Cunard Cruisers - How are things where you are ?

[Bigmike911]

Well, after a windy day with a 25 degree F temp drop, the lawn looks like it has grown a red beard from the zillions of pine needles that have blown off my pine forest. I removed at least 20 lbs from the pool skimmers and the surface yesterday. The Acer Rubrum dropped almost all its leaves in less than one day. Oh well, it was nice for a while. Now we move into the holiday season, unlike any we have ever known. I am past ready for the pandemic to be over. In any event I will decorate for Christmas as I have in years past, even if I am the only one who will see it. 

[Colin_Cameron]

30 minutes ago, Bigmike911 said:

Now we move into the holiday season, ...

We have snow forecast for later this week so I decided to take advantage of the (mostly) dry weekend and get the christmas lights up on a tree in the garden. Not ready to switch them on yet but at least I won't be climbing ladders in the snow/sleet/hail this year.

 

I tested them before I put them up and every one worked. Now that they're up (you're ahead of me, aren't you?) at least a dozen of them are faulty.

[navybankerteacher]

1 hour ago, Colin_Cameron said:

We have snow forecast for later this week so I decided to take advantage of the (mostly) dry weekend and get the christmas lights up on a tree in the garden. Not ready to switch them on yet but at least I won't be climbing ladders in the snow/sleet/hail this year.

 

I tested them before I put them up and every one worked. Now that they're up (you're ahead of me, aren't you?) at least a dozen of them are faulty.

I take dismal comfort to learn that the “Light Law” does not only apply in Connecticut - mine always test fine indoors, with about 10% going on strike once in place outside and turned on.   

 

Anyway, I finished ALL my Christmas shopping this past weekend - having finally perfected my shoeless shopping approach towards the dark side f the season.   While at it, I also ordered birthday gifts for my three January granddaughters as well as my twin sons.   (Sorry for bragging about it on a cruise site, but I like to tell someone - and my wife will kill me if I tell her.)

[Host Hattie]

@navybankerteacher that's very impressive, I haven't done anything !

We bought new outside lights last year but Mr HH won't put them up until December. There's an item on our Community Council agenda this month to discuss Christmas lights in the village so it will be interesting to see what our Chair is proposing.

[Bigmike911]

With regard to outdoor Christmas lights. There apparently is a competition to see who can have the most lights on their houses in my community. I have already seen signs offering to put up lights.  I go with the less is more theory. A battery powered lit wreath that hangs on the front door, and comes on automatically at 5 pm for 6 hours.

 

But the indoors will be bedecked with Christmas treasures, a 12 foot in the dining room tree, my complete collection of Harrods Christmas Bear resin Ornaments now numbering 22 (1999 to 2020) in the great bookcase, and my collection of Hallmark Lionel Model Train ornaments from the last 30 years on the mantle. This year I got a dozen new Halcyon Days Christmas Baubles for the tree. Since I could not get to London because of the virus, London comes to me via DHL.

[navybankerteacher]

Outdoors, we just drape our azalea bushes with mini white lights.  My favorite are the small battery powered electric candles in every window which automatically turn on at 4:00 PM and off at midnight (or any 8 hour stretch of your choice - the 4 to midnight setting works for our latitude/longitude).

 

A tree , of course. (Fortunately no longer adhering to the tradition I got from my father and passed along to my lot:  the tree appears after the children go to sleep on Christmas Eve - a damn long night!)

[Underwatr]

Just cancelled plans to travel from Pennsylvania to North Carolina for Thanksgiving due to the increasing COVID risk. I also won't visit my stepson & his family for T-Day for the same reason.

[Lanky Lad]

15 hours ago, Underwatr said:

Just cancelled plans to travel from Pennsylvania to North Carolina for Thanksgiving due to the increasing COVID risk. I also won't visit my stepson & his family for T-Day for the same reason.

That must have been a hard decision but better safe than sorry.

 

Parts of Scotland have gone into a form of lockdown until 11 December at the earliest.  Our figures are going the right way but still have a long way to go.

[Kynance]

Our neighbourhood VE Day 75 WhatsApp group has morphed into a festive neighbours group, with plans for safe, socially distanced activities during December. However, in advance, we are all being encouraged to put our lights up on November 28, which is a Saturday.  There is normally a very good display locally and the idea is to bring some early seasonal cheer to people as they come home from work, walk their dog or pop to the post box. We don’t normally have much in the way of exterior decorations ourselves  (a door wreath, some plants) but 2 sets of battery operated lights have arrived from John Lewis this morning. I plan to wrap these around our cotoneaster hedge and picea glauca, a small pine growing in a pot. 

[alc13]

19 hours ago, Underwatr said:

Just cancelled plans to travel from Pennsylvania to North Carolina for Thanksgiving due to the increasing COVID risk. I also won't visit my stepson & his family for T-Day for the same reason.

That's too bad, but an understandable decision.  If it helps, signs are promising for a back-to-normal Thanksgiving and holiday season in 2021.

 

Plus, cruising!

[navybankerteacher]

21 hours ago, Underwatr said:

Just cancelled plans to travel from Pennsylvania to North Carolina for Thanksgiving due to the increasing COVID risk. I also won't visit my stepson & his family for T-Day for the same reason.

We have regretfully declined invitation to my daughter's Thanksgiving dinner -- just 2 miles away.  With one son back from college and another back from boarding school  (both until early January) there is to much risk for an inside (not optional this time of year in this latitude) family gathering.  We will connect outside at reasonable distance a couple of times.   A dreary way to observe valued family holidays - but intelligent discipline outweighs gratification in these dismal times.

[LewiLewi]

13 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

We have regretfully declined invitation to my daughter's Thanksgiving dinner -- just 2 miles away.  With one son back from college and another back from boarding school  (both until early January) there is to much risk for an inside (not optional this time of year in this latitude) family gathering.  We will connect outside at reasonable distance a couple of times.   A dreary way to observe valued family holidays - but intelligent discipline outweighs gratification in these dismal times.

We are lucky to be living in Southern Florida for a change.  We will join our daughter and grandsons for Thanksgiving dinner, but will dine outside and far apart. The weather has been perfect so far and we haven’t seen the boys in almost 8 months.

[Host Hattie]

It sounds as if you're all being very sensible, there's talk here now of having tough restrictions before and after Christmas so families can get together on the day.

[Colin_Cameron]

On 11/17/2020 at 6:29 PM, Lanky Lad said:

Parts of Scotland have gone into a form of lockdown until 11 December at the earliest.

Just been talking to my dad on the phone and it’s become clear that the ‘Big Picture’ and the ‘Small Picture’ don’t always align. His local supermarket, within walking distance (but not carrying shopping), which is quiet and has big wide aisles is now out of bounds because it is across the county boundary. In theory he has to drive several miles to the next nearest, which has no car park, tight narrow aisles, and is much more crowded. We’ll see how that goes.

 

He also pointed out that, as long as you follow the procedures, it’s perfectly OK to holiday abroad. But by Friday, for the vast majority, it will be illegal to drive to the airport.

 

We’ve had a miserable couple of days with snow forecast tonight. Time to get back into the indoor pursuits. I keep avoiding editing cruise videos and have several years to catch up on.

 

But today was Family Tree Day. I’m fascinated by what my ancestors got up to:

Two brothers that married two sisters, in a double wedding!

A brother and two sisters (surname Campbell), that married a sister and two brothers ( yep, also called Campbell)!

An uncle and his two nephews that all married women with the same surname. Coincidence? More research revealed that the women were born in Scotland, the Falkland Islands, and Texas. But, yes, they were sisters. Further digging showed that a niece married the women’s brother!

When you find a man with a wife called Lillias Walker Henderson, and a daughter called Lillias Walker Henderson, the automatic assumption is that the daughter was named after her mother. But my little antenna were twitching, their ages were too close. It turns out that after the death of his first wife he married someone with exactly the same name as his daughter. The two were both named after their grandmother. Wife and daughter were cousins!

 

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. (Names have been changed to protect the guilty because, yes, marrying your niece was illegal at the time - actually his late wife’s niece, but still illegal)

 

Still nobody rich or famous though.

[navybankerteacher]

Grim signs - New York schools closed again, tightening limitations across the board, and expectations of an increasing surge of infections - and we are now past the quarter million death toll;  while many local governments still avoid common sense mandates.  

 

I am as concerned by the attitudes of my of my fellow citizens as I am about the plague ——. which they seem to hope they can ignore into non-existence.

[Lanky Lad]

23 hours ago, Colin_Cameron said:

Just been talking to my dad on the phone and it’s become clear that the ‘Big Picture’ and the ‘Small Picture’ don’t always align. His local supermarket, within walking distance (but not carrying shopping), which is quiet and has big wide aisles is now out of bounds because it is across the county boundary. In theory he has to drive several miles to the next nearest, which has no car park, tight narrow aisles, and is much more crowded. We’ll see how that goes.

I thought there would be someone with that sort of problem. 

 

Now there is talk of opening up for Christmas then shutting down again afterwards.  I am not sure that is a price worth paying.

[Bigmike911]

Lets spend as much effort on getting the vaccines approved, manufactured, distributed and dispensed as is spent on lock downs, and issuing edicts based on guesses, and we can get this behind us. I follow the Texas Department of Health and Human services Covid stats, and while cases (as expressed as positives from tests) are in the up tick, the vast majority of those testing positive are under age 40, and so far the hospitalizations are still down. Interestingly they also publish detailed weekly and cumulative stats from all of the school districts in the state, and the infection rates are extremely low and the number of cases traced to in school exposure are miniscule.

[navybankerteacher]

2 hours ago, Bigmike911 said:

Lets spend as much effort on getting the vaccines approved, manufactured, distributed and dispensed as is spent on lock downs, and issuing edicts based on guesses, and we can get this behind us. I follow the Texas Department of Health and Human services Covid stats, and while cases (as expressed as positives from tests) are in the up tick, the vast majority of those testing positive are under age 40, and so far the hospitalizations are still down. Interestingly they also publish detailed weekly and cumulative stats from all of the school districts in the state, and the infection rates are extremely low and the number of cases traced to in school exposure are miniscule.

While some statistics might seem promising - the hard facts need to be understood:  there are now almost 20,500 COVID-dead Texans, 193 more than just yesterday, with 20,500 more confirmed infections since yesterday. Both infections and deaths have been curving up since mid-September.

 

Our local leaders need to play hardball:  failure to accept, and comply with, known precautions kills your neighbors.  

 

Lockdowns buy time. It will still be a matter of months before wide-spread vaccinations start taking effect, and the coming winter simply adds risk.

[alc13]

Texas is in the middle of the pack as far as numbers of infections go, and by pack I mean US states.  Globally, the US is doing by far the worst at containing the virus, although the mortality rate here is better than many.  The absolute number of deaths, as opposed to the rate, is horrendous.  Masks and distancing work to limit the spread, but the propensity of humans to act against their own self-interest is well-documented. 

[Bigmike911]

It was reported last night that Pfizer will seek emergency authorization for approval today, Friday 20th November. If approved, and it looks likely the US Military will begin to distribute the first of one hundred million doses as early as the first week in December. Moderna the other US Vaccine is expected to follow Pfizer and they have produced one hundred million doses as well. Each patient will have to have two doses of the Pfizer and one of the Moderna. Progress!!

[LewiLewi]

1 hour ago, Bigmike911 said:

It was reported last night that Pfizer will seek emergency authorization for approval today, Friday 20th November. If approved, and it looks likely the US Military will begin to distribute the first of one hundred million doses as early as the first week in December. Moderna the other US Vaccine is expected to follow Pfizer and they have produced one hundred million doses as well. Each patient will have to have two doses of the Pfizer and one of the Moderna. Progress!!

Our doctor told us not to expect a vaccination until April at the earliest, and we are in the “older” age group. In the meantime, we will continue to follow the science; masks, social distancing, avoiding groups. We will be joining our family’s Thanksgiving dinner on Face time this year.

[Host Hattie]

Happy Friday everyone, it certainly looks like good news for several of the vaccines in development. Our First Minister wouldn't speculate on when they might be available but it's being widely reported that the first group could be vaccinated before Christmas.

A mass testing trial is starting in one of the worst hit areas in the South Wales valleys tomorrow. Their numbers have already fallen as a result of the firebreak but it's hoped this will help reduce them further.

Mr HH is working and the weather forecast isn't great (again) so I will be finishing the new series of The Crown and catching up with friends virtually.

[navybankerteacher]

Just ordered a couple of Atlantic lobsters - to pick up Wednesday for our Thanksgiving dinner.   Hardly worth the effort to do the traditional turkey for just the two of us - and then be handling leftovers for a week or so.  Besides, I cannot help thinking that if those Pilgrims had brought along some competent commissary people, they would not have had to settle for local wild fowl.

[Bigmike911]

I have begun to modify my travel plans. I had booked a westbound T/A from Hamburg for November 2021, in the event that I could not travel on my July 22, 2021 westbound. With the good news about the vaccine, I am hoping that I can do July 2021, so I rebooked the November to an August 2022 from Hamburg to NYC. I would much rather travel in August than November. The 2022 voyages just came up so I grabbed one. 

[Bigmike911]

31 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Just ordered a couple of Atlantic lobsters - to pick up Wednesday for our Thanksgiving dinner.   Hardly worth the effort to do the traditional turkey for just the two of us - and then be handling leftovers for a week or so.  Besides, I cannot help thinking that if those Pilgrims had brought along some competent commissary people, they would not have had to settle for local wild fowl.

NBT I think you might have just insulted my ancestor Isaac Allerton who was a Pilgrim. Seriously, the Lobsters are always a good choice. I have made it a point to have two steamed lobster tails on the last night of any QM2 voyage. I just got a call from Willliams Sonoma telling me that they had to substitute a non certified organic, (for the ordered certified organic) pre-brined fresh Turkey to be delivered Tuesday. Apparently the certification for the farm did not come in soon enough.  The left overs don't last for more than one day around my abode. So its a traditional Thanksgiving in Magnolia, TX this year 339 years after the first one.