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

Both my parents recently retired and my sister and I have been wondering how long before they murder each other. They’ve been together 35 yrs and only happy for maybe the first 3 from what I remember. Can’t wait to see how self isolation works out for them! My poor sister has been living with them since last November and has been utterly miserable.

in orbit, F went to the store on Saturday and he came home so stressed out because people were getting too close the entire time (also I think he was treating it like a timed mission, which...I don't know why he would do that.) xpost

o/h went to the shop at lunchtime - never go at lunchtime, especially if you live near a building site, because:

1. builders don't get to stop work just because of some apocalyptic plague
2. builders need lunch
3. builders spend all day standing inches apart on some scaffolding and climbing over each other when they need to reach something, they're not gonna stand 2m apart from anyone, especially if they might lose their place in the queue and get back 30s late from lunch and get docked wages
(yay capitalism/contract worker hell)

so, mostly, poor builders, but also, if you are worrying about social distancing, avoid the times of day when builders might be trying to buy sandwiches

also I keep telling myself sooner or later these stock shortages will calm down but they just keep getting worse and worse - still no toilet paper, wet wipes, bread, various canned products, and also no beer today (also no cheap wine (had to buy slightly-fancier-than-the-very-cheapest wine (had to)))

I am really picking and choosing when I drink alcohol to keep my immune system up

oh uh... uh... oops ;_;

I worked with a woman who would shoot Rumple Minze then a water back... then just spit the water on the bar floor if she wasn't standing over a sink.

This was a terrible week to have a condo go on the market.

we tried to buy a house before Christmas and, long story short, it was an extended nightmare and it all fell through and then we thought we were out of pocket quite a lot on fees etc but luckily the insurance paid up even though the small print seemed to weasel out of our exact scenario, so we were only slightly out of pocket in the end, but anyway... I was v pissed off for a time but tbh I'm glad I am not having to move right now

I'm glad that I quit smoking ~2 years ago (and vaping at home at the start of all this) but my god no time has been more suited for sitting on the porch chainsmoking and listening to birds.

serious question: when did it become a bad thing to worry about the oncoming worse-than-the-great-recession-approaching-the-great-depression state of the economy? seeing a lot of Discourse along those lines but the thing is, a bad economy means people will become unemployed and die

People can be prevented from dying of starvation and of covid through collective action. The incipient recession is gonna suck but the ghoulish concern for “the economy” over human lives on the part of rich idiots on twitter is risible

Yeah, in my state construction (all of it, as of today) is still considered essential. It has quite a big impact on the work I do, so I've been hearing a lot about it from all sides. Lots of owners I've talked to would like to slim down their job sites and keep fewer people on the projects, but once you get labor unions involved and have to face down dozens of laborers that still want to get paid - it's a tough choice I'm glad I don't have to make.

xpost

it's unclear whether mortality goes up during recession and there's some evidence it may actually go down

I'm glad that I quit smoking ~2 years ago (and vaping at home at the start of all this) but my god no time has been more suited for sitting on the porch chainsmoking and listening to birds.

― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z

One cigarette and listening to a scold of blue jays.

serious question: when did it become a bad thing to worry about the oncoming worse-than-the-great-recession-approaching-the-great-depression state of the economy? seeing a lot of Discourse along those lines but the thing is, a bad economy means people will become unemployed and die

i’m fairly worried about this, i lost my job about two weeks before all this went down

the writing's been on the wall for a while indicating that without establishing better social programs, things have been on their way to getting incrementally worse

now we've got a genuinely worse situation and the goal is to make sure the safety net we're crafting in an emergency solidifies into long-term support

ghoulish concern for “the economy” over human lives

there is a grim calculus that I think most ppl would rather not think about or even pretend doesn't exist. I'm so glad I don't have to make any of the decisions involved, so it does strike me as pretty fucked up that some ppl seem eager to volunteer to make those decisions.

One cigarette and listening to a scold of blue jays.

I'm incapable of that (one reason I had to stop) - short of burning an entire pack of American Spirit yellows, it has no appeal for me.

the thing is though the economy crashing will not hurt rich idiots, they'll largely be fine; it will absolutely devastate and even shorten everyone else's lives for god knows how long

(this is not me arguing that people shouldn't shelter in place, by any stretch; I just don't understand how the Discourse consensus is now at "only rich people care about the economy")

Mother
fucking
Florida

My mother tries to file for unemployment. Because the last time she filed was over 9 months ago, her PIN has expired. Ok, no biggie - she tries to go to Forgot PIN online. No dice - it 'can't find her record', tells her to call this number. She calls, it says "LOL SUX 2 BE U, 2 MANY CALLERS, BYE" and hangs up on her each time. my brother tries to help her and register her as a new claimant because they recently changed systems, so he thought THAT was the problem. Nope. it says she already registered.

she goes to email them about the issue - server error, email won't go through.

whole day of benefits lost due to this shit. though I'm telling her to demand credit for today after that horseshit.

I tried it myself and got all three of the same results.

I had to double my lung meds today as I'm struggling to clear them - that usually means i have a chest infection brewing.
Also got a weird thing where my sense of smell is disappearing and I get phantom smells of smoke and I have to keep convincing myself the house isn't on fire. This happened before and I ended up with a sinus infection.
Picked a bad time to get sick(er).

Not to panic you, but a loss of smell-sense has been one of the symptoms.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/health/coronavirus-symptoms-smell-taste.amp.html

good luck onimo :(

also I get phantom smoke-like (or overheating plastic/dust/petrol-like, in my case) smells sometimes, interesting that it turned into a sinus infection for you. for me it generally means either I'm going to get a migraine, maybe within an hour or maybe the next day, or it's the day before my period </TMI>, but before I worked that pattern out it felt like I was going crazy and all the Google results for phantom smells were a bit scary

anyway I guess that's a good tip that if one's sense of smell/taste starts to fade one should maybe start self-isolating, thanks just1n3

Anosmia!

Not to panic you, but a loss of smell-sense has been one of the symptoms.

― just1n3, Monday, 23 March 2020 22:42 (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thanks just1n3, I saw that but I'm fairly sure this isn't covid-19 as I don't have a temp and my regular persistent cough isn't more persistent than normal. I've also had all the symptoms before so this feels familiar.

I will panic all the same as it's the end of days- it's working wonders for my previously managed hypertension :/

Also phantosmia! xp

Just went for a long walk. It was such a ghost town out there I didn't have to be worried about being close to anyone.

Very much so--maybe seven or eight people in a half-hour walk, most dog walkers (and one car at the small grocery store). I made eye contact with one of the dogs and wondered what he was thinking. "Where the fuck is everyone? How come no one comes up and pats me anymore?"

So what set this all in motion? Was it the death of Bowie, or the Cubs winning the World Series? Probably Bowie right? Killed Prince, then the Cubs clinching elected Trump, and ... here we are.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/19/middleeast/egypt-discovers-coffins-mummies-trnd/index.html

Loss of smell is a common symptom of a lot of cold/flu things. That’s why food is often bland when you have a cold; smell is a huge part of taste.

As a Houstonian, I’m bewildered that we haven’t shut down yet.

I broke my leg right before this started having an impact in the US. So I’m used to being stuck at home. Finally got off narcotic pain meds yesterday and it is a new strange reality to get acclimated to. Our kids have been at my parents place in the country for a couple of weeks and they come back soon. I miss them but don’t look forward to home-schooling and wrangling a 5 year old while in crutches. AND my mom keeps taking the kids places.

I hardly ever post but I’ve been lurking for years. You folks are great, I really appreciate this community. Thanks for being here. It’s been especially valuable lately.

So what set this all in motion? Was it the death of Bowie, or the Cubs winning the World Series? Probably Bowie right? Killed Prince, then the Cubs clinching elected Trump, and ... here we are.

― Josh in Chicago

it was the cubs, bowie died of cancer, prince died of a drugs overdose. those are both normal things that happen.

pandemics are also normal things that happen, otoh. really the only _truly_ fucked up thing at all about this timeline is the fact that the cubs did, in fact, win the world series.

my theory is that the world did in fact end on December 21, 2012, it just wasn't an instant apocalypse so much as a point of no return

Looks like Texas cities are sheltering at home, Austin starts tomorrow, can't wait.

by Thursday we'll be sweltering at home too, highs are going to hit the 90s

henrys handball lads

I'll be here all week

pandemics are also normal things that happen

The fact that we've mostly forgotten this is kind of a good sign.

hi cow_art! Post more imo

^^^

I broke my leg right before this started having an impact

I just read an apocalyptic novel where that happened to the main protagonist just as a global virus started to spread.

I just read an apocalyptic novel where that happened to the main protagonist just as a global virus started to spread.

legit i am surprised just how much fiction concerns global pandemics. i started reading ‘station eleven’ and stopped because i lost interest, but it’s about a pandemic. i thought it would be fun to watch zany comedy ‘medical police’ on netflick, but it’s about a pandemic. i tried watching the movie ‘world war z’ which is about zombies, but why are they zombies? pandemic.

yeah I watched the very stupid Medical Police two months ago, which did not help me understand this pandemic at all

Loss of smell is a common symptom of a lot of cold/flu things.

Yes, because of stuffy nose, etc. To reiterate, I think it is more unusual for it to be the *only* symptom. That is, per reports:

"Anosmia, in particular, has been seen in patients ultimately testing positive for the coronavirus with no other symptoms," reads to a statement on the academy's website.

As a Houstonian, I’m bewildered that we haven’t shut down yet.

The way I understand it is Houston hasn't had enough cases reported per capita (compared to other shutdown US cities), but now that there's more tests and testing sites that'll rise and then there will be a shutdown.

But that'll probably change now other big Texas cities are doing it.

hi & welcome Cow_Art! hope the leg's on the mend, good luck wrangling the 5y/o, and post more imo

san anto just announced shelter in place

Inslee ordered WA to stay home for two further weeks, which is the finest possible distinction from the state of affairs that previously obtained but pressure was mounting for him to do it so fine. I've already been told I'm working from home until June 12. My fancy chair arrived just now, so that's nice.

I'm so relieved WA got the stay at home order. It's been a constant struggle trying to get my housemates (not all of them, mostly just one) to do some basic social distancing, and they keep pointing to the lack of order as a reason why they don't have to.

that’s the same reason we got a (moderate) lockdown order, some people were doing whatever the hell they wanted until they were told not to

Lily I’m glad u can now beat your dummy roommate over the head with this

Thanks!