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

well there are N95 masks in stock across the street

do I get or not

I do have to get to chemo tomw morning; sposed to be dry, I think i'll do the hourlong walk

virtual elbow bump, treesh

You should get one, yes?

yes, get

lol you want me to get a spacesuit, io! <3

I dunno, im naturally skeptical.

just realised that my little daughter must have been playing with the dial on the front of our freezer at some point in the last few days, turned it all the way off, and now all our frozen food is fucked

yay

Wear a damn mask, you're one of the ppl who has the most reason to try to be in the final "didn't get it before the vaccine" category.

Get a mask Morbs, it really does help. Much of the dissuasive discourse is aimed at people who don't really need it or who don't understand how it works at all.

ok but im not gonna wear it in my apartment, OK? thatd feel like a living death.

io I guess youd also be in the pro-"leaving all my stuff behind and fleeing to Connecticut" camp

i don't think anyone is wearing them at home unless they have a sick person in the household.

also this is going to be a long event, you need to get one.

It's only worth wearing at home if you've got someone over. For groceries and the like, delivery and/or pick-up is best, otherwise masks should make a difference when you're in an indoors public place like a supermarket or whatever.

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/a-zbT--PwmNhGMxcDqvzTIaFciE=/1400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9061743/ppJ7fQl.jpg

I mean, your stuff will still be there when you get back? I just packed a suitcase and totebags of food and tools and practical items and got in a car. But I have a good set up here and I know your sister's place comes with trade offs.

Leave the mask at your front door with the disinfectant wipes and your damn shoes.

At? You mean outside in the hall?

Well, the tradeoff includes a private room and my supplies procured for me, presumably.

According to the CDC, 40% of hospitalizations now fall into the 20-55 age group.

Sorry, I don't have context--passing on something I just saw on CNN. I don't know what the window on that is (yesterday, the past week, etc.). I assume it's an American statistic, though.

where my fellow compulsive and incorrigible nail-biters at?

― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, March 19, 2020 10:03 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

hi! it's not good! (it also imposes a level of meta-guilt for me, because technically this counts as touching one's face!)

I had been doing very well, the longest I'd gone in months and my fingers were recovering my form

and then a couple nights ago was watching ZeroZeroZero episode 4 or 5 and it all went to shit

Gonna take advantage of WFH and try out a midday run. Luckily there are some good places to do that around here while still respecting personal space.

my eyes water frequently (and I don't take pills for hay fever, cuz itd all be too much; I piss constantly as is from all the water chasers). I've been wiping them with a tissue then washing my hands.

Surely I can calmly take my shoes off outside the door and put them on the rack inside ss I usually do. I assume shoes are covered in ahit anyway.

Just asked our local and very good butcher about how long they will trade and he says as long as possible, with shutdown only occurring in the event he or a colleague catches it.

where my fellow compulsive and incorrigible nail-biters at?

I didn't think I bit my nails all that much, but I guess I was wrong, because one side effect of all this is that my nails are long and presentable-looking for the first time ever.

Dr. Morbius if you get a mask best practice is to remove it before entering your apt (hook your fingers into the straps behind your ears and lift off over your head; don’t touch the mask itself) and place it in a paper bag which you can then store just inside your door (this is per CDC guidelines).

FWIW I’m an ICU nurse and we have our N95s fitted and tested for clinical use by the manufacturer—I have no idea how effective they are otherwise.

I chew mine to the quick and will never be able to stop. I keep my dirty germy hands near my dirty germy bearded face 24/7.

same

thx jack

as I am going to the chemo clinic tomorrow, ill see if they have them and can fit me there.

Supermarket report: wasn't terrible (assuming I have not now infected myself). They had most things I needed except sugar, yeast and ... canned tuna? Some sections more picked over than others, but plenty of proteins, fruits, vegetables. Saw a couple of people with masks, heard only one person on the store cough. Most people seemed to be calm, kind and respectful. They had a spray out to wipe off carts, which people appeared to be doing,

Hot tip: here at least he Mexican aisle was better for things like beans. For example, chickpeas were missing from the rest of the canned stuff, but in the Mexican aisle there were plenty of Mexican brand garbanzo beans. And kidney beans, etc.

Oh and Morbs, you should absolutely do everything and anything in your power to stay healthy. You are exactly who admonishments about people wastefully hoarding/wearing masks are aimed at helping! Please let us know how the clinic goes, and stay safe!

just watched a police check on people walking by. I saw a group of four guys walking together & thought "huh that's not good" and the cops rolled by a few seconds later. they all had their forms ready & no one got fined from what I could see. the cops also gathered people who ducked into a cell phone store when they saw the cops coming, but they all had papers too it seemed. cops also stopped three people cycling by, and after checking their papers, sent the cyclists the other direction. my guess is that they were too far from their home: we're not supposed to go more than 1 or 2 km from our homes (unless for work).

been thinking about you a lot these past few days morbs <3

Mexican aisle completely sold out of chipotle in adobo. There's some good quarantine food being made near me apparently.

that was a pretty good joke trump just made at the expense of the press pool. feels good to laugh.

jk obviously

sry i thought this was another thread

I was able to snag chipotle, beans, and ancho peppers yesterday for the big pot of chilli I'm making.

Because I'm anything if not scrupulous, I've kept to a routine: awakening at my usual hour (just before six), answering emails and reading the papers, exercise, shower, breakfast, working (on my terrace) from 9:30 a.m. till noon, break for lunch, then another couple hours (I've got a Zoom meeting today).

But little breaks help acknowledge it's not normal times. I mixed myself a gin and tonic with my lunch about half an hour ago. I deserved it, dammit.

So after my phone appointment with the hospital I no longer think I’m done for and think I can move into the regular self-distancing category with most other people (although I am technically still in the at-risk category due to asthma, it is very mild and the advice is unclear). I’m thinking of having two friends round on Saturday for film and food - we will not be 2 meters apart, my flat isn’t big enough, but I have otherwise reduced the number of people I come into contact with by like 90% instead of the recommended 75%, so a small risk to rescue my sanity (the risk would be entirely mine: I haven’t been anywhere and he’s the guy I mentioned upthread who works in care and has been pubbing like there’s no tomorrow)

We just had a burrito buffet in the breakroom.

My family keeps compulsively making and baking things, like we're about to go on vacation and need to use things up. It's kinda driving me nuts. Like, we're low on sugar and baking powder, and every place is out of sugar or baking powder, then maybe stop making so much stuff that needs sugar and baking powder.

let them bake. You'll be able to restock sooner or later.

I'm not worried about y'all because I trust that you're savvy, but you might remind your less savvy loved ones to be extra wary of phishing scams and the like at this particular heightened moment. Just got a text that my Chase account had been frozen and it was clearly fake as hell but I did have a moment of mild panic for a quarter second. Unfortunately, even a global crisis isn't going to be enough to dissuade human garbage from taking advantage of people's anxieties.

Been putting off going to the supermarket all week due to the lines outside to get in (not super long but long enough). Went today and....there were no lines to get in and only one person in front of my till. No one was buying loads of shit and the shelves weren't empty. I was in and out in maybe 10 minutes. Unexpected!

I HAVE NO IDEA how *not* to go through a roll of paper towels every day, as one of the first things I read is after soapwashing your hands, the already filthy towel on the bathroom rack is not an option.

this disaster is not good news for those of us who blithely flouted home economics our entire lives

Napkins?

Air dry babes #slowliving

tip from a person with young kids: order that scratchy blue roll in bulk from Amazon or diy stores. I've got like 10 big rolls left. I also have proper stuff for when it's needed but it's generally expensive.

it's not actually scratchy, just lower quality than Plenty etc

If you have limited access to laundry, cooking and storage facilities I can see how following a lot of the 'best practices' advice would be like trying to touch your elbow to your nose.

As of yesterday afternoon my Publix stocked party napkins: packs of 500 fancy small blue napkins. They'll do.

where my fellow compulsive and incorrigible nail-biters at?

maybe it's good that a couple of years ago I seemed to mostly swap a bad finger-chewing habit for a bad sucking-the-inside-of-my-mouth habit, which is otherwise of course gross and horrible and potentially fucking up my teeth, but...

1. I'm wfh but the o/h still had to go in today; he came back early and stopped at the supermarket, which has just instituted a no-multiple-items rule, and there were actually decent food stocks plus kitchen roll was available again (still no toilet roll or hand wipes)

2. I have to - well, feel it's best to - cancel a paid class and I feel bad because I know the teacher's income has probably just disappeared to 0, but what can I do? I'm going to ask if she'd do a paid Skype class but tbh I don't really want a Skype class, I just don't want to be one of the 50+ jerks that probably aren't giving her money to live off any more

i've been remotely accessing my work computer for the past week, and it chose today, the day after our building closed indefinitely, to freeze. it will need to be manually restarted, but no one will be able to get to it, because no one was in the building. so i can't work, and all of my work will be loaded onto my coworkers. overall this fuckin sucks