Conoravirus ...

[cap10ed]

How Transport Canada and a $Billion dollar Great Lakes Economy looks at the Corona Virus. Starting into 2020 this is what Canadian pilots are being told. How the American Pilots react vs our Canadian reactions will be of interest. After being aboard our boat in Deltaville VA that is as remote as you can get in the winter I am subject to a 14 day home quarantine. Being 66 years old and healthy enough to climb up the side of a ship then 6 flights of stairs I hope this virus is over rated.

“NOTICE TO EMPLOYEES No. 22
Re: Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response Plan
Earlier this week the World Health Organization officially raised the level of the COVID-19 outbreak to a PANDEMIC. Even though the risk of COVID-19 to Canadians remains low at this time, the GLPA is carefully monitoring the current COVID-19 outbreak. We have been proactively implementing measures and developing plans to prioritize the health and well-being of our employees, while ensuring business continuity in order to meet our clients throughout this period. We are maintaining a very close connection to all appropriate government agencies to ensure we have the most up to date information possible. As the situation develops, we will be in direct communication with you to share what we have learned.
As we continue to monitor the global impact of COVID-19, it is important that we actively follow guidelines as set out by the World Health Organization, the Public Health Agency of Canada and Transport Canada with an ultimate goal to ensure the safety of you and your families.
COVID-19 Prevention and Protection Measures
As the COVID-19 outbreak continues to be a concern locally and worldwide, the Great Lakes Pilotage Authority is committed to the safeguarding of its employees, their families and the public.
It is important that we all stay informed and confirm facts before sharing with others.
With the World Health Organization (WHO) officially raising the level of the COVID-19 outbreak to a PANDEMIC, we would like to reemphasize the following:
Signs and symptoms of infection include fever, cough, and trouble breathing.
Sanitation Procedures
• Ensure all workspaces are cleaned and sanitized prior to use. This includes but not limited to:
o Surfaces such as tables, door handles and chairs
o Objects such as radios, keyboards, remote controls, touch screens and buttons. o Cell phones
• Promote regular and thorough handwashing by employees and any guests that may be attending our facilities. Washing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds is the most effective method for killing the virus on our hands.

• To assist in the sanitization, antibacterial wipes have been placed around the offices. It is especially important to clean hands after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose.
• Face masks and / or paper tissues are available in prominent places at the office for anyone who may develop a runny nose or cough, along with closed bins for hygienically disposing of them.
• Masks and surgical gloves along with Ziploc bags have been placed at each hygiene station in the pilot’s waiting room. Also, the GLPA is distributing to each pilot, antibacterial wipes so that the pilots can clean their work area and equipment when boarding. Previously, the GLPA has distributed a water bottle to each pilot. We encourage you to use this bottle when going on board. In addition, a stainless-steel straw will be distributed for mouth protection when drinking.
Protection Procedures
• Maintain social distancing, especially if someone is coughing or sneezing. Whenever possible maintain a distance of 2 meters between yourself and others to limit the transmission of the virus. Social distancing means staying out of crowded places, avoiding group gatherings, and maintaining distance (approximately 6 feet or two meters) from others when possible.
• Avoid shaking hands. As a protection measure, it is time to modify our normal social behaviors and refrain from direct contact with others as much as possible.
• Avoid touching your face. Hands touch many surfaces and can pick up viruses. Once contaminated, hands can transfer the virus to your eyes, nose, or mouth. From there, the virus can enter your body and can make you sick.
• Develop good respiratory hygiene practices. Cover your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then dispose of the used tissue immediately.
• Initiate a body temperature check when called for an assignment to ensure you have no fever prior to boarding a vessel. If you show sign of a fever, contact the dispatch office immediately.
• Every workspace within the GLPA, which includes its head office in Cornwall, pilot waiting stations in St. Lambert, Beauharnois, and Lock 7 will be sanitized on a daily basis in order to clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces to avoid the potential spread of the virus. The GLPA has informed the cleaning contractors of these requirements. As for the pilot waiting stations at Snell Lock, Iroquois Lock, Cape Vincent, Lock 1 in the Welland canal, Port Huron, Detour and Soo pilot station, the GLPA will request the owners to take all precautions to maintain the pilot’s waiting stations sanitized.
Normal temperature: 36.5–37,5 °C (97.7–99,5 °F) Fever: >38 °C (100 ° F)

EMPLOYEES WITH COVID-19 VIRUS
• If you have a fever, cough, or difficulties breathing, seek medical care early and do not come into the office or report for duty. Notify your supervisor. Follow the directions of your local health authority.
• If someone does come into the office and then displays acute respiratory illness symptoms (i.e. cough, shortness of breath or fever) they are to be separated from the general office population and sent home to seek medical advice, and their work area is to be wiped down with antibacterial wipes.
IF YOU HAVE A SICK FAMILY MEMBER IN THE HOME DIAGNOSED WITH COVID-19
• If you have a sick family member in the home diagnosed with COVID-19, you are to notify your supervisor. You are to work from home, if possible, or stay at home until it is confirmed that both the family member and you are no longer sick.
TRAVEL REPORTING
If you have travelled to any country outside of Canada and have not returned to
st
Canada by March 1 , 2020, we ask that you report this information to your immediate
supervisor. All employees who have travelled abroad are to self-isolate for 14 days after their return from travel outside of Canada. Prior to return to work after self-isolation, please contact your supervisor for further instructions.
BUSINESS TRAVEL
Effective immediately, all non-essential travel to any country is cancelled given the Government of Canada’s travel advisory notice which advises that such travel is to be avoided (https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/health- ... otices/221).
Other than to provide pilotage services, all travel within Canada and the United States will be limited and subject to the CEO, CFO or Director of Operations approval. Alternative methods for meeting and communications are to be leveraged as is feasible and possible. Webinars, teleconference and videoconference should be the first option for long distance meetings.
Meetings organized by the GLPA will be restricted to no more than 15 participants. In order to minimize person to person exposure, meetings will be limited to ensure sufficient space is provided between each attendee as to limit contact.
TRAINING
All non-essential training will be postponed and will be conducted once the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
Training deemed essential will be determined by the CEO, CFO or the Director of Operations. For essential training, the following measures will be taken:

• similar to GLPA meetings, attendees will be restricted to no more than 15 participants;
• training facilities will be required to comply with the GLPA’s procedures (e.g. maximize social distance, eliminate self-serve buffet style eating, providing hand sanitizer dispensers in prominent locations);
• participants are to avoid shaking hands and practice proper hygiene; and
• participants are to avoid sharing food and drinks.
CONTRACTORS AND VISITORS
Visitors and contract work at the GLPA premises should be restricted to essential business needs. All visitors and contractors will be required to comply with the GLPA’s rules stipulated in this notice.
Whenever a visitor or contractor is expected, the following questions are to be asked:
➢ have you traveled abroad? If yes, which countries have you visited and when did you return to Canada;
➢ Do you have flu symptoms (fever, cough, difficulties breathing)?
Based on the visitors or contractors’ answers to the above questions, the GLPA will
assess whether they are permitted to enter the workplace.
PILOT TRANSPORTATION
The GLPA has been working with its land transportation service providers to increase the sanitization of their vehicles to reduce the risk of the virus. All companies have agreed to the increase in precautionary actions to ensure a healthy environment for our pilots.
In addition, taxi service providers will be required to monitor their drivers for the COVID-19 symptoms and illness to ensure healthy drivers are providing services to the GLPA.
QUESTIONS
All questions pertaining to the GLPA’s COVID-19 response plan are to be directed to questions@glpa-apgl.com or to Stéphane Bissonnette at (613) 933-2991 extension 207.
March 16, 2020 Stéphane J.F. Bissonnette Cornwall, Ontario Ch”

[Ajax]

Another of my close co-workers has reported a fever. These are fit, younger people who don't just "get fevers" for no damn reason.
I've called out for the next 2 weeks with the provisio that I'll reevaluate after the first week. If we don't look like Italy, I might go in.

[BeauV]

Well, we've locked down here in Santa Cruz County and all 6 counties surrounding the SF Bay. That means stay at home unless you're going to get food, meds, emergency medical attention (after calling first), etc... All restaurants, bars, gyms, etc... are closed except for takeout food. Oddly, one isn't allowed to go sailing. Schools are all closed. We're setting up a school for the granddaughters, YaiYai and Opa University. Reading, writing, drawing, and jumping up and down. They are thrilled. I didn't realize how nice it would be to only live a block from the kids and grandkids.

As a result, the St Francis YC is closed and I'm scrambling to figure out what we can do to help support our staff while they're off work. We've survived a lot: A fire that burned most of the club down, an earthquake which knocked down 1/2 the club, and we'll survive this.

Instacart delivered a load groceries, which the Admiral proclaimed were mediocre. But, we're set. I can live like this for weeks. I reminded the extended family that it's like a long sailboat trip.

[LarryHoward]

Ed. Thanks for the copy of the TC policy. Well written and thoughtful.

I’ve put my entire office on telework. About 40% are techs work in a project facility on the local base without the ability to telework. I expect the base to shut down within the next week and have arranged for them to be covered with training, document review, etc for a couple of weeks and IT is setting up new laptops for them to use from home. I expect it will go longer than 2 weeks and am searching for more things they can do to stay on the clock. I ran a leave report and several have less than 8 hours banked (including SL as we are one of the few Small Businesses in MD that provides SL. We have instituted new “charge numbers” for CV related time off in preparation for the Federal Aid we are told will be available. Hopefully it wil, get settled soon.

Goal is to get our folks through this without illness or permanent financial stress.

My retirement investments are another story.

[Ajax]

Larry, I've got your blue vest all ready for you. Get some time in front of the mirror so you can practice your Wal-Mart greeting.

[Steele]

Our clinic is pretty much shut down. We have canceled all non urgent appointments, are doing everything we can to manage patient needs by email and phone, and are starting secure video visits this week. We now have 2 dedicated respiratory illness centers that are super busy, I will probably be transitioning to that role next week as they expand their capacity.

The issue is not just reducing spread of the virus, but trying to preserve resources as this thing goes from bad to worse. Hopefully we can parse out supplies so we have the protective equipemnt, staff, and ventilators needed in the next few weeks.

[Jamie]

We started working remotely last week. We have offices in WPM, Grand Cayman, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Ironically the Chinese offices are back to normal operations just as the US offices shut. Fortunately we are very used to operating remotely and only the labs in China need to be in-person

[TheOffice]

Maryland's governor has announced that emissions test stations are being converted to drive through testing stations.

He has been doing a great job, along with deWine and Cuomo of getting in front of this mess.

[kimbottles]

Our clinic is pretty much shut down. We have canceled all non urgent appointments, are doing everything we can to manage patient needs by email and phone, and are starting secure video visits this week. We now have 2 dedicated respiratory illness centers that are super busy, I will probably be transitioning to that role next week as they expand their capacity.

The issue is not just reducing spread of the virus, but trying to preserve resources as this thing goes from bad to worse. Hopefully we can parse out supplies so we have the protective equipemnt, staff, and ventilators needed in the next few weeks.

Please stay safe Tom!!

[LarryHoward]

Maryland's governor has announced that emissions test stations are being converte
d to drive through testing stations.

He has been doing a great job, along with deWine and Cuomo of getting in front of this mess.

Pretty good for a GOP Gouv. All this while the state legislature was passing a $4B tax increase for school improvement while we already have some of the highest cost/student in the country. Most new taxes will come from applying sales tax to services so haircuts, internet access, labor, etc. will all go up 5%. That pays for less then 1/3 of the bill. The rest goes to the counties As U.N. funded mandates so expect Property Taxes to make a sharp increase -except for Baltimore County and Prince George’s County who will get a bigger slice of the money since “they can’t afford to increase taxes.”

Interesting that our little county at the end of the road has one of the first drive through CV-19 testing stations in the country. You need a doctor’s order and results will take several days.

[blackjenner]

Well, we've locked down...Oddly, one isn't allowed to go sailing....

A few sailors on a local FB group are talking about going out, maybe anchoring, etc.

I'm curious.

What is your read on the order that boats shouldn't go out?

I'm not planning on leaving the dock.

[Tigger]

If the instructions are to 'shelter in place' ... hard to beat the logic that a good harbour is a 'shelter' and you are in place.

As long as you don't touch anything or anyone on the way to the boat. Oh man ...

[BeauV]

Well, we've locked down...Oddly, one isn't allowed to go sailing....

A few sailors on a local FB group are talking about going out, maybe anchoring, etc.

I'm curious.

What is your read on the order that boats shouldn't go out?

I'm not planning on leaving the dock.

I don't know which area you're in, but I'd get the official document issued and read it carefully. For example, the golf course just outside our windows didn't realize that people driving to the golf course were violating the prohibition on travel for non-essential purposes. The County Sheriff shut them down and threatened to ticket a large group of golfers who had ignored the prohibition of traveling for non-essential purposes. It got really really quiet as the Sherrif explained that the third violation would be a felony.

I don't have an opinion about "sheltering in place at your residence". If you live on a boat, and that's your mailing address, it's probably fine. If it's not your mailing address, you could have trouble claiming it's your "residence". The Harbormaster has said that "going for a sail" breaks the law in Santa Cruz.

[Panope]

Myself, my wife and daughter have all been at home on lockdown for the past 6 days. We all have had some mild cold/flu symptoms. Kiddo is pretty well over it, Laura is doing fine, and I am on high alert because I seem to get pneumonia easily and frequently. So far we are breathing fine.

The governor has shut down all schools for 6 weeks. My wife's job is 99% work from home so it is business as usual for her. When (if) I recover, I'll likely stay home until this whole thing runs its course.

Steve

My symptoms have nearly vanished today, but the same thing happened 2 days ago - then I felt crummy the next.

Laura feels fine except for a sore throat.

Kiddo is bouncing around like water in a frying pan.

Our local healthcare system (finally) started larger scale CV testing today (by appointment). I called this morning and was given a slot this afternoon. I'll get results in 48 hours. Laboratory is at the University of Washington.

Test clinic was orderly with reasonably good isolation. Not sure who is funding this as no mention of payment or insurance was uttered. Staff were happy and busy but not over worked. They also have drive up testing for those with (I assume) worse symptoms.

I learned that our hospital has 25 ventilators. This is great news because if this thing gets out of hand, the thought of fighting for an ICU bed at Bremerton (or?) sounds bad.

Official counts for our county is 4 positive cases and 98 negatives. Zero dead. We will soon start getting more data as these wider spread results come in. Test clinic said they will do about 50 per day. Population of Jefferson County is about 30K.

Word on the street indicates that our local grocery stores are keeping up with the demand for food and amazingly, toilet paper.

No curfews here yet - just our self imposed lockdown - day 8.

Steve

[BeauV]

Steve,

Fingers crossed that you’re ok. There is still a lot of flu going around, let’s hope it’s that. I’m almost afraid to look at the various curves, CA hasn’t been doing well.

The Governor of CA just announced that there is a very low probability that kids will got back to school this year. I guess the Admiral and I will be in the day care business. Our granddaughters are bouncing around like water on a hot griddle too.

[Tigger]

There are now 183 cases here in BC, with a few deaths. I've had three close calls so far (that I know of):

1. Met a friend at the Symphony two weeks ago. He had just visited someone at a care home. The next day it was announced that a resident there had tested positive. Since then, ?4? have passed away in that facility.
2. My wife and I met a harpist friend from San Francisco for lunch just over a week ago. Her husband was presenting at a Dental Conference here. A few days later, one of the attendees was identified as testing positive.
3. I play in a community band. One of our tuba players teaches physics at a community college, and one of her students tested positive.

So far, no symptoms. It's out there folks--social distancing may save your life, or the life of someone close to you.

[BeauV]

Ross,

From what I can find reading, which is speculation because the US has utterly botched the testing program, there are tens of thousands who are either carrying the bug. The relatively mild effect it has on people under 30 is a big deal. Those folks don't know they've got it and "power through", as one of my crew did. I haven't seen him since last October, he self-quarantined, even with mild symptoms, but then tested positive at an experimental test site in SF.

Glad you've dodged the bullet so far.

[Charlie]

Our two daughters are home. College is online for the semester for our elder daughter. And our younger daughter’s senior high year is likely virtual from here on out. Unfortunate for her to miss out on all the end of high school stuff (prom, parties). More challenging is the inability to visit the west coast and Colorado colleges to which she’s been accepted. Hopefully they’ll extend the commitment deadlines.

[Slick470]

We're working from home with the kids but on day 6 if you count the weekend going stir crazy and are starting to act out. Sarah and I are trying to be productive with work and some upcoming deadlines that aren't slipping yet - and - keep them occupied. Lots of juggling and working at odd hours.

Some friends from back home in Kansas just let us know that they have cancelled k-12 through the remainder of the school year. If that happens here, I'm not sure what we'll do with ourselves.

[Tigger]

How old are your kids Andy?

[LarryHoward]

We're working from home with the kids but on day 6 if you count the weekend going stir crazy and are starting to act out. Sarah and I are trying to be productive with work and some upcoming deadlines that aren't slipping yet - and - keep them occupied. Lots of juggling and working at odd hours.

Some friends from back home in Kansas just let us know that they have cancelled k-12 through the remainder of the school year. If that happens here, I'm not sure what we'll do with ourselves.

One of my employee’s wife is a Calvert County school teacher. They are polling today on how many families have home internet access and setting up to stay shut down for the rest of the school year. At least some colleges in NY are telling students to come back and empty dorms as the rooms will be used as medical facilities in the coming period.

On a positive note, I was out at the office for a couple of hours and stopped by the store since meat shelves have been empty. Scored a 1/2 dozen nice Filet Mignon but not much else on the shelf.

[IrieMon]

For folks who like pics..... (courtesy of Johns Hopkins) I believe it's updated hourly.

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboar ... 7b48e9ecf6

[Slick470]

How old are your kids Andy?

8 and 4-1/2. Trying to keep them learning and minimize non-educational screen time is a challenge while trying to keep working.

[Slick470]

We're working from home with the kids but on day 6 if you count the weekend going stir crazy and are starting to act out. Sarah and I are trying to be productive with work and some upcoming deadlines that aren't slipping yet - and - keep them occupied. Lots of juggling and working at odd hours.

Some friends from back home in Kansas just let us know that they have cancelled k-12 through the remainder of the school year. If that happens here, I'm not sure what we'll do with ourselves.

One of my employee’s wife is a Calvert County school teacher. They are polling today on how many families have home internet access and setting up to stay shut down for the rest of the school year. At least some colleges in NY are telling students to come back and empty dorms as the rooms will be used as medical facilities in the coming period.

On a positive note, I was out at the office for a couple of hours and stopped by the store since meat shelves have been empty. Scored a 1/2 dozen nice Filet Mignon but not much else on the shelf.

FFX county was trying to pull together some online school solution for some students which included handing out laptops to some students. They cancelled that along with school until April 14th on Monday. School websites have been updated to say something like schools are closed until further notice. We heard through the grapevine that they are still planning on rolling something out for 3rd grade and above, but that isn't much help with Ella who is in 2nd.

Just got off the phone for a project where the client wants us to do a site visit later this week to verify an install, but we had to tell them that office policy is no offsite meetings or site visits. Next question was "how about next week?" Had to tell them we'll get back to you on that.

[Tigger]

For the 8 year old, if you are not welded to local curricula, how about a study of the natural world. Gives you the chance for 'field trips' where you can practice social distancing and get out of the house. Depending on the specifics of where you live, could be an introduction to geology--ancient volcanic activity (looking for black rocks in stream beds), results of glaciation (erosion), types of rocks and how they were created, landforms, how a river changes the landscape ... etc. Can also be used as starting point for internet research--and a look at how to be an effective consumer of on-line information. Just a thought. Good luck!

[Slick470]

For the 8 year old, if you are not welded to local curricula, how about a study of the natural world. Gives you the chance for 'field trips' where you can practice social distancing and get out of the house. Depending on the specifics of where you live, could be an introduction to geology--ancient volcanic activity (looking for black rocks in stream beds), results of glaciation (erosion), types of rocks and how they were created, landforms, how a river changes the landscape ... etc. Can also be used as starting point for internet research--and a look at how to be an effective consumer of on-line information. Just a thought. Good luck!

Thanks, we've been taking them on nature walks to try and get them out of the house and we're talking about getting our garden up and running so Sarah had me print out a bunch of plant life cycle worksheets. We live in an interesting geological area, but most of the local stuff is hidden pretty well. If this takes a turn for the long term we'll probably start making weekday trips to the Shenandoah mountains to mix things up. Both kids like hiking and being outdoors, although hiking with the little guy is an exercise in patience and keeping things fun for everyone.

Tomorrow we get to take a field trip to check on the boat to keep the house quiet for an important meeting that Sarah needs to call into.

[BeauV]

We're working from home with the kids but on day 6 if you count the weekend going stir crazy and are starting to act out. Sarah and I are trying to be productive with work and some upcoming deadlines that aren't slipping yet - and - keep them occupied. Lots of juggling and working at odd hours.

Some friends from back home in Kansas just let us know that they have cancelled k-12 through the remainder of the school year. If that happens here, I'm not sure what we'll do with ourselves.

One of my employee’s wife is a Calvert County school teacher. They are polling today on how many families have home internet access and setting up to stay shut down for the rest of the school year. At least some colleges in NY are telling students to come back and empty dorms as the rooms will be used as medical facilities in the coming period.

On a positive note, I was out at the office for a couple of hours and stopped by the store since meat shelves have been empty. Scored a 1/2 dozen nice Filet Mignon but not much else on the shelf.

FFX county was trying to pull together some online school solution for some students which included handing out laptops to some students. They cancelled that along with school until April 14th on Monday. School websites have been updated to say something like schools are closed until further notice. We heard through the grapevine that they are still planning on rolling something out for 3rd grade and above, but that isn't much help with Ella who is in 2nd.

Just got off the phone for a project where the client wants us to do a site visit later this week to verify an install, but we had to tell them that office policy is no offsite meetings or site visits. Next question was "how about next week?" Had to tell them we'll get back to you on that.

Larry,

A friend does major construction (Big bulldozers, large front-loaders, massive dump trucks, etc...) He decided he'd do site visits but only with him and his helper. They take a video the visit, measure stuff, talk to the customer via the recorded video, etc... It seems to work great. There is just about zero probability of catching anything with the two of then in a field. Not sure this applies to you, but they've even done Facetime or Zoom with the client while in the middle of the site visit to clarify things,

Some of their customers are saying they'll want to do it this way from now on. Saves a lot of unnecessary travel time and expense.

BV

[Slick470]

Beau, our site visits could be limited to something like that, but we'd have to do them off hours to have the place to ourselves. By the time it makes sense for us to come on site, the project site is teeming with pretty much all of the construction trades but major excavation and earthwork. Much of our job is working with Architects and owners and while in person meetings helps that along, we've been moving more and more to teleconference type meetings.

My call earlier is an example of how not to do a call. It was on skype and it was set up using skype audio without a call in number and most of the attendees had issues getting their computers set up properly. We had one attendee who had video turned on on his phone and we spent most of the call with a video shot up his nose. It was pretty awful.

[Olaf Hart]

Still pretty quiet down here, ten known cases in Tassie so far, three have recovered.

We are on the end of the line, so there is a delay of a couple of weeks in our case numbers, all have contacted the virus overseas, but I suspect it will run in a couple of weeks.

Stocked up, had our new season flu shots, on a mission to finish the play house as we don’t know if anyone will need it for isolation, we need to have the plumbing and kitchen operational ASAP.

We also have a spare granny flat in our current house, so just have to clean that out.

Our social contacts are now limited to visiting our son and communication with his careers.

No talk about conscripting retired doctors yet, schools are still open, shops are open.

I ordered an infrared thermometer and a couple of Oximeters in case I have to provide informal medical care locally, never ignore the importance of understanding the sociology of small communities...

Plenty of disposable gloves and diy alcohol based hand sanitiser

We are on tank water and septic tanks, the states power system is all hydro, boat and cars are fueled up and ready, the orchard next door is full of apples that won’t be picked this season.

BBQ is gassed up, and I still have the old solar system I changed out from the Valiant, may set that up to power the house water pump if the system really caves in.

Sometimes it’s a good thing to live at the end of the earth.

[Slick470]

random question for you doctor types about flu shots. I finally got one about 2-1/2 weeks ago as a preventive and my arm is still a bit sore around the injection site. Nothing too crazy, but feels slightly bruised if I rub on it and can be pretty stiff and sore first thing in the morning. Stretching helps and mostly it's not really noticeable by bedtime. I've done some reading online and there are a few known long term interactions, especially if they hit the wrong spot with the needle, but most of the descriptions seem like they are more severe than this. Is this something I should get checked out? Normally I'd ask my GP, but I figure he's busy enough with more urgent matters and if it can wait or it will go away on it's own, I'm happy to let it ride.