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

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

judging by what some people have been saying...there will definitely be a five month period post-crisis that I will refuse to use anybody else's shower.

I am not an expert on the toilet paper supply chain, but I don't see any reason to think it won't continue to supply toilet paper. To actually shut that down you'd need illness and debilitation on a scale I don't think this virus is capable of. There are still people going to work every day making toilet paper and delivering toilet paper, some of it will get to the local grocery store. What happened this week is just people bought like a normal one-month shipment in three days.

there's magazines, newspapers, wash cloths, and napkins

socks and old underwear,beach towels and jackets

but do you recall

family cloth

oh christ i forgot about that

back to seriousland, I feel better after my meltdown earlier. think it was long overdue.

I talked to my friend and she's not going in tomorrow. her and her boyfriend are sick, and have many of the classic symptoms.

but...get this...Virginia only allows people under very strict criteria, like having traveled recently, or having pneumonia symptoms, to get tested so neither of them can be tested and find out if they're a vector. even though supposedly testing capacity is supposed to have increased this week nationally.

i'm kind of like her big brother so the stuff is affecting me a lot. me, personally, I have a PTO day this week, which was originally to visit both of these two. I thought about driving up to visit and avoid infection, but now I just have to scrub it. they're sick.

Orange County (my county) is implementing drive-up testing.

As a proud owner of a Toto Washlet (and been using it for nearly a decade) I am ready to weather the 2020 Great Toilet Paper Shortage with a nice clean bunghole. As long as there's no water shortage.

skyped w my mum & dad today, feel a bit less on edge

i had voiced concerns to her via email last week, asked her & dad to take extra precautions now more than ever, as mum is immuno-compromised from rheumatoid arthritis & my dad has a lung problem

their town is not yet had any reported cases but it’s close - there’s reported 1 case now in the nearest city an hour away. being rural helps a tiny bit. but people are busing from suburban areas to stock up at rural supermarkets (!) & i dont think their town will stay untainted for long.

anyway I was so proud of mum. she told me tonight that she cancelled a concert outing to the next town over with a friend - friend (who is 80) laid into Mum for being “bloody stupid” & no-one in their town or the next is sick & that mum was overreacting -but Mum stood her ground & told her friend she was being ignorant :D

So apparently they are happily staying home & self isolating as much as they can, gardening & picking apples & reading & cooking - happy as clams under the circumstances. <3

Aw, that’s really brave of your mom, in those circumstances.

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.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 17 March 2020 02:15 (two hours ago) link

xpost: super brave!! especially bc that friend in particular is quite the bully

My mom is in her late 70s and fighting cancer, and cancelled plans to visit Sunday. It would have been just a 90 minute train ride, but she’s playing it safe. Her granddaughter just started crawling and I could tell it killed her not being able to come see in person.
We did a Skype call instead and the kiddo put on a show for her at least. Will try and do a few more during the week.

friend was urging people not to shame others who went out for a bit because they needed to "get it out of their system".

i agree insofar as I don't think in this instance shaming will help anything and everybody's stressed and we can all benefit from being kinder (lol at me saying this, but hey). and because we are often presuming the context.

buuuuuuut, on the other hand, logic like "people are telling me I shouldn't, but I needed to get out of the house" and then going to a semi-crowded bar, doesn't really fly right now. we're past that point. the virus doesn't care about our needs.

I am not fronting like I didn't go out last week (though I'm locked in for the long haul now). I am also not interested in tearing people down at the moment. nor am I seeking to demonize people who left their house - I had to replenish groceries today.

just realizing we can't treat this like cheating on a diet anymore. no "well, I shouldn't, but I deserve this" oi....:(

Straight up yelled at one of my housemates today. I said, "So I'm thinking it's time to stop going to other people's houses/having other people over here, because everything tells us we have to do as much as possible to lock down," and he was like, "Is that based on something? Because that's not what I'm seeing." Normally I would have been patient but I guess my nerves are frayed because I said, "No. You're wrong. And for the last two weeks I have been right about everything and I'm sick of being argued with." Then I apologized for being aggro, but it's getting increasingly hard not to be.

earlier today i did something similar. we were supposed to have a couple friends over and i decided that would not be a good idea. we both agreed, there wasn't an argument or anything like that. but it was a weird, formal dividing line. i felt weird before, and weirder since.

i've also been thinking about people that aren't so lucky to have an easy home to convert into a work from home fortress. i may have to exit this thread soon because i expect the most important lasting effects of coronavirus to be dependent on the political response. some people are about to get reaaaaaally fucked, and the way all of our governments respond makes a big difference. i'm a natural cynic but i actually see a lot of hope in the way that people are thinking about each other at this time - i hope that we are all wiling to stand up each other when it really counts, soon

i mean, i understand trying to keep the personal experiences here and the "political" response elsewhere, but i have a hard time separating the two, personally

remember sleep? that was cool