No Time to Die... from COVID-19

[robkelk]

"We've never had a pandemic in recorded history that has not had a second wave."
-- British Columbia Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry

[robkelk]

Shopify tells its employees to work from home for the remainder of 2020... and maybe beyond.

“As of today, Shopify is a digital by default,” Tobi Lutke, who is also the founder of Shopify, said in a tweet. “We will keep our offices closed until 2021 so that we can rework them for this new reality.

“Office centricity is over.”

[robkelk]

Canadian Hurricane Centre warns to prep for storm season early to avoid lineups amid pandemic

The specifics in the article are for Halifax, but the general advice works anywhere that a hurricane might make landfall.

---

International Plowing Match delayed to October 2021

This has only happened twice before... and the first time was because of a pandemic, too. (The one in 1918, in case you're keeping track. The other postponement was because of World War II.)

---

We sometimes forget that political parties are businesses in their own right.

All three of the biggest parties in Canada apply for federal wage subsidy as donations dry up

EDIT: Radio reports say the Green Party has also applied for the wage top-up.

[robkelk]

Some stores are adding COVID-19 surcharges to their bills.

It's legal, but they don't have to tell you ahead of time... so make sure you find out whether they have a surcharge before you do business with them.

---

Two animation studios animate live-action sitcom after COVID-19 halts production

Rick Morrison, president of Big Jump Entertainment, said the near-total shutdown of the production of live-action TV shows and films has created openings for animators.

[hazard]

I'm very doubtful about those surcharges being legal in the Netherlands. At minimum they need to be technically public knowledge.

IIRC it's also required that the declared sales price at the register is correct and with no surprise surcharges like VAT is in the USA (well, BTW, but it translates to VAT and that's included in the listed price in the Netherlands), but for consumer facing shops (which is basically most shops you'll deal with) the price listed on the shelf is correct by custom. It's understood that the price isn't always correct, the labels often need to be updated manually and so there can be a delay when the electronics already updated that morning but the staff haven't yet replaced the shelf price, but if there's a discrepancy between the price listed at the register and the price listed at the shelf, whichever is preferred by the customer wins.

So... yeah. That surcharge if it was tried here?

Expect loss of custom at minimum, the Consumer's Union attention at best and quite possibly legal trouble

[robkelk]

No big surprise, but Doors Open Ottawa has been cancelled this year.

Now what am I going to do next weekend?

[Dartz]

For the first time in 2 months, no daily fatalities.

Makes a total 1600 or so, so far. 1000 of those in nursing homes.

Virus is Basically dead in the community and is only really ticking along in some packing plants and some residential care facilities. Median fatality age is 84.

That said, there is up to 3 months to report a death.

[LynnInDenver]

They're starting to reopen restaurant dining rooms here, 50% max occupancy, max 8 to a table (which doesn't mean much) distances between tables (max occupancy and table distances are going to be a harder party size limit for many places than the 8 per), masks on when not shoving food into the piehole, etc. I'm expecting some restaurants still won't be opening until occupancy allowed goes up (I'd expect that it won't go up for a while, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's going to be a review of whether or not the maximum occupancy needs to go down permanently, and whether it's for new spaces or if they'll attempt to drop it on existing spaces). Bars are still closed.

Here at home, we're still proceeding with "no one over until sometime in June", and even that's going to be ones or twos, probably outside with distance at first (we have a yard which makes that much easier). And I just talked to my husband, he's thinking August before we can seriously even entertain the idea of going to eat in a restaurant dining room, and that's assuming we don't have a spike in the numbers in the next month.

[classicdrogn]

I'd be more surprised if a large portion, perhaps even a majority, of restaurants do not reopen their indoor dining until occupancy limits are returned to normal or its clear that's not going to happen in the near term. Profit margins are so tight in the business that I'd expect it to be a tight contest as to whether just leaving them closed is a bigger burden than keeping the same floor space lit and cleaned, and the latter in ways that take even more time, labor, and supplies than before.

[robkelk]

Call me an optimist... I just booked my summer vacation, for six weeks from now.

I'm not so much an optimist that I've booked a hotel room anywhere, though. This will probably be a "staycation" where I pretend to be a tourist in my home town.

[LynnInDenver]

I'd be more surprised if a large portion, perhaps even a majority, of restaurants do not reopen their indoor dining until occupancy limits are returned to normal or its clear that's not going to happen in the near term. Profit margins are so tight in the business that I'd expect it to be a tight contest as to whether just leaving them closed is a bigger burden than keeping the same floor space lit and cleaned, and the latter in ways that take even more time, labor, and supplies than before.

Part of what I missed saying is there's another occupancy limit... it's either half or 50, whichever is lower I expect is the expectation for any conflict. One of the restaurants down the road from us would likely close off part of their dining room, which is already partitioned somewhat from the main space... assuming they open up again, they closed it down entirely when the lockdown came down.

We do run menus for a few diners at the print shop where I work, and we've seen one of them bring in the first print run of the disposable version of their menu to get done.

[Bob Schroeck]

Call me an optimist... I just booked my summer vacation, for six weeks from now.

I'm not so much an optimist that I've booked a hotel room anywhere, though. This will probably be a "staycation" where I pretend to be a tourist in my home town.

We've had our beach house paid for since January -- with no refund likely last we heard -- for the week running July 4 to July 11.  (Sounds like we're overlapping yours, Rob.)  The current plan is to go anyway, and do less dining out and other out-of-house stuff than we normally do.  The beaches are open now, so that's going to still be an option unless they get overcrowded.

[robkelk]

We've had our beach house paid for since January -- with no refund likely last we heard -- for the week running July 4 to July 11.  (Sounds like we're overlapping yours, Rob.) 

That isn't overlap - that's complete alignment.

[robkelk]

The Honour Guard is returning to the National War Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa.

"Visitors asked to stand at least 2 metres away from sentries while taking selfies"

[hazard]

I am honestly surprised the honour guard was suspended at all, instead of roping off enough space for safety reasons.

[robkelk]

We don't do things that way in Ottawa. The memorials are there to be contemplative at (and to have photos taken of) - roping them off is counter-productive.

[Dartz]

Ireland open-sources Covid tracker app

It's been reasonably succesful so far - might aswell see what the world makes with it.

[robkelk]

We forgot to mention this a week ago... Captain Tom Moore, the 100-year-old veteran who raised spirits while raising millions of pounds for health workers by walking in his garden in April, is now Sir Thomas Moore. (No, not that Sir Thomas Moore.)

The Queen honoured Moore at an investiture at Windsor Castle, using her knighting sword.

That's one specialized sword...

---

This one's new: Kansas City offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif has something more important to do than play football this year. He's the first to take the "opt out of the 2020 NFL season" option.

Ultimately, Duvernay-Tardif decided if he was going to take a COVID-19 related risk in a pandemic, it would be with patients, not on the football field.

[hazard]

They've been using that sword to knight people for centuries.

Also, good for him.

[Kilroy]

Checking in. After nineteen weeks of working from home, I am taking this week as a vacation. My health is still good.


Kilroy

[LynnInDenver]

Checking in again. Not a lot of change; we're in the process of getting the pay out for the totaled car, we have a family loaner for the time being.

[robkelk]

DavidsTea will only reopen 18 stores in Canada, down from 186 before pandemic

[robkelk]

Looks like Lord & Taylor isn't going to make it through the pandemic.

[robkelk]

Man breaks into bank, ignores the money, steals the hand sanitizer

[hazard]

I don't think the legal system will care about him not stealing the money. Bank robbery is bank robbery last I checked, and banks store more things of value than money alone.