Friday 5 for November 27: Pandemic daze

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Friday 5! Please copy these questions to your webspace. Answer the questions there; then leave a comment below so we’ll all know where to check out your responses. Please don’t forget to link us from your website!

1. Where do you get most of your pandemic-related news?

Um... hate to say this... Facebook first and then verify the sources by going to the more traditional local news sites like Honolulu Civil Beat, Honolulu Star Advertiser, Hawaii News Now, Hawaii Tribune Herald. Nationally I will occasionally check what the networks are posting to YouTube, Twitter, etc. There are also the State and National health links such as CDC, and Hawaii Dept. of Health. Just letting you know these options vary in terms of timeliness and thoroughness of the coverage.

2. How do you feel about your local government’s leadership during this pandemic?

They are not very good at leading this crises. The Governor says you can do this or have to do that and the four mayors often disagree, like whether or not to quarantine all visitors for 14 days upon arrival to Hawaii or from within the islands of Hawaii. State says you get a negative test, and you don't have to quarantine. Counties are saying quarantine negative test or not... BAAAHH!!!!!! HUMBUG!

Best to just hunker down, stay home and not go out as often... thereby killing our economy even further than it already is. Hawaii's economy has been in the toilet long before the pandemic hit. We have some of the highest taxes in the nation, the highest cost of living in the nation and some of the stupidest public works projects in the making such as the $14 billion rail project that does not want to die and only suck more money out of the taxpayers.

Guess what? Many taxpayers have no jobs and can't afford the continual bombardment on our wallets. The tourists are not coming to alleviate some of that horrible rail tax collections, thanks to the insipid non-leadership of current elected officials. I don't see much change happening with the some of the recently elected crop of leaders coming into office.

We're doomed.

3. What does your favorite mask look like, and about how many masks have you accumulated?

First of all I HATE MASKS and the mask mandates. Ugh!

Favorite mask you ask? NONE. I only wear them because government requires me to wear them. More of our freedoms have been taken away in the name of safety because of the pandemic. 

I have about 8 to 10 masks of various quality. I am not a fashion guru or anything like that so I just go for something cheap and mostly plain colored... like the standard cheap ass light blue ones, or black or white cloth ones. I don't care much for patterns. I rather blend into the woodwork vs. stand out in a crowd.

4. Where have you most often had takeout during this pandemic?

I have not eaten at a restaurant since February 2020... my last restaurant meal was with a friend at LikeLike Drive-in. After 67 years in business and because of government closure and regulatory "martial" laws passed in the last 9 months, this restaurant and hundreds of others are now gone and closed forever.

I haven't bought a takeout meal from anywhere since the pandemic started. I just buy stuff that I cook mostly in my microwave and stay at home most of my days. Life is no longer interesting, much less fun.

5. What new interests, skills, or hobbies have you picked up since mid-March?

I'm mostly in a state of depression lately and some of my hobbies haven't interested  me much as of late. I have no motivation to go out to take photos or just see stuff. I am feeling so blah in this science fiction like, dystopian life we are now living in.

Learning the ins and outs of my recently acquired iMac with MacOS 10.15 is a new skill I am doing. I had to replace some of my older 32 bit MacOS apps with 64 bit compliant ones, several of which are new... so there is that. I divorced myself from the Adobe suite and Office because I hate subscription based software. Luckily some of the Apple apps and non-subscription software I bought years ago allowed transfer to new versions on the new Mac without incurring new costs. Thankfully I had kept most of the old software registration information, which meant all upgrades were free. So now I am learning a bunch of new versions of software I have used for a long time.

Friday 5 for June 19: Under lock and key

This week's Friday 5 - Under lock and key. Yep. Welcome to our dystopian world where government overregulation has crept deeper into our lives and taken away many of our personal freedoms, thanks to COVID-19. What a bummer. Questions are from Scrivener as usual on this blog.

1. What’s your mask situation like?

My current inventory consists of 10 cloth type masks that sell for $5.99 a pack at Don Quijote. These are just those light blue generic types, which I have found last quite a while. You can hand wash them and let them dry in the sun. Use them again and again. Yes, I am cheap.

These are government mandated fashions. Why should I spend too much money on this crap when it doesn't really protect me.

I have two colorful cloth masks given to me by a friend. Thanks Sandra C. I am saving the one I have for myself and gave the other to my friend. The second set of masks was given to me by someone that work in the organization that I do their website for. I got two patriotic masks with the American flag and an eagle on them. Haven't used them unless I go to something that deserves me to be seen in them.

I had two black cloth masks that I first bought when this whole mess started for $5 each. They were nice. One thing that I have found is that the elastic straps on these masks break easily. Both of mine broke and I no longer use those masks. I refuse to buy anymore expensive masks if the straps are the weak point.

I also have two N95 masks that someone else gave me several months ago when this whole crisis was in its infancy. I dare not wear those in public. There may be people out there who chastise individuals who wear N95s because "we are denying healthcare workers from getting one"..... bull-crap.

A cottage industry has developed because of this government mandate, with individuals as well as small and large businesses selling masks, most starting at $5 to $6 each. High end ones go for a lot more. No thanks.

Government is forcing me under penalty of being fined to wear a mask. After my two initial masks broke, I decided no thanks to any pricey masks unless I can find one that looks this:

2. In what way is your life better today than a few months ago?

Up until recently it was nice to drive on the streets without too much traffic on the roads. Now that things are opening up again, traffic is spiking up to near normal levels. Other than that, nothing else is better.

3. What do you miss from normal living?

Let's see if I can come up with a top 10 list to this one....

1. Being everywhere mask free. Duh????
2. Going to work
3. The monthly sidewalk sale for cheap records and CDs at Idea's Books and Music.
4. Eating inside a restaurant
5. Meeting my friends for lunch, even though I hardly did that.
6. Be worry free about touching things or brushing up against people who may be carrying the COVID-19 virus. 
7. I hate those places that require a temp check before entering. So far I am avoiding them.
8. I cannot go to the Big Island of Hawaii without a) subjecting myself to quarantine (up to June 15) and now b) having to fill out some stupid disclosure form before traveling and then submitting it to the government so that they may contact trace you. Ugh! Plus wearing masks in planes, airports, etc. suck.  So sorry Southwest and Hawaiian Airlines.... I am not flying until everything about that process reverts to normal pre-COVID19 levels.
9. Going to scenic points to take photos. Currently most of them are still closed I think.
10. Freedoms we had before this mess started.

4. When this is over, what will be your major takeaway?

Will the COVID-19 crisis ever get over? Hawaii is spiking up again since more businesses and socialization opportunities have reopened. Could the state and the rest of the nation go back into lockdown mode later this year during the fall and winter months? We are half way now to a year with this thing.

Perhaps the major takeaway could be to change the leadership of our local government through the elections coming up this year.

Buy a dumb burner phone.

5. What are your feelings about getting back out there sooner, rather than later?

Just be careful. Avoid gathering with large groups in the same place for a length of time.... perhaps 10 minutes or longer. Good thing for me is that I am not a group type of person. I don't go to movies, concerts or other large gatherings mainly due to cost, so avoiding these will be easy.

Surely though, the state should open up to tourism again since no matter what everyone says, it will bring the economy back since there are so many people unemployed and many businesses dying on the vine.