How is everyone in the current situation? General Chat

Hey all. It's been a while since I checked in anywhere on here. The COVID situation is crazy in the US as you all know. I live in Maine and we saw an increase from 20-30 cases per day over the summer to almost 800 per day over the winter in what seemed like overnight. The cases per day has dropped again to about 250-300 but that is still too high for my liking. What concerns me the most is the data on asymptomatic spread. At least with the flu it is obvious who has it.

I hope all of you take care and stay safe.

I am glad that the frames were adjusted and hope it helps. Did you have a new sight test? I do not know how long it takes to have new lenses made but if you have to have them, and your current frames re-glazed with the new lenses, would you be able to manage without your spectacles during that time.

Presumably you have to wear your spectacles when driving though, which would cause problems if you had to leave them. I know that my driving licence stated that I was only permitted to drive while wearing my spectacles - I had to have a sight test before it was issued, although I did not have to take a test as I had a British driving licence. I do not know about now but I did not have to have a sight test before I got my driving licence in England and there was no mention of having to wear spectacles when driving mentioned on my British licence. In those days you just had to be able to read a licence plate a certain distance away.

And now for the latest - this is from today's Times of Israel.

Heaven help us all.

Hi Jessica - good to see you again. I have just looked up the size of Main compared to the whole of Israel.

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Your 800 new cases a day would be wonderful here - we were hovering around between 8-10,000 new cases a day here at the beginning of the month and the figures are only slowly going down even though we were supposedly in full lockdown until 7am today.

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I haven’t made an appointment yet for an eye exam. I think the insurance a have now will pay for the exam ( but not the lenses). I have to look it up. Believe I can have the new lenses ordered and when they come in I go into the office and they will switch out the lenses while I wait. They have the specs on my specs so the shape will be correct (sorry I couldn’t help myself with the easy pun).

Nice pun Marc! OK, my suggestion is this. Check if the insurance will pay for the sight test first, obviously, but wait and see how your eyes are doing for another week or so before deciding to go ahead with the sight test, as long as you are not having any further problems and are OK.

Two reasons for that - firstly, although not the main reason behind my thinking, is that now your frames have been correctly aligned, you will be able to tell if that helps. Secondly, and the main reason, is that with such bad concussion that you obviously had, there is a possibility that the result of a test now might differ from a later one as the after-effects of the concussion finally clear.

It is good though that new lenses can be made and just fitted into your frames to replace the current ones while you are there.

@Malka Most of the population of Maine is in the southern part of the state. That said, I understand what you are saying.

@Malka, That seems like a good suggestion to possibly wait. I’ll talk to the physical therapist on Tuesday about that and see what she thinks. Unfortunately my appointments this week aren’t with the PT I’ve seen every time but one. My right lense is quite scratched as well as some of the coating has been removed and it’s the right eye I’ve had more trouble with and it seems like I may have had a little more impact on the right side, as my eyeglass frame cut me under that right eye. The left lense has some scratches too and I’ve had these glasses for about 21 months, so I’m due for another eye exam soon anyhow. Thank you for your thoughtful response, I really appreciate it

I have just checked population figures of both Maine and Israel and our population is probably around seven times higher but in a much smaller area. I had initially looked at the area and not the population numbers, which was wrong of me. It still makes our figures look shocking though and I am absolutely disgusted the way things are going here.

@who owns who - I was just trying to think what I would do in your situation Marc - and I would definitely not jump into having a sight test and possibly a change of prescription until I was sure that my sight had settled.

But I have spare spectacles and you do not, and wearing spectacles with damaged lenses is not good for your eyes at the best of times. I know that even a speck of dust or a smear on one of my lenses bothers me and I seem to be forever cleaning them, so it sounds like the right lens being so scratched that some of the coating has gone, could be why you have had more trouble with that eye. So I reckon that you will have to get new lenses whether you need a new prescription or not, but really think that if you can, you should hold fire for another couple of weeks to let your eyes settle a bit more.

And, if possible and you can see enough without them, to leave your specticles off for a while every so often, to stop your eyes from straining to look through the scratches on the lenses.

What did I say in my post #879 yesterday?

Looks like I was not wrong - as of 2pm today numbers registered so far are already higher than yesterday's numbers.

Our numbers are always higher after the weekend, Juli. The explanation here is that many weekend figures don't register until a weekday

Chris - our weekend is from Friday mid-afternoon and Shabbat. Sunday is not the weekend, it is the first day of our working week. Working on the premise that figures are higher after the weekend, it would logical to expect that yesterday's figures would be higher and today's figures [Monday] would be lower than yesterday, not higher, as they currently are.

Yesterday malls and some stores opened, contravening the current restrictions. Yesterday only 120,000 shots were given compared to the 200,000 or more doses that were administered every day in the central weeks of January.

Carrying on this way of course the figures are going to go up. And up.

Yesterday's numbers [Monday] were double those on Sunday, and already at midday today the numbers are nearly 60% higher than yesterday's total. I do not think that over 10,000 ultra-Orthodox men attending the funeral of a top Rabbi yesterday will do much to reduce the numbers of new infections. Of course it was an illegal gathering but the police were unable to stop them as they forced their way through the barriers.

The deceased Rabbi was infected at another illegal gathering - a wedding with thousands of guests - just one of many that have been happening among the ultra-Orthodox section, so how many others were infected at that wedding, and will have been among that massive crowd at the funeral yesterday? I dread to think.

This country has spent more days in lockdown than any other country in the world. Our vaccination numbers were the highest per capita in the world. And yet we are now rapidly going down the drain.

It seems as if family groups have been meeting up in the city shopping centre car parks. A shock for them this weekend as the police were there to issue £200 fixed penalty fines for breaching Covid regulations.

I had an eye exam Tuesday. I was told that because of the amount of time since the concussion (5 1/2 weeks) that the exam should be accurate. The Dr made a few very slight adjustments to my prescription, it had been 21 months since my last eye exam. I could have taken my prescription elsewhere and just gotten new lenses but decided to get new frames as well. I sometimes feel it’s just like being at the car dealership buying a car. Anyhow I upgraded the material the lenses are made of from my current ones and the new frames are much lighter, and also a different shape.. More rounded, my current ones are rather rectangular. I hope I’m happy with them, I spent 33% more than I was planning. They said approximately two weeks

I hope you don't have to wait too long for your new spectacles. It is a pity you had to spend more than you wanted but I suppose the one good thing about getting new frames instead of having your current ones re-glazed is that you will have your current ones as a spare - in case, heaven forfend, that you do a nasty with your new ones! Even if they are not perfect, at least you will have the old ones in case of emergency.

Are you feeling more back to normal now?

What happens if the covidiots don't pay the fines? They seem to have been dishing out fines here like Smarties - massive fines for those holding the large illegal gatherings, but people are refusing to pay them.

Incidentally, a week or so ago I was accused of being an anti-vaxxer who was part of the reason the virus keeps spreading, and that I had blood on my hands because of all the deaths I would cause by refusing to have the virus. This was on a discussion on a chat board where everyone knew why I could not have the vaccination, and the person concerned [in Canada, I believe] also had a go at my country, A new member who has now been kicked off by the site owner, as politics, religion, and insulting other members are not allowed. But I must admit that it really upset me at the time.

Gary has just had his vaccine - yay. He lives in an assisted living complex of 80 individual flats within a block with carers on hand 24/7 should they need help. They came and vaccinated the whole block 2 weeks ago but missed Gary because they haven't yet fitted a flashing doorbell to his flat and the carers didn't want to just go in with their key. I was furious, the care manager was also furious as it happened on her day off.

Anyway, when they rang and booked us in last week, I explained what had happened and they sent 2 nurses today to give him his vac.

I can't tell you how relieved I am to know that all three of us who are at a bigger risk are now on the road to protection. Still a way to go yet, but it's good to know the journey has begun

I am so pleased for you Chris - every time I hear that one of my friends [online as well as in RL] have had their vaccinations I breathe a sigh of relief. {{{hugs}}}