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

apparently they're not doing much testing

and they've banned gatherings of more than 50 people as of Friday (down from 500)

That sounds real progressive.
I thought Goodbye Sweden when i heard it.

Just before our work got closed down the Swedish woman I work with was trying to organize flights for her and her children to go to Sweden - she's from somewhere way in the North, miles away from anywhere, has lots of anecdotes about moose and freezing weather. What about your husband (he's English), I said - Oh, he'll be alright here, she said.

hahaha mookie that’s amazing. bucket list items i never knew i had??

Alba no idea. it could have been anything. last day kids were in school was about 10 days ago, i got symptoms on Saturday, so it definitely could have been that. but it also could have been a door handle or a crosswalk button or ...

washing machine looks like it might have packed in. ppl will not come in the house fit a new one "due to govt regulations"

alls you need to do reconnect the water supply and stick the waste on (there is usually a jubilee clip on it) and the water pipe usually just screws on and off. You don't need a bloody plumber for that mate!

says me who once forgot to take the transit bolts out of a new washing machine and nearly trashed the thing on its first go!

Tracer, get well soon!!!

Ogmor that's annoying - you need a washing machine! Surely you can keep 2 meters away if they come?
Our new dishwasher stopped working after one week. Bloke came to look at it before the official lockdown and it needs a new door sensor thing. Now it's the lockdown I assume there's no chance of getting it. Hope the company doesn't go bust or we've just lost several hundred quid :(

Can you MacGyver the door sensor with a paper clip or something?

My single-cup Keurig (the only coffee-making machine in our home, with which I use a refillable plastic k-cup) stopped working properly yesterday and I had a brief bout of panic until I googled my way through what is hopefully a proper fix. But goddamn, all these fragile little things that are serving as a bulwark against madness atm. They're too damn fragile!

Building work still going on next door to me, in fact it sounds like they're trying to drill through the wall to where I'm sitting.

They were playing some kind of bhangra, or something, earlier at about 2 million decibels until my downstairs neighbour complained about it.

washing machine looks like it might have packed in. ppl will not come in the house fit a new one "due to govt regulations"

Surely the techniques of old are still tolerated:

https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/2-washerwomen-paul-gauguin.jpg

The past two days of waking up with massive congestion and a sinus headache have not been fun, mostly because I believe this is a result of undiagnosed allergies which I now will have problems getting diagnosed because life is now isolationist hell. (I believe this because this congestion has been off and on since early November and I have no other symptoms.)

the drain in my shower is clogged, and you'd think being trapped at home would be the perfect opportunity to fix it, but that relies on the assumption that one has any motivation left over after it barely covers work

I feel that, katherine. My overhead light in my kitchen stopped working last week and it's probably related to my own poor wiring decisions, but it mysteriously started working again when I accidentally slammed a cabinet door so I'm calling it Good For Now (tm)

For NY Residents:

The State launched a COVID-19 mental health hotline: for free emotional support, consultation and referral to a provider, call 1-844-863-9314. 6,000 mental health professionals have volunteered their time to help with New York's Coronavirus response.

I'm struggling with the sheer arbitrariness of this all - we've been at home for two and a half weeks now so I think we're OK as long we keep up sensible social distancing, but there's sense that if we'd been to a different restaurant three weeks ago, or sat in a different seat on the train, or a different meeting room at work, then one of us could be in hospital on a ventilator right now. Obviously that's the case for everyone but it doesn't make it feel any less indiscriminate or unfair.

Well put. My wife and I 'survived' our compulsory 14 days of self-isolation but every time one of us steps out to do the groceries I subconsciously reset the clock.

Work from homers: "I think a jogger might have come within 6ft of me today"

Not work from homers: "OK"
pic.twitter.com/5ZWc9NW7IV

— Nick Dastoor (@NickyD) March 30, 2020

I think that's one of the most difficult things for people to handle. There are so many risky behaviors that people regularly do that have a low possibility of harm, and we take it for granted when bad things don't happen. And when they do happen, some will shrug it off and come up with a reason related to luck or morality as to why it happened to someone else and not them.

If I contract covid-19 and the worst happens, people could shrug and say, hey, he wasn't as active as he could have been, drank too much, guess that's what happens. But the fact is that a bunch of my peers are less physically active and have the same bad habits! It's only when there's a high incidence across the entire population that we realize how arbitrary things really are.

Most of the things that happen have some level of arbitrariness to them, it's just that the reasons are at different levels of opacity or we pretend they aren't opaque.

lol calz, touché.

wasn't intended as a swipe, pom. I'm pulling up my hood and looking the opposite way if someone gets within 12 ft of me!

I'm struggling with the sheer arbitrariness of this all - we've been at home for two and a half weeks now so I think we're OK as long we keep up sensible social distancing, but there's sense that if we'd been to a different restaurant three weeks ago, or sat in a different seat on the train, or a different meeting room at work, then one of us could be in hospital on a ventilator right now. Obviously that's the case for everyone but it doesn't make it feel any less indiscriminate or unfair.

― Matt DC, Monday, March 30, 2020 9:54 AM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Seriously. I look back a little over two weeks to the day when, if my workplace hadn't granted me WFH permission, I was planning to take extended PTO until they came to their senses. The number of covid cases in the state were in the low double digits at that point (32, I believe?), but someone just down the block from my work had already tested positive and I came to learn later that someone who was working in my office up to the day in question had tested positive. We're likely to exceed 5,000 cases in the state today, and I get a little queasy thinking about what might've happened if I hadn't been as firm with my workplace and had kept commuting in to work for several more days until they formally closed the office.

so what are people doing about haircuts?

I've been cutting/clipping my own hair for many years, had no idea I was prepping for this

i have one scheduled a few weeks from now and i will not be getting it but i'm going to pay my hairdresser in advance for the next one so she can still make money. i'm a girl though.

Didn't have you pegged as a hardcore survivalist, Simon.

i was probably due for one the week things started to get bad and my hair does not grow out in an easy-to-manage way. not really sure how this is going to go.

I'm going full Catweazle till that one fine day we're allowed out of our shelters again

I am in my second week of having this (not serious but very much Not Fun) and I keep thinking about how arbitrary it is too. For the week before I had symptoms I felt absolutely fine, and so the only thing keeping me home really were the instructions to WFH.

I usually spend my days in tiny meeting rooms, and could otherwise have infected so many people it doesn't bear thinking about.

Sheesh, get well soon Stet!

Bought some DIY clippers two weeks ago and used them for the first time last night. Pretty straightforward tbh and I'm now wondering why I've bothered going to the barbers every other week for the last 20 years xps

My wife usually gets her haircut every two weeks or so, as she has a pixie cut and can't stand it getting much longer than that. The other day, she realized that it would be a while before her hair guy is open again and she was like "maybe if it starts getting annoying, you can help me trim around the back". I am not the right guy for this job and really hope that we can think of some alternative.

I own a set of clippers, but only use them to shave the dogs butt these days. There is a smaller, beard-trimmer thing, but I don't think I'd be able to do her hair with it.

Well put. My wife and I 'survived' our compulsory 14 days of self-isolation but every time one of us steps out to do the groceries I subconsciously reset the clock.

It seems this is actually fairly common. I think by now most people will have identified which necessary activity is likely to be the riskiest for them and when you haven't got many other distractions this looms large.

In terms of the arbitrariness of life’s lottery stuff aren’t we still operating on the assumption that 80% of people are going to get it anyway? So you’ll get your turn on a ventilator eventually anyway if you’re going to, whatever your movements? (Please correct me if the thinking has changed!) but there is still an element of unfairness in who gets a bad case yeah

I hate my hair, am considering buying clippers but Idk how to artfully shave the nap of my own neck, and I already paid my barber over the weekend and I guess will continue to pay him like 1x a month until they re-open and I feel okay about going?

Yeah going to the store makes me anxious, but tbh it's not on the scale compared to what others are doing.

get well soon, stet!

rest up, cap'n stet

We got an Instacart order on Saturday and then spent like 2-3 hours assiduously following the guidelines in the video that doctor made on how to safely handle groceries. We took every sensible precaution and I feel pretty okay about the reduction of our exposure but who can even say for sure. I know I didn't touch my face once during that time, and that feels pretty solid.

Get well, stet!!!

I guess it was really only a matter of time until it hit posters directly, but ugh.

Best wishes, stet! Keep us posted.

(not serious but very much Not Fun)

sorry to hear this, stet! but glad that it's not serious, all the same, and that at least you know you have it so you can take care of yourself.

Good luck.

get well soon, stet

I own a set of clippers, but only use them to shave the dogs butt these days.

I'm a little embarrassed by how hard this made me laugh

Good luck Stet (and Tracer - sorry, I only just saw your messages!)

get well soon, Tracer

In terms of the arbitrariness of life’s lottery stuff aren’t we still operating on the assumption that 80% of people are going to get it anyway?

I assume we're all going to get it, but that 20% will have more serious manifestations (from bad symptoms to hospital).

Trader Joe's this morning was ... ok. People spaced apart and lined up outside, carts being sprayed and disinfected before hand off, someone with squirt sanitizer out front for when you go in and out. Not currently charging for paper bags, but if you bring your own cloth bags you have to bag yourself. Older people get priority 8-9am, but the older folks I saw show up after 9 still got to go in first. Same for those with disabilities or those in need of assistance. Saw a lot of gloves and a surprising number of masks among those shopping (staff wore neither). They made a number of friendly announcements throughout, such as suggesting more shopping by looking at rather than touching the food.

This morning was the first time I saw a lot of (men specifically) in need of a haircut or, perhaps, just a comb or brush.

My wife wants me to do more volunteering, donating blood, etc. I'm going to do the latter on Thursday, I think, but the former ... I don't know what I'm comfortable doing, exactly, even though my usual volunteer spots are taking a lot of precautions. As she says, we're healthy, so we should be helping. And as I said, we may be healthy because we've been at home not helping, and if I get sick then we might all get sick and then there are four of us sick, not only not helping others but potentially in need of help ourselves. There's really no right answer.