Thanks my factual friend for your contribution in these weird times. I know you as someone who moves ahead and works at making a difference by having a positive influence on the lives of the people you care about and who you believe to have good moral fiber. From an existential perspective, the choices we make in that respect can at least influence natural selection. Our actions in choosing to support and help along the lives that we believe in is also be a sort of natural (add voluntary) selection - choosing lives which will ideally best promote the good qualities in making up our collective nature.Bank-Coil wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2020 8:29 am A couple of thoughts about routine and the effects of change,
As humans we are a highly adaptable species. Changes mean adaptations and those that adapt best, survive best. A higher level form of natural selection.
Unfortunately this situation in many respects accentuates the gap in socio-economic classes especially in places where that gap is most pronounced. Those with greater resources are able to protect themselves better
In the mean-time :
The Quebec government has suddenly sprung the news many have been waiting for. As of yesterday, bars which do not have a licence to prepare and serve food can open again, with restrictions ofcourse. This time the government didn't call for separate dates for outlying areas and Montreal. No dates, just open anytime and anywhere in Quebec. Weird. They had provided a reopening schedual for restaurants that serve alcohol within two time frames, but they just sprung yesterdays date on bar owners and alot of them were not quite ready for that. Most were in the process of adapting their establishments based on the rules they could only anticipate from those laid out for restaurants that opened on June 22nd in Montreal and a week earlier outside the metropolis. Bars were not provided the convenience of such schedualed dates for reopening. If they had been provided such dates and the conditions, they could have likely been more prepared in putting into place the exact adjustments required via a timely announcement. In a way, not providing a time frame in advance was not cool on the part of the authorities. This can be interpreted as a bit of a fuck you if you own a bar without a kitchen.
One new restriction public safety added to the already well known ones will take some reasoning and will call for added creativity. In drinking establishments where meals are not being served, patrons have to be sitting at a table or on a stool and are not allowed to be walking about chatting while attempting to respect a two meter distance which will be difficult through the music & noise generated in such a social environment. There will be no dancing or jumping about all over the place either, even if patrons are happy to have a good cocktail while seeing their friends once again in a public/social establishment. So dance bars for example are not allowed to practice their essence, they can open, but you can't dance. Weird, but kind of understandable as people get close to eachother after consuming some sort of giggle water that suits their taste buds. Is this new rule to be read as reprisal for some bars openly defying the government for not responding to their requests with at least being forthright in providing a date to reopen ? Don't think so, but purely drinking & social establishments are not seen the same way as other businesses in Quebec it seems. The government may want people to drink, but they certainly would rather have people do it at home and not get too excited in public. Get drunk at home and jump around there, less work for the cops or the EMT to find you for whatever reason.
Well, at least this next routine coming out of confinement seems to be slowly making its way back. As of tuesday, Jordan and I will execute a maintenance oriented line up check of "the herd" at North Star. This will surely bring back feelings I have forgotten about. And when Montreal's first pinball bar opens again, it will likely feel different. Having people playing pinball sitting down on stools in front of those colourful tables will be a sight to see. Body English is also deemed to be dangerous it seems, and we will have to leave excitement out of playing pinball for a while yet. Maybe it can be more of a meditative activity for a while, Zen pinball. It has mostly been that way for me lately, with the exception of a few exclamations of joys and sorrow thrown in for a good measure of balance.
Today I am on the road with Joanna fixing people's machines in their homes, a place where people are more apt to be reasonable and less prone to bouts of jumping about, we'll see. I will report back from these strange times indeed. In the mean-time, be good to eachother.
Rab