First Time Eating Out Since The Virus Appeared... Literally!

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Got wind that my favorite breakfast joint, Country Boy in Leiper's Fork, TN was reopening and that they had tables outside in the parking spaces for now. So we decided to venture down there this morning and got there about 11:15. I was lucky, got the last parking spot... other wise its a good hike to park further down the road, We sat down and it was not 5 more minutes before there was a waiting line of people to eat. I went to get Breakfast, because they have awesome biscuits made with lard and home made breakfast sausage... but oh well... they were not serving breakfast today. Just lunch, or dinner later on. So I ordered a cheese burger with chips, and my GF got a BLT on sour dough with chips. Nothing fake about this place... even the bread, buns and chips are home made. The Beef is ground fresh in the kitchen to make burgers. All in all very enjoyable and a perfect day to eat out... literally. And after people vacate a table everything gets disinfected.

Mark

[Marcel Birgelen]

If you have plenty of space available, I'm sure you can make it work somehow. The problem is with all those places stuck in high-profile, high-rent city centers, where they need to squeeze the most out of every square ft.

Also, guaranteeing 6 ft. distancing and no-contact for all your workers will remain quite a challenge, especially when working in often tight and crowded kitchen areas. Some restaurants over here have converted part of their restaurant to prep-area, since they're only doing take-out anyway. If you need to do full-service, you don't have that luxury anymore.

[Jim Cassedy]

With all the proposed restrictions, I can't really ever picture myself even wanting to go out to eat in the near future.
That being said, I did make a trip down to Mountain View CA today with an Asian buddy who is good friends with the owner of a Chinese Restaurant down there. While the restaurant is still officially closed, except for take out, we were able to have a nice sit-down lunch in a "secret" private dining room in the back of the restaurant. To keep social distancing from the staff, the food was left on a cart outside the compartment door which we rolled inside & served ourselves, but at least we were able to sit & have a nice meal to celebrate a belated birthday.

[Leo Enticknap]

I suspect that we're going to see more of this sort of thing in the states, counties and cities that insist on keeping overly aggressive house arrest/business closure orders in place long after the medical justification for them has passed. People will simply learn how to do business under the radar of the authorities.

At the risk of being overly political, something I heard on the John and Ken Show this afternoon made my blood boil. In Orange County, they just jailed a hair salon owner for seven days for refusing to stay closed. The previous day, seven rapists were let out of the same jail, to ease overcrowding.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I think the primary problem in the U.S. is that this is always being made into a left versus right thing, whereas this is something much more fundamental. It's seemingly almost impossible to agree about anything, if "the other side" proposed it, it's automatically bad.

I do think that those "lock-down measures" were a necessity evil, after our collective governments failed us to contain this thing at the very beginning. I also think that we should be on the lookout against overreach from authorities, who might like this lock-down situation a bit too much.

The problem though is, that nobody really knows how to go forward, we're all just part of this big experiment. Maybe a good example is Denmark. It's one of the very first western countries that implemented a strict lock-down policy, but they were also one of the first to gradually open it back up. Now, after about two weeks, you see that the infectious rate has climbed from a previous 0.6 to 0.9.

With 0.9, you're still slowly eradicating the virus, but it's eerily close to 1. As soon as you go beyond 1, you're back in the situation we were before the closures started.

[Lyle Romer]

I suspect that we're going to see more of this sort of thing in the states, counties and cities that insist on keeping overly aggressive house arrest/business closure orders in place long after the medical justification for them has passed. People will simply learn how to do business under the radar of the authorities.

In areas where restaurants are forbidden to have dine in service, there are restaurants operating in secret today. Just like with speakeasies during prohibition, people will find a way around government overreach.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

In areas where restaurants are forbidden to have dine in service, there are restaurants operating in secret today. Just like with speakeasies during prohibition, people will find a way around government overreach.

Yes, there are always people out there willing to die of "stupid". I'm just not one of them. I get carry out and curbside service all the time and I will be happy to eat outside at any restaurant that has the proper protocols established.

[Mike Blakesley]

Montana restaurants were allowed to open Monday of this week, with distancing etc. We went out to our first "nice" dinner since the shutdown. It was so nice to sit in a restaurant again, I didn't realize how much I had missed it, and how much enjoyment a pleasant wait-staff can add to a meal. All of the workers in the restaurant were wearing masks, and they had removed about half of the tables so there was a lot of open space. And the communal ketchup bottle and salt/pepper shakers were replaced by packets brought to the table by the server. Other than that it was a typical night. Also, our server had beautiful eyes. Made me want to see the rest of her face.

[Bobby Henderson]

Restaurants in Oklahoma are allowed to open their indoor dining areas, with some social distancing measures expected. Some city restrictions are still in place, like Oklahoma City for instance.

A woman got furious the dining area in an Oklahoma City McDonald's location was closed (drive-thru service only). She entered the lobby area but was forced to leave by employees. The lady retrieved a handgun from a vehicle and fired a few rounds into the store. One male employee was shot in the arm. A couple other employees were injured, one by flying shrapnel from the bullets and another suffered a head laceration in the initial confrontation. Initial reports said there were two gunmen but there was really only one suspect. The shooter was found by police a few blocks from the store. I don't think McDonald's employees are paid enough to put up with that kind of crap. It would be about right if the employees have to pay for their medical bills out of pocket. A gun shot wound can be a pretty expensive thing to treat. Getting shot in the arm or leg ain't like it is in the movies.

Down here in Lawton it doesn't look like any of the "social distancing" stuff is being enforced at the restaurants. The parking lots are packed at all the places that were normally busy before the pandemic. Up the street from my workplace there's a restaurant called "Leo and Ken's Truck Stop." It's really popular with the older crowd. Their parking lot has been jammed with cars all this week. That place isn't big enough to do much of any social distancing seating arrangements at all. A bunch of locals are acting as if this pandemic is a made-up conspiracy. It's just not real to them at all. I worry we're really pushing our luck around these parts.

A local friend I've known for over 25 years tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 this weekend. He runs a mobile X-Ray business and sees a lot of elderly patients. Thankfully he doesn't have any COVID-19 symptoms. I hope the situation stays that way. Nevertheless he's now stuck in quarantine for at least the next 2 weeks with his business on hold. He can't go back to work until he tests negative for the virus.

[Bobby Henderson]

At the risk of being overly political, something I heard on the John and Ken Show this afternoon made my blood boil. In Orange County, they just jailed a hair salon owner for seven days for refusing to stay closed. The previous day, seven rapists were let out of the same jail, to ease overcrowding.

Are you sure you're not talking about the salon owner in Dallas? Or is this a different case?

In the case of the one in Dallas, the lady was jailed for 7 days for her actions in court -pretty much a clear cut case of contempt of court. She repeatedly defied non-essential business closure orders and continued to operate her business after warnings. In court she refused to apologize for her actions and tore up the cease and desist letter in front of the judge and TV cameras.

While it's easy to understand the salon owner's desperation to keep her business afloat that has to be balanced against the SARS-CoV-2 situation in Dallas. The DFW metroplex is clearly seeing daily new case numbers increasing, not going down.

[Lyle Romer]

Restaurants in Oklahoma are allowed to open their indoor dining areas, with some social distancing measures expected.

A local friend I've known for over 25 years tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 this weekend. He runs a mobile X-Ray business and sees a lot of elderly patients. Thankfully he doesn't have any COVID-19 symptoms. I hope the situation stays that way. Nevertheless he's now stuck in quarantine for at least the next 2 weeks with his business on hold. He can't go back to work until he tests negative for the virus.

Your friend should get tested again. It is certainly possible that he is an asymptomatic case. However, the lower the disease prevalence in an area, the higher the likelihood of a false positive test. Getting tested again (and once more if #2 is negative) could save him a 14 day quarantine. If the second test is positive, then it is almost 100% that he is infected.

[Bobby Henderson]

I don't know if he has already been tested multiple times. Given he works in the health care industry and sees a lot of elderly patients and disabled people on Medicare/Medicaid I would imagine he has made sure about the diagnosis.

BTW, our local case numbers have been starting to jump. Lawton had its biggest daily increase of new cases this past weekend. And it turns out there was a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in our county jail. 18 inmates and 12 employees infected. This actually happened weeks ago, but it was finally reported in the local news yesterday.


Edit: I almost forgot another terrible thing. While our numbers of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases have been relatively low compared some other towns of similar size (like Albany, GA) a lot of farmers around here are really taking it in the ass, hard. One my female coworkers lives on a farm East of Lawton. She told me her husband is probably going to have to kill all of the cattle they have, several dozen head. Thanks to all the outbreaks happening in the cattle processing plants no one is buying any cattle to put on feed lots to await slaughter. A local area butcher, that does not work in high volumes at all, said the earliest he could take any cattle was October. They can't afford to keep feeding the cattle. There's no other choice but to kill them and bury them. Pig farmers have already been having to euthanize countless thousands of pigs already. Even dairy farmers have been pouring countless gallons of milk onto the manure pile because they can't get it to market. I just hope people remember this stuff if or when meat and dairy prices spike. The farmers sure aren't getting rich off of the situation.

[Mark Ogden]

What makes me a little crazy about all of this is how various restaurants enforce restrictions differently. At a strip mall near me here in New Jersey, there is a Jersey Mike's, and a Five Guys. At Jersey Mike's, you cannot use the bathrooms, but you can fill your own soda cup at the machine. Go next door to Five Guys, and you can use the bathroom, but your soda has to be filled by a counter guy. Across the street at Chick-fil-a, you can only order through the app, whereupon they bring out to order to you, but at McDonald's, you can walk in to the counter and order to take out. Meanwhile the White Castle is locked down and it's drive-thru only. Some counter people wear masks and gloves, but at Starbucks they are dressed like they are handling plutonium.

I wish the state or some other entity would issue guidelines as to how all of this should be handled, what is allowable and what is not. I makes no rhyme or reason to me.

I was devastated to hear that Souplantation (or Sweet Tomatoes as it is know in some areas) was throwing in the towel, anticipating that their buffet-style set-up was done for good. I only loved the place. The one on San Vicente in Santa Monica kept me alive for most of the late eighties and early ninties. I'm sure that there will be more casualties.

[Randy Stankey]

In the case of the one in Dallas, the lady was jailed for 7 days for her actions in court -pretty much a clear cut case of contempt of court. She repeatedly defied non-essential business closure orders and continued to operate her business after warnings. In court she refused to apologize for her actions and tore up the cease and desist letter in front of the judge and TV cameras.

If the woman honestly disagrees with the law, it is her right to protest on grounds of Civil Disobedience but she needs to make that claim and, if the court finds her guilty of the charges, she should accept the punishment.

In other words, even though I don't agree with her actions, I would support her, in spirit, if:
(A) She truly believed the law was wrong.
(B) She broke the law, on purpose.
(C) She voiced the claim of Civil Disobedience in court.
(D) She accepted the punishment of the court, even if she believed that she shouldn't have to.

Civil Disobedience is a valid form of social and political protest IF it is done non-violently and carried out with respect for the rule of law.

However, this woman's grandstanding, contempt of the court and tearing up documents in front of the judge pretty much invalidates her claim of Civil Disobedience. If she had said something to the effect, "I understand about the dangers of the virus pandemic but I believe that the government has gone too far and I believe that it my moral duty to protest by means of Civil Disobedience," I would support her. When I consider her actions, so far, I have to say, "Nope. Sorry."

Simply put, I think this is another case of "It's not WHAT you say but HOW you say it."

[Rick Glaus]

I don't believe it's a law till passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor so if that is true what law did she break? Not
looking for an argument just asking