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

I've been, what else is new, blogging about South Florida life under these circumstances. These circumstances include Lenten winds and Lillet.

confirmed COVID cases among people we know, or people we know are friends with/related to is at six (or seven, depending on how my wife’s cousin’s tests come back, or eight, depending on whatever knocked out my wife’s friend a few days after she came back from Disney. She’s better now and never got the test).

my job is at severe risk because I cannot do it and meanwhile my fucking roommate is upset because she can't watch grey's anatomy while I am on the phone forever with tech support

🚨 NY STATE LIQUOR STORE ASSOCIATION: LIQUOR STORES DEEMED ESSENTIAL BUSINESS; CAN REMAIN OPEN 🚨 https://t.co/zMJCnJgyvG

— David Mack (@davidmackau) March 20, 2020

I think Illinois just waved (or loosened) the laws that prevented restaurants from delivering alcohol. In the best of circumstances, restaurants make a huge amount of money from alcohol sales, so I think this is one strategy to help keep them afloat.

my fucking roommate is upset because she can't watch grey's anatomy

gah! roommates! anxiety! roommates! computers! anxiety!

just remember to take some slow deep breaths

people can't go into withdrawal right now. That would mess the hospitals up even more.

gah! roommates! anxiety! roommates! computers! anxiety!

this is really trivializing the loss of my entire income

Email from my mom (71):

This morning I made an "emergency" run to the liquor store because I am certain it will be shut very soon. I had all the good healthy stuff at home already.

I did it last night.

I very much doubt booze is going to run out.

not in my house at least.

I only drink in pubs, so I'm looking forward to my longest period of sobriety ... ever. Well, since I started drinking, which wasn't yesterday I can assure you.

Provided I don't die I'll probably be the healthiest I've ever been by the end of this... if there is an end.

trivializing the loss of my entire income

that is indeed serious. plz accept my apology.

My boss just *texted* this to my coworker:
“Rachel
I don't think that you should come to work anymore
You should apply for unemployment immediately
Susan”

Nothing about if this is temporary or permanent. Couldn’t even be bothered to call. Waiting to receive a similar text message.

jfc

holy shit

This is my boss’ version of posts very much in character

"i don't think" what the hell is wrong with people

that is fucked up

haha what if YOU think you should

"hi, nice to hear from you. i think i should keep working and i think you should pay me."

‘I don’t think’ is basically that woman’s entire problem, if J’s posts down the years are indicative.

text back: "gee what makes you think that?"

oh dear, good luck j. poor coworker

Xp lol yes Suzy otm. She’s not an evil person but she is chaos personified.

wondering why at the height of the virus scare somebody took all the wheeled baskets in te local lidl and crammed them together int one pile. there are 2 types an older one which is longer and narrower and a newer one which is shorter and more recatngular. They don't fit together and it atakes abit of effort to pry them apart at the best of times.
Somebody took a load of them and crammed them together in groups of 4 or 5 on top of each other to a height about 2/3s of mine.
So to take them apart would take a lot of prying.
Most places are suggesting people wipe down their trolleys or baskets and somebody's taken all of the conveyors for the shop and stuck them together. Like it seems it might take a bit of effor to actually do that not something you just stumble into doing.

So I wound up going around teh shop with things loose in my arms cos there weren't loose ones at teh end of the cashier aisles.

thought shops would be conscious of things like taht now.

& more of the shops in town are closing down for the duration.

I walked into the place I was getting full leaf spinacjh as opposed to teh bay stuff and they've got separate queues firmly marked out cos tehre used to be a queue for teh pay counter and another for getting into the cafe. Also noticed they'd added a plastic sneeze guard between the customer and teh counterstaf. Didn't see how it was suspended but did see taht you could put goods under it and pay/use the card reader etc under it.
THought I probably ought to get some spinach and Kale and stuff since I've not been looking after that side of things.

& dressmaking shop is closed as of today until I don't know when.

Realised when my earphones stopped making sound through one ear taht i should have grabbed a new set of skullcandy when I saw tehm cheap in TKMAXX which I noticed on passing had closed now.
Not sure what is and isn't actually still open around ton. Did seem that there were a few cafes still happening.

Local paper office is no longer open to the public. Used to be able to go in and grab one if there wasn't one delivered and there hasn't been a delivery in the last couple of weeks.

Main bookshop I tend to browse in has closed for the last few days. there is still an independent one open on the mian street though.
All pubs are closed. MOst pharmacists seem to be working from a table blocking entrance from the doorway so people don't come into the shop. I think a few other places are acting like that too.
Super,market I was in seemed to have most of its stuff in.
There was a sign at the entrance from the shopping centre saying queue here also saying that the food court/grocery shop was separated from its other depts on the next floor which you would have to go around to the other entrance to access. & i could see when I went to pay that you could see where it said Elderly customers only on one of the cashier queues. Not sure how said customers would feel about the designation though. Do the elderly call themselves elderly or is that an outside description, one only used by non-members of the group?

went to Morrisons last night, and my basket's handles were really greasy. I'm choosing to believe the previous customer had liberally smeared them with hand sanitiser... I washed my hands 3 times when I got home, but tbh the reason I went to Morrisons in the first place was to get a Mother's Day card and I licked the envelope in the store

oh, a Groupon email about deals on Mother's Day* lunches and teas out at restaurants

nuuuuuuh-uh

* it's OK, non-Britishers, you've got another 7 weeks

Ordered Chinese for lunch today; there was an envelope in the bag:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ETkJ1NBWkAg1a5P.jpg

They also mentioned on the phone that they're going to be closing for 3 weeks starting this coming Wednesday.

xp -- the loss of my income is now no longer hypothetical

xp that is awesome

not the closing part

ugh katherine sorry

:-(

ouch, sorry katherine

rough. sorry katherine

i'm really sorry, katherine. will the checks we're all apparently receiving in a couple weeks help at all? i'm in the midst of looking for a new job as well.

Sorry Katherine.

Oh no that sucks. Sorry, katherine. I've been very online lately, tweeting at Cuomo to enact a rent freeze to go with the mortgage one. I'm sure he'll make us sweat until like the 30th.

yeah -- it doesn't help that I am at the point in troubleshooting working-from-home issues where the things I have to do (manual registry edits, at this point) put me on the precipice of nuking my entire machine

Sorry to hear that, Katherine.

I’m sorry Katherine

One of my dice suppliers (in China) sent out an e-mail that any dice order would come with 10 N95 face masks.

Yeah the only masks i have are ones that a chinese factory we work with sent to the office. A 5-pack.They sent us a carton of them.

Hoping that my next alibaba shipments come with masks.

It is strange watching the news now and how there is a demand for blood. I tried to donate today, went to the blood bank, and was told March 30th is the earliest I could be seen.

the closest blood drives to me were the bronx and new jersey, and also like in late march or april. (plus, y'know, iron deficiency)

Effective tomorrow, Illinois is under what appears to be a fairly lackadaisical stay-at-home order. As I went through the list, it looked like practically every industry in the state had lobbied Pritzker for inclusion as an essential service.