Not as much fun as it used to be

[GoodScout]

Wow. We're in the middle of nowhere Vermont. Our county only has 4 cases per 100,000.
Gillum House's county (Harrison) currently has 1,322 active cases per 100,000. (By comparison, Philadelphia has roughly the same percentage of cases (1,500/100,000).
Even in our refuge here with almost no cases, we're still greeting our guests with masks. Because we know our guests are coming from all over. And we're encouraging them to do the same.
FYI, if you're in the northeast, you can check out how your area is doing via Vermont's tracking map here: https://accd.vermont.gov/covid-19/restart/cross-state-travel If your county is colored red or orange, we have to require you to quarantine in place for 2 weeks before you drive here.
With the numbers starting to explode again, it's just common sense to use common sense, lest we all get shut down again. C'mon folks, we're professionals here.

 

[Arks]

Wow! I've been away for a few days, so when I saw 30+ new posts on this thread this morning, I assumed it was all from a spammer.
I knew this "conversation" was coming, and I'm happy to stay out of it, except to say I'm strongly with the majority.
I spent Friday and Saturday nights at "The Lodge at Mount Magazine". It's a state park at the highest point in Arkansas (almost 3,000 ft.) The state built a big lodge up there and I've always wanted to visit it. Since I had to cancel my August overseas vacation due to C19, I decided to do this trip instead. It was 12 degrees cooler up there than in the valley below!
There were about 60 people staying there over the weekend and I did not see one single person without a mask. I was so proud! Of course it's required to wear one everywhere except in your room, but I figured, being Arkansas, there would be a few resisters. But no, zero.
I was on the top (3rd) floor. There's an elevator and the sign said only 1 person, or family, can ride at a time. I figured that's probably about as safe as being in a stairwell, so I took the elevator. They don't do room service, but I phoned in an order to the restaurant for pickup of all my meals, and enjoyed them on my balcony overlooking the valley and lake far below me.
Saturday I did a 3-hour ATV tour, so that also let me have a nice time while being well distanced from others. It IS possible to get out and enjoy life if you're thoughtful and careful.
Saturday night I watched an interview with the state health director and a couple of other experts. They agreed that, unfortunately, this virus being of the Covid variety like colds and flu, there will probably be no lifetime or herd immunity, just like you don't get lifetime immunity to catching a cold. They say what we have now is going to be the new normal, perhaps for a long time. They'll need to develop a yearly vaccine, like they do for flu now, and getting regular "booster shots" will be what we can expect from now on.
Sigh. I never really wanted to live in a disaster movie, but we're in a real one. Denying it or ignoring it won't do. That's not how reality works.

 

[Arks]

I'm happy to report that today Arkansas's governor imposed a state-wide mask mandate, with significant fines for non-compliance. Way late, but I'm still proud he hasn't been as backward as some other southern governors. For our country's good, and our business's good, we REALLY need to make this thing go away, and mask wearing is a big part of that. Good Americans (a too-rare breed) will do what they're asked to do to help get past this thing.

I'm growing pretty intolerant of the anti-patriots who are actively prolonging it. And replace the word "pretty" with "very".