Thursday, April 29th, 2021
What a day!
Yes, it was overcast all day, but it was also warm and now the evening air is refreshing, but not cold. As of the early hours of the morning the “office” moved outside so I could enjoy the flowers and the birds doing their thing while working. I love being outside without coats and fires and so on. And I did spend some time lizzarding after my swim, so the tan is coming along nicely and today was perfect as it was not too hot to be lying in the sun, while the rays still come through the cloud cover. Also, having no direct sun enables me to work outside all day as the laptop will not overheat (and neither will I). The few drops of rain here and there made it all the more enjoyable.
Since the weatherperson says storms are due tonight, I did cover the outside furniture when the evening rain started – possibly prematurely so as of course it stopped by the time I was done. Now I am holed up inside with all my windows open, the first time in 2021.
There are a number of restaurant owners in the Hood and 400 days ago the community began supporting them through placing e online orders for pick-up at the community pool parking lot. We had Taim Thursday, Delabara Tuesday and Shouk Saturday and it seems to have made a difference as they have all pulled through the pandemic and their business are alive. Taim send a lovely message to the community today.
March 26, 2020 was the first Taïm Thursday for our neighborhood - it actually doesn’t feel that long ago. I cannot express enough what the last 58 weeks of Taïm Thursdays have meant to us. The support of so many through your weekly orders and the encouragement you’ve given us through your raving reviews of our food have been a large reason why we are still open and operating today despite the conditions around us that have caused so many of our peers to lose their businesses. The good news is that things are improving. Despite the strictest restrictions on restaurants in the US right now, Georgetown is beginning to come alive and we are seeing the benefit of that happening thankfully. Our biggest challenge we now face is staffing, actually. This is an industry wide problem right now with multiple causes but in the end, we are finding ourselves needing to keep “all hands on deck” at the restaurant and to limiting the off premise events like our neighborhood community orders. So - tonight’s Taïm Thursday will be the last one - at least for a while. I have good news, though. We’ve been able to expand our delivery zones so you can now order Taïm and get it delivered right to your home whenever you want, any day of the week! You can order the same way you’ve always ordered and choose delivery instead of pickup. You can also order via Uber Eats or Door Dash although, as you may know, those 2 options come with some significant fees charged to us so we love when people order via www.taimfalafel.com or through our app :). And more good news - as a thank you for 58 wonderful weeks of support you’ve given us - we are giving a 25% discount off of all orders for tonight’s delivery! When you check out - just input the promotion code COMMUNITY and it will automatically apply the discount to your order. The rest of the ordering instructions for tonight remain the same and are below. Thanks again everyone, we hope to see many of you tonight and, more so, as you maybe begin to venture out more that you come see us in person at either of our locations - Georgetown or DuPont Circle.
I am proud to be part of a Hood looking out for each other, even if my contribution was limited to Delabara pizza as I do not like the food of either Taim or Shouk – a bit to healthy for me – and cooking has really been one of the main distractions during the 415 days of #stayhome. The community solidarity has nonetheless been amazing, and I like the recognition people get for their support.
The thank you note is more evidence of things returning to “normal”. Still the pandemic is not over yet. Infections in the USA continue to plateau at 50k range with 56k reported over the past twenty-four hours bringing the US total to 33 million today. With 95 million Americans fully vaccinated and 230 million shots administered in 100 day there is hope though that the viral spread can be reduced significantly.
The Biden administration has accomplished an amazing feat purely through focus and determination! There is a chance America may not ever reach herd immunity and viral spread will continue, which is not welcome news. However, this may not overly impact a return to normalcy. Beyond making it easier for people to be vaccinated, possibly giving preference to the JNJ shot as it is single dose, society can incentivize inoculation.
For example, colleges requiring students to be vaccinated, much like schools do with mumps, measles and rubella, or countries only admitting vaccinated people. Stadiums are already reserving sections for fully vaccinated and so on. And if incentives on what vaccinated people can do not work to get more people to take the shot, business practices certainly can. 60% of US companies will require employees prove they have been inoculated.
Scientists at the University of Oxford are developing tests to establish how long the vaccines will provide immunity for. Hopefully for longer than six months, just to allow the entire world to be vaccinated before booster shots are needed. Sadly, the jury is still out on this one.
Now it is official, chlorinated pool water kills the virus within 30 seconds!
This has been may logic since pools reopened on July 6th. I follow the former guys orders and soak myself in bleach every day, while exercising at the same time. It has done wonders for my mental health!