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

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.

i’m about to have a psychiatrist appointment via facetime, as if the world hadn’t got weird enough already

Getting sick of "martial law is next!" rumors.

Always comes from coddled idiots who have no idea what it is, or paranoid survivalist loons.

I don't know that the average Central Floridian could handle martial law

You'd think any paranoid survivalist loon worth his salt would be the least concerned. 'Cool, Imma hunker in my bunker and munch on my bottomless supply of c-rations for the next few months while y'all sort this out.'

Other Floridians screaming that Desantnis killed every small bar by closing them but idk what choice he had? Even running them below capacity, people were still gathering at them too much and our cases are soaring.

I don't like Ron but I mean...

I've noticed a bit of a trend among friends of mine who run their own businesses - that they're more skeptical of the self-distancing advice, as well as the shutdown that's just been imposed (in the UK). 'They're throwing the entire country into poverty because some old people die a little sooner?' is the gist. It's pretty obvious why they feel like this - it's because they have a massive personal incentive to keep the doors open and the money flowing in. And I think it's pretty silly they can't see that. At the same time I feel for them.

I definitely feel for business owners. piece of good news, my friend's cafe had its rent suspended for April! :)

anybody got a vid to share? even if it's just a knock knock joke?

Sure, this was the best thing I chanced upon this week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvIjz_lugxI

was watching a movie (shin godzilla, very timely) and emerged to find four calls, three voicemails and two texts from my mother

she's fine, i'm fine, don't fucking DO that unless you're in the fucking hospital

Lol my heart starts racing and I feel faint if I get an unannounced call from a family member - the only time my parents initiate a ph call is when something terrible has happened

gah, my housemate asked if I wanted to go biking today and I thought, "it's a beautiful day, biking seems safe." But we went to a park and it was swarming with people, and I had to use a bathroom and while I was in there I heard someone near me sneezing repeatedly. Never again. I'm trying to convince myself that I did not just give myself coronavirus but I'm feeling guilty and dumb for taking the risk.

biking's not a bad activity as it's not one you would usually associate with "mass crowding". don't blame you.

Apparently the neighbors down the street were having a impromptu "block party" earlier, with like 20 people drinking and hanging out in the street. I wonder if it was the ones with the Trump banner or the ones with the "blue lives matter" flag in the front yard? /painting nails emoji

Yeah I went for a walk the other day and it felt like people on and around the sidewalk were more up in my shit than usual. A gaggle of kids playing ball and scrambling back and forth while I'm trying to pass without running into them, a dude jogging by within inches of me, etc. Plus I saw firemen in masks and scrubs wheeling a stretcher up to someone's front door so whatever anxiety my perambulation was meant to alleviate...mission very decidedly unaccomplished. I'm perfectly cool sitting around inside watching shitty movies and trying not to think too much about everything going on out there, thanks.