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

Yeah amazing

Tracer, have recent developments in the UK made you reconsider your possible visit to parents, or made you think of it as more urgent?

I decided to wait till August but now I'm thinking that by then we might be back in lockdown.

They have decided they don't want me to come. I think the rising numbers are spooking them. In my heart of hearts I think it's the wrong decision, because 1) I think it's likely I'll be less immune at Christmas, so would need to quarantine between landing and seeing them (??) 2) that we might be in a big second wave by then, so it would be impossible anyway and 3) that if I wait til next spring I'll be even less immune, making a 2-week quarantine pretty much mandatory. So I'd be travelling across the country for ~3 weeks, only 1 of which I'd actually get to spend with them.

I think we could have safely avoided all that nonsense by me just visiting now. But my dad is in his 80s, and had a massive heart operation 2 years ago. Numbers in Tennessee are rising. So it feels too risky to him.

That's a shame, but yeah, can understand your father being reticent in his situation.

Swinging back to more mundane COVID fallout, anyone have any recent experience with shipping or receiving things shipped via USPS media mail?

Had something shipped out on June 3rd that completely stopped updating on June 7th and is still "In Transit to Next Facility" as of today. Trying to figure out whether this is worth an email to USPS, or if this is pretty much in line with what others are still seeing.

I'd do it; had a similar issue myself a few weeks ago.

the sushi wasteland from f. hazel and Alfred: bravo bravo bravo. snorted smoothie through my nose.

i don't know my eliot well enough to intelligently comment but it sure looks like hazel came hard there

xp -- it may just be at the post office, that's happened to me before

My media mail orders from the last couple months have been a day or two late.

I haven't noticed any delays mailing and shipping, except a handful of packages that went through Chicago during the first week of protests.

Went through Chicago via UPS. USPS didn't have any issues.

Well I made a "where's my package" request through USPS, we'll see what they come back with. I am just outside of Chicago and this would have been the tail end of that first week of protests, so maybe that might be the issue.

I had a nice slow media mail shipment arrive yesterday that I ordered 6/9

i ordered usagi yojimbo saga vol 6 in early april and just got word this week that the publisher is out of stock. okay. lowest price i can find on ebay is about $70.

would a digital copy get you set?

I ordered 6/9

Didn't know one could get that by mail!

good idea ulysses but no :(

xpot lol YMP

I’ve only had one issue with a package being stuck in transit for over a week. It was a yarn club, and the seller posted pictures on Instagram. It turns out there’s at least a few of us in this situation so she contacted the Post Office. They said there’s nothing they can do, but it was nice of her to look into it.

I had ordered from her last month, and everything went fine!

I ordered some dumbbells about six weeks ago and they never arrived. The tracking number showed they had been delivered somewhere in HI in February (I'm in NY). I cancelled the order and received a refund. Then they showed up about two weeks ago (four weeks late).

Wow. Apparently the USPS is even worse shape than I'd imagined, this was the response I received:

After investigating the service request this parcel is still in transit. I currently have over 50 customers who have been waiting for package well over 45 days. We are understaffed and transportation is limited across the the country. We are doing our best to get all shipments delivered as soon as possible. Please continue to patient with us and the parcel will be delivered as soon as it arrives at (your local) facility.

I have acquired a new mask. (Prior to this I was wearing a black bandana across my face, antifa supersoldier style.) It's one of those that has a little pouch that you tuck a filter into; the seller sent me about 30 filters, so I should be good for a while.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbdVwA-XQAA78fJ.jpg

I haven't had any mail disruptions lately. A month or so ago, though, I had several packages that wound up sitting in distribution centers for weeks at a time (one of which, when it finally arrived, looked like it had been jammed up someone's ass just before that unfortunate individual was hit by a train and dragged for several miles).

I got word last week that I’d be working from home until September at the earliest, and now an email suggesting that since I can do my job entirely from home I’ll probably not be back in until next January. And then who knows.

my company just changed their WFH policy to basically allow you to do it whenever you like, indefinitely. That's pretty nice. It doesn't look like having everyone abruptly work from home has caused any disruptions or loss of productivity whatsoever.

my wife's job on the other hand is making her go back Monday, 2 weeks on then 4 weeks WFH. it's really dumb. there are no in person meetings or anything.

does her job require someone to actually keep the doors open or something?

We were just told this week that it will be Labor Day before they even weigh the option of reopening our office and that, even when/if they do reopen, on-site attendance will be strictly voluntary for some time to come. I mean, doy, everyone has continued working from home without much of a hitch so why not, but it's still pleasantly surprising that my workplace is being sensible about this.

as far as I know I'm working from home at least for the next month or so; part of me likes this, part of me knows that's just because I have the apartment to myself

The word on the grapevine at my work is that we're basically working from home til this is over and that's expected not to be any time this year or next.

Celebs with shit WiFi, a list:
Judy Dench
Heston Blumenthal

(Both have been on broadcast TV lately looking like CDROM quality video. Heston's would've been better if he hadn't been jumping around)

Current plan to square the circle re: staying safe yet helping the struggling restaurant industry in the UK for me is to start picking up more delivery from places that have opened but not dine in. Is this a good idea?

Definitely!

don't forget to add a tiny dash of bleach to each dish just to be on the safe side, though

^ chlorinated chicken tikka

flash chicken madras

I’m in line to get tested. Went to bed early last night, chills but no fever last night, gastric symptoms, no cough till this morning. Generally weak and lethargic. Doc says probably just a gastric virus but get tested and isolate till the results come back.

good luck. other illnesses are less like playing Russian roulette with your future health.

I just learned what my local alma matter plans to do with reopening, and it sounds like such a PIA. Semester starts mid-September then ends with Thanksgiving, only freshmen get guaranteed housing, only single rooms, 40% occupancy dorms, no parties, plus I assume the usual masks, etc. And pretty sure no discounts on tuition.

I am so annoyed at the discussion surrounding college campuses because they always focus the discussion around traditional/residential students as if that's what ALL COLLEGE STUDENTS are. The country is teeming with commuter students, nontraditional students, and people for whom there is an entirely different calculus wrt "college." (I work at one of these places) It's like we and our students don't exist. Uncool!!

That's why my uni's doing better (so far) than the others in Florida. Our "traditional" footprint is minimal.

well residential students are what are going to make the universities into Covid factories

if you widen your focus to university education globally rather than just the USA, then residential education is a tiny part of the story. It just happens to include the wealthiest universities in the world (for the moment).

idk whether I have more anxiety over the fact that we have a government who is literally just abandoning its civilians and small businesses or the fact that I seriously have doubts that our lives will ever be the same again.

the fact that another relief bill is not even being debated on the floor yet, much less signed and on the President's desk is malpractice. and it's all Trump/McConnell.

my mother's unemployment resumed for a week two weeks ago, stopped again out of nowhere. have now given her $3,000 to help her pay bills due to the failure of FL DEO, and some on twitter are starting to say their cars have been repoed, relying on food banks to feed their families, and they're facing immediate eviction proceedings as soon as the moratorium is lifted in August. We're doing this to our own fucking people.

also my dad needs swallowing therapy now, and I was the one who foolishly kept telling mom it was probably nothing. if not for her diligence in making him go to the doctor, he could have gotten aspirational pneumonia.

shit is straining me. s/o is comfortable going anywhere anytime as long as masked and equipped with hand sanitizer. i’m like “nowhere is safe “bunker mentality :/

by anywhere I mean like Target

I still go to Target tbh

Same. Target, grocery, take out food. I'm good with that, and not much more.

yeah I mean, I’m down, it’s just that if I there’s something I want I’m inclined to wait as long as possible and just get everything at once. or just get it online. just feel uncomfortable with the spontaneous trips