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

I’m just going for the full early 70s Keith Richards thing, fuck it

I look and smell like the Unabomber

because we're not leaving the flat much and getting no exercise, we've been not wanting dinner as much as usual - not as hungry and also too lazy to cook

that's fine, but it's a bad combo with trying to buy a week of food at once, because there's now a few things in the fridge which are due up & we thought we'd have eaten by today but haven't. feels bad to be wasteful when it's been hard to find fresh food lately and it's been even harder for people who are self-isolating or working shifts etc

oh well, lessons to learn for next time, assuming we don't have to self-isolate ourselves in the meantime

i know this is a mostly apolitical thread but

Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, is continuing to play down the pandemic, saying it is “not all it’s being made out to be” and denying that any hospital in the country has reached its full capacity due to the outbreak.

Speaking to church ministers outside his official residence in Brasilia, he has urged state governors not to be so “radical,” warning that their confinement and quarantine measures are taking a heavy toll on the economy.

My work situation is enormously complicated by the fact that my longtime work client is going through a 2nd round of chemo for breast cancer. The best thing really would be for the magazine I produce to go on hiatus until late summer or fall so I can get some of this independent contractor unemployment, but she hasn't brought it up and so far neither have I. But this week I've been making the usual first round of contacts for the next issue and have gotten a lot of radio silence. Not "no," but no response at all. I think tomorrow we'll have to have that talk.

Meanwhile my wife is going to drive herself to a nervous breakdown by Being Helpful online.

Pay cuts announced today, executive, director and upper management levels taking a 30% cut, middle mgmt (me) taking 15%, others taking 2 to 5%.

It’s good to still have a job obv and I’ve seen harsher in this thread, but I’m supporting both of us so I’m not, like, rejoicing or anything

Pay cuts announced today, executive, director and upper management levels taking a 30% cut, middle mgmt (me) taking 15%, others taking 2 to 5%.

Maybe I'm too jaded, but I'm genuinely surprised the proportions weren't reversed.

oh i know

at our company, they suspended the annual profit-sharing contribution to the 401(k) (not cancelled as they can't cancel it as it's written into the governing plan doc), they've delayed merit increases but only for people making 75k or more, and they've contributed $1 million to a People Matter fund that can provide relief to employees of up to $2,000 for those severely impacted.

I'm pleasantly surprised how my company has handled this.

everybody fucking calling me today. about to just put my phone on mute.

My wife's employer started by offering a three-month sabbatical at half pay. But her manager said they didn't want to lose her (which is a good thing, that they value her work). They ended up compromising on half time, while keeping health benefits (minus dental and vision, meh).

We're fortunate, but it's still a strain all round.

bestie broke up with her boyfriend and now wants to immediately move back to Florida and just called me crying.

on the one hand, I'm glad to have her back, on the other, I'm severely worried about her trying to do this NOW, but the alternative is her staying with someone that she is having trouble living with while claiming she's suicidal.

i'm going to learn real fast I have to stop worrying about all of my friends to this degree because just about everyone of them is going to have fairly big problems soon.

Had a full on breakdown last night.

I broke my leg right before the virus started hit the US, so I’ve been stuck at home on crutches a few weeks longer than the social isolation started. Managed to get off narcotics and stopped smoking pot at the same time because I was so tired of feeling fucked up. Also more or less quit drinking since I hadn’t had a drop while pilled up. Wasn’t a heavy user of either but really liked the idea of getting straight for a while.

I keep thinking of AIRPLANE!: Looks like I picked a hell of a week to quit sniffing glue.

We have two girls, 5 & 10 years old. They were at my parents in the country for spring break before social isolation and they stayed an extra week since schools shut down. They came back last weekend and we’ve been trying to figure out our rhythms and home schooling and how to exist with them while i’m useless and my wife is trying to work from home.

I used to get restless leg syndrome (the stupidest syndrome) once a month or so, and it wasn’t a big deal. Get up, read for a while, go back to sleep. In the past week it’s been relentless. I’ll get up,read, lay back down and it won’t stop. Over and over. 3 or 4 hours of sleep and then up wrangling kids.

Yesterday I overdid it and my broken leg was throbbing and
aching. My wife is overwhelmed doing everything I can’t do and we got gripey with each other and it triggered something; I was screaming and crying and a total sobbing mess. Wife and scared kids hugged me. I don’t think they had ever seen me cry until then. Leg kept me up until 7:30 this morning.

Working on getting medical and psychological help today. I think I have mild ptsd from the leg break, it was horrible and I still haven’t really processed it. That, with family pressures and my limited mobility and no sleep all against the backdrop of a pandemic is a bit much for me. Researched restless leg solutions and apparently pot can be a big help so my wife found me some today in hopes of getting me to sleep and stay sane.

Slept until 1pm like a teenager and i’m feeling a lot better at the moment.

Sorry for the long diary entry. At least our jobs are stable. I get in a mindset where I know how fortunate I am and so I don’t want to reach out for help because I know so many others have it so much worse. I’ve never wanted to go for a walk so bad.

Cow_Art, crap, sympathies. Hope stuff gets better for you somehow.

Oh god Cow_Art, what a lot to deal with. Hoping for the best with your leg and your family's wellness.

That is a lot to deal with for anyone, Cow_Art. It sounds like you are being smart in trying to address the sleep issues as those can exacerbate everything else. Just remember that (I hope) the leg issue as well as the coronavirus will both be temporary and will improve.

Wish you the best.

Did my fourth delivery today, which turned out to be for $327 CAD in organic groceries. At least I got a workout in!

Tbh if you're relatively low-risk and need or want an excuse to get out of the house, signing up for a service like this is one of the better ideas I can recommend.

That's fucking hard, huge sympathy CowArt. Anecdotally, magnesium supplements can help with restless leg, my wife used to get it.

Our 5 year old has been throwing up repeatedly this morning and the 10 year old feels nauseous. When they were at my parents my Fox News mom took them to Walmart and Target. Hoping it’s just a regular stomach bug.

I talked to my mom last night and she was telling me about plans to get together with some friends for somebody’s birthday and I tried to discourage her to no avail.

This morning I called to let her know the girls are sick. Told her that she should not be around people and laid it all out. “Imagine if you get a friend sick and they die because you want to be a lone wolf doing whatever you want to do. Really think about how you’re going to feel if that happens.” She was quiet for a minute. She promised to stay away from people.

Fucking people. Goddamn.

Hope your kids are okay.

We had some grim modelling in Ontario released today, and when I went out for a walk after that, I was definitely a little more paranoid. The independent grocer I go to, which usually has four or five people in there, looked to be moderately busy, so I passed. There was a delivery notice in my P.O. box (a CD, I believe), but there were three people in line, so I left.

My guess is, with many more people being careful now, the paranoia is misplaced. Three weeks ago would have been the ideal time to be paranoid.

The shape of my life under the current conditions of social distancing and isolation is becoming clear enough that I feel like I understand the risks and remedies available to me. I can't eliminate all risk of infection without taking other risks with my mental balance. I intend to shop for fresh food every two weeks, unless it becomes obvious that this is no longer a sensible risk. I intend to take daily walks, timed to coincide with the fewest other people also out walking. Beyond that, I am fully isolated from further public contacts. That's about as far as I can take it without feeling totally imprisoned. It's going to be a long haul.

nb: our daughter's low fevers have abated and she slept ok last night, so my level of concern has also dropped back down to tolerable levels.

Sending good thoughts to all the ilxors suffering right now.

My work situation isn't 100% clear yet, but I did get my immediate supervisor on-board with me to insist on remote meetings so that's a good start. This contractor is still trying to push back even on that, but someone having my back helps.

Also just happy to even be employed, given that the layoffs and consulting gigs evaporating are really starting to hit those close to me. Thankfully no loved ones have been sick up to now, but the struggle is still very much present in our lives.

I was talking to a friend last night and explaining that, being on my own, two-or-three-times-a-week grocery shopping seemed like the best strategy. I only pick up 3-5 things at a time, I know exactly where they are, and I do so at off-hours; I'm in and out of the store in under two minutes, and take all other necessary precautions. Once a week would probably mean being in the store for 10 minutes, and a longer checkout time. My friend has a wife and three kids, so his situation is different.

Glad to hear it, Aimless!

Sorry to hear about the job loss, Thermo. :(

if i have to be stuck with one person in a tiny flat for the next six months, i’m super glad it’s ‘er indoors, my best friend, my sanity and my everything <3

Most cities are putting inspiring messages in their windows during the lockdown.#Glasgow is being honest pic.twitter.com/ad29Zmv1EV

— James Doleman (@jamesdoleman) April 4, 2020

much better than them infantile rainbows I keep seeing in windows with Everything Is Going To Be Fine

Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t the rainbows drawn by literal children?

so fucking what?

An adult has painted one on his bay window around the corner from me. Nothing says Everything Is Going To be Fine more than blacking out your living room of daylight!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ETtcNefXgAAcotv?format=jpg&name=large

twee denialism will get us through this and definitely wasn't a child who put these fucking lame laminates to every wall in my area!

Oh, well all the ones round me are definitely by kids, who I give a bit more of a pass for being infantile don’t @ me

Also when I see them I just think “all the children are gay now, good”

It doesn't help me at all. And as the bodies start piling up there is something deeply problematic about Everything Will be OK type slogans on every fucking 2nd window.

there should be posters reminding people of social distancing everywhere.. bloody anything but twee slogans at a time like this.

so the thing where you smile at someone to defuse potential social woe (not necessarily distance-related) is muffled when yr wearing a mask and a (tbf clue in name) muffler

cornershop stocked and heroic as ever (except for flour which i don't yet need)

the local corner shop/newsagent heroically had tissues and loo cleaner and beer when everywhere else was out but is now also shut, boo. so is the post office, and everything except the supermarket (maybe the butcher but he shuts early so I haven't been out at the right time of day for weeks)

there is another corner shop, further into the depths of the housing estates, but it never seemed to have anything stocked tbh, always seemed to have almost bare shelves and the proprietor glaring at me bleakly as I tried to find anything to spend a couple of quid on just to look like I wasn't wasting his time

now I've gone further back...

glad your bosses have yr back at least somewhat, jon - hope it stays that way
hope your kids are ok and thanks for fighting the good fight trying to keep your mom indoors, Cow_Art
and I'm glad your daughter's fever has gone down, Aimless, and hope she stays well

and all the best to all other ilxors too

Hospitals overwhelmed with patients has been the top news story for weeks now. While I have not actively sought out images I have not actively avoided images, either. And yet I've really not come across many images of the chaos, just pictures of worried doctors or recovering single patients or prep for makeshift spillover wards. Now, I know the news is real, and the horror is real, but at the same time am starting to see conspiracy theorists claiming there's either nothing or something nefarious going on in hospitals. From guys like that train conductor to, I don't know, lunatic actor James Woods, to just random crackpots and commentators. So is there footage being shown out there, on TV or someplace I'm not looking, or is are privacy laws preventing that stuff from being aired? Or does there just appear to be little chaos because they can only show one patient at a time, because there are of course cordoned off in their own rooms/areas? I guess it's a pretty difficult thing to capture in pictures.

Btw, I feel like there should be a, for lack of a better word, sillier covid thread. There's a lot of serious stuff on here, and there should be, but I feel terrible when I hear what everyone is going through and think people would enjoy videos of penguins let loose in the local aquarium but don't want to post them for fear of coming off inconsiderate.

Josh, I've thought about that too. I'm assuming that film crews are banned from hospitals and the doctors are too busy to worry about it.

Kids are better. Had to keep insisting to my mother that it doesn't mean they don't/didn't have it and she still needs to take things seriously. "Oh, it was just a stomach bug." No, no, no. Maybe, but no.

Weed definitely helps with restless legs. Slept right for the first time last night and it felt so good.

It doesn't help me at all. And as the bodies start piling up there is something deeply problematic about Everything Will be OK type slogans on every fucking 2nd window.

― calzino

well does it hurt you? what harm, exactly, do facile slogans like this _do_ to you?

I'm grumpy and seeing this type of twee drivel everywhere and compounded with the stupid fucking clapping every week (mostly from the Tory voting posher side of Town) it gets on my nerves. FP me if you feel I'm off topic or you don't like my opinions!

i mean that one seems particularly egregious. i can think of a few people for whom everything will *not* be ok after this.

well precisely, it's a horrible time and people are losing loved ones every day.

what Chuck D said about Don't worry, Be Happy!

Baseless optimism would seem a likely co-factor with less-than-optimal preventative behavior.

yes, don't be happy, worry

I can understand and sometimes appreciate the sentiment, but those sorts of signs do irk me, because, yeah, no, everything will not be OK. I'd rather just see pictures of flowers and rainbows rather than slogans and platitudes if I want to be cheered up. Exception: if people started putting "hang in there!" kitten posters everywhere.

My bf thinks he can go to the grocery store because we ran out of sliced ham. Little does he know the last two major shopping trips were specifically for the purpose of not going out again for 2-3 weeks. He can eat things out of cans, he'll be fine.

We both forgot he had an extra fridge in the garage that came with the house so now we have an upstairs fridge and a downstairs fridge, which is both deeply satisfying and also admittedly way, way too much. Because I seem to be financially stable for now, I've been making regular donations to food pantries, mutual aid projects, & decarceration efforts. It is, literally, the least I can do.

I am relying on ppl who go to the store weekly, at least (specifically the Pk Slope Food Co-op), because you're damn right I need some roast turkey slices. #CarnivorousPrivilege

I'm grumpy and seeing this type of twee drivel everywhere and compounded with the stupid fucking clapping every week (mostly from the Tory voting posher side of Town) it gets on my nerves. FP me if you feel I'm off topic or you don't like my opinions!

― calzino

not even close to fp'ing you, that's an honest and legitimate response and honestly i 100% agree with it. i'm a strong advocate of people feeling however they feel. anybody who feels it's important to guilt or shame people in this time, for whatever reason, is not helping.