Quarantine Ain't What It Used to Be

 I always thought that quarantine was when they put a padlock on your door and nobody was allowed either in or out.  Apparently that's not how the COVID quarantine works.  My daughter and her guy were just told to stay home from work and avoid contact with other people for 10 days.  Her employer told her to take 14 days off just to be safe.  She had been working from home anyway, only going in once or twice a week to do stuff that she couldn't do on her computer.  Her guy has a production job, so he just stayed home.  I don't know if he will be compensated for his lost wages.  I don't think either of them were retested when their quarantine expired. I read in the paper today that a half dozen cases of one of the new variants have been identified in neighboring Presque Isle County, and that those people have been put in "isolation", unlike the regular cases that are merely quarantined.

I only recently read about the "natural causes" thing and I don't remember where I read it.  I guess I should start writing these things down.  Be that as it may, I don't think that a car crash qualifies as a natural cause, except maybe in Texas.  I understand that a guy once shot at police there, the police returned fire, and the guy took 17 bullets.  The coroner ruled that his death was by natural causes because, with 17 bullets in him, it was just natural that he would die.  

I asked the lady who was teaching me how to operate the self checkout the other day how they prevented people from taking items without scanning them. She told me that they have cameras watching over those lines at all times.  Don't know if it's true or not, but that's what she told me.  

I just looked it up, and the current minimum wage in Michigan is $9.65 per hour.  I have seen "help wanted" signs in both Cheboygan and Petoskey offering $12.00 and $13.00 for entry level positions.  Some places are even offering a "start up bonus" ranging from $300 to $3000.  The higher bonuses are for medical and technical positions, but Little Cesar's Pizza has had a sign in the window for months offering $300. 

I checked Uncle Ken's link, and found that current national unemployment rate is indeed about 6%, but it peaked at almost 15% a year ago.  Michigan's rate is currently in the same ballpark as the national, but it peaked at 23.6% a year ago.  Our local labor shortage has been going on for at least a year before COVID, but it got much worse when the COVID hit the fan.  

I got my first COVID shot on March 31, and it was a Moderna.  My second shot is due April 28.  Jenny must have gotten her first shot a couple weeks before me because her second one is due April 17.