Got home on Friday. Stopped at Dollar General and finally got some paper towels. Hit the Farm and Home for Map Gas and braising rods. Had Arby's for supper. Saturday, O'Reilly's for garden tractor parts, went to the bank, got my hair cut, picked up some ice.
Sure...there where changes. The farm and home had curbside pickup. The bank and Arby's were drive thru only. The barber had a virtual waiting list and called me 15 minutes before he was ready for me (could have opted for up to a half hour) and the barber wore a mask the whole time...no chit-chat...and cut hair outside in a regular old chair.
But it can be done...and we are doing it. Only the movie theater and the bowling alley is still closed as far as I could tell. Our town only has one bar and it is off the beaten path. Our church is having service via radio in the parking lot. Others like the First Baptist are all online.
We have adapted and overcome...only one reported case in our county so far.
Your midsized town can do it too. Can major metropolitans open? That's more of a challenge...but utilizing smart policy... perhaps.
I just don't see how anyone can justify keeping Walmart, beer stores and in Toronto, subways open, but, smaller businesses can't be open. Even if they are, Canadians are still going to basically be on lock down anyways.
We still have a few weeks of this, but it's obvious the government is concerned about the aftermath. As I said, if Ontario businesses once had customers in the U.S, and the U.S opens while we remain closed, those customers will vanish for good.
Canada knows it. This why the talk of "many months still" to remain closed, has quickly changed to "weeks" and even some "slowly opening up", even as they keep preaching to us to stay inside. If not for the tragedies in old age homes, we'd have half as many deaths.