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

Just tried to order more pantry staples, because my flour is going to run out soon. (Tried to convince housemates a few days ago that we should all order things now, of course there was lots of delay and resistance as per usual.) Anyway, Amazon is not scheduling deliveries in our area and Instacart says all stores around us are sold out of flour, pasta and rice. What did we succeed in getting? A dozen cans of tomatoes, four pounds of butter and a bottle of whisky. Hopefully things restock in a few days, but it's very surreal to be in a big city and have life-on-an-island-where-the-barge-can't-get-through type shortages.

Is all the food communal? Has anyone ventured out to smaller places?

the stuff about grocery stores is surreal to me because the grocery store near me was fine

mine's definitely showing holes in certain aisles, but mostly has had what my non-cooking, solo ass needed.

no hot dog buns tho

i stopped by wegmans again just to see. i got more yogurt. no nonfat greek yogurt there, just whole, which is fine. limited meat to 2 packs of each thing per customer. i got a "family pack" of chicken breasts. frozen food section still empty, or empty again. very little bread left. they are closing 2 hours early now (10 pm). i feel like this is gonna go on for a while so i'm trying to think of what i don't have that i'm going to want. i love to grocery shop so this is the hardest part for me (shows how lucky i am really).

grocery shopping is my preferred tourist activity.

had to pop into work today to pick up some stuff and organise a few things before we shut ourselves away for the next 16 weeks or whatever it's going to be (my wife is on immunosuppressants for her MS so she falls into the vulnerable category). we're being ultra-cautious now and i'll be sleeping on the sofa for the next 5 days or so, just in case i got infected on my little trip today. both kids are off school - we made them stay at home today, and this evening it got cancelled completely. that's a huge relief, but arggh, they were at each other's throats within the first ten minutes of their confinement, it's going to be murder there. we've set rules that we can all take exercise outside and go places together in the car, but we just need to completely avoid *everyone* for the foreseeable future. so there is some stuff we can do but a lot of things we can't. the eldest is understandably distraught about the whole thing - he's sixteen and is so upset about completely missing out on everything a teenager would be doing now. and he's kind of right, but i can't tell him that. i think i'll be okay, but will miss pubs and record shops a lot. my wife is a lot more sociable than me and i think she'll find it pretty hard, especially as people we know start getting sick and she won't be able to do anything to help out at all. haven't quite figured out how we're going to shop but we're good for a week. i can start growing vegetables again, but it'll take a while before we have a crop of anything much. weird to think i won't see my parents for ages, that bit is killing me. feel so mentally tired too already, and for the past three days, i've had a lot of random fits of weeping at odd moments. oh well, chin up and all that eh

yeah, super envious of anyone with living parents / older family nearby. Plan on making 'wellness checks' on my parents a weekly priority (would make it daily but they'd get annoyed)

That's so hard, Nick. I have family and friends in the vulnerable category, and it really varies how effectively they are realistically able to self-isolate. One is reliant on her husband, who is unable to work from home and still going into the office for now. Have you looked into online community groups (facebook, nextdoor, parish council etc) for food delivery etc to reduce amount of time in supermarkets? Is your oldest doing GCSEs?

A bit of weeping is allowed tbh. Massive sympathy your way.

take care, NickB and family. sounds rough for all of you, sorry about your situation

we have actually got friends who i'm sure will be able to drop things round for us, so it's not completely desperate there. food is the thing i'm least worried about tbh. currently a bit paranoid about how long the virus can last on items coming through the door though, hope there's going to be some proper guidance on that stuff soon. oldest is doing GCSEs yes! or was - i think they're getting cancelled. he's upset about not seeing any of his teachers ever again cos he'll be at sixth form college next year, but i've told him to email them all to thank them and tell them he'll miss them. even the bastards.

One is reliant on her husband, who is unable to work from home and still going into the office for now

that is a nightmare tbh :(

I'm aiming to isolate for the recommended 12 weeks but my wife and my oldest son have to go to work and be in daily contact with lots of people so I'm not sure what good it will do me.
I don't think I can isolate myself completely from them at home.

xp Wipe down food packets etc from the shops imo

thanks stet and aps btw. now i've got some sort of idea of the reality of our lives for the next while, i'm not really that upset about us personally. we know what we're going to be doing and the rest is just putting up with it. so so many people have it way worse, and just trying to get my head round the whole thing is what is doing me in. and i wish i could get and out help people but i can't. going past a soup kitchen last night and seeing 30 homeless guys queueing up quietly for food, all being served up by one elderly volunteer. that broke me.

Wipe down food packets etc from the shops imo

indeed! going to be living like crazy people for the foreseeable

okay i just wiped my eyes with the sleeve that i was using to open doors with earlier, totally failing this thing already

People online are talking about wiping down each item from the store before bringing it inside. That might seem like a lot right now but in your case may count as reasonable precaution?

There are no cases announced up here yet and we're on day 2 of back from the city, so it's a countdown for us as to whether we'll be sick in the next week. If not, the game changes to "Decontamination Station!" which my bf is going to haaaaate.

Saw some advice from a microbiologist and it was lab-standard: Shoes stay outside, strip on the porch (if possible) so outer clothes stay outside in a quasi "airlock," shower on arrival to home, obv hand sanitizer and wiping things down that you touched to get home, such as steering wheel, car door handles, door handles, your wallet, your keys. Launder your coats. Disinfect the bottoms of your shoes. Cook all food, no raw veg for now. Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash your hands.

I'm sorry. It sounds like a lot of work though who knows what the new normal will look like in a month? Maybe outside clothes like utilitarian jumpsuits will catch on and we'll dress like the cast of The Expanse.

xp lol oh dear

I keep accidentally grabbing things, it’s a nightmare to change lifetime dyshygiene habits xp

my mum is 70+ and chronically ill, meeting at least one more of the govt's "high risk" criteria, so she's preparing to lock herself down for the foreseeable. my dad is 70+ too and is still going to go out for some (limited, quick) shopping runs but not otherwise.

their neighbours have been good tbh - the street has formed a volunteer group to keep up supplies and phone conversations to the vulnerable, but I know my parents don't want to exhaust everyone's patience too quickly and feel less deserving of help than those more frail. (also there is a suspected case in the street which may be putting them off a bit...)

they sounded cheerful enough on the phone, but it's going to be hard for them. I wish I could help but am far away and I guess I shouldn't even visit. I'd like to send my mum books etc through the post/from Amazon to keep her busy, but again, a little scared of accidentally doing something unsafe.

my granny is 94 and I know they feel bad about not visiting. they live near her and visit(ed) often and that'll be odd for them. it'll be a bit odd not knowing when I'll next see them, too. it's my birthday in a month, a somewhat dauntingly numbered one as well (argh), and I know they'll feel bad about not coming up. but, that's how it is. weird times, etc.

thanks IO that's really helpful and definitely some of that stuff we can do without too much hassle xps

coworker of mine is using her time off to fly to New Mexico tomorrow with her boyfriend to stay at a house full of their friends and I’m like good great excellent idea

must be fun to be 24 I guess?

aps can they skype? My mum was supposed to visit earlier this week but due to aforementioned dopey twat at relative's work, the risk is there so I guess we won't see her for a while.
Hate to say it but we are both glad for once we don't have any grandparents still alive.

Was meant to meet up with a friend I've barely seen for years this weekend, she's been stuck at home with an injury for months and was getting very bored of it. I'm not going, obv. :(

Feel extremely lucky that my sister already basically lives at my parents' house and can shop for them.

For what it's worth, and keep in mind I have no special insight unavailable to anyone else, I just watch TV and read the internet like everybody else - I heard something last night that had the ring of truth to it, on some rolling news channel -

That social distancing will NOT stop you from ultimately getting it. That's not what it's for. Over time the same amount of people will end up getting it. What the social distancing does is slow it down. Which is critical, obviously. We're all playing a numbers game, trying to game the curve with a million little changes in behaviour, which will hopefully add up to a result that will save the lives of people who need hospital care that we don't have the capacity for. But it's not actually a result that winds up with fewer people getting it. If fate means you to get it, you'll get it. But social distancing will mean that you get it a few months from now, maybe, instead of in six weeks. As a representative example from the aggregate result. Anyway I took a weird kind of comfort in the thought that it's kind of impossible to dodge it forever. You're just doing your part. It's not really about you at all.

I know my parents don't want to exhaust everyone's patience too quickly and feel less deserving of help than those more frail

yeah that mindset is for life tbh, it's going to be so hard to break out of that for them and ask for help, think you'll need to nag them extra hard on that one! kind of thinking we might drive up to see mine at some point and just wave through the glass at them and then drive all the way home again. which will be nice.

it's my birthday in a month, a somewhat dauntingly numbered one as well (argh)

yeah me too! it's my fiftieth in april. we did have a holiday booked to celebrate/commiserate and were taking my parents with us. none of us can go now obv, can't get a refund either - have cancelled my leave and will just do more work instead. sounds like a right laugh!

That makes sense and I was saying that at the beginning of the wave of realization. I guess somewhere in the last week the horror stories from Italy and the equipment shortages stuff got to me and I started to feel more like, "take all the precautions!" I also just scratched my face so. (Although I did just wash my hands and I've disinfected my keyboard several times.)

Interesting side note: On an Antique Houses facebook group someone said she's been using spray Lysol on her doorknobs and it's stripped the varnish off the wooden doors. So maybe don't do that (unless you hate your varnish).

Sorry that was an xp to Tracer.

I was happy today to have a brief chat with my son's teacher and get it in the open that I was keeping him off school on false pretext, because i don't like lying and he said loads more parents have been giving him the same bullshit. But when you have immune compromised partner with MS and a son with autism who touches his own face about a thousand times a day while he is stimming/self-regulating - i'm not fucking about with those odds of transmission!

xxxpost: that seems true, tho assuming we ultimately get a vaccine then presumably some ppl will never end up getting it?

thanks tracer, that does put it all in perspective

yeah io, I won't be doing hardly any of that (much of which is impossible in Brooklyn of course)

"take all the precautions!" (you) vs "not doing more housework" (me)

thinking of you and yours calzino

Launder your coats. Disinfect the bottoms of your shoes.

After each use, eh? A poor use of my last months, at worst.

xp

aw nick you are a sweetie, same to you pal!

If anyone wants a peek at the surreal life, the Hoffman forums appear to be operating as normal, the only concession to the pandemic being a lot of speculation about what will happen to RSD items if the event is canceled and how this might affect the release of the new Neil Young album

lmao

one by one the food delivery service websites are conking out

― strangely hookworm but they manage ream shoegaze poetry (imago), Saturday, 14 March 2020 18:07 (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

i wasn't kidding

an audible audiobook wouldn’t download in the app. i went to the audible custhelp site, but their live chat is out of action because of the coronavirus. no zombie film has ever anticipated this iirc.

honestly i think the main difference between this current reality and zombie fiction is that fewer people are trying to bite you when you go to the supermarket

all the best nick

and everyone else

Just a matter of time before we hear about grocery store shootouts

I’m about ready to murder my idiot parents for not taking this seriously. They can risk their own health, fine, but they’re gonna kill my sister

social distancing will mean that you get it a few months from now, maybe, instead of in six weeks. As a representative example from the aggregate result. Anyway I took a weird kind of comfort in the thought that it's kind of impossible to dodge it forever. You're just doing your part. It's not really about you at all.

This is mostly otm.

It's not entirely inevitable that everyone gets infected with it. If trying to outwit it long enough that your odds of getting it diminish greatly as (one hopes) new cases have peaked and a goodly percentage of the population has acquired immunity is motivating for you, then by all means dodge it with a will. Coming out the other end uninfected is not a false hope. It's all about odds and percentages.

Yeah it's true you might be one of the 20-40% who don't get it before a vaccine exists. Doing the right thing probably increases your chances of being in that group - particularly if it goes beyond just 'social distancing' to really locking your shit down tight.

And that is probably a good way for oldies to think!

best piece of advice ive seen is not to focus on not getting it

its to presume you have it and don't want to transmit it.

I haven’t left home since Saturday and don’t expect to go further than the grocery store up the hill before, oh, May.

now that I'm playing games on Twitch, the hours fly by.

and then the best part of the day, sleep.

it's where I'm a viking

actually maybe we should revive that ILX debate, that'll get things going