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

my left hand is red and scaly from all the washing. I've started putting hand cream on but then I get paranoid that I'm wiping it on the cat when I stroke her and it may not be OK for cats. so many new things to worry about! it's remarkable

My wife's employer is offering three-month sabbaticals at half pay.

It's tempting but I have decidedly mixed feelings. We'd survive, financially speaking. But it would almost certainly be a backward step career-wise, at a time when she's just starting to get more responsibility and more notice. And she might just eat up the time with stressing about the children and trying to replicate school.

Everybody please do your best to remain healthy ( that means YOU, Morbs) and, like Alfred, treat yourself when/if possible. Love to you all from Amsterdam Noord where it seems many folks are being way chill about this.

So CNN put this misleading headline on their site:

The Smiths are discussing coronavirus on ‘Red Table Talk’

Of course I clicked on it immediately but it’s about Will and Jada Smith

“Heaven Knows I’m Socially Distanced Now”

"Panic."

haha

what difference does it make

Rumors afloat of an impending shelter in place order for Chicago effective tomorrow.

stockpilers of the world unite and take over
xp

'Please Please Please Let Me Get Wipe for Butt'

xpost We formally got a shelter in place heads up for Oak Park starting tomorrow. But that's what we've essentially been doing anyway.

I was looking for a mask and then I found a mask

My son has eczema and the constant soapy handwashing is just scalding his poor hands :(

so many new things to worry about! it's remarkable

New board description.

it's not a shock given where things are going nationally, but the Orlando Fringe Festival is cancelled.

I'm hardly alone in this, most people had their entire livelihoods cancelled, but what was going to be a joyous spring has now become:

*No soccer
*No Decibel Metal and Beerfest (well, postponed)
*No Breast Cancer Fundraiser music performance (well, postponed)
*No Fringe Festival
*Cancelling my trip to visit my best friend in VA
*Probably no Welcome to Rockville Festival
*No Decibel Tour
*probably no Maryland Deathfest as consolation prize (would I even wanna go if it was still on?)

I'm not devastated at the news because I had mentally prepared myself, and other than my meltdown the other day, have surprisingly adjusted to this. but losing all of the outlets that usually stabilize me, well..I've got my work cut out for me.

but on the positive side, I'm working, so at least I have things to keep me occupied.and I'm healthy.

(I was performing in Fringe this year..learned the ukulele for it and everything. oh well. now I know how to play it)

On some level being quarantined at home has been great for my mood. Normally I have a lot of OCD/control type issues that end up causing friction with my wife. We are both working from home now and it has been very nice so far. Either having something truly important to worry about instead or having no other options has meant I've chilled way out.

that makes sense. in a sense that's why my mood (other than Monday) has leveled out so much. could give a shit about my high cholesterol amidst the rest.

Also, just spoke to our CEO's assistant/office manager, who is still going into the office for some reason, and she said that someone at the company who shares space with us just went for testing with flu-like symptoms. I'm like, hey dipshits, that's why I said last week the entire company should be working from home.

*who-->that

i think a lot of people think they can wish away the virus

Someone has somehow gotten into my netflix account and changed the email and password! How dare they!
Sorted now.

too bad they closed disney world xp

I was on the 'outbreak!' thread, where morbs linked a DailyKOS report directly quoting a report issued by the US Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS):

“Supply chain and transportation impacts due to ongoing COVID-19 outbreak will likely result in significant shortages for government, private sector, and individual U.S. consumers.”

Immediately after reading this I signed us up for a five month half-share from the local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm we've joined every summer for the past ten years. We would have joined again this year, regardless, but this has the benefit of a 'supply chain' that only stretches about 15 or 20 total miles from our house and the transportation consists of some pickup trucks.

Now that I have completed the most practical response to this information available to me, I feel free to move directly to the fuckity-fuck-fuck!! stage of response.

I don't want to sound overly rosy but I think there are reasons to be optimistic about the supply chains holding up

Multiple xp - Tracer, get the poor kid some almond oil. It’s meant to soothe eczema and yanno, Asian shops always have it.

lmao a "third party vendor" who apparently worked on all floors of our building (i'm assuming cleaning staff) tested positive for covid. my computer is never getting restarted and my ability to do my job is semi-permanently hobbled. looking forward to learning a new hobby

for some reason i'm on a server where one of the regulars there is spouting out the most ridiculous bullshit imaginable. it's just exhausting to deal with. the president is going to take personal command of the national guard and require people to quarter troops in their houses! covid is re-infecting people! everybody is going to be under strict quarantine for the next 18 months!

i might just leave the server, honestly.

Making the rounds:

A LETTER FROM F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, QUARANTINED IN 1920 IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE DURING THE SPANISH INFLUENZA OUTBREAK.

Dearest Rosemary,
It was a limpid dreary day, hung as in a basket from a single dull star. I thank you for your letter. Outside, I perceive what may be a collection of fallen leaves tussling against a trash can. It rings like jazz to my ears. The streets are that empty. It seems as though the bulk of the city has retreated to their quarters, rightfully so. At this time, it seems very poignant to avoid all public spaces. Even the bars, as I told Hemingway, but to that he punched me in the stomach, to which I asked if he had washed his hands. He hadn’t. He is much the denier, that one. Why, he considers the virus to be just influenza. I’m curious of his sources.
The officials have alerted us to ensure we have a month’s worth of necessities. Zelda and I have stocked up on red wine, whiskey, rum, vermouth, absinthe, white wine, sherry, gin, and lord, if we need it, brandy. Please pray for us.
You should see the square, oh, it is terrible. I weep for the damned eventualities this future brings. The long afternoons rolling forward slowly on the ever-slick bottomless highball. Z. says it’s no excuse to drink, but I just can’t seem to steady my hand. In the distance, from my brooding perch, the shoreline is cloaked in a dull haze where I can discern an unremitting penance that has been heading this way for a long, long while. And yet, amongst the cracked cloudline of an evening’s cast, I focus on a single strain of light, calling me forth to believe in a better morrow.
Faithfully yours,
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Come on, that is so obviously bullshit.

If it were real, they would have used his real name: Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald.

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experience/cps/624/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2020/3/19/8c9faa41-1c81-49d8-b1ff-e517cbcdd09f.png

cool graph

xpost It's from McSweeney's, I think. ;)

I went to bed worrying about this and I woke up worrying about this. Name let which of us is living in a China vs and Italy. China seems to have got though this relatively lightly scathed got this under control and is now returning to a form of normality. Italy seems to be an ever worsening tradgedy, out of control and what we are trying to avoid by flattening the curve.

I keep wondering if we did enough, early enough to keep a lid on this in Australia, and what about all of my friends And family across the world; are they living in an Italy or a China. It’s the general angst of worrying about who will make it through this and how and the suvivors guilt seem already to be there. ( I have not survived yet)

Tracer are you still going out? Lush dream cream is great for this if you pass one (or can get a delivery).

Anyway. 🙃

my work just us know that we're getting 20% pay cuts, starting immediately.

are you fucking kidding me

well that's fuckin evil

i hope that after this is all over all human beings worldwide simultaneously offer all jobs a 20% work cut

jfc. nice compassion mr employer. sorry to hear that Karl :(

My job is getting about 60% from me this week but that’s bc all my pipes are getting replaced

actually i'm receiving word that it's just me who is getting a pay cut, and it's because of my typos on ilx

also because of the amount of time i'm spending on ilx, sources say

i didn't notice the typo because i'm paying only 80% attention because i gave work 110% this week

It's not like any of us need that money anyway, amirite? We can't go out!

xp besides, being an honoured member of ILX is a privilege that those without a 20% pay cut can't claim.

what's especially dumb is that this is a bigass company with lots of contracts throughout the country - we're consultants and program implementers, funded by clients. and the client my program works for isn't withholding any money or saying they're not going to pay us. but even still, my company has decided to slash everyone's pay by 20%, regardless of the situation with their client. also being explained now that we are still expected to work the same amount of time, accomplish the same, etc

Sounds like they just want people to quit.

people are now asking about whether we'll ever get the 20% back, "on the other side"

turns out they haven't considered that yet

that's truly vile