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What changes do you hope will be permanent?


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Tank's thread about moving to an apartment in January and now house hunting made me think, what do you like about how society has changed and what would you like to be permanent?

My volunteer meetings being online is amazing. Why should I have to leave my house for this ever again? I just did an all-day outdoor training for Girl Scouts at home (ok, so maybe it should've been in person but it was super convenient, and I'm the backup, not the primary). My 3x monthly volunteer meetings for Girl Scouts and PTSA being online mean I can turn my camera off and tune out when someone is yammering on about something not important instead of clock watching. It's also made some groups stop catering to the stay-at-home moms who want a 10 AM meeting while us working moms say dude I am working then. More access is better!

Working from home isn't bad but might make us re-evaluate our private school situation and possibly our soccer situation. At least, I am feeling less pressure to figure out a (emotionally safe) daycare for my son and less pressure to have him conform to the private school's image. My daughter probably needs to stay there because she is happy and supported, but it might end up being a hassle. Unfortunately we are putting just as many miles on our cars but hopefully less people will have to do that! My husband really wants to move to a literal island and I told him no way unless traffic is greatly reduced.

Masks suck but I'm used to them and more willing to wear them. I also hope that our culture stops celebrating the workplace hero that comes to work sick and spreads their plague everywhere. Work from home if you have a deadline!

Also, any psychological meeting being virtual is awesome. We did 4 months of parent training for my son and it was so much better being at home than worrying about how to find childcare for our kids during this intensive class. Weve met with therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and even nutritionists to support our kids during this time and I actually feel like it has provided better access for those services. Telehealth for the win!

 

Virtual school can fuck right the hell off, though.

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I hope school goes back to normal but I'm all for working at home. I don't even have all my equipment--I left my docking station and dual monitors in the office and have just been plugging my laptop into my home monitor. It'd be much easier with all that stuff here, but frankly I don't have the room. Even without that I'd still rather work from home.

Also having a built in excuse to not have to go places/do things/see people, but still be able to do it when and how you want to, that I can keep forever.

One hundred percent with you on school needing to get back to normal though. Good Lord.

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I really hope to be able to continue having many virtual research meetings.  Meeting via Zoom has become so commonplace that it is now easy to meet up with my former students to work on research that has been lagging behind for a few years.  I believe we will be able to continue to get work done when we can easily meet every few weeks to get us to make progress.  I also really like talking with all of them.

It would also be nice to be able to have occasional zoom meetings with college friends who I now live halfway across the country from. 

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Working from home. It's just a shame that it took this virus for us to collectively get it through our heads that most of these desk jobs can be done from home. I've been working for my current company that way for two months and it's been great.

The sterilization procedures that most restaurants, gyms, and other places for public gatherings are routinely doing will likely continue, I'd imagine, which is a good thing. What I hope does not continue is designated seating with mandatory social distancing. Human beings need to congregate and meet new people; getting sick will always be a risk when doing so.

I disagree with Destiny Skywalker about wearing masks as the new norm, but where I do agree with her is in that I hope companies become more flexible with their sick time, even offering work-from-home options as an alternative. Don't get everyone else sick! The masks can go to hell and should not be mandatory, but if you want to wear one, by all means.

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Anything that keeps people out of my space, I am cool with keeping. I already worked from home mostly. 

My kid needs to go back to school, just purely from a mental health aspect.

Masks-- I mean, most asian cultures already make a habit of wearing one when they are sick. Gross white people should adopt this.

One thing I will miss-- I can cross LA in 20 minutes these days.

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Oh, one thing I have found great: Masks have been helping with my allergies when I am out on walks.  I have bought a few nice cloth masks to wear when going out for walks either by myself or with my wife when we don't plan on being near anyone else.  Last spring, my allergies always started acting up like crazy when we went on long 3+ mile walks most days, but now it seems like mainly indoor allergens, which I can control more easily, causing me issues.  I had worn N95 masks for mowing the lawn before all of this, but it had never occurred to me to wear anything when just going outside otherwise.  The masks I got are quite comfortable and are actually especially nice now that it is also getting colder.  I can keep so much of head warm now when outside in the cold.  That part of this is great.

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Also people can keep their sick kids home. January soccer was disgusting with all the coughing and hacking. They can miss a practice.

I don't know if masks will become a norm, but its proving fairly effective at my kid's school. Cases are popping up and classrooms are quarantining, but they aren't spreading.

Also, as an HVAC person, good ventilation matters. We still aren't eating at restaurants.

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I think without a doubt mask wearing during flu season, etc will be much more embraced and common once things get back to normal. I can totally see myself and my son wearing masks out in public if we are sick or even if the flu bug is going around and we want to protect ourselves from it. And I’m not one of those mask lunatics. But like Tank said, I think it is a good idea for more people to adopt this, and I think this pandemic will do just that.

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I just wonder if all this mask stuff will have negative effects on the development of immunities. They say the worst thing you can do is sterilize kids, not letting them touch things with their bare hands and so forth, because they will end up with weaker-than-average immune systems.

I'm not speaking about COVID, obviously, just more normal things like the common cold. I'm not doctor or biologist, though. Just wondering.

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I love this whole social distancing in public thing. LOVE. IT. I want people 6 feet away from me in public at all times. And masks and shields and distance has cut back on inane small talk. Love that too. 

I also hope companies realize that there aren't many good reasons to bar people from working at home. 

I'm also starting to enjoy some of these volunteer meetings via Zoom. I miss some of them being in-person since that's when I got to hang out with my friends and spend 3+ hours on a 1 hour meeting. But I kinda like having the others on Zoom. I have at least 4-6 meetings a month, and I like that I now know I don't even have to wear pants to one if I don't want to. 

I know that kids need to go back to school and all, but I do kinda want to see our education system implode. About like I want to see our government implode in general. I just think we could do better starting from scratch. But realistically I do want you guys to be done with that unnecessary stress. 

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3 hours ago, Jacen123 said:

Oh, one thing I have found great: Masks have been helping with my allergies when I am out on walks.  I have bought a few nice cloth masks to wear when going out for walks either by myself or with my wife when we don't plan on being near anyone else.  Last spring, my allergies always started acting up like crazy when we went on long 3+ mile walks most days, but now it seems like mainly indoor allergens, which I can control more easily, causing me issues.  I had worn N95 masks for mowing the lawn before all of this, but it had never occurred to me to wear anything when just going outside otherwise.  The masks I got are quite comfortable and are actually especially nice now that it is also getting colder.  I can keep so much of head warm now when outside in the cold.  That part of this is great.

My husband also wore N95 masks for dirty yard work and any time he had to do woodwork. I'm actually thinking of getting him one of those valved masks for this stuff instead because one of our soccer friend's dad is a kitchen/bath reno guy and he wears them for work. I like the idea of something washable for him instead of disposable masks.

I wouldn't mind seeing our education program upended, either. Its a mess 

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9 hours ago, Zerimar Nyliram said:

I just wonder if all this mask stuff will have negative effects on the development of immunities. They say the worst thing you can do is sterilize kids, not letting them touch things with their bare hands and so forth, because they will end up with weaker-than-average immune systems.

I'm not speaking about COVID, obviously, just more normal things like the common cold. I'm not doctor or biologist, though. Just wondering.

Mask wearing, especially when sick or during periods of widespread illness, is already popular in some Asian countries, and I haven’t seen any indication that those countries are worse than the US. In fact, from what I’ve seen, they have better health than us.

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I have a few coworkers who have opined how quarantines and mask wearing will keep us from having strong immune systems. Feel free to keep licking doorknobs, friends. I think extreme cleanliness is not the answer, but as a society we've gotten pretty disgusting and lazy and that has allowed some serious illnesses to spread. I think its time we started taking it seriously. Our office started to get disgusting because they cut back on janitorial service to save money. They said you guys can do it yourself. But then provided minimal cleaning supplies and equipment (like a crappy non-electric push vacuum for an office space meant to seat 150 people). Here's some Clorox wipes, though. The new normal at work will be unassigned seating (I am not a fan) because you're only there 2 days a week, and sanitizing your work station every day (not a bad idea).

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3 hours ago, Darth Ender said:

Hopefully the new ski reservation system will keep all the Jerrys and gapers off the slopes this winter.  Please god....

 

Ugh, I've given up on skiing this year but haven't broken it to my daughter yet. I might try Mt. Baker but Snoqualmie and Stevens are so overcrowded already due to the fucking Epic and Ikon passes that there is no way I will be able to get a reservation.

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1 hour ago, Destiny Skywalker said:

Ugh, I've given up on skiing this year but haven't broken it to my daughter yet. I might try Mt. Baker but Snoqualmie and Stevens are so overcrowded already due to the fucking Epic and Ikon passes that there is no way I will be able to get a reservation.

I had the Ikon last year and the Epic this year.  Vail Resorts (Epic) announced they are doing a reservation system to limit the crowds...maybe they will have that at your local spots.  

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They are... but I haven't bought a pass because we struggle with going outside of lessons and the crowds were so bad last year because of the Ikon passes. Everyone was frustrated. Operations and parking were terrible. They never groomed and some of the runs were absolutely unskiable, even for pros. My favorite run was basically a vertical drop on nasty crust so there was no way to catch an edge. I need to find a new home mountain but those passes have taken over the area.

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8 minutes ago, Destiny Skywalker said:

They are... but I haven't bought a pass because we struggle with going outside of lessons and the crowds were so bad last year because of the Ikon passes. Everyone was frustrated. Operations and parking were terrible. They never groomed and some of the runs were absolutely unskiable, even for pros. My favorite run was basically a vertical drop on nasty crust so there was no way to catch an edge. I need to find a new home mountain but those passes have taken over the area.

Some of the places here in CO are starting to opt out.  Basically Vail Resorts gives these places like $20 bucks for every guest and the smaller resorts are finding it isn't worth it. 

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On 11/2/2020 at 12:22 PM, Spider-Man said:

I like how people, in my experience, are doing everything they can to avoid each other in grocery stores. I’d like that to stay a thing. I don’t know you, bub, stop talking to me about what reindeer sausage I prefer.

Funny joke, but that's one thing I don't like. Human beings should interact and acknowledge one another's humanity. We have many unique problems in American culture, but this this, I think is one of our virtues (unless you're a New Yorker).

Honestly, I'm not afraid of getting sick. It's not that I think I can't get sick, but if it happens, it happens; and if I'm the one who's sick, I do try my best to avoid going out as much as possible and getting close to people.

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