To Meet or Not to Meet

[briarbuck]

Why are people getting vaccinated then? The reoccurrence rate has been so low it is almost non-existent.

But but but...I know a guy.

Inside, probably not. But outside? Heck yes.

 

[Reggie]

I had the virus in the first few weeks of December. It was no joke! I also buried a friend last Friday who passed from complications from the virus. I am a First Responder and have had the first shot. I often long for peace and tranquility from my day to day life. This is my chance to obtain that. I will be practicing all the precautions until this monster that has killed 400,000 Americans is contained.

 

[mso489]

My wife is energetic and active, but relies on my set of (so-far) working legs and driving to keep going. So I was immediately confronted with the challenge of not infecting her by getting infected. It's not just me and my hot-shot almighty life, although that is dear to me. So I started out this pandemic staring down the barrel, not wanting to make any gratuitous mistakes, exerting effort, and more discipline than I have. Repeat after me: It is not just me, and not just me and the Lord. If you are indifferent to protecting yourself, protect someone else. Okay, I'll shut off the emotion, but just FYI, to take under advisement.

 

[finnian3]

Covid, like Spanish Flu before it, is never going away. In life one must weigh their risks.

 

[olkofri]

If you wanna meet, go meet, but...

• Don't organise or advertise your meet-up via electronic means, such as text messages or suxial media—especially suxial media—or, depending on where you live, you might be likely to find the cops waiting for you at the designated location.
• Make sure all your smoking buddies share the same views on the 'killer virus' as you do. We're now living in the Age of Judas.
• Don't ever be posting pics or videos or comments of your meet-ups on the Internet or sharing them via your phone.
• Point in fact, nowadays, if you wanna communicate or organise, it's best to do it vis-a-vis, even if you have to drive to deliver a verbal message.
• Leave your phone at home: your phone not only tracks you, but listens to you 24/7 (it needs to be on listening mode in order for the Siri, Hey Google, &c. assistant to work, not just because of the lockdown regs).

Me, I'm in the @chasingembers's camp: smoking is not a social thing for me, though I did met up with a fellow forum member back in AD 2017. I've been a hermit for over 10 years, so this 'distancing' thing is something I had been doing every day and didn't affect me. The real impact was in decreased income due to others closing and there being no more work. Heck, my inner curmudgeon was kinda snickering because this last Christmas everyone else was finally as miserable and solitary as I've been for so many Christmases. ?

 

[BROBS]

 

[craig61a]

I’m not trying to be a dick but this is horrible advice. Safe as in how? You can be reinfected.. especially with a mutated strain. Even reinfected with the same one after just a few months. So I’m not sure where you are getting your information.

I don't see him advising anybody, he's just relaying his experience...

 

[chilllucky]

...my inner curmudgeon was kinda snickering...

Is there a non curmudgeonly layer to you?

 

[BROBS]

I don't see him advising anybody, he's just relaying his experience...

Not exactly.

 

[kcghost]

Here in KC and being in the over 70 bracket I'm avoiding covid like it was the plague. Even though the death rate is less than 1 in 50 I just feel safer. Having said that a few friends of mine (all 60+) enjoy a meeting on my open air deck with a screened in portion until it get too cold. We have met in my garage with the door or doors wide open. One of the guys bring over a butane heater and we have a nice time.

 

[finnian3]

Again, I encourage you to meet, but I never said meet in person:]
Maybe it is a tendency in pipe enthusiasts to fly solo?
I think this has made us easy targets of politicians and their agendas?
Many states are banning flavored tobaccos. They say it is aimed at the cheap
stuff popular with some mysterious group of teenagers, yet they write the law
to include all flavored tobacco, cigars and pipe included.
Low hanging fruit is easily picked.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Not exactly.

Which part of "I did" are you struggling to understand? Nowhere in my post did I say "I'd advise everyone ....". My approach isn't for everyone. But it works for me.

 

[olkofri]

Is there a non curmudgeonly layer to you?

Still trying to find it! ?

 

[JOHN72]

Today is the Covid,waht shit they'll send us tomorrow............................¿¿¿¿

 

[olkofri]

Again, I encourage you to meet, but I never said meet in person:]
Maybe it is a tendency in pipe enthusiasts to fly solo?
I think this has made us easy targets of politicians and their agendas?
Many states are banning flavored tobaccos. They say it is aimed at the cheap
stuff popular with some mysterious group of teenagers, yet they write the law
to include all flavored tobacco, cigars and pipe included.
Low hanging fruit is easily picked.

For some pipe smokers, pipe smoking is just something they do, kinda like drinking coffee or a nightcap, so they don't feel the need to meet up with others to talk about pipes, blends, or the latest trend in tampers. Some pipe smokers even get annoyed if you ask them about their pipes or tobacco. When meeting up to smoke and talk, I'd wager the talk tends to be more about other things in life, hence the need to have something in common besides pipes with people you wanna meet up with.

As for being easy targets, well, the war against the 'tobacco disease' is not gonna stop because of the present crisis, it's gonna continued to be waged albeit silently—who really reads all those omnibus bills? Plenty of stuff is getting sneaked in in them.

Last but not least, the criminalisation of normal behaviour with warm and fuzzy excuses and humanitarian hoaxes and self-guilt-inducing phraseology was going strong before it became the new global normal. They can say whatever they want but the wise don't believe their talk because we know what the real deal is. They know that we know, but don't care because they've the pen to write regulations with and the goons to enforce them.

Maybe those are more reasons why so many of us prefer to enjoy our pipes in solitude.

Today is the Covid,waht shit they'll send us tomorrow............................¿¿¿¿

C-20/21 is out there already. The Moderna head honcho is saying endless vaccines is gonna be the future due to all the new strains that are gonna be popping up left and right. As Cardinal Juan Sandoval said in a recent video: va para largo (we're in this for the long haul).

 

[BROBS]

Which part of "I did" are you struggling to understand? Nowhere in my post did I say "I'd advise everyone ....". My approach isn't for everyone. But it works for me.

Then that’s a great thing to keep to yourself. ?

“works for you”? You had Covid and apparently don’t understand that you can catch it again, and that the 2nd time symptoms are magnified.

 

[BROBS]

For some pipe smokers, pipe smoking is just something they do, kinda like drinking coffee or a nightcap, so they don't feel the need to meet up with others to talk about pipes, blends, or the latest trend in tampers. Some pipe smokers even get annoyed if you ask them about their pipes or tobacco. When meeting up to smoke and talk, I'd wager the talk tends to be more about other things in life, hence the need to have something in common besides pipes with people you wanna meet up with.

As for being easy targets, well, the war against the 'tobacco disease' is not gonna stop because of the present crisis, it's gonna continued to be waged albeit silently—who really reads all those omnibus bills? Plenty of stuff is getting sneaked in in them.

Last but not least, the criminalisation of normal behaviour with warm and fuzzy excuses and humanitarian hoaxes and self-guilt-inducing phraseology was going strong before it became the new global normal. They can say whatever they want but the wise don't believe their talk because we know what the real deal is. They know that we know, but don't care because they've the pen to write regulations with and the goons to enforce them.

Maybe those are more reasons why so many of us prefer to enjoy our pipes in solitude.


C-20/21 is out there already. The Moderna head honcho is saying endless vaccines is gonna be the future due to all the new strains that are gonna be popping up left and right. As Cardinal Juan Sandoval said in a recent video: va para largo (we're in this for the long haul).

You are a conspiracy nut ?

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Then that’s a great thing to keep to yourself. ?

“works for you”? You had Covid and apparently don’t understand that you can catch it again, and that the 2nd time symptoms are magnified.

I understand anything is possible. I also can read and the things I've read show the incidence rate of catching it a second time are very rare. Doesn't matter, I follow local regulations by wearing a mask when I go out. But I go out. I play golf 3 times per week, I don't wear a mask while playing and if my opponents are okay with it, I shake hands. I attended the FL get together, soon hands and didn't wear a mask while we were sitting and chatting. If I catch it again and die, been good knowing you. But I'm not sitting around in fear waiting to die.

My advice is to live your life as you feel most comfortable doing. If you would feel uncomfortable being around me, given the way I do things, I would have regret but understand. My additional advice would be to kiss my ass, figuratively of course, to those who don't like how I live.

 

[BROBS]

I understand anything is possible. I also can read and the things I've read show the incidence rate of catching it a second time are very rare. Doesn't matter, I follow local regulations by wearing a mask when I go out. But I go out. I play golf 3 times per week, I don't wear a mask while playing and if my opponents are okay with it, I shake hands. I attended the FL get together, soon hands and didn't wear a mask while we were sitting and chatting. If I catch it again and die, been good knowing you. But I'm not sitting around in fear waiting to die.

My advice is to live your life as you feel most comfortable doing. If you would feel uncomfortable being around me, given the way I do things, I would have regret but understand. My additional advice would be to kiss my ass, figuratively of course, to those who don't like how I live.

Hey I’m not saying to not do what you want.. but coming in a thread saying “well I do this and that” is taken as advice by some people. I know nothing can phase the terminator, but it may affect someone else.

look I’m tired of all this, too. Trust me. I’d like nothing more than to wake up one day and everything be back to “normal”. I just don’t know that it’s ever going to happen like that.

 

[sablebrush52]

If comes down to your calculus for catching Covid, or giving it to others around you. Having had the disease and recovering from it doesn't mean that you can't later be a carrier. And while 400,000+ deaths is sexy to the media, it's not the whole story, or maybe even the major part of it. 1 in 10 who become infected develop "long hauler" versions where they stay ill for months and sometimes develop cognitive deficits that may not go away. That's a much larger number and the repercussions for caring for the disabled are not going to be small.
I'm fortunate that I can work from home. That said, I still go out to the market, to doctors appointments, get in several 6 or 7 mile walks a week with friends, meet up for dinner outdoors, and carry on as best as I can. I wear good PPE. In this kind of situation, it's not just about me, it's also about others around me. I don't want to get sick. I also don't want to make others sick.