It has been a pretty quiet week, so far. The biggest news locally, is the Coronavirus is making a comeback in Switzerland. After the initial problems this spring, we had slowly but surely been opening up. About a month ago, we hit the final level in the opening plan, which was that large scale events with pre-approval could start up again. About two weeks ago, fall arrived, and since then the numbers have been growing pretty quickly. I was reading an article last night that said Switzerland is considering another lockdown. Just yesterday it was announced we had our largest single day increase ever of almost 3000 new cases. Julie and I were starting to make some plans for some trips in November, but we have decided to hold off. We didn’t want to get stuck like we almost did with our Portugal trip. The quote I found amusing was this: The Health Minister told the public to “Get your act together!” I don’t think it is going to matter.
I think one of the problems in the US was that people grew tired of the restrictions. Granted they grew tired pretty darn fast compared to the rest of the world, but they grew tired, and said screw it. I think that is now happening over here. More and more in the news you hear about different countries that are considering lockdowns again, because the people are not following the social distancing guidelines. Not as much the masks over here. You don’t see any anti maskers. I am sure they exist, they just don’t get any time on the news. Social distancing was easy three weeks ago, temperatures in high teens made it very easy to sit outside, and space yourself out. Now the temps are in the single digits to low teens; so everyone wants to move inside. I am not a Doctor, nor did I sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I think that is the biggest reason the numbers are going up here. We all want to be around other people, and it is not as much fun when we are all wearing masks.
I have spent a lot of time email back and forth with Mike Eierman, in regard to our apps. I had been working on a new website for a while, and I finally got that done. Then we realized the new IOS update broke some of the apps, so we have spent the last week testing and working on the apps. Take a gander at the new website and let me know what you think. https://ei-sor.com We also rolled out the newest app for Predator Hunting.
I did learn one big difference about living over here. Companies actually do seem to listen to you. I got an email from UPC on Sunday with a survey. I was bored, so I said “WTH.” and I filled it out. I was not overly harsh, but I was honest. On Monday, I got a phone call, from someone that wanted to talk about the issues I brought up in my survey. Today, I got a wireless signal booster in the mail. I don’t think that will fix the issue, but at least they tried, and actually responded. I had done the same thing in the US multiple times, both for work, and home, and NOT ONCE did I get a response.
They did ignore my complaints about the roaming charges for the cell phones, but I kind of expected that. I got hit with a pretty big charge in Portugal. I have a European wide roaming plan, but outside of Switzerland, they watch the data levels very closely. What irritated me, is that I went over the data cap. I got one text message warning me that I was at 80% of the cap. Two minutes later, I get another text that said I have exceeded the cap, and I would be charged X for every GB used. About 30 seconds after that text, I got another text message saying my data was being shut off, because I had exceeded the $50 price limit on the account for data. Hell, I didn’t even know I had a price limit, and I wasn’t even using any data at that time, so basically, I went from 80% use to 10 GB over in the space of 3 – 4 minutes. This irritated the crap out of me. It happened so fast, that I wasn’t even able to use my phone to log into the account and change the price cap so I could use the phone. Thank goodness, Julie had her work phone with her!
I have pretty much come to the conclusion that I need to look for a job. I have given up on being able to volunteer at one of the local public schools. I have been trying to reach out to some of the international schools, but there is a limit to how far I am willing to travel to volunteer my time! There are a couple of international schools (private) within two miles; so I am hoping if nothing else, I can find something there. I probably, should have been working more on my German. I see a lot of IT jobs being advertised, but they all state they require fluency in German and English. I think the biggest problem, is that I was not willing to spend the money, or the time to try and get “fluent” in German in my year over here. The second problem being do they really mean German, or do they mean Swiss German? Because those are two completely different things! I will let you know how it goes.
Oh before I go, I need to congratulate my fraternity brother and friend JT Forbes. JT has been the CEO of the IU Alumni Association for going on 10 years now. JT has also been given the interim job as CEO of the IU Foundation. For those of you that do not follow IU, the IU Foundation is the group that handles IU’s endowments and charitable donations. I am not 100% sure on this, but I think the Foundation runs the 12th largest endowment for any university in the United States. I feel sorry for Martha (JT’s better half) she will never see him now! I knew JT back when he was a green youngster, with a good head of hair. I was his Pledge Trainer. I knew he was a special man even then. Good Luck JT! I know you will continue to do great things.
Talk to you next week! I hope everyone stays safe, and wears their mask.