where we need to be right now. All things being equal, in August we are going to the house out East to get our stuff and that should be the end of that chapter.

As a side note: We were watching TV last night (OverTheAir) but lost signal when we turned on a light - any light. Any thoughts on that? We are plugged in. It was late so we didn't delve into it last night but will be taking a look this morning.