Looks like we’ll be moving our Califonia visit from May to October. Concern was more about getting stuck someplace than anything else. Did you see the video of all those poor homeward bound Americans crammed into overflow lines for hours and hours at the 13 airports? Brilliant! Talk about non-social distancing. If they weren’t infected before, they likely are now. “Hi GrandMa, we’re home!”
Cookie and I are pretty healthy and we work hard to stay that way. There’s just no guessing which countries will restrict who from coming and going. While neither of us has any of the underlying conditions that make the virus so hard on many people, we don’t need to get caught up in the craziness. If you plan to travel anytime soon, change your plans!
To be a survivor, you have to act like one.
View from here
We are getting all the same directives you are: social distancing, no hand shaking, extreme handwashing and so on. Fewer people out and about. Bars, night clubs and gyms closed. Restaurants ordered to acommodate 1/3 fewer patrons at a time.
Grocery trips are interesting: fewer people than usual but quite orderly.
You are greeted with hand sanitizer and plastic gloves. You enter in small groups as others leave. The number of shoppers is held to a reasonable constant. Shelves were stocked to about 80% of normal; no signs of panic or hoarding yet. Pretty orderly……. so far.
Slidin’ in Under the Wire!
In other news, Portugal has finally caved to pressure from other EU countries (Lookin’ at you, Sweden!!) to end it’s “unfair competition” by recinding it’s traditional tax break on pensions from other countries.
New expats receiving temporary residence visas after the end of this month will no longer qualify. Our visas arrived last July, so we are apparently grandfathered in for the next 9 years.
All the very best,
– – Mike & Cookie Durnerin