Taking a break?

It's similar here too. Maine has the distinction of being the oldest state in the nation. A lot of folks have chosen to retire here because there's a fairly good quality of life.

Our gas station is in the same parking lot as our grocery so i watch folks come and go all day long. The grey haired people, myself included, are generally good about using a mask and gloves. The fishing industry here is pretty big and it's a high risk line of work. The fishermen tend not to mask up. I think they would consider that a sign of weakness and fear. They're a bold and fiercely independent lot. It would be useless to try and tell them anything so we don't have a requirement that people wear masks before entering the store.

About all i can say is thank gawd for the economic stimulus programs. This would normally be the worst time of year for us from an economic point of view. Money gets scarce after Christmas and we're all flat broke by the time spring rolls around. Compared to what we're used to ..... we're rolling in clover right now. The lockdown hasn't hurt us much but folks are getting restless. The time has come to gear up and get back to work out on the water again and so that's what they're doing. We can only hope that the market for our seafood products is there this summer. The future seems very uncertain right now because of all of the global supply chain disruptions & restaurant closings.

Our other major economic driver is the hospitality and tourism industry. That's not looking good right now. The general perception is that all of those "people from away" bring disease every year. We've still got to figure that part out because this COVID-19 thing is particularly bad.

My wife works in the grocery store as a cashier. She's been on paid furlough for over a month now. The covid numbers in our county are pretty good . Going by that metric ... it's hard to justify not returning to normal operations once again. They called her back in to work yesterday. That's something she's struggling with after being at home for so long. I think we're both going to have some sleepless nights till we can get used to the new normal.