A FAMILIAR RANT

       I have written about my dislike for call centers  before this rant. We had a few issues with call centers this week. One would think that banks would be somewhat careful about the service they give but it's not the case.  Yesterday we waited 52 minutes to have someone answer. Then they couldn't answer our question so we waited another 20 minutes to get someone who could give an answer. You have to wait too long for a call center to answer. I would be willing to wait 5 or 10 minutes but any more is just plane rude . The company does not deserve your business. Then people working in call centers are very poorly trained and do not know much about the products. 

      Okay. That was mild. 

      What are we going to do about this problem. They seem to have us as it seems to be all we can get. I think most communication is going on line. 

      Today, I met up with a completely new internet and phone problem.

       Our provincial government cheerfully told us that today we could make appointments for covid-19 vaccinations. Two systems were to be used...the phone and the internet. 

      This was meant to register all the people 75 and over in this province. There are about 290000 of us.

      Things were to open at 8:00 AM and they did. At 8:01 it was reported that the system was overloaded and you could not get on. I tried off and on all day and never got on. They registered 5000 people today. At that rate it will take 58 days just to register us and then they have to find an appointment for us. 

    If it takes this long to do the elderly what will happen to the other people.

     The government is just not willing to hire more people for the call center or provide more servers to register people on line. 

    What ever happened to good old face to face contact? 

HORROR OF HORRORS

      Like most people in the world I have been anxiously awaiting my turn for a covid shot. It doesn't look like we will get shots here for a while as they have made no plans for administering the vaccine which they don't have. 

     Like most people (well maybe not most people) (well maybe just me) I thought that if you got the shot you were home free and would be immune from covid for maybe a year or longer. Not quite so fast Red.

     I was listening to a radio interview of the woman who is the Canadian rep for one of the drug companies. She said the vaccine is good for and guaranteed for three months. They have no idea how much immunity will be left after a year! That just astounds me. Is there going to be any value for such a short lived period of immunity.? By the time I'm vaccinated a large part of the population will need to be vaccinated again.

    Many people think they have won the lottery once they are vaccinated. Not so fast. You haven't got what you think you have.

    Have we been sold a bill of.... Have we been hiding so much that we have missed information. I will definitely get my shot but it's going to be a little disappointing.

WILL WE LEARN ANYTHING BY GOING THROUGH THIS PANDEMIC?

     As a society , are we going to learn anything by going through the covid pandemic? Will our behavior change in anyway? Will we make a permanent change in something that will influence society in other areas? 

     There is much happening because of covid. We've had to learn about sanitizing . We've had to learn about protection. We've had to be concerned about safety. We've had to learn about responsibility to others. Some of these things have to become a habit. I found the sanitizing a hard habit to learn. I've got it now. Are businesses going to keep sanitizing materials at the entrances as they do now? 

     Will any of these things stick with us once covid is over? 

     Then we have the anti mask people and anti vaxxers. These ideas are mixed up with ideas of freedom and not doing what the government proposes for the good of all of us. Will these people learn anything by going through covid. I think an opportunity has been lost because of political philosophy which supports such lunacy. 

    However, I will not be getting the first vaccines that come out. I think they need a much longer time to be proven safe. I have always got a flu shot since I retired.

     Much has been learned in science by having to study this disease on how to treat it, prevent it, and find antibodies that we can use. I think the scientific developments will pay off  for a long time  in the future. 

   So what I'm thinking tonight is will our behavior change because of covid. I know my hand washing technique has improved. My hand washing used to be more or less wetting my fingers. The thumbs and palms weren't washed. 20 seconds is a long time to wash. I still can't wash for 20 seconds. 

NEW NEIGHBOR IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

     Yes, there's an unrecognizable person in our neighborhood today. Or should I say there's a neighbor who became unrecognizable?

      Well, the neighbor is me!

     In March when things were closed down , I needed a haircut very badly. So things closed down and I was left without a haircut. Barber shops opened May 17 but I didn't want to go. Finally, things got so bad I just had to get a haircut. Hair had grown to below the ears and was curled up on my neck. It was sticking out ll over the place from under my cap. My hair is not straight but it is badly behaved. In other words there are a few " cow licks" and they change daily. So you can understand that I needed a haircut.

    Now the micro Manager offered to cut my hair but I said , "No thanks!"  The Micro Manager had cut my hair for two years in the Arctic...never again!

    So yesterday I got a haircut and I'm sure the neighbors would have a hard time recognizing me.

     So here is my new haircut 

 Mid May and hair was sticking out.

COVID DECISIONS

     The prominent  news lately is "opening up " concerning Covid 19. The opinions are sharply divided. Opening up means having to live by a strict set of rules. However, watching things on the weekend shows that many people are not willing to live by any guidelines. The news showed parks and beaches that were crowded on the weekend.

    I'm of the opinion that we should wait for  things to begin to open up. If we fail in opening up, I think the cost will be tremendous. We will have to close down for a long period of time again. Costs would be added to what we have already spent to fight the virus. 

   So here's my situation. I lead a bird watching group. Spring is an excellent time for birdwatchers with migration and breeding season. We've been missing this excellent time for bird watching.

    So what should I do? Our small city of 100000 has had 37 covid cases. One is still active and no one has died. It's easy to think that there is little risk out there. But we don't know how many cases are out there that we don't know about.

We are allowed groups up to 50 if spaced by 2 meters.

    We decided to not open up our bird watching season. We decided that we couldn't maintain a constant 2 meter distance. Also half of our birders are in the senior classification and one in the eighties (me) . Many times there are six heads close together looking at photos or bird apps. Try getting birders to not have their heads together. Good luck.

    It was a hard decision to make as the activity is outside . However , I would find it tough to take if one if the birders caught the virus from being out birding.

Time for a group photo

Where are all the other birders?

See , heads together

Chickadees come to the hand

Otis the owl who is used for educational purposes.