Sounds interesting with cutting the hair of the curly-headed child, fantasia.  

I was able to pop in to my hairdresser's the other week. She works from her home, and while she isn't yet announcing to the public that she has allowed a few people to come in, I was grateful that I was one of the 'chosen'. I made the decision a few months ago that the lockdown would be the perfect time to go my now natural colour (silvery white), which I have been thinking about for at least a few years. Been dyeing it my younger years colour—a dark brownish-auburn—for about a decade. So, on to a new hair era for me, and it's quite exciting!  

Courtenay, too funny!

As of yesterday, Ontario has been allowed to get together with groups of 10 instead of 5. Still with much care, of course. We were hoping this would be announced before Father's Day wknd (June 20-21 for us here in Canada), because our family is planning to gather at our home for next weekend. We have a number of occasions to celebrate (Easter; our daughter's birthday; my birthday; Mother's Day; our youngest son's birthday; Father's Day) that we had to miss because of lockdown.

My elderly father will be joining us for the Sunday afternoon (my sister is bringing him up), and our kids will be with us the entire weekend. Being the time of year it is, we are hoping to be outside much of the time. We have all been isolating, and have masks, so will proceed in this manner with caution.

Got our first batch of library books and dvds yesterday! It feels like it's been ages since we last got library items, just over three months. It was very interesting to get library books in paper bags, we had three. It rather looked like someone had bought takeout with the way each bag was stapled shut plus the receipt on the outside of the bag. I guess in a way it was takeout.  

SnowAngel

*high fives everyone who is able to get library books*

It's kind of an interesting time in the USA right now. Some states are getting much better, some states are getting much worse. Even going state to state, my county has 100 new cases in the last 10-15 days, but the state overall is getting better. I'm just trying to find a good balance between being careful but continuing on with life. It's just tough. It hit me that the kids and I will start school again in just a couple weeks, but this summer has not at all felt like a summer vacation because we've stuck at home. 

I feel for you, as I have not had a summer holiday/vacation for several years. Time off work to relax, garden etc, (NZ summer break which includes Christmas and New Year, and the last part of an unemployed patch in early June last year in London), or a weekend away, are all I have had since my camping trip in summer of 2014-15 (in which I visited lots of LOTR/Hobbit filming locations, along with Ian Brodie's guidebooks for them).

In UK I felt envious of workmates in 2018 who were off to all sorts of exotic or nice places for their summer holidays. 
Back in NZ in the southern spring and summer this year, I enjoyed some gardening and tidying up, before heading to mild late winter in SC. I'm looking forward to the chance to have a decent camping holiday again in December-January this year.

Lockdown wasn't so difficult for me,as we had a mildish autumn, allowing walks and gardening. Someone in my city began the Teddy Bear game - neighbours would put teddy bears in their front windows, so children out for walks with their parents could spot bears in the windows. It caught on all over the country, and spread around the world on Facebook! 
(We Are Going On A Bear Hunt- FB page, based on a children's book by Michael Rosen).

Here's a link (sorry, couldn't shrink it)

Starting Friday, all Kansans will be required to wear masks in public. It's either that or another shut down.

In other news, much to my surprise,  the powers-that-be decided not to cancel the Kansas State Fair. I probably won't go this year. We'll see how it turns out.  

4 family members of mine have been tested for COVID-19 - 3 negative, 1 positive. He is 30. He is going out and about while he's hacking all over everything. I cannot express my absolute rage and distress over this news. He is no longer allowed near me. Most of the family has called him and berated him. I am hoping he has been shamed into staying indoors. Several family has already threatened to inform the authorities if they know that he is not self-quarantining. 

Last weekend's library items, there were more, but they were snatched by the siblings before I could take a picture. I kind of like the library pickup thing, just wish it could be for more items per library card at a time.

SnowAngel

Interesting selection, Snow Angel.   Your library evidently uses the Dewey System for non-fiction as we did in the Tech College where I used to work, but we usually used the name of the author as much as possible to keep books by a particular author together. But our admittedly small collection of general DVD's were filed under the first initial of the title of the movie, what I did also, even at home. Where they all got messed up by users, size etc, plus running out of room to keep different versions of Lord of the Rings or Narnia dvd's together. Throw in Harry Potter, Star Wars along with the spin-offs plus my eldest's mammoth sized collection of Star Trek movies then it all got a bit much, so I gave it all up. (Gulp!)  .

Of course, "They shall not grow old" is a war movie, its title taken from a stanza of "For the fallen",  a famous Laurence Binyon poem, so it has to be shelved as a war movie for WW1, under 940.4/THEY. If it was about the battles in France it might be 940.4044/THEY, if it was chiefly about USA participation in WW1 battles it might be under 940.40973/THEY. A similar item with chiefly Canadian participation would be 940.40972/THEY, while for Australians only, might be 940.40994.   The NZ number is 993, rather than 994. 

Just a  reminder for any of your siblings, that if any books or DVD's are lost before you get them back to look at yourself, it should be them that pays for the replacement or its original value, perhaps.   I can guess that the movie is the one produced by Peter Jackson, for the 2018 centenary of World War 1. Enjoy.  

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old

Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn

At the going down of the sun & in the morning, we shall remember them. - Part of the Ode of Remembrance

Meanwhile, although the library is open, under restricted conditions, Interlibrary loans aren't offered yet. The NSW border with Victoria is now closed due to a so-called "second wave". A lady locked down at the Newmarch facility up the road was able to be released, but found how many of the friends she had made had died in the epidemic back in April & May. We are back to rationing purchases of toilet paper, boxes of paper tissues, paper towels, etc, not to mention supplies of pasta, rice, flour & other staples. 

My parents are going to visit my brother and his wife in another state the week after next. They were hoping to have a wedding reception since they (my brother and sister-in-law) were unable to have one at their wedding due to lockdown. But it looks like that's still not on the table for them. Mom and Dad were tired of waiting to visit them though even if doing so now means they'll have to practice social distancing more strenuously.

In more cheerful news, I was finally able to get books from the library. Only five now and I won't be able to request more until after I return these. Since I don't live in the same city as the library and only visit there roughly once every two weeks that'll be inconvenient. But it's sure better than nothing.

Posted by: @jo

The world is changed. I feel it in the isolation. I feel it in the quiet. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost; and many now live who remember it.

It must be the beginning of the fourth age. No, that will have to be at least the fifth  

The libraries in Oslo have reopened. Some have shorter opening hours than usual, some have restrictions on how many people can be present at the same time, or on how long you can spend there (2 hours at the branch I usually go to). They have hand disinfectant that we are required to use before going in. But we can borrow books again, and we can order books again - and now they are beginning to claim back those books that were extended with more than three months

They have even - finally - opened the new central library building. Grand opening on June 18th, with only 200 invited guests, and social distancing, but with several cultural contributions, and some distinguished guests. I think I saw (on YouTube or similar)  a government minister, certainly the Mayor of Oslo, and Crown Prince Haakon of Norway.

Some years ago the Prince gave the Royal New Year's speech on TV, substituting for his father the King, who was on sick leave - and he included a quote from a fairytale! His wife the Crown Princess has been promoting literature on several occasions. On this occasion he gave a speech, and I think he was also involved in the official opening moment, cutting the ribbon or whatever they did - my connection wasn't quite good enough just then, unfortunately.

Norway has even opened its borders for foreigners from those countries where there the number of covid cases has gone sufficiently down - and also allowed Norwegians who go to those countries, to come home without having to go into quarantine. There is a map where countries - or regions - are colored red or green, and people are warned that even if the country you go to, is green now, it may become red before you go home, and then there will be quarantine for you after all. So a lot more people than usual stay in Norway for their summer holidays this year.

The authorities fear that with the opening up, people may become careless. We fear a second wave of the disease.

It's a sobering reminder for me to read these pages. While our borders are closed except for returning citizens/residents, our lives are essentially the same as ever, with schools, workplaces, shopping, and entertainment very much back to normal, although a number of events, festivals  etc were cancelled well ahead. 

Our lack of tourists (a big industry) means we're all being urged to see our own country. Some hotels in tourist spots have closed, but in the big cities lots of them have become managed isolation facilities for returning people, and a few are now quarantine facilities for those who test positive. 

And the rest of you have community transmission among you, and I need to remember how that feels, with its outward signs of masks, gloves and distancing. 

Posted by: @varna

It must be the beginning of the fourth age. No, that will have to be at least the fifth  

Ontario, Canada entered Phase 3 two days ago, with many precautions in place: masks are encouraged ('though not mandatory); physical distancing; washing hands thoroughly (soap & water or sanitizer); visiting outdoors as much as is possible (thankfully it is summer now so we can do that ... it would be different with a few feet of snow around the house ). Some feel we have opened too soon; others think the timing is prudent, and are continuing to be careful; there is a percentage of foolish folk who are taking full advantage of it, and not being hardly careful at all. Our family is not running out to go to a restaurant for dinner or having larger groups over at this time. For now, we will continue to live similarly to how we have since we entered Phase 2 (just over a month ago): most communication with locals is done via phone, email, text.

Some of our family is coming to our place again next weekend, but as before, we shall visit out of doors as much as possible.

The major Canadian universities are planning to still be online this Autumn when school commences. Major fairs and festivals have been cancelled for this year. The government continues to have talks as to how to proceed with elementary and high school in September. This time truly is unprecedented. And then, as Varna mentioned, the potential second wave is in the back of our minds.

I heard Dr. Francis Collins (Dr. Anthony Fauci's boss) on Focus on the Family a while back nearer the start of the pandemic, and then shortly thereafter read this interesting, balanced, and informative (US-based) interview.

I just wanted to tell people that I have been reading everyone's posts in this thread with interest even though I haven't responded to them or liked them. Since most of them are about how bad things are, it feels wrong to like them and there's not much to say in response except "that's rough."

Updates from Kansas, they cancelled the state fair after all.

Our governor made the decision to postpone school until after Labor Day, and will reevaluate as the time gets closer. 

I don't have an official page or document or anything to back this up, but I believe I heard that Kansas has the most rapid increase in new cases proportionally to the population over the last two weeks. 

As a result of the above happy news *sarcasm* my Facebook feed is quite literally 50-75% posts from moms asking questions in a couple homeschool groups I'm a part of on how to homeschool. It's crazy. At the rate we're going, they won't need to worry about shutting down schools because there will be so few students still attending!

Posted by: @col-klink

Since most of them are about how bad things are, it feels wrong to like them

I see what you mean. Some programs give the option of "care" (and even other options) instead of just "like", and often that would have been more appropriate. But such a list of options would require more sophisticated programming. So we'll just have to accept that some responses are simply not available.

Posted by: @jo

The major Canadian universities are planning to still be online this Autumn when school commences.

There are Norwegian students at American universities, too. Quite possibly some at Canadian ones, but certainly some at US universities. They were rather worried earlier in the month, because the US authorities decided that if they were only going to have online education, they needn't be in the country at all - so they said they would withdraw their visas.

The students complained that they would still benefit from being in the country, being around the other students (with obvious health precautions) and be able to discuss with them, doing projects together - it wouldn't be the same thing at all to go back and sit in Norway and ONLY have teaching from a screen.

Some student organisations have made official complaints to the powers that be, and the authorities have thought carefully about it and agreed that the foreign students may stay. They won't withdraw their visas after all. Much to the relief of said students.

So new considerations do turn up in these corona times ...