In case you weren’t paying attention, on November 16 we began the eighth extension of Governor Jay Inslee’s extra-legal Wujan Flu dictates first initiated way back on March 23rd. The Legislature has let the Governor do what he wants. In Jefferson County all progress has been erased by what amounts to a statewide rollback of the reopening process.
As a public service I have reviewed the latest updates from our state health department so you don’t have to. Spoiler Alert: It’s more than likely too late to keep the Governor happy and get together with your family for Thanksgiving (though I do offer a last minute solution at the end of this article.) But if you get on it right away Christmas gatherings with Grandma and Grandpa could still happen. You’ll need to get them in your house over the next couple of weeks and keep them there until the end of the month.
Here is the number one directive as quoted from the updated COVID protocols:
I am not making this up.
And should you think nobody is watching what is happening outside of your house, the Governor has that covered, as well: “Outdoor Social Gatherings should be limited to (5) people outside your household.”
Please remind them not to litter. Those masks we see discarded all around town really are not an improvement on Autumn leaves.
The rest of the no-go list is somewhat familiar to everyone by now. Restaurants and bars are closed to everything except outdoor dining and take-out. Gyms are closed. Bowling facilities made the list. Can anybody tell me how many bowling alleys are left in this state, and have they been a serious problem in the spread of this virus?
Of course movie theaters, museums, aquariums and zoos are completely closed.
If you haven’t been to the grocery store or Co-op lately, please know that you may be required to wait in line outside and/or wash your hands before entering.
The latest COVID mandates require retail establishments to limit the number of customers to twenty-five percent of capacity, and that includes staff.
For PT’s QFC, that is one hundred people total. I don’t know what it is for the Co-op or Safeway.
As aggravating as this is, be nice to the workers enforcing these rules. This is not their store policy. It is a policy mandated by the Governor. Retail establishments must follow these mandates or face reprisals from government agencies.
Public schools have also rolled back to all remote learning starting the week of November 30th. My youngest daughter was happy to return to her school earlier in November. She attended for a total of five days before the shutdown. No date has been given for a return to the classroom.
This is just a review of the highlights. Feel free to peruse the full details for yourself at governor.wa.gov.
It pays to learn the rules in this strange, new world. If you happen to go by my house on Thanksgiving and see a group of people inside, please know that there’s no need to bother the Governor. It is simply a memorial service for our pet turkey*.
*As per the Governor’s latest COVID dictates, up to thirty people are allowed.
Brett Nunn has spent the last two decades in Port Townsend's Uptown, raising a family, volunteering at local schools and wandering the outdoors. He writes about survival, community and culture. He is the author of the book, "Panic Rising: True-Life Survivor Tales from the Great Outdoors."
When I was in High School here we would have loved shut downs. It’d be party time, crusin time and just about anything else we could think of. I realise that was back in the 50’s, but make no mistake, we would found a way around it. In those days when it snowed you only had to live outside of town to not go to school. School buses didn’t run and the roads were too slick for driving. I lived close to Ft. Worden and walked to school and had to attend all day. The ones living a few miles out would be out cruising. It really ticked me off. Those were the “good old days”.
Happy turkey funeral and summer of love protest! 🙂
Hi Jim. I enjoy reading all the stores you post. Very thought provoking (and really gets some people in a tizzy). I say “why do you allow yourself to get so upset”, just don’t read the articles. LOL. Anyway, one of your articles mentioned grammar issues in your articles. I do sometimes find one or two much you’re not even close to what the PDN and the Leader do in their additions. For a while there, my husband and I would highlight their errors and somedays the paper looked like a student’s textbook. Anyway, I don’t know what type of format you use for composing your articles but there is a free program called “Grammarly” that is really very help in formatting and avoiding typing errors. I use it myself and it has been very helpful. Hope you have a great day and thanks for keeping us in the know.
The Governor can’t tell me what to do in my own home. His proclamations are not law. He maybe able to go after a business but not individual home owners.
About the only time I wear a mask is when I go into a business. It’s not because I’m worrig about protecting myself, it’s I don’t want the business to be fined or shut down by someone who has a problem with the business. I would feel terrible if I caused any one of the strggeling businesses any grief.
Well Thanksgiving has come and gone and OMG my big family and lots of good friends SURVIVED! I don’t like to say negative things about anyone but, why do people like Inslee and Cuomo etc keep getting voted in instead of out??? It continues to not wrap around my brain! 😠