It continues.

Tech creep and masking.

It is happening at a quickening pace.  Went to one of our supermarkets today.  This is the one I report on the most.  It has been a few weeks, perhaps a month since I was there.  I was shocked to see that the 10 cashier manned cash registers and 6 self checkout registers have been re arranged.  Now there are 18 self checkouts with only 3 accepting cash and only 4 cashier manned registers.  I know that 2 still accept cash and believe but do not know that the other 2 do.

Earlier I reported how a fast food joint near work and the local 100¥ store now have only self ordering and check out.  We stopped a Michi no eki (Think local produce super market) on Christmas Day.   They offered a full 20% discount for PayPay users.  It will not be long when we no longer have the choice to choose anything other than self checkout and E-money.  It is getting harder and harder to use cash and more expensive too.

In masking news.  A couple of weeks ago the 10 year old had a swim meet.  The good news is they got their personal best time in one event.  The bad news is that all were required to wear masks when not in the water.  Most riders on the local buses are masked and I am seeing large numbers of people driving alone in their cars masked.  We went camping on Christmas Eve.  While the mad maskers were finally out numbered at a camp site, there still were far too many masking while camping.  Most of the campground employees were masked.

Follow-up on us having the flu a short while ago.  All except myself go it the flu shot this year.  All, regardless of getting the flu shot or not, got the flu.  And, it can not be accurately stated that those who got the shot cleared the flu quicker than I did nor had lighter symptoms.  There were no observable differences between our cases.