Can a word harm you? Prevent you from paddling?

Paddlers' Place
#1

I was told my MMT thread could be deleted as it wasn’t directly related to paddling. And that no one would have any interest in that. But it has 271 view and a good number of posts in it.
That was about why a subject disappeared, removing it from exposure to the users here. I didn’t know we users are so fragile, but I guess some are, some aren’t.
In that thread, I just typed a response to the limiting of exposure and found out there is a word prohibited to be used here. Interesting as it wasn’t any slur or any swearing. So figured I’d talk about it with the users here, to see if they know it, know they are being protected from exposure to certain words.
And I guess if there are other words anyone knows about that are prohibited from being seen here.

Typing this thread, there was a subject written here in paddler’s place in july 2021, called “Banned words?”
Ironically, that thread was locked by the powers that be here. And from what little I can see, it looks like it’s the same word. So it’s still true that that word is prohibited to be seen here.

That word is at the center of the ‘lockdowns’ that happened around the 2020 elections. Yes, it should be allowed to be seen as per the guidelines of PP, it’s OK.
And 2…for those of you still here, remember how your paddling was restricted/eliminated due to that word? People here were afraid to go paddling as they might run across another person(s).
People were afraid to go paddling here as they did not want to go carpooling with another person.
Businesses were shut down during that time also, so it also impacted the equipment available, but also ancillary needs like food, fuel, lodging, etc. And some people lost their jobs due to it.

Now for the biggest trip to some…turns out all those orders and science people/institutions…knowing lied to us about it.
Did you lose 3-4 years worth of paddling? Income? Travelling?
And do you know the same groups who lied to us, are now telling us 180* opposite?
But if you are being protected from seeing that word, how do you know?

My experience during that time is substandard/non existent paddling and camping gear. I will admit being in a place that wasn’t locked down, it was nice that people were afraid and stayed at home–less people on the rivers.

How did the lockdowns affect your paddling/camping life?
Does the scientific information available now (maybe not available at this website) justify anything you missed/lost during the lockdown time?

If I were younger/less experienced in the world, I’d be mad my outdoor experiences were quashed. So another good example of “just do it” when thinking about outdoor ventures. Ya just never know…

#2

We paddled a lot in the Alps but I could not go into any restaurants or buildings for two years.
I realized that I didn’t really need to so I stopped going to hair and nail salons. We discovered that we liked outdoor dining even in the winter. So my life changed in ways that were permanent because I have never resumed many activities. My two physicians (one German and one American) supported me. We did a lot of off-roading and hiking so I guess you could say I adapted. We had friends of the same mindset and maybe it made us more closely bonded.

In Europe they give you credit for natural immunity at least. So traveling was just a matter of having a test and having the results on your phone. My father died and I could not go home to be with my family.

LIfe is forever changed because you can’t unknow certain things you have seen.

Kayaking was a wonderful way to pass two years because I gave up skiing out of fear of ending up in an “institution.”

I prefer to think my experience was a blessing in disguise .

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#3

I feel for the families that lost loved ones in that first year. Being retired I paddled and fished and hunted without a problem. Did several camping trips with close friends. More than in this past year in fact. Even spent close to a week with extended family at an Air B&B in November 2020 celebrating my Dad’s 97th birthday. Every one of us were vaccinated by then. He is 101 now and we have plans to celebrate his 102nd birthday. I joined a sailing club in May 2020. Outdoor activities became the thing around here as indoor venues were certainly limited. I still use a mask when things ramp up with the various illnesses and get vaccinated too. I value my health. Much like MohaveFlyer I have changed some behaviors permanently. Some indoor activities I now limit especially if it involves crowds, but I was never a fan of crowds anyway. I eat outside but will at times eat in. It just depends on the situation. I do the grocery shopping as my wife is immunocompromised. I feel like I learned to take better behavioral choices about my health, and of course I do things that protect my wife.

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#4

Great post…and I’m sorry about your father. That truly s*cks. There were a lot of people who not only dies unnecessarily, but also their relatives who were prevented from being with them in their last days. That’s unforgiveable. I hope there are many, many lawsuits because of that, but some have been given immunity from them from the getgo. Different subject.

Glad you were able to get out and rediscover things. And a lot of that is, like you said, simple things of appreciating things and companionship.

I felt a little bad for the people living in cities…and who didn’t have food/items stored. I live rural, so have a LOT of items canned/stored as far as food. What I didn’t count on is toilet paper. That surprised me and people were stealing it from store and park bathrooms. Crazy.
And I also think society in the usa hit some sort of tipping point as after that, there seems to be a LOT more crazy people, not homeless drunks and mentally ill, but formerly normal people. It’s like they got a license to go bonkers.

In the usa, our lockdowns were more severe than in europe as we had a big election, so it was all about that. I hope that people now are more aware at what the powers that be will do to be able to maintain their power.
They absolutely do not care about us. Not one iota. Glad I was able to experience it with a clear head and eyes. Not often in history that happens.

#5

Edited to add the NOT before prevent as I left that out in the orig post. Dust masks do NOT stop something as small as a virus. Common sense.

That’s the hidden cherry in that whole thing. People were able to discover new things to do and often they were more simple and outdoor oriented.

It’s also good to think about illness/disease transmission. My wife was immune compromised, so to me, it was normal, don’t touch door knobs, wash hands, stay away from sneezing/coughing people. We were using ADA doors long before that and opened them with a push of the hip, or her service dog was trained to paw the activator.

Your father is living a charmed life to have lived for so long. Just think of how tech was when he was growing up and how it is now.

I got out of corporate and got into the trades as I wanted an honest job, work.
As an over educated hammer swinger, I knew the n95 (or any other) dust mask would NOT prevent any transmission of something as small as a virus. Anyone who has worn a dust mask in a dusty environment knows one will soon have dust streaks between their nostrils and the mask where the dust in the air passed through.

Before my wife passed, we were in a hospital in a big city. They had a bunch of ‘immigrants’ there and TB was being passed around. The staff did put on their dust masks, but there were too many people in too small of a space for there to be any isolation like there should have been, used to be. Wife had a cough and lung issues after that and had it until she died. She never got tested for anything else as she was going to die anyway, so why bother finding out what that was. Docs saw lung issues on the CT scans, but those weren’t the issues anyway.

Best advice–don’t touch things other people touch in public. Use the ada door openers. Don’t use cash, use plastic so you aren’t sharing bills with god only knows who. If someone is visibly/audibly ill, get away from them.

Those three will be of a great help to anyone immune compromised or just not wanting to get in on the latest bug going around.

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#6

Sorry for the loss of your wife. I know how hard it is to lose someone you love. We use lots of hand sanitizer, plastic not cash, and avoid shopping indoors when we can, have plenty of N-95 masks on hand etc. When my Dad was born there were almost 2 million people living in the state of FL there are currently about 23.8 million which is about a 12-fold increase in about 100 years. In 1969 when I graduated high school there was about 6.4 million. That is around a 4-fold increase. I don’t recognize the coast of FL when I go visit there anymore. Hoping to do a bit of sailing down in the thousand islands and everglades this winter on my small sailboat. I love wild places.

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#7

Dang. I looked up the numbers on line and Florida would fit inside Wyoming almost 2 times and yet we have just over 1/2 million people in the whole state.

Florida has 40-1/2 people for every 1 person in Wyoming today.

And at that, I am still “closer to people” then I was in my youth in Nevada. In the 50s and 60s Nevada had the smallest population of any US state. And it has more sq miles then Wyoming.

It really puts things in prospective.

#8

and yet, on my daily paddle on the St. Johns River, in Jacksonville, the most populated city* in FL, I never see any other paddlers, rarely see a motorboat, and occasionally shipping traffic (tugs, freighter, etc).
Though, I paddle before the sun is up, besides no traffic, it’s cooler.

(* note: the city of Jacksonville incorporates the whole county, pop: about a million)

#9

:slight_smile:
As with all real-estate, ----------- Location location Location.

#10

Thanks. I’m still dealing with it, daily, many times throughout the day.

In the 80s FL was being flooded w/people fleeing from the north. We when referring to fl, we’d say the ny side or the redneck side?
Now, as you allude to, it’s pretty full I guess. Too flat for me.

People moving there and to tex for econ reasons, yeah, that will help, but then ol supply and demand come in and housing is pretty expensive. People need to look at the whole picture when deciding to move somewhere else.

We bought a 1200sf house, 2 car detached garage for 70 grand. Can’t build a garage in some of those places for that price. Throw in low food prices, no congestion, no crime, etc. and it’s a good place to move to, certainly to be on a fixed income on as that’s stability. A dollar in a rural midwest area will go far more than a dollar in an urban area and/or hot state to move to.

CO turned into a complete zoo, but a lot of the west has. People are destroying what they claim to seek. Then get mad when people point out they are part of the problem there, a big part.

The bright side, you’ve been there long enough you should be very well off, equity in house wise. It’s just all the rest that’s a PITA.

I may sell this house, then do the rv vagabond thing again. Don’t have anything holding me here anymore. Nor anywhere else.

#11

Here’s something. Look up number of boats of the states. FL, tx, and CA are tops IIRC. That’s impressive numbers.
Buuuuuuut, then look at the boat registrations v population of the states. You’ll see the north central states are tops. And vessels not w/a square stern (for motors) don’t have to be registered.

That surprised me.

#12

Actually, it’s “duration, duration, duration” :smile:
Financial term. Started in the 80s when the real estate market changed. That lead to the collapse of the S&Ls and later, the 2000+ housing market collapse, aka “the financial crisis”.
It was govt in both instances, their incompetence and mostly, greed and corruption. Oh, and throw in ideological driven decisions over ruling economic ones.

OK, back to regularly scheduled programming…