Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

(they will still be very shit at it though)

Genuinely sorry you won't be able to see your son, Raymond. I hope you can at least do a healthy amount of Skyping.

i'm really sorry to hear that, C. Grisso/McCain

yes, gone back and read this. seems very inadequate to say this but good luck and best wishes to you

Strength to all of you going through tough times. This system is so fragile, care and tenderness is sometimes so hard to find.

A message from me and my dad, @Melbrooks. #coronavirus #DontBeASpreader pic.twitter.com/Hqhc4fFXbe

— Max Brooks (@maxbrooksauthor) March 16, 2020

It took this crisis for me to learn that the world war z guy is Mel Brooks’s son

i'm really sorry to hear that, C. Grisso/McCain. do you still have freelancing stuff to keep you afloat for a while?

Without getting too deep I think I'm okay for the time being. The big shock now has been all the behind the scenes stuff that came to light just now (corporate lay-offs going back to January, etc). This job was ultimately screwed anyway, as about an hour after our company's announcement, the county shut down bars and clubs until April, and I'm not sure if some of our venues here can survive that.

presuming we all make it through okay to june and life goes back to non-pandemic normal, it's hard to imagine what my economic life is going to look like.

I just got back from a run with my daughter, and we passed a grocery store. It's not that the shelves were empty, it's that this event has really underscored how much of the shelves are stocked with shit you really don't need or want in a crisis.

resto my gf works at has closed (temporarily, it is hoped). I start working from home tomorrow

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/16/entertainment/kristofer-hivju-coronavirus/index.html

I dare anybody to use the "personal responsibility" line on anybody after this shit is done.

I can't robin hood much more but I'm not gonna let friends be ass out so I'll do what i can while trying to keep savings

brooklyn botanic garden is closing which breaks my heart

You fuckin rule!

xpost you too ulysses! Yeah that sucks partic at this time of year :/

Raymond, best to you and your son.

I've been working from home since May 2016, and just started my first 9-5 office job in four years...today. And I'm unlikely to get laid off, since I'm doing social media/web content work for a major NJ medical school. I'm only going to be in the office two more days, though - we're switching to work-from-home at the end of the day on Wednesday. At least I'll get some exercise out of it for half the week; it's a mile and a half walk, mostly uphill, from the train station to the office. Took me a half hour this morning, and only about 20 minutes to get back at the end of the day, coming downhill.

People with cancer who are undergoing active chemotherapy
People with cancers of the blood or bone marrow

Could the NHS contact Americans too?

j/k, i'll be going to the hematology clinic for my treatment on Friday. Will probably walk (an hour?) rather than take the subway.

got back from the grocery store and was yelled at on my way back for hoarding; I thought I was buying an ok amount of groceries but guess not

(it was a week's worth, maybe two weeks, for my roommate and I; it just looked like more since they were out of bags so I had a moving box)

Sorry you couldn't come down here and enjoy yourself, Raymond. Went down to Sixth Street to pick up dinner, and the vibe is... weird and upsetting. Feels like a dream, half the places are shuttered and the bars that are open are standing empty. Plenty of parking, no traffic.

Finally gave up the e-cig because even if it's better than smoking it doesn't seem to be good for my blood pressure and inhaling pretty much anything right now seems ill-advised.

I miss nicotine, but this is easier than cigarettes because I'm not about to go buy a new e-cig setup.

XP Has City of Austin/Travis County issued a shut-down notice for bars yet?

xpost Good luck! (Not sarcastic.)

Need...to..find.. an..emoji...for..when one has a... WFH w/ W & Ks 24/7 mini-meltdown

got back from the grocery store and was yelled at on my way back for hoarding; I thought I was buying an ok amount of groceries but guess not

People are assholes. You're right to be buying a good supply. Even if you feel safe going out shopping, it's still responsible to be prepared to self-quarantine if you have symptoms.

👺Let's coopt the Tengu emoji for that.

xpost

presuming we all make it through okay to june and life goes back to non-pandemic normal, it's hard to imagine what my economic life is going to look like.

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, March 16, 2020 6:57 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

same

I guess I'll C&P what I just posted to another thread:

The overall supply of perishable and non-perishable groceries hasn't shrunk at all. The big problem right now is that the normal smooth flow of supply and demand disappeared under a tsunami of end-consumer demand, so that 5x more carloads of stuff than normal swiftly got transferred from stores into people's homes. This can't instantly be replaced. It will take many extra truckloads of stuff getting delivered to stores to remedy this imbalance and there aren't any more trucks out there than there were last week. Give it time and the stuff will arrive.

No, Austin/Travis County hasn't ordered a shut down of bars/restaurants yet. This past weekend everywhere I saw was pretty full, but I think people are getting a sense of how serious this is now and staying home. I got takeout tonight, and will probably order pizza tomorrow if it's available, but I'm not going out anymore after tonight.

in Miami the major grocery stores (Publix, Target) have been quiet.

Talked to my friend in Plano and he said the corporate types are taking this seriously and letting him work from home.

I worked in downtown Cleveland today and walked to the downtown grocery store where I saw the last bag of bread flour.

the grocery store wasn't even close to being empty, fwiw, there were certain things that were low (bread, mostly; some frozen vegetables) but otherwise you could hardly tell anything was different

Kind of a paradox here. All the people who normally eat X number of restaurant meals a week will soon need to start supplying those meals from other sources, like... grocery stores. Instead of all those food deliveries going to restaurants, now they'll all go to grocery stores? Except it throws all those waiters, dishwashers and line cooks out of a job and overworks grocery checkers. People who rarely cook will be forced to fend for themselves in inadequate kitchens.

The hidden net gain is that just one trip to a grocery store can provide X meals, but restaurants would require X trips in public for the same number of meals.

yeah my normal routine is to eat dinner at restaurants 5-6 nights a week... my kitchen is definitely inadequate!

yeah also this is new york city, home of apartments with rudimentary to no kitchen

I've been wondering what the chances are of the USPS shutting down or at least strictly limiting service (ie no packages, or mail only twice a week, etc)? Because that would pretty much eliminate my last remaining source of somewhat steady income (eBay and discogs)

Unlikely imo

PLanning on planting more stuff, hoping I can grow some quick things - luckily already have a good silverbeet (chard) batch going.

wondering about the benefits of not washing my hair for three or four weeks

I hate cooking.

Do people who make pizzas wear gloves now?

i wear an Ove-Glove(tm) when i take another delicious home run pizza out of the oven

How is there no I Love Cooking board? I mean, I totally don't love cooking, but I'd still be interested in sharing recipes

it's the cheese board.

I’ve started making my own pizza in my skillet and it is seriously the greatest thing ever.

I'm panic buying more books than food

lol same

jeez I have enough unread books in my place to last 5 years minimum

Discovered that I don't like pizza or ice cream enough to go through the hassle of making it myself though I might put my maker to use again for weed-infused chocolate ice cream. I do wish I'd kept the tubs for making my own no-knead bread.

panic buying seems much worse here (australia) than in the US at the moment. presently one of the two largest supermarket retailers has the following limits on products:

Dry Pasta - 2 pack limit per shop
Flour - 2 pack limit per shop
Tissues - 2 pack limit per shop
Paper towel, serviettes and wipes - 1 pack limit per shop
Toilet paper - 1 pack limit per shop
Hand sanitiser - 2 unit limit per shop; and
Bulk rice (2kg+) - 1 pack limit per shop.

when I went in to one of their stores on Sunday, getting one of any of those products was virtually impossible in any event. there were also no eggs, no minced meat, no chicken (other than livers), and very limited breakfast cereals available. Fresh fruit and vegetables seemed to be bountiful.

thanks for reminding me to start no-knead pizza dough for tomorrow