I think it got me?

[Ryster]

Sorry to hear that you aren't feeling 100% and I hope you feel better soon!

Cases are way up in this area as well. Testing centers are overwhelmed, the typical wait locally is 5-6 hours for a test. At home rapid tests are selling out as quickly as they are arriving. The local CVS got in 1200 kits the other day and they were gone in a matter of hours once word got out. Our immediate local population is about 15,000 people. It is incredible to me that 1200 kits would sell out in a matter of hours, so there must have been people coming in from surrounding areas as well to grab them up.

I am starting to have some legitimate anxiety about bowling league this week, simply because our bowling center has been somewhat of a hot spot lately for the virus and there are bowlers that I know for a fact would not stay at home if they were positive and asymptomatic. However it is position round and one of our team members is more than 2 weeks in arrears in league dues [which is grounds for suspension if the treasurer wants to play hard ball]. So I kind of have to go this week.

Eventually we are going to have to learn to live alongside this virus. Just like we do with the common cold and influenza. Forget the whole testing madness. Hypochondria is becoming a real issue now too. Just as with other things, stay home if feeling lousy or have a fever. When you feel better, go back to work/school. If you are having severe breathing problems or other major issues, go to the hospital. There is so much hysteria with this that it is just putting people in to an absolute panic. It is real, and I personally knew a few people that unfortunately passed away from it, but I believe the fear being projected on to the public about it is reaching a very unhealthy level.

[Phonetek]

Speaks as someone who has it, now I can say it's not a big huge deal. I know that if this was two years ago before I was vaxed when this first started it could be much different. I feel lucky this is similar to getting shot with a rubber bullet. There's still a slight chance it could have killed me but instead it just took me down for a bit.

I'm not ready to dismiss this as harmless because it is still lethal to the right person. Then again so is a paper cut. I did in fact take the precautions, always had a mask on in public at all times. Except while fumbling with it trying to put it on from my car to the buildings and while eating or drinking. I wash my hands dozens of times daily.

All it takes is one moment where while I was biting into a big corned beef on rye or taking a sip of coffee to sneak by. It's also possible it went right through my mask? I'll never know. Once I go back to joining society again I'm likely not going to do anything different than I have been the last two years. Before getting it, it was a big scary monster with fangs. Now that I got it, I realize it was just a cat wanting to attack my foot as I walked by.

I can only hope that anyone else that gets this has a similar or better experience with it as me. I also hope they aren't allergic to cats. Now that I am feeling better, about 80%, I just have to play the waiting game for it to go away completely so I can rejoin life. I'm certainly not going to be all scared of getting it again.

Ryster, what I see a lot of people doing that are concerned with the risk of getting sick is coming during the daytime slow hours to pre-bowl. No it's not the same and your opponents already know what they have to beat but it's better than the alternative. I think that most of the leagues are allowing pre-bowl these days. Some are even allowing post-bowl which used to be taboo. Something I wouldn't want to see for position round. Given the current circumstances, pre-bowl is a good option.

[Ryster]

Speaks as someone who has it, now I can say it's not a big huge deal. I know that if this was two years ago before I was vaxed when this first started it could be much different. I feel lucky this is similar to getting shot with a rubber bullet. There's still a slight chance it could have killed me but instead it just took me down for a bit.

I'm not ready to dismiss this as harmless because it is still lethal to the right person. Then again so is a paper cut. I did in fact take the precautions, always had a mask on in public at all times. Except while fumbling with it trying to put it on from my car to the buildings and while eating or drinking. I wash my hands dozens of times daily.

All it takes is one moment where while I was biting into a big corned beef on rye or taking a sip of coffee to sneak by. It's also possible it went right through my mask? I'll never know. Once I go back to joining society again I'm likely not going to do anything different than I have been the last two years. Before getting it, it was a big scary monster with fangs. Now that I got it, I realize it was just a cat wanting to attack my foot as I walked by.

I can only hope that anyone else that gets this has a similar or better experience with it as me. I also hope they aren't allergic to cats. Now that I am feeling better, about 80%, I just have to play the waiting game for it to go away completely so I can rejoin life. I'm certainly not going to be all scared of getting it again.

Ryster, what I see a lot of people doing that are concerned with the risk of getting sick is coming during the daytime slow hours to pre-bowl. No it's not the same and your opponents already know what they have to beat but it's better than the alternative. I think that most of the leagues are allowing pre-bowl these days. Some are even allowing post-bowl which used to be taboo. Something I wouldn't want to see for position round. Given the current circumstances, pre-bowl is a good option.

Our league by-laws do not allow individual pre-bowling. Pre-bowling is allowed only if the entire team pre-bowls. Team pre-bowling is permitted for position rounds but not for roll-offs at the end of the season.

I also have friends and co-workers that have had the virus, and they said it was like a bad cold. Most said it made them very tired, but they were able to continue to work from home while they waited it out. Some recovered faster than others (some a few days, others a week or two.) That said, I would prefer not to have to deal with it at all. But I am vaccinated and boosted, so if I do get it hopefully those jabs will lessen the severity.

[Phonetek]

I will say this thing is moving fast! I was just informed that 6 out of the 7 employees at the pro shop all have Covid. The 7th is my son (so far) who only works part time currently until high school bowling is over. Pro shop closed until further notice. Yikes! They have been super swamped too.

Given the circumstances it may be something you may want to vote on to allow individual pre-bowls. It can keep things moving along better, allow bowlers to get their moneys worth since they likely have to still pay being absent. Of course there is no guarantee that people will bowl over average but better to have the opportunity to try vs average minus 10.

As long as pre-bowls are done on a pair, league style and backed up with a score printout with score corrections only done by the counter. In addition to a recap sheet specifying the date/time/lane pair/league/ team and the date they are bowling for. There should be no issues if all that information is provided. Food for thought.

Trust me, if I could have never caught this virus I'd have been okay with that. I'm just grateful it is what it is and not what it once we. At least I got it out of the way. Once I'm clear I'll get boosted so hopeful this will be a one and done deal

[Ryster]

I will say this thing is moving fast! I was just informed that 6 out of the 7 employees at the pro shop all have Covid. The 7th is my son (so far) who only works part time currently until high school bowling is over. Pro shop closed until further notice. Yikes! They have been super swamped too.

Given the circumstances it may be something you may want to vote on to allow individual pre-bowls. It can keep things moving along better, allow bowlers to get their moneys worth since they likely have to still pay being absent. Of course there is no guarantee that people will bowl over average but better to have the opportunity to try vs average minus 10.

As long as pre-bowls are done on a pair, league style and backed up with a score printout with score corrections only done by the counter. In addition to a recap sheet specifying the date/time/lane pair/league/ team and the date they are bowling for. There should be no issues if all that information is provided. Food for thought.

Trust me, if I could have never caught this virus I'd have been okay with that. I'm just grateful it is what it is and not what it once we. At least I got it out of the way. Once I'm clear I'll get boosted so hopeful this will be a one and done deal

Our league is pretty serious. Blind score is average minus 20. This is to discourage blind/absent bowlers and encourage getting a sub if you absolutely cannot make it. It's a head to head match up league, so we want to make sure bowlers are actually bowling against someone as frequently as possible.

We were told at work today to reduce our in office time to 1 day in the office and work the other 4 days from home due to the rapid rise in cases. It's definitely getting crazy.

[boatman37]

Our league is pretty serious. Blind score is average minus 20. This is to discourage blind/absent bowlers and encourage getting a sub if you absolutely cannot make it. It's a head to head match up league, so we want to make sure bowlers are actually bowling against someone as frequently as possible.

We were told at work today to reduce our in office time to 1 day in the office and work the other 4 days from home due to the rapid rise in cases. It's definitely getting crazy.

We allow pre-bowling but a max of 2 bowlers per team. Well actually you need 3 there to be a team or you forfeit so I guess 2 isn't necessarily the max. But our blind is average -30 so it hits hard. We had 2 teams use a blind last night. In fact 1 team had to use 2 blinds. That's 60 pins they had to give up. They lost all 3 games but surprisingly didn't lose each by much.

As for COVID, yeah it's hitting our area hard. I probably know 10-15 people that have had it in the last 3 weeks but thankfully all were just sneezing and runny noses. Problem is there is a 4 day wait around here to get tested and it's nearly impossible to find an over the counter test. Daughter-in-law called around last Saturday to get tested and she couldn't get in anywhere until today. So people are going about their normal business cause no way to know if it is COVID or just a cold. And by the time you would get in to get a test and get the results you are likely out of quarantine and fine anyway.

[Phonetek]

Damn you guys got more rules than Chicago does Covid restrictions! -20 & -30? That's harsh if you have to miss for say a funeral or because you're an Incubus of viral plague like me. I never bowled on or ran a league with such rules.

Do you guys find it difficult filling teams? To me the punishment of having to pay for a week when I didn't bowl was punishment enough. I guess I'm cheap. LOL I don't have Boatman money though. 😜

The new case numbers in Illinois today were nearly 33,000! I'm guessing some of them are bowlers. I'm sure with tomorrow's 30k more there will be more bowlers. You guys might wanna cut people a little slack or your bowlers are gonna say to hell with it and not come back. People are getting scared again.

With these numbers I'm foreseeing some leagues getting postponed until the next peak happens. It sounds like a better idea than 30% attendance and making 70% people get in the rears with dues for being sick or avoiding getting sick. Man this stuff is gonna mess everything up again that was starting to get almost back to normal.

[Ryster]

We do have a hard time getting teams, but that is more due to the league being scratch head-to-head, $22/wk, and team averages being capped at 645 (3-person teams). The cap used to be 625 but was raised to 645. That helped find more bowlers for open spots on existing teams, but we still have an odd number of teams. We have already been warned that Bowlero is going to increase lineage next season so the weekly dues will be even higher next season. It would not be surprising if the league simply folds after this season.

Our center is doing absolutely nothing proactive during the surge. No social distancing, no extra cleaning, no hand sanitizer stations, no changes to pre-bowling rules, no masking requirements (there are no mandates on masking anymore...only "recommendations" by the county or specific rules set by the business themselves.) The bowling center has become known for being a place that people can go for a while to just let loose and not deal with that stuff. It's ultimately not turning out to be the case for an increasing number of people.

[boatman37]

There aren't many viable options for leagues around here so our center is pretty busy. The closest other one is an old wood lane center that mops the oil on the lanes. I haven't been there since a tournament in about 2002 but a guy I practice with every week bowls there. The next closest place I'd consider is about 45 minutes away from me. The one I'm at now is about 10 minutes away.

[Ryster]

There are other bowling centers around here. There is a center 1/2 the size of my current one that is 10 miles from home that I would consider. Otherwise, the next closest center is 15 miles away. There are two others that are 20 miles away. I love bowling, but I refuse to drive 30-40miles/90min round trip to bowl. That's like commuting to bowl!