22 Foxhole East

kerri_gt

There is a maccy ds and kfc in the same little retail park by his work on an industrial estate. Its used by lots of lorry drivers who sometimes overnight in the roads for deliveries and the mess is atrocious. It was lovely and clear during lockdown and now back to filth and packaging in the verges and gutters everywhere. 

The kiwi berries sound interesting,  may have to investigate those. 

Baileys_Babe

One of the upsides of lockdown has been the lack of litter.

Jellytotts

If your pumpkins aren't already twice the size of a tennis ball (variety dependant) then they'll not do anything now.  Mine are curing on the vine and almost ready to be picked.

f0xh0les

Baileys_Babe said:

One of the upsides of lockdown has been the lack of litter.

Not with us, as we are not allowed anyone in the house or garden, the parks have taken the brunt of social gatherings, and the amount of things just left behind, and masks abandonned, is disgusting.

Baileys_Babe

f0xh0les said:

Baileys_Babe said:

One of the upsides of lockdown has been the lack of litter.

Not with us, as we are not allowed anyone in the house or garden, the parks have taken the brunt of social gatherings, and the amount of things just left behind, and masks abandonned, is disgusting.

It is the same around here, no socialising in private houses or gardens. But thankfully the litter has been a lot less than previously. An absence of fast food wrappers and sweet papers has been great. It will be interesting to see what happens when the schools go back, as many children use the lane we live on to walk to school. 

f0xh0les

Ok now I am officially anxious about the kids going back to school.  I hate the whole 'back to school' thing, the school run drives me insane. but I am as prepared as I can be.  So now I am just annoying myself, and trying not to drive everyone else totally insane.

The laundry has been done and is on the line drying - apples have been stuffed and baked, and apples have been crumbled and cooked. all before 10am. But I have now worried myself into immobility and I am on the sofa with The Masked Singer US (it is tat and I absolutely love it) and a cup of tea, and am trying not to  let anyone know how much of a basket case I really am.

greenbee

Can you take the kids' temperatures when the get back from school and refuse to let them in if they're too high?

In all seriousness, if you have concerns, put a routine in place so that anything that they have taken out of the house is either washed, disinfected or quarantined when they come back. My brother is a medic and has been working throughout. They're going to use a version of his routine for the kids when they go back (without the getting changed into scrubs when he arrives at work and back into his own clothes when he's done). So they'll get dressed and go to school, no longer taking anything with them as homework etc. will be online. When they get home they'll remove shoes and sanitise hands, then strip off so everything goes into the WM as soon as they arrive, and they then go straight upstairs to have showers. They're going to hate all the extra showers and hair washing as they're both at the soap-dodging stage... It does mean extra laundry, but only needs a quick wash and I don't think anyone will notice the lack of ironing... 

If you want more (rational) info, there's a Canadian infectious diseases expert called Abdhu Sharkaway who you can find on FB who has been talking about the risks/issues/mitigations, and how he's made the decisions about sending his own kids back to school. It might help reassure you, and give you ideas about what you can do to reduce the risk other than building an anti-viral airlock and sending them to school in biohazard suits... 

Baileys_Babe

As always @greenbee you talk a lot of sense, thank you.
@foxholes you are not a basket case, you are a loving caring mother, 🤗 

f0xh0les

Thanks @greenbee I can control all of that stuff, so I am ok with it.  I would hose them down with disinfectant before allowing them in the front gate to be honest!  But the attitude of a lot of people round here, is that we are being 'punished' by having the lockdown extended until 11th Sept  - and let's face it, they have been 'avoiding' the rules anyway - if they needed childcare and they had to work - the kids all got sent round to the grandparents, or they were left home alone and in and out of friend's houses who had parents who have done the same.  That is why the infection rate here has not gone down - by that I mean it has come down 2/3rds, but we are STILL the 4th highest infection rate in the country with 51 cases per 100,000 -  unlike  ( just for example) where  @crazy_cat_lady lives,  where it is 7 per 100,000 -  there is a nice site called Centre for Cities - with nice easy to understand figures.

https://www.centreforcities.org/data/coronavirus-cases-uk-cities-large-towns/

You can make sure your kids stick to the rules, but it is other people who are not - I had one older chap (in his 70's and refusing to wear a mask) say to me it was all a hoax, he did not know anyone who had died, so why should he have been made to stay indoors all this time.  He did not care anymore, if there was another lockdown he would not be following the rules.  And that is the general feeling of nearly all the people I am coming across.   So no wonder the rate is not going down any further. 

I am borrowing trouble, on a Sunday afternoon,  it feels like the night before school starts.  I will just have to remember to dose them with anti-histamine before they go to school every day, or they will be sent home for  having a  persistant  cough (again).  They are young, fit, and healthy.  Me and dh are well on the way to being the lower end of overweight.  So we are low risk.  It just feels like madness.

crazy_cat_lady

I have no idea how the infection rate in my area is as low as it is. People round here are flouting the rules as much as anyone in Le'shire by the sounds of things. I am beyond fed up of gangs of young 'uns meeting up and playing about, and older people that seem to think that mask wearing does not apply to their nose. My bestie has a mask that says something like 'cover your nose as well you fool'. Interesting to note that the council I live in is that low - however the council I work in has a rate of 15 cases per 100000 and is appearing on the radar. Just in time for me to go back to work.
Having worked in risk management prior to becoming a teacher - I was always ridiculed for being 'health and safety obsessed'. However, I am at the point now where I am happy to take the risk of going to work and sending my kids to school as long as they follow the measures that I have put in place for them (mainly very regular handwashing and being outdoors wherever possible), with me reviewing my own lockdown measures weekly and seeing how it goes. I think that there is a real risk of catching something, but the fear is that we don't know how serious it could be. I will do my best to reduce the risks to me and mine without stopping life altogether. I am reassured that whilst infections are still increasing, deaths are decreasing, and I'm hoping that I have a sensible rather than foolish approach to restarting our lives next month.