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

I mean, any partner left at home to handle all of that full-time is a non-starter, but yeah. It just feels like even the companies that started this thing out being really flexible and helpful have changed their tunes. Several friends have shared emails that are variations on the theme between the lines of, "yes we are giving more work for you to do, but be happy you even have a job".

covid is a bummer

trickle down covidnomics

With multiple disclaimers along the lines of "So glad I don't work on a ward/in a care home etc", I'm a bit sick of this idea that "We need to return to work" (I haven't stopped working, albeit from home, but in a way that is more knackering than ever) and I really just want to *touch people*.

Well, still waiting for unemployment to go through.

My friend, who is younger than me (I'm 39), has stage 4 inoperable colon cancer.

Last week, a beloved member of the theatre community, my brother's friend, died of heart issues. Mid 30s.

Another theatre acquaintance with substance abuse issues killed himself last month. Also 30s.

My friend's 19 year old son died in a one car crash two months ago.

FUCK THIS MOTHERFUCKING YEAR. people are dropping like flies. And this one is one I finally can't hide from. He's a good friend I've known about 10 years. Started crying at work.

He has days, years, months, I don't know.

In typical me fashion, trying to pretend nothing's wrong. I don't like crying in front of people.

fuck man, I'm sorry

I'm so sorry Neanderthal.

Thx :(

These are rough times for all. Stay safe and healthy please everyone.

good vibes to you mister.

So sorry to hear that, man.

My friend, who is younger than me (I'm 39), has stage 4 inoperable colon cancer.

here in this boat with you neanderthal, except my friend is my age. <3

he's taking it relatively ok, despite learning that he had an abdominal CT eight years ago at another facility featuring a spot on his liver that his current docs said should have been noticed and investigated years ago, and may have prevented this.

hoping I can zoom with or hang out with dude somehow in the next month or so. I did have another friend who was terminally ill over ten years ago and he's still around (idk if it was a misdiagnosis or remission or what). so here's hoping.

Sorry to hear that, Neanderthal.

Yeah Neanderthal, sending love.

my parents have swung back around to "the media has overhyped this, it isn't a big deal, the hospitals are empty" and it is very concerning

we were warned ahead of time that if distancing measures worked we'd be accused of overreacting but still there are over 74,000 american deaths from covid-19 last i checked so "overhyped" seems like a bizarre takeaway either way (i've seen "friends" on fb arguing the same)

yes, over 2k people dying a day doesn't seem like 'overhyped' but perhaps society has moved the goalposts now so that if we don't see bodies falling dead in the streets then we're doing ok.

most of those people vote

i'm not sure what the practical consequence is of that fact, but it would seem, in any analysis, to be a net negative for the republicans

someone said in one of these threads the other day something close to "apparently a 9/11 every day is no big deal" and I keep thinking about that and being mad about how the terrorists won

I think a lot of people either don't believe the numbers or live somewhere that hasn't yet been hit as badly so they think they are untouchable

Ah not believing the numbers of dead, I certainly have no awful associations with that phenomenon

There's no coincidence there, it's just replacing one genocide with another

I think we need an ACT UP for COVID, w/ ppl throwing blood on the White House fence

of course they would be shot on sight

https://i1.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/1486cbCOMIC-trump-on-protesting.jpg?fit=600%2C896&ssl=1

say what you will about 9/11 but it was no annual flu

Wrong thread for Trump shite.

I'm getting a COVID test as a precaution just cuz I'm living with my folks.

My mom's was negative.

what better way to honor plague-ridden new yorkers than with . . . low-flying commercial aircraft

Tonight, at 7 P.M. three @JetBlue aircrafts will conduct a flyover over Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx to salute frontline first responders & health care workers. The aircrafts will fly at approximately 2,000 ft. Please follow social distancing guidelines if viewing in public. pic.twitter.com/YdDdq37p4z

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) May 7, 2020

that is insane

dad went to the bathroom by himself today. wasn't intentional, we still spot him. my mother went to the store without warning me while I was working in the other room, so he got up on his own, and suddenly I saw him standing outside my door. walked behind him to make sure he got in but he barely needed me. walked, sat, pulled his pants down, peed by himself, redressed himself, got up on his own power. even asked "what's on the agenda for today?" yesterday, which is positively Shakespearean for him.

glad to see he's getting better. soon I won't be needed here anymore but I'm wondering if it might be better for me to stay here a while. my mental health has been better here than in my own place.

who the fuck would go outside to look at the jetblue 2000 feet overhead? what? what???

After the saga of the CDs I ordered turning up 3 weeks later and the postman not bothering to ring a doorbell and posting a non-delivery slip claiming I wasn't at home, forcing me to get them delivered to the horrible post office in Seven Sisters Road where I got into a stand-up argument with the guy behind the counter, all of this after I'd cancelled the order and got a refund, I ordered something online again on Wednesday. Amazingly, although I'd ordered this item at quarter to five on Wednesday, it was delivered the next morning - except it wasn't because the postman didn't bother to ring a doorbell and posted a non-delivery slip claiming I wasn't at home. So, having checked online to see if my local delivery office was open the following day - and it was, from 7am to 9am - I got up extra early to walk down there, only to find it shut, because it's a Bank Holiday Weekend, hooray! So do I risk schlepping down to the delivery office on Monday, given that the Royal Mail website doesn't tell you if there's a bank holiday on or not, or do I wait till Tuesday? Minor stuff, in the grand scheme of things, but irritating. Probably best not to order anything online for the foreseeable.

your postman is an idiot - in what world are people not at home as much as possible right now?

Go on Tuesday! You can wait an extra day for 3rd-level Krautrock or whatever it is, Monday will be dismally overcrowded everywhere. Are you sure you're doorbell's working, btw?

(xp) Yes, that's what I don't get, unless they're under instruction not to ring doorbells or deal with people face to face - which I could understand.

If there are too many packages for a postie to carry on rounds, they post a card through but they just use the standard ‘we called but you were out’ instead of making one specific to the ‘we didn’t bring them along’ situation. Enraging, I know, but because I have to attend Mount Pleasant sorting office for my parcels, I got a decent explanation.

Ah right, that could be it. Having seen a programme once on the pressure they're put on to do their rounds on time I'm generally sympathetic to posties.

Do they not have trucks??

Tricycles iirc

Pish and tosh! Join the 21st century!

https://secure.i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00679/Postman_with_mail_t_679417c.jpg

I think I need to clarify to @Telegraph readers, who may have seen the truncated headline, that the full quote is .... "I've been having cocktails parties on Zoom" ... really, matron!! #carryonisolation pic.twitter.com/1bx9dPw34Z

— Elaine Paige (@elaine_paige) May 7, 2020

a constant throughout this: my parents are both exposed to sick people regularly, and as a result have a plausible brush with coronavirus at least twice a week; nothing has turned up positive but I can't tell you the number of times I've been very worried because, say, my mother had bad allergies and was coughing on the phone, or my father has a non-COVID-related procedure but shrugs off the fact that the doctor was mysteriously ill for two weeks or so. (or maybe it wasn't allergies, who knows?)

i'm the same any time my dad coughs or my mom talks about a sore throat (tho she's confirmed negative).

getting my test now!

ugh I hate nasal swabs but glad it's done. went to Publix, lots of people with no masks, not following arrows, not distancing, so I got mad and wrote a pretty angry FB post about the collective ignorance of people who deliberately don't wear masks and put people at risk.

of course, of fucking COURSE, after I pointed out I wasn't talking about individual cases, but collective behavior, one of my best friends, whom I consider family, and has taken it seriously (but I guess didn't wear a mask at Publix today) snapped and took offense and got really angry at me.

on the one hand, fighting with one of my best friends isn't what I wanted to do this morning, on the other, why the fuck weren't you wearing a mask, and why were you assuming I was talking about you personally?

so now I'm worked up again, yay. glad I just bought Duvel!

I've had to hide friends that I used to respect on facebook for sharing bug-shit conspiracy theories.

I am currently reduced to day-drinking due to teaching my 5 year-old how to write the letter P. My wife is working from home and kids camps are cancelled until July so I'm the childcare with my broken leg. While I keep reminding myself how lucky I am, I'm getting deeply burnt out. Wish I could fucking go for a walk.

friend had the gall to say I'M an angry person and defend all of the hypothetical people in my example. I mean, he's not wrong about me being angry, but this is a dude who was going to a therapist for anger management, and seems to always think making content-free, inoffensive statements is better than actual directed vitriol.

so now i'm angry and not talking to dude for managing to make my attempt at venting all about him and his feewings. fuuuuuuuuuck everybody's going nuts.

I went to the store today and the most infuriating move is two middle aged white guts standing 1.5m apart diagonally across a supermarket aisle, thus blocking passage for everyone else. TBF everyone else has given up distancing and no one his doing masks here so it's somewhat academic. Case load is low here but opening up is going to cause an explosion of cases if people don't keep up on their hygiene. I can't imagine anyone who is ignoring this distancing rules is paying much attention to washing their hands.

Par for the course in London, Ed, and has been all along.

on thursday a woman stood on one side of the aisle and her trolley blocked the whole rest of the aisle for no reason. i stood and waited patiently for 20 seconds, then kicked her trolley up the aisle. fuck everyone like this.