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

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.

everybody just be good to each other! (that includes being good not just verbally but by STAYING HOME!)

I’ve been going to my queue-free little Waitrose and M&S food in Holborn at around 5pm most days to replenish things like milk/butter/tea and swinging by the quite copious reductions section for small victories in the ready-meals and baked goods departments. Lots of £1 packets of prawns too, and a Colin Caterpillar cake for my neighbour’s little girl.

Left my house for maybe the second time in 7 days today - went to the post office (30-40 minutes in line), the dollar store to pick up sodas, and the Colombian bakery to pick up lunch (empanadas and chorizo). The guy in front of me in line at the dollar store was wearing a surgical mask, blue latex gloves...and flip-flops.

i have had to go to the store weekly, simply bc it's impossible to bring more than a week's worth of groceries home with me in my tote bags

We simply do not have the storage space for a month of food for four people and two cats.

i need sardines dammit

I haven't been out of the apartment in 3.5 weeks. My wife goes to the grocery store for the five of us every 3 days. We'd be able to go less often if necessary, but this seems to us a reasonable way to keep eating not so differently than before, while also putting minimal risk on others.

Encouraging people to do what they can to mitigate for the best possible outcomes, great.

But "Everything will be fine" reminds me of the book that Barbara Ehrenreich wrote about the sunny cheerleading (largely corporate) culture around breast cancer. She's had bc, so she's not a fan.

There is a covid noise thread btw COVID-77

i can't begrudge the rainbows. they're mainly up for the kids to spot on their walks and round here they just say "stay safe". kids need signs of other kid life imo.

I don't often shop at Whole Foods, but if I was gonna stock up for the week I wanted a couple of indulgences (cheeses and better wine). Their obsession with hygiene impressed me. I waited in line 20 minutes but no one was upset. I get now those stories from Cuban friends who waited hours in bread and meat lines in the '90s ("What else did we have to do?").

i can only stock up a week at a time because I share the house with another person who isn't home at the same time as me, and it's his house so I can't take over his own fridge.

we could coordinate food buying but I tend to eat everything in the fridge so......

i have a mask for my trips now tho

i have a mask for my trips now tho

I wear a black bandanna, antifa supersoldier style.

There was a guy waiting in line outside the grocery store I was at wearing paintball gear.

Can't find yeast easily. Seems everybody's home baking.

Can't walk around a supermarket and expect any level of social distancing.

Had a manager nearly walk in to me today.

& I wish they'd stop leaving restack trolleys standing in the middle of aisles cos it becomes even more impossible to try to keep social distancing. Especially since everybody seems to be pushing or pulling a wheeled basket or shopping trolley and frequently leaving them while they go to get things from shelves.

pretty sure my dad Has It, and i've been sick for the last three days. no fever, though (running quite low, weirdly), and no cough or SOB

my attempt at bread has been abysmal, might just go back to pasta

I got a lidl bread machine which about works. Not used it in a while.

I'm sorry, gbx. How's your dad doing?

gbx, my temp has been weirdly low too - i don’t know what to make of it

Best wishes for your dad

yeah hope that you all pull through ok.

My kid has drawn a few rainbows for our windows because it made her happy and had the added bonus of keeping her busy for 10 minutes.

i can't even count the # of people on my social feeds making bread.

Now seems like a good time to repost my calf tattoos, done in Liverpool at Hollow Crown Tattoo on Allerton Road (about 2 yrs ago)#KeepYourHeadUp #HangInThere pic.twitter.com/94c9hhpwD2

— Carla Valentine (@CValentineUK) April 4, 2020

Kids like to draw cute stuff

..and spread deadly respiratory system diseases!

Every time I think that the numbers are starting to look good for Australia there’s a news story about some arseholes breaking quarantine or a hospital fucking up infection control procedures.

hard to know whether they’re extreme outliers, but yeah, in principle i really think we can’t be trusted, and the country will need to go to stage 4 just so people fucking behave themselves

i’m sure my neighbour is still having people over

i haven't been outside much but the only rainbow type thing i saw was some weird "thank you to the heroes" sign made by the people with the "SLOW DOWN" plastic kids sticking out onto the road

Went out for delivery the fifth today. Poor guy is cooped up at home with an oxygen tank. I'd be fucking terrified to do anything, including asking strangers for help!

Jealous of all y'all who can manage a week or more without going out. I have a tiny apartment and no car, so I have to go out at least every 2 days to re-stock on things, do laundry, etc. Every time I go out I put on gloves and tie a shirt around my face and it still feels insanely risky. And then I see people in the neighborhood strolling around more or less normal-like and I have to wonder what they're thinking.

I suppose I can use delivery services more, but they make me feel icky, like some entitled jerk. I reckon this has been discussed already.

Finally did it.

Got Trapt to get angry and clapback at me on Twitter.

Posted by a journalist friend of mine:

Today I spent four hours inside Rush Hospital's ER and ICU units for a story that'll run next week in the Wash Post. I won't go into what the story is about, but I thought I'd post a handful of snaps I took to give friends a sense of what it looks like on the inside. Rush was very impressive; the facility is one of a few in the U.S. built post-9/11 for a biohazard attack. The technology is amazing. I walked away sobered by the nurses and doctors who are now working 12-hour shifts. Such a cliche, but they really are modest heroes. One nurse told me she now has little time to see her three-year-old; many start their day meditating together on-site to face a day that is inevitably full of hardship. I also spent time with the city's public health commissioner, which gave me context into this current, and pointless, struggle between cities like Chicago and the federal government. A Post videographer joined me, so lots to share next week. But in the meantime, I'll fill in some captions to help give context to what I witnessed.

I don't know how to link his post, but his name is Mark Guarino.

signs that people are losing their minds: helen zaltzman, host of ‘the allusionist’ podcast, has spent the entirety of the newest episode reading the names of every winner of a dog show since 1907

xp to get a permalink to a facebook post, click on the timestamp

My friend's elevated temp is back and sore throat, 3 weeks later. Wtf.

Can't get tested to know if she had it unless she gets tested at a non-Virginia Department of Health facility, which makes it not free.

And supposed to be moving back like...in a few days.

Friend DOES sometimes imagine psychosomatic symptoms but temps don't lie.

Could also be something bacterial that needs like a ZPAK to finish it off and she'll never know cos they'll try to dump her to the ER if she goes to regular doc.

Completely different friend in FL had flu-like symptoms and very elevated blood pressure. Wanted to be seen, esp for the blood pressure and aches, doctor refused, advised him they couldn't see people with COVID symptoms, and referred him to go to the ER. He didn't want to because of fear of transmitting COVID or if he didn't have it, catching it at the hospital. Took him several calls of begging to be prescribed Blood Pressure meds.

This is so stupid

5 yr old's stomach was crampy again tonight but no more puking.

10 yr old has an elevated temp but not quite a fever.

Normal kid stuff, really. They're probably fine! But it's hard not to get panicky about these things now. Sometimes I think about how much we can restrict contact with a 5 year old. You can't. We don't kiss on the face, but I know she's going to forget and come at me. And it seems that we're going to get it if the kids have it no matter what.

Tonight I dreamt that as I was sleeping, our boston-terrier who died a year ago jumped up into the bed and I started petting her while half asleep. This is all hyper realistic, the perspective of my dream is exactly what I would be looking at as I woke up. I'm touching her a few seconds when I remember that she had died and I realize it's not her. I become more alert and try to look at what it is but it's dark and there's a shifting black and white shape that I'm petting. I get a feeling of dread and it becomes more cat-like but blurred. It's something that doesn't belong and I was getting really scared but couldn't pull my hand away.

After awaking I had to check that there was nothing there. A phrase from Twin Peaks, "It's in our house," ran through my head. Started thinking about kids and family and what-if stuff and now i'm drinking wine and eating cheez-its at 2am.

I’m quite certain now I didn’t contract covid-19 before I stopped making non-grocery-store excursions (been four weeks), and my own appraisal of the risk of contracting it at the grocery store is seems unlikely unless I’m actually coughed on. Not that there’s zero risk but it’s substantially lower than it is for anyone who has to work at the grocery store.

The trouble with sunbathing is the way it involves approaching people rapidly from behind while exhaling forcefully.

Sorry (mostly n00b) run and jog fans but you're in motion so fucking do some lateral movement if someone is strolling ahead of you.

Also people saying they have no trouble staying in for weeks and only have a "small garden" can fuck entirely off.

#parklife #discourse