February 2021 chit chat

Ha! So are you near the Harz mountains?

Here in the Uk, finally to answer Donnamarie's question - sorry - the snow here ( and none since!) was two to three inches - enough to settle really for a while. But we don't normally get very much being in the south east corner, tho more is threatened, tho nothing like that in NYC.

Stay safe, guys.

Yes, Captain Moore is in hospital, tho I think he has been there for two weeks with pneumonia..

Wonderful man - and a hundred!

Washington:

https://mobile.twitter.com/NationalZoo/status/1355986484931780609

Here we go, February already!

https://people.com/human-interest/capt-sir-thomas-moore-dies-at-100/
[size=48]Capt. Sir Thomas Moore, Who Raised Millions for U.K.'s COVID Battle, Dies at 100[/size]

Actor Hal Holbrook has passed a way he was 95.

 So sad! Captain Sir Tom Moore has died. He seemed such a lovely man. I'm glad he was able to enjoy such widespread celebrity before he passed.

PAN,
yes, I live near the Harz mountains, it's really nice here. Sometimes I wouldn't mind living in a big city because there's so much more in  museums, concerts etc, but on the other hand I saw Sir Yehudi Menuhin performing at our local church, Sir Bob Geldof at an open air concert just15 miles away, we've got really good museums nearby. We've got cabarets and comedians who love to come to my hometown because their performances are a sort of sneak previews for their new show. My husband works at a 1,000 year old former emporer's palace with a Henry Moore statue in the garden, the whole town is a World Heritage Site.

So I guess there's not much to complain about, and I just hope that all of them will be able to survive the ongoing lockdown.

It's so sad that Captain Sir Thomas Moore, this lovely man, died from Covid 19 after having raised this enormous amount of money to fight it.

It is. What a man!!!

Boris has suggested a nationwide round of thanks and applause as a tribute to him at 6 tonight.

Nice! I'm sure his family would appreciate the tribute.

How's everybody doing weather-wise? We're still digging out and it's starting to look dirty instead of pretty. We may get rain, so maybe it will wash a lot of it away.

PigPen - Has it hit you yet? How bad is it?

My newspaper said it was 50 degrees F in London yesterday. Is that true? I think I was born on the wrong side of the pond!

Not sure what 50 is in new money, but it's around 10 celsius in the south of the country at the moment - might even be a bit warmer near London.  But we're expecting more arctic winds again this weekend.  Brrrrrr

Oh, in case anyone was wondering, I've remembered to request a renewal of this site!   No panicking this year, folks

 Thanks,Katie!

That's great Katie.

Actor Christopher Plummer has passed away he was 91.

Hope everyone on the east half of the UK is ready for storm Darcy.  Hope you've got the heating on and keep warm.

It's just another 3-6 inches on top of the mess left over from last week. Ugh! So far it's not so bad, but it's starting to come down fairly heavy now, so who knows? It's winter. It snows. What can you do?

Slept late this morning. The house is warm and the bar and fridge are well stocked. Tons to binge watch on tv. Just threw a mac & cheese casserole into the oven for later. Should be a pretty good day.

Sounds like a good plan you've got there.

Not so bad snow-wise here, Katie, tho west of the worst of it. But it's icy-cold - there's the odd

advantage to not having to go out to work in the morning. Offices will never be the same after

this.........

Donnamarie - How's the weather down there? Much snow? 

Keep safe all! It's going to be slippery going for a while.

We had a beautiful display of cotton ball size snowflakes for much of the morning.  So pretty.  But most of the snow on the ground melted by late afternoon.  Our snow ‘events’ have been barely an inconvenience.  I know NY got hit hard last week and again today.  Sounds like Lizzy and annemarie are hanging in there.  It’s weird with everyone working from home that there is no need to call for work or school delays during snowstorms. 

Katie and PAN - hope you’re layered up and got the heat pumped up during your latest arctic blast.  Stay warm. 

Here is a weather up date for New York it is snowing again.

Haha! Is that news for New York in February??!

Luckily we've had sunshine and blue skies in my little part of the world, although it's pouring down with rain at the mo'. Even managed to get outside and do some gardening here.

How's everyone doing? Are we looking forward to a literal thaw AND a metaphorical unfreezing of lockdown?

We have had more snow this month than we have had in years. Thank goodness it was a quick one today.

Donnamarie wrote: It’s weird with everyone working from home that there is no need to call for work or school delays during snowstorms.

What's even more weird is that because of President's Week the kids have a week off from schools they haven't even attended on a regular basis for months. Nothing about this school year makes any sense.

What makes this snowstorm so annoying is that it came just when the snow from the last storm was almost gone. It doesn't look like we got as much as they predicted, so maybe this batch will melt fairly quickly. Tbh, this really is just a typical NY winter. It's just that we haven't had one for a while. I can't wait for Spring!

I went to New York for my 21st birthday (old enough to drink!!) which of course is in February, and one of my strongest memories was of all the snow. I know that it gets swelteringly hot and humid in the summer, but I just can't imagine it that way. I'd love to go back one day.

Katie - We'd love to have you back. Hell, we'd love to have anyone back. The city is soooooooo empty without our visitors. IMO Spring and Fall are the best times to come. Summer usually is hot and humid - and CROWDED. Winter is what you're seeing right now - cold, snowy, sloppy and hard to get around. Not much fun if you're on foot.

If they ever lift lockdown come on back! We'll be here. 

In Northern Germany, we awoke on February 8th with about 25 inches of snow and a temperature of about minus 25 degrees celsius. So many people weren't able to go to work or to school, over the ndxt days the roads were cleared so that was no problem, but it was still freezing cold.
This Monday afternoon, we had freezing rain, so it wasn't possible to walk outside anymore. My nephew crashed his car on the motorway (but fortunately, wasn't injured seriously), and the temperatures rose. On Wednesday, the first cranes arrived here, and today, it was spring. Nature seems to explode, no snow's left, and the temperature is at plus 15 degrees celsius (which means, that it's 40 degrees celsius warmer than just twelve days ago).

So I think George would appreciate to be filming here rather than in Boston...

I'd love to see New York again - one day, one day!

CarolHathaway: brrrrr, that's a lot of weather in one week!

It was Captain Sir Tom Moore's funeral today - and very moving and dignified it was too.

He planned it himself and requested songs by Michael Ball, Alfie Boe, Michael Buble and Frank

Sinatra and had quotes he had requested like 'I told you I was old'.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-56212135

He requested no cut flowers but instead would like people to plant trees in his name..

Thanks, PAN. I had seen a much shorter article about his funeral but this one was much more detailed. It seems the lovely man had a truly fitting send off. I'm glad he was able to have things the way he wanted them.

Such a dapper gentleman who seemed to have lived a full life with few regrets.  We should all be so lucky.

I've just read a very moving and interesting book about being homeless.
It was written by a man who was turned out of his family's flat by his mentally ill mother when he was 16. Since they had moved around Germany quite a lot (difficult family), he didn't know where to go and slept on the streets - and still went to school.
Sometimes, he was allowed to go to a classmate's house for dinner or to sleep there, but nobody really seemed to care about him, although everybody knew about it (though he never told anybody). He stole things, dealt with drugs and slept in sheds. He flew under the radar of authorities, authorities like youth welfare services only seemed to be interested when he was at court, but weren't interested in the reasons on his crimes or helping him. He was put in detention, but when he turned 18, they put him in an unfurnished flat with no heating or hot water, set on the other side of Hamburg from where he went to school, and left him alone. Hd wasn't prepared for life, he got into dept and lived on the streets again.
He still went to school every day and passed his A-levels and then lost his focus on life. This continued for several years (eleven years in total), he described in a quite emotionless way how he was beaten up by people who simply think it's funny to punish someone who's homeless, how he survived and how his health was effected by his hard life.
In 2015, he saw all the refugees coming to Hamburg and thought he might be able to help them because they are in a similar situation. So he worked voluntarily at the fair halls where ten thousands of refugees had stranded and where citizens brought clothes, furnitures and toys nonstop. He slept at the halls, ate with refugees and made  friends. 
When his work finished, he - among other volunteers - was invited to a very fine restaurant and ha the chance to talk to the owner. For the first time, he spoke about his situation, and the owner invited him to come for a meal whenever he was hungry - which hd did occasionally. And he introduced the young man to the owner of a foundation, a quite wealthy man. The foundation decided to help him back to a normal life by paying for a flat and, until they found one, paying for a motel.

Apart from writing a book, this man now is a guest in talk shows, describing his life and calling on to everybody to see this person and his destiny behind the person sitting on the pavement. He's also describing how more difficult it is now since restaurants and public toilets and public swimming pools are closed and people aren't walking around in town as much as they used to. He's trying to push the city council to collaborate with hotel owners and replace tourists with homeless people.
Anothet remarkable project is to buy an old bus and install bathrooms so homeless people have the chance to take a shower and use their private bathroom without being interrupted. Now he's trying to get the money for another bus in Hamburg snd probably in other cities as well.

I'm deeply impressed by this remarkable young man!

There are so many inspiring stories about people like this resilient young man. So often they do much more to help others than those of us who have the resources to help, but don't.

Here in NYC there are hotels that have been housing the homeless during the pandemic. I don't know what plans, if any, are in place for when the pandemic ends but there are many agencies willing to help. Sadly, many homeless people don't take the help offered them.

Lizzy,

each town here has to look after homeless people. They get a certain amount cash on a daily base and also havd the right for a bed in winter but have to leave in the morning, and there's a lot of violence and theft, so many homeless people don't go there. There are also not enough facilities for overnight stays, and durinv the pandemic, they ad going there since there are like eight beds in small rooms. So activists like the young man tried to convince hotel owners to open their hotels for homeless people and find sponsors to finance it.
In my hometown, our administration built a house with small flats for homeless people. Since we're a small town in the countryside, people usually stay here for a while, and we only have very few homeless.

Carolhathaway - In "normal" times things here are pretty much the same as you describe - except I don't believe the homeless are given ccash by any organisations. There are shelters where they can sleep, but conditions are much like in your country and many people don't want to go to them. Unless it's really freezing they'd rather sleep in the street or in the subway, although during the pandemic they have had to leave the subways at night because they are shut down for cleaning.

The solution your town has chosen seems to be catching on in other places. Maybe it's the answer for some people who are afraid of the shelters. I have long felt that people who are in danger of losing their homes should be given a subsidy until they can get back on their feet. so they don't end up homeless. Then they can have a payment plan to pay back the money.