PSUFrankenstein

She had a little help from me casting, but my daughter reeled in a few fish yesterday.

Feeding the giraffes at elm Elmwood park zoo. Awesome, my daughter loved it

looking forward to seeing how this turns out. I was looking at split boards just for the hell of it the other week and they seem pretty expensive. DIY is a great option if it works out for you

Yes, a few times. One restaurant twice - I called before going just to check the reservation situation and both times they told me there were only 2 or 3 tables occupied. The other place I ate we just stopped in to check the situation before eating there. Again, only a few tables occupied. They seemed to be on top of cleaning more and tables were really spaced apart. Not sure what it'd look like if it was at "full" (25%?) capacity.

As long as the parking lot situation is good and the skiing is acceptable I'm good. I'm hoping to do a trip out west next year or maybe even December but that'll depend on what's happening with covid

That sucks - our power rarely goes out, but my parents have Met-Ed and their power goes out all the time...they're not expected to have power back until Friday or Saturday either. We only got 4 or 5 inches of rain...Some places near Reading got 7 inches or more of rain on Sunday...and another 7+ yesterday. I drove by the Schuylkill River this morning and it was higher than I've seen it in years.

I had a friend that lived at the bottom of college hill near the car wash (shammy shine or whatever). His place flooded all the time, but I think that was from the creek, not the Delaware river

Sorry to hear - I haven't had a dog since I was in high school, but losing them is always tough. He was a cool dog. Have a few pics from blue of him on my phone and my daughter likes to scroll through the pics and point him out.

Exactly. Or parents that can't work from home at all. Luckily my wife's job is pretty flexible and she can work from home most of the time going forward, but I've been back in the office.

Got a message from the day care: "your daughter has a runny nose and coughed a few times. We're not sending her home since it's no big deal, but she can't return after today until those symptoms are gone, or a doctor clears her" Great...so every time she has a runny nose or coughs, my wife or I have to take her to the doctor, pay a co-pay, and listen to the doctor tell us it's just a cold or allergies. The doctor said she may or may not have to get a COVID test...shit, if I got sent home from school every time my nose ran, I would still be in high school. Most of my family has bad allergies, most likely my daughter too

drinks/brunch from 8-12, then skiing 12-4...it could work (not really)

Yep - sickness spreads like crazy in day care, I'm sure it's the same in the schools. Luckily my daughter isn't in regular school yet, so I don't have to worry about virtual learning, etc...but I feel for the people who do, for some people, it's going to be tough if they're not allowed to work from home. We have to get temperatures taken every day at work...now they put in a robot looking machine with a camera that checks your temperature and makes sure you have a mask. If you don't have a mask on, it starts blinking red and yelling at you.

I figured this would happen, but didn't think it would be after the first series. Probably doesn't help that Florida is one of the hotspots right now. Keep us posted...hope you feel better and it's not Covid. My daughter has been back at day care for like 3 weeks and came home Friday with her nose running like crazy. Hopefully not sick and just allergies...but I'm sure they'll send her home if there's any type of illness

We have Comcast/Xfinity internet, but no cable...they sent an email about Peacock, and from what I read, it was free for the base streaming service (which includes commercials and likely not much content), but it was $ 5 a month or so in order to access more stuff. I didn't sign up for it yet...like you, I wasn't sure if it was actually free, plus I'm not sure if I'd even watch it or if I want to add more apps on my phone/tablet

That's my thoughts as well...I'm fine with shutting down the bars and just allowing bars/breweries to sell takeout beer...but then they should really go back to takeout/delivery only for restaurants. Skip making up rules regarding on-site food consumption with alcohol and trying to enforce the rules and just shut things down like it was before.

I think the rule with the food purchase being necessary for alcohol consumption is a little ridiculous. I guess they're trying to target bars that people are going to linger around and socialize, but if a brewery is operating at 25% capacity, has tables spread out for social distancing, and no bar seats, that should be allowed even if no food is available. When I was at Cape May Brewing last month, they had tables and seats spread apart in the outdoor beer garden, and I think they were limiting it to an hour per party, although we showed up like 45 minutes before they closed so that wasn't an issue. They were turning a lot of people away who came in after us.

Most of the ones near Reading have food anyway so those shouldn't be an issue. I think Levante never re-opened for bar service, but their curbside pickup is always packed. I was planning on hitting Lost Tavern or maybe somewhere else when I go to the in-laws later this month, so I'm interested to see what they'll do.

It's required, but the kids don't wear their masks all day...if they think a 2 year old is going to wear a mask for 8 or 10 hours and kids aren't going to play with them or rip them off, they're mistaken. My daughter just went back on Tuesday. Temperature, wellness check, and hand washing is required for the kids to enter the building..no parents are allowed inside. They've always been pretty good about sanitizing anyway, but it's more intense now. Only a few kids can play in the outside play area at a time...then everything is sanitized and another group can come out (each age group has their own playground area anyway). She's in a class of 6 anyway since she's considered an older toddler, but if any illness were to hit the day care, I'm sure it'd spread pretty quick. If we go back to the yellow phase, we'll probably keep her home again.

couple pics from the last week or so...occasionally my wife joins me and is my personal photographer.

Yeah that's on my list to check out next time I'm there. Since everything was so crowded I didn't stop this past time

I drove past The Point when I was out that way fishing last weekend. Parking lot was completely full at like 10pm. I've never been there - if I'm in Somers Point it's usually the Crab Trap or Anchorage Tavern. Yeah, I grew up like 2 miles from there and have been at that pool less than 10 times in my life...it's always been kinda gross unless you go on a weekday morning/early afternoon when the pool is cleaned and crowds are light.

Our CEO sent out an email Friday saying he wanted to start bringing people back to work next week. They also said that in May, but that didn't happen. Most people, at least in accounting, can do most of the stuff from home, so I'm not sure why they want everyone back in the office. I went for a short hike at French Creek Park yesterday with the wife and kid...walked by the pool and there was definitely over 250 people there...I would say closer to 400 if I had to guess. People having cookouts and parties, and the pool was so crowded you couldn't move more than 2 feet without running into someone.

Yeah, no one wants to hang out with me anyway, so sitting with other people isn't a concern As much as I'd like to distance from my wife and kid and enjoy a beer, I don't know that it would go over well. I haven't checked out the outdoor section of this place since last summer, so I'm not sure about the table setups. They also had outdoor furniture set up, but I'm not sure how they'll space that apart. I would think that's probably figured out when I make the reservation.

Yeah I'm not worried about outdoor dining, but I'm thinking places are probably packed...I don't really feel like waiting forever to get food or a table when I can just do takeout and eat outside at home. The brewery a few minutes from my house does take reservations, so I may do that this weekend. Most places around here are first come first serve, no reservations

Where are you in NC? My uncle lives about an hour outside Raleigh in Angier. It's pretty sparsely populated there, although the "Research Triangle" area (Raleigh/Durham/Cary) has a lot of people.