u/Savings-Breath-9118

My husband’s very good friend, a man he’s known for over 40 years is dying of cancer across the country. My husband will be visiting him next month most likely to say goodbye. He is a very rare form of cancer that there is no known chemo or radiation that will definitely address it, but he may get a combo of chemo and stem cell transplant.

So far his friend is tolerating the chemo pretty well but has had a host of other difficulties. Three different infections, the port clogging up at one point, he now has a back injury for which he may need further treatment.

I say all this to ask those who are caregivers for those, especially with advanced cancer whether a three day visit is too long, too short or just enough. He’ll get there on a Tuesday, but not see his friend until Wednesday afternoon, and then can spend Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning, or any parts of those with him. Of course, he will follow his friends lead, but I’m wondering if this is too long a visit or too short? His friend does have a partner who is very very, very helpful with all the appointments and everything else so hopefully my husband can give her a little bit of respite or even go shopping or take care of some of those tasks for her.

The friend and his wife say any length or visit is fine – I know prior visitors have stayed just a few days for which one of those was spent most entirely visiting in the hospital. Obviously, if that happens, my husband will enroll with it, but we’re anticipating, he would be able to see his friend at their home.

I’m just upset. I’m looking for advice and I want to do the right thing. Any thoughts would be helpful.

Want to do a test today before meeting up with some friends and I did everything right like I’ve been doing for years, but when I inserted the test into the reader the light stayed white. I took it out again, pushed it together again unplugged and we plugged the reader and it still didn’t work. I then got another test same thing the reader didn’t work and the light stayed on but I thought to change the adapter and it works fine.

I reported to Metrix and I hope they replaced the test and at least will sell me an adapter. I had an invalid test the other day which they were replaced right away.

First of all, I wouldn’t need a third dose of Paxlovid to visit somebody who is immuno Compromised. So those who couldn’t figure out what I was asking… I don’t know what to say. Question is above. In the past, we’ve been able to get third doses as we are immuno compromised, but we were told no this time and indeed the CDC guidelines have changed that you’re only entitled to two doses. Is there any way to get a third? We’re in California and can’t leave the state very easily. But I don’t think that would work this time as the printout they had was from our Insurance not from California.

My DH just found out he may need to go visit a friend who is very ill in September when they finish their chemo treatments. We were going to wait to get the new updated vaccine till October November or so, but now I’m wondering since we are over 65 and immuno compromised if it would be any good to get the current Vaccine booster now and then he could still get the new one in November December. Would it help at all to get the current booster even with circulating now? Thanks for any help everyone I really appreciate it.

We will be in New Zealand in March next year and thinking about a whale watching trip. However I tend to get seasick and there are a lot of warnings on the website about make sure you take the appropriate medication etc. etc. I don’t know if it would actually be enjoyable for me and I’m wondering if there are places to go near Kaikoura to see whales from the shore. We don’t mind if they’re far away – we watch all the time here in the San Francisco Bay Area and they are often far away but it’s still fun to see them.

I don’t mind taking medication for seasick if I just don’t know if it would help. I’ve only been on a boat a few times and it’s not been particularly pleasant. Thanks for any help.

Wondering if any of you do long-haul flights ever unmasks just to eat in Business class. We’re looking at flights next spring thinking it will be difficult to stay masked for over 10
Hours on the plane. I’ve heard suggestions that you can get your meal at a different time in business class so you’re eating and no one else is . Has anyone successfully done this?

I posted about our itinerary and other details of our trip. We’re very excited to be coming back to New Zealand after having visited twice, most recently back in 2011. I’ve gotten a lot of information about changes and things to do, etc.

The one issue that is still nagging at me is whether to stick with the tour group we have booked for our independent tour or go ahead alone as we’ve done before.

This will be the first time we’ve ever booked with a tour operator for any kind of trip including many overseas trips in the past. We like the flexibility of being able to stop in a certain town or stay someplace for a few extra days, etc. but having a tour doesn’t allow very easily.

But– and this is the biggest issue – we haven’t traveled overseas since just before Covid in 2019. We haven’t even flown that much except for short trips along the West Coast during that time. I personally am really out of practice dealing with all the things that going to a foreign country entails and my anxiety has risen over the years of Covid around almost everything. So while I would love to be able to plan this trip on our own and I know how easy it would be. I feel like if any little thing went wrong. I would be way more anxious and terrified than I was in the past.

The tour group we’ve booked with has been really responsive to all the things that are important to us – staying in smaller places, a few days in each place, and skipping some of the things we’ve done before so we can do things we haven’t done. what part of the charm in our prior to trips was staying in small independent B&Bs that were almost across between a B&B and a home stay. We especially enjoyed getting advice from people on what to do and where to go next which definitely altered our trip plans back in the day.

But one big difference is that both times we’ve traveled we’ve traveled in the off-season – late May early June – and there were hardly any tourists and it was very easy to find places on the Fly. I realize that coming in US spring time will be very different in terms of tourists, and booking in advance.

I know this is kind of rambling, but I have a paying about not being able to stay in places on the fly or investigate towns. We don’t know about on our driving trip. But I have to balance that with how anxious I get around travel now, and how fluxed I will be if we get to a place or an Airbnb and it isn’t what I’d hoped. I really relish the idea of having an organization to call on if something goes wrong and at least get some good advice of what to do next. Things like a car accident or an injury or whatever we at least would have someone on the ground in New Zealand that we can look to for what the next steps would be. Especially now that we’re in our 70s, issues like that seem more important than the places we might be staying.

Some of this is definitely been prompted by joining a Facebook group around New Zealand Travel, and really being castigated for booking with a tour organization. Everyone spoke about how easy it was to do it yourself and how you have helped through this Facebook group and blah blah blah that doesn’t seem quite enough for me right now.

When I look at the places we’ll be staying they all seem amazing and just a scale that we like and if we’ve never been to New Zealand, we would think they were great and perfect. But knowing there is a level of stay, a little less formal is just chewing at me a little bit.

I know this is kind of a diffuse cause I ran, but I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts about it even if you think I’m a dope. Thanks.

Question about permanent mute.

Some posters save the permanent mute ban drops off after 28 days but some say that doesn’t happen anymore? Is there a drop off or does it depend? Thanks for any help.

Applied this morning and my HUSBAND was approved in minutes and I am still waiting. I’m pretty sure the issue is my name has an apostrophe in it that neither New Zealand or my credit card uses. But my passport does. I called the New Zealand office and they told me it would be fine and stopped worrying. But I’m still worried.

Thanks for everyone who has given us good advice for our trip. We’ve had a lot of long talks with the folks will be visiting there as as well as others who have traveled extensively to New Zealand and a couple of tour operators. I think we’ve come up with a plan that works for us we minimize some of the driving, this is some things that we would’ve liked to have seen, but aren’t visible right now and skips the things we haven’t liked on prior trips.

We would fly directly to Christchurch and onto Dunedin and start our trip there and move north.

Dunedin  4 days
Oamaru two days
Akaroa 2 days
Christchurch 4 days
Hamner Springs 2 or 3 days
Kaikoura 3 days
Blenheim 4 days 
Then fly to Auckland for 4 days and back home from Auckland.

We decided driving all the way to the West Coast will have to wait for another time.

Would love to hear anyone’s thoughts and thanks so much for your help already!

Some of this is your fault because you suggested Martinsborough on the North Island that sounds fascinating.

Here's our tentative tentative tentative schedule for March. Would love any comments of any kind. We have a lot of time to plan so this is really just a first pass.

Mar 3-5 CHC

Mar 5-7 Akaroa

Mar 7-9  Oamaru

Mar 9-12  Dunedin (friends there)

Mar 12-14 Wanaka

Mar 14-16  Franz josef

Mar 16-18 Hokitika

Mar 18-20 Hamner springs

Mar 20-22  Kaikoura

Mar 22-26 Blenheim we love New Zealand wine and want to spend an extra day there

Mar 26-28 700  chc then fly to wellington

Mar 28-30  martinsborough then drive to Auckland

31-2  auckland (Friends) then home

The only way I can see shortening it is to drop out North Island, obviously or the other option would be to retrace our steps from Dunedin. We really don't want to go through Queenstown. But I'm also a little nervous about the West Coast Dr. – as you've seen in the other post, we are older and don't want to do risky driving ourselves. Any thoughts are welcome at this point and thanks.

We were last in New Zealand 15 years ago and about to be back and wished we had gone back sooner. We’re looking at various options for traveling around the south Island primarily, and a lot of tour operators and others are recommending way more formal activities for us than we need. Has that changed over the past 15 years? We’ve been in New Zealand twice, 2009 and 2011, and both times we just drove around the islands going to different towns, talking to locals about what to do, and I don’t feel like we missed anything. We did book the cruise at Milford sound but that’s about all we booked in advance.

Is there more tourism now that we need to book activities and not just hang around Little towns? I don’t think we’ve ever booked activities any place we’ve ever gone.

Just meandering around seems fine with us.

We have tried all the different sprays that you can imagine including profi, Enovid , and before that, Bacitracin on a q tip. I’m wondering if anything you use as a barrier does something – that is do I need to keep buying these expensive sprays that are hard to find when I could just use Vaseline? I’m curious if there’s any research anyone is found about this as I haven’t seen any

Background: I’m over 65, with some comorbidities and have never had Covid. I mask everywhere and haven’t been in an indoor restaurant or bar or theater in six years. I’ve done some short flights fully masked in first class – nothing over a couple of hours.

We are thinking about next spring doing a long haul flight of 7 to 8 hours. I’ve read all the hacks about protein drinks, sit valves, etc. I don’t know that I can do that. So I’m wondering about people‘s experiences specifically on long-haul flights in business or first if they’ve unmasked for any portion of that time and still avoided Covid.

Obviously, I would be looking at wastewater and other issues and buying refundable flights even though they cost a lot more. But I’m trying to assess realistically how imperative it would be to stay masked for the couple of hours we’d be at the airport, which would not be an issue but then the entire 8 to 10 hour flight as well. I know many people who have flown long haul who have not gotten Covid from their experiences there especially in business or first, but have gotten Covid and other situations.

In the four times my DH and I prioritize travel over anything else – we don’t own a car or a lot of furniture or anything else of value. But we love traveling and missing that has been a big part of being depressed around Covid. Thanks for any thoughts from people who have experienced what I’m talking about and still avoided Covid – or if you haven’t, that’s important information too, but I’m not looking for lectures on what I should be doing. I’m looking for real world experiences for people. Thanks so much!

Question above - I might be doing some traveling later this year, domestic in the US, and wondering if there have been any issues taking a plus life reader through domestic security at all? Like if they ask what it is and I tell them is it possible it might be confiscated? Is anyone had any experience with this? If there are issues I would just take my metrix reader instead but I’d rather have the plus life. I would have it in carry-on.

I’ve read a number of articles that state that the Covid Virus is getting weaker, and in the near future, we may wi d up with it being closer to a flu than not. In the past, I totally discounted these articles and they understand there’s still the risk of long Covid of course, but could this really be possible?

We are thinking about going back from medium term rental to Airbnb once again as we have a new property manager who is really excited about taking this on.

However, I’ve only used booking.com as a user, and only for hotels, and every single time I used it , the reservation didn’t hit the system or was the problem in some other way and got screwed up. If I moved from Airbnb to booking is it any better for hosts than Airbnb?

This might sound weird, but we are thinking about fostering kittens or cats in the next year or two. We actually thought to do it sooner, but the closest fostering agency to us requires an in person meeting to go over guidelines, refuse to let us wear masks, and refuse to ask other participants to wear masks or do something online. Their stance was cats and kittens that come into fostering can often be ill themselves and if we are that nervous about getting sick, we are not good foster parents. We wanted to go with this particular agency because they guarantee they will pick up the cat when they are old enough or trained enough or available for adoption enough that the SPCA will pick them up. We do not want another Cat as a full-time Cat, so this was really attractive for us.

I have never heard this about Cat fostering, especially as most Cat disease diseases are not transferable to humans. has anyone heard of this kind of issue and is there anything I’m missing about fostering cats that I would need to be concerned about being immuno compromised? Thanks for any help.

I haven’t used Reddit for traveling, so I kind of forgot there was a whole forum here. Our trip is pretty set, but I’d love to hear any thoughts about things we may have missed or screwed up. Even if we’re held to it I always like to know if I screwed up. This is a combination visiting friends in Olympia and then traveling around the Olympic peninsula that we’ve never done.

I’m leaving out some details as I’m very paranoid about announcing I’m on vacation. This is happening in the next month or so.
We are an older couple, don’t mind some driving, obviously, but aren’t into true hiking, and we don’t care that much about the rainforest although it might be nice to see one. We like the outdoors, but with this isn’t an unplugged type of trip – we focused on towns that are close to nature rather than roughing it or staying inside the park itself.

– A few days in Olympia, the main reason for our trip to visit Friends. We’re set with the Olympia part. We’ve been there before.

- we then go to Sequim for about five days, to relax and enjoy a town that we think will be a good size for us. We will likely go inside the park at some point or maybe up to cape flattery? We don’t want to spend every day driving, but we’ll do some.
- we then go to Westport for about five days. We wanted a different town and I really wanted to have some part of the trip with the pool and that fit the Bill. We understand we’re only close to the most southern parts of the park, but we’re thinking maybe to hit up some beaches?

I realize this is not very detailed, but I just want to hear suggestions and thoughts. We’re skipping Seattle, but we will be in Burien for a couple of days at the end of the trip to be close to the airport.

We’re mostly interested in things that we wouldn’t know about from our basic Google searching, and any recommendations for meals that are not seafood. We will definitely have some seafood meals, but as I am allergic, we try not to focus on that.

I never care about whether something is touristy or not so I’m not saying don’t give me Tourist stuff. I do know about the Hoh forest for example, and wouldn’t be against it, but will probably skip that as we’re not early risers. I understand you have to get there pretty early to avoid the long lines.

Thanks for any help!

I’m assuming these aren’t entry-level jobs? I taught Business administration and finance at SF state for many years and I can tell you the companies would much rather hire someone from out of state than one of our local grads even though who were older students and had a lot of experience.

Is it fin tech or AI or other things that are driving the hiring process here? My fantasy is that they offer jobs to people from out of the area because $110,000 sounds like a lot of money. I hope no one is being tricked to come here.