That mayor was hailed as a Democratic-party breakthrough in red Alabama, the first black mayor of the city of Montgomery. That’s certainly historic, but a curfew has racist associations for me, and I find it surprising that this would be the first city I’ve heard of in the U.S. having a curfew.
Plus I personally don’t like it because I think the night time is the best time for someone like me who takes an essentially romantic view of life, and the night is when imagination comes out to play. It should be valued, not feared. And maybe five other reasons.
About 8 weeks ago it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to get some filter masks and a respirator for my elderly mum. So I went to my local industrial paint supplier.
They normally have a huge range of filters and respirators but the shelves were mostly depleted. It turns out that they have an online shop and were shipping orders to China for the whole of January.
It makes me smile now to think that China are shipping plane-loads of masks and respirators back.
I wonder if part of it is to curb the rising number of break-ins that have been occurring lately. No one minding the shop means that people don’t find out about break-ins in a timely manner. One of my contact’s office was broken into. Among other things, the cleaning supplies were taken. Not the toilet paper though.
I might be looking at it wrong, but it seems to me like it would increase strain on law enforcement by adding a new thing they have to enforce. Maybe it’s an “on balance” situation, with fewer people out because of the curfew but those that are have to be scrutinized, how does that net out.
Near the end, it mentions in passing they’re not taking cash anymore, as if that’s relevant. Riders always put cash and tickets and stuff in a machine. The drivers never touched anything.
There is a new plastic security card system where we have to “put money on the card” and then wave it in front of a scanner. Now, that’s the only legit way to ride the bus.* It means we have to know exactly how much money we’re going to spend on bus fare in advance. If we put too much in, it’s wasted, and if we guess wrong, the card can be empty when we need a ride.
∗ or have a weekly or monthly pass to wave around, which is technically different but with similar problems
So, working walk in clinic this morning. Amazing to me how many people just don’t understand that this is a serious thing. Got a couple mumbled complaints about how we are overdoing it with masks and such, but also things that show what happens when parents are home with their kids. “I just noticed this weird thing, what is it?” Really not a good time to take your kid to the doc “just to check this spot out.” But also had 2 kids who might very well be Covid-19 patients, but found out that despite having testing available, we are not supposed to test unless they need to be admitted. Which actually makes sense, since they are so backed up that the turnaround is about 14 days. By that point, quarantine is over and who cares? I am beyond furious and frustrated. We had infection control giving us a very long lecture about proper use of PPE, followed by the logistics and supply guys saying, yeah, you can’t do any of that. We feel completely expendable. You can see it starting to settle in on staff that this will be long term. Morale is dropping already and it hasn’t gotten bad here. And, I m quick to add, pediatrics has it relatively easy vs adult care. I really don’t see how this ends well.
