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

(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

I re-upped on groceries a bit. the shelves were finally starting to look stressed. buncha dummies in masks cos they thought it was protecting them (at least, I hope that's why)

yeah i've been thinking this is an excellent time for a heist tbh

Bars and restaurants ordered closed, I wish they'd just go ahead and do all non-essential retail.

Either way I'm going to go broke, I'd kind of rather a) have it out of my hands and b) have it over with.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced Monday afternoon that she will sign an executive order banning all statewide events of more than 25 people and limiting restaurants and bars to takeout and delivery only.

The governor said grocery stores, pharmacies and stores are exempt. The order begins Tuesday and is in place for four weeks.

I've been wondering what the chances are of the USPS shutting down or at least strictly limiting service

One thing they're doing is waiving signature requirements for express mail -- at least that was the case for me today. Don't want germy customer hands on the signing device I guess.

someone should set up a Jackbox game on Twitch

Good point made by my wife re:hoarding. Supply of common staples, like bread and eggs and milk and the like, should remain stable, because these are things people usually do not buy in large amounts for storage, anyway. They don't keep; people consume them as they get them, and that consumption rate will not change. If you hoard, say, bananas, you will have bad bananas. But stuff like toilet paper, it's something you *can* hoard, if you want to. It never goes bad.

If you hoard, say, bananas, you will have bad bananas.

― Josh in Chicago

black bananas are perfect for banana bread, which is why we have twelve bunches of black bananas in the freezer. you never know when we may get the sudden urge!

also you can freeze bananas

Oh we know, we freeze them for smoothies. I just used them as an illustration. Anyway:

The adventure continues! 🐧🐧
This morning, Edward and Annie explored Shedd’s rotunda. They are a bonded pair of rockhopper penguins, which means they are together for nesting season. Springtime is nesting season for penguins at Shedd, and this year is no different! (1/3) 👇 pic.twitter.com/VdxN3oQAfe

— Shedd Aquarium (@shedd_aquarium) March 16, 2020

I for one welcome Day 2 of my Working Staycation.

people here are panic buying dishwasher tablets ffs

You have to eat something

Went to get our normal groceries today from the big supermarket and it was pretty chill - they were limiting occupancy but we only lined up for 5 mins and there were no queues at checkout

Husband is way more on edge about the whole situation than me. This morning he busts into the bedroom ranting about how he accidentally left the freezer open last night and $200 (gross exaggeration - it’s more like $75) of food is wasted, going on about what an idiot he is.

I had to calmly inform him that it must’ve actually been me who left it open, after I woke up at 6am with terrible cravings and heated up a frozen lava cake with some ice cream. His response: “oh ok”. It was fine for me to fuck up, but him doing it was some how the crime of the century.

Wife and I are trading days for work and childcare - I was out with the kid teaching him to bike for a while and lots of people were out walking but everyone made a point to move to the other side of the street far in advance if they saw you coming. It still feels insanely desolate because most of the 50k students have left

Also a friend in CA and his wife have both tested positive and their kid probably has it as well.

i am ashamed to say it but i am freaking out about lack of toilet paper now. we have enough food to get us through about two weeks and about as much toilet paper. presumably things will chill on that front and it will be deliverable? Motherfuckers are gouging online.

i haven't taken inventory yet, or measured our rate of toilet paper use, but if it coms down to it i'll just scrape my butt across the floor like any other mammal, and like some of my best friends do