Over ten percent of the population of the town where my mom-in-law lives now has Corona.

[DFW]

My mother-in-law turns 93 tomorrow. I will not be there to celebrate with her.

My wife is already there, having driven up there today. She did all her food shopping and cooking at home here, near Düsseldorf, baked everything there was to bake, and loaded up her car. She called several non-close friends and asked them not to come. She is going nowhere except straight back here on Friday when the birthday is over with.

You see, her mom lives in Löningen, a town most people even here in Germany had never heard of two weeks ago. Maybe 3500 people live there, maybe 4000. It's pretty tiny. There is no public transportation in or out of there except taxis from other nearby towns that have rail service, and a bus run by the Postal Service three times a day.

Now, though, most people here in Germany have heard of it. Löningen made the nightly news! A huge celebration of soccer fans and clubs was held there about two weeks ago. No masks, lots of booze, and not many places to hang out. A thousand drunken, shoulder-to-shoulder sports fans in a small town where there's nothing else to do but get drunk, what could possibly go wrong?

Yesterday, the town was at 370 Covid-19 cases, and today, there were 80 plus additional cases. That does not count the cases of people who were there for the "celebration," but left within a day or two. Ten percent of the population of the whole town is now infected (that they know of). One of our best friends, in her late 80s has it. She has no idea how or from whom she got it.

When the headlines speak of a resurgence of the virus in Europe, it's because of the same idiocy that causes outbreaks in the USA, except that governors and mayors don't encourage it. Even "conservative" officials here do not act like the governor of Indiana. So far, at least, the German word for "conservative" is not interchangeable with the German word for "stupid." But as seen with Löningen, give some people the CHANCE to be stupid, and they'll jump on it, even if it kills them. In this case, for some of them, that's exactly what will happen.

They had better start printing up some Darwin awards in German. We'll need them.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. A smaller-scale German version of Sturgis, but with soccer hooligans instead of bikers.

People everywhere manage to be stupid, even where it's discouraged.

[magicarpet]

2. DefCon 5,... air drop 500,000 face masks on Mommies home town.

STAT !

[DFW]

3. When someone is drunk out of their mind

They probably wouldn't be able to distinguish them from jockstraps.

[magicarpet]

4. Not a problem,...

Just put the jockstrap over your mouth,...
as a face mask. It might be most advisable to launder first so you don't get jockstrap itch of the mouth. Just to be safe.

Shit I'd rather have Covid that jock strap itch of the mouth,... any day.

[PufPuf23]

5. Have you considered having your wife bring her

93 year old mother out of the hot spot to live with you?

You did not mention your MIL's specific living conditions but it does seem like she would have less human contact and far less contact with strangers in your home. And her time is limited too.

Hope the best for you and yours.

[DFW]

6. Always and never

Fortunately, it's not an issue. All of her remaining friends are in Löningen or nearby Cloppenburg, and we could only drag her out of there kicking and screaming. Although she is nearly blind, she insists on living in her own house, where she could already find everything in her sleep. Luckily, a neighbor in her sixties, an immigrant from Indonesia, is willing to spend days with her, and we have hired her on an official basis in order to compensate her for it.

She does come down here for visits (my wife picks her up and then drives her back. It's two and a half hours each way). But she spends half her time here on phone with her friends back home anyway. We looked at assisted living, but she freaked out when she saw her prospective companions. Most of them had lost their minds long ago. Since she still has hers, she said she'd go crazy within a week of having to live with people like that. She begged us to never ever make her live in such a place. She said she'd rather be in jail.

[PufPuf23]

7. I can easily understand you MILs sentiments.

Over the years admire your family values.

Best to you and yours.

[DFW]

8. Despite being scattered to the four winds

We tend to be a pretty tightly knit family.

Thanks, and all our best back!

[erronis]

9. It's sorta nice to know that stupidity isn't just in the US. Europe, USSR, India, South America

Interesting that certain cultures are much better at following guidances and staying safe.

In the US, the immigrants from England/UK, Germany who now think they are the "true" Americans are the least capable of staying free from being infected and infecting others. Rah/rah Europe!

But we (and I'm one of those immigrants from Europe) seem happy to infect others during our quest of dominance.

The USSR (sometimes called putin's russia), Modi's India, Brazil's dictator, etc. all seem willing to join UK's Johnson, US's trump, etc. to kill off their populations.

There must be a master blueprint somewhere. Follow the money...

[DFW]

10. I think the money is going elsewhere

Smart money looks for an abundance of cheap laborers to increase the wealth of those exploiting it. Killing them off isn't the best way to increase the available pool of "talent."

By the way, I am your counter-balance. I am an American immigrant to Europe. My wife (German) didn't want to live in the USA, and I got tired of commuting. Since 95% of my work is here anyway, it wasn't any huge adjustment--higher taxes and less efficient bureaucracy, but both are survivable.

[erronis]

13. Ex US tech worker with lots of work in Europe. I don't think the $$$ class understands how this will

play out.

I miss my trips overseas to do some tech fiddling. I learned a lot about different ways at looking at problems and different solutions. Too few "Americans" get to see things from multiple viewpoints.

I also doubt that the money wizards have a long-term view on how to maximize their lifetime satisfaction. If it's just the balance sheet today/tomorrow - perhaps OK. If it's looking at how well their children and grandchildren will live in a natural environment - not at all. Rapaciousness will be rewarded with misery for all, especially the perps.

[warmfeet]

11. They will be excavating quite a few graves soon.

It is a very steep learning curve for non-mask wearers.

[niyad]

12. Wishing your lovely and amazing wife safe travels. May she and her mom have a wonderful, safe

celebration.

And may the stupid, drunk maskless ones remove themselves permanently from the gene pool, with no effect on the not-stupid.