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

lollll I live in SF and someone just posted to FB "poly peeps: how should we handle multiple relationships in the current context? what's the math on this?"

best wishes to your family, imago

just saw imago's post, so sorry to hear about that and best wishes for your family!

^^^

finally, someone has posted an answer to my questions upthread

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-what-does-social-distancing-mean/607927/

(not sarcasm, this does answer a fair amount of those questions)

hey PBKR

Wash your hands for 45 seconds, 1 second for every consecutive year the Flyers have gone without a Stanley Cup

— SinceFlyersLastCup (@SinceFlyersCup) March 12, 2020

(throws battery)

My partner gets medical hand sanitiser on prescription, usually more than he needs, so we are awash with the stuff. We’ve stuck a bottle just inside the front door. I might even eventually start remembering to use it.

I start rehearsals next week for a Eurovision-themed comedy musical, that we are putting on in Rotterdam in Eurovision week. So I am very aware of the deafening silence coming from the Netherlands. I’ll be amazed if we actually get to perform it.

Disneyland closed

Pornhub open

Goofy getting tested

14 local cases. Finally saw masks on all staff and most of the patrons of the local Chinese grocer. I felt embarassed that I didn't bring one (still sealed in a 5 pk at home). I tried not to breath on anybody...

I'm actually impressed by how quickly things seem to be cancelling or reducing. I think everyone knows the (federal) government is absolutely no help here, but the state governments seem to be appropriately aggressive (however belatedly!).

Cuomo basically told all the State governors "you're on your own, don't wait for help from the Federal government"

ty everyone, about time i checked on 'em again

my company had to evacuate it's San Juan office today as one of the employees was infected. one of my team members was over there and they put her back on an emergency flight. She wasn't in the same room with this person, to my knowledge, but they evacuated the building to sanitize it, they have closed it tomorrow, and when they return, for a period, they're having everybody work from home, and those who can't will be paid Emergency Pay.

for once....I'm thrilled with my company.

Disneyland is apparently paying its employees during the closure. I worry about my brother losing his gigs at Universal, as they pay most of his bills.

The feds are gonna need to bail out a lot of ppl financially tho. States cant do that

But yes I’m glad stat govs appear to be stepping up

Sorry, stupid phone

Maybe Bloomberg can just bail everyone out lol

xxxpost which is exactly why I feel so fuckin' miserable rn. I have little faith it will happen. and if it does, what, $600 to everybody? it won't cut it.

hoping sanity prevails. a lotta people will go under otherwise.

Just used my fancy new WFH app to log in to my work email and see if any decision had been made about closing the office...aaaaaaaaaand it would appear that our systems have completely shit the bed for about the fourth time this week and absolutely nothing is accessible remotely (or, presumably, locally). Huh. Well. Hmm.

Everyoen I know went to Golden Plains over the weekend (big 3 day hipster music fest out in the bush) and no one seemed wary. I guess I'll find out if 3/4 of Brunswick suddenly falls ill in a week's time.

Ha I spoke too soon, there was a confirmed case at the festival.

Was surprisingly able to stock up on a range of nonperishables at the store! TP, however, was completely gone. I think my gf is picking some up from her folks in the burbs tho.

out of TP, using Rand McNally maps instead

Idg the TP thing but then we order 48pks of recycled tp off the internet so not an issue for us anyway

shit yea

I think a better strategy is "shit no."

I just ordered a bidet attachment for $20.

my (public) school was shut down an hour ago. our district has a lot and lots of connections with biogen. there are a few presumptive cases in town –– family members of students – and the hysteria reached a fever pitch. two weeks minimum at home. I'm going to have to teach from my couch..

I went to the supermarket on the way home to get something for tea and bought some TP just because it was literally the last one in the shop and I don't have a whole lot left but am still mystified why people are doing this. And I'm Colonel Poo! If I don't know why, nobody does

Amazon is out of toilet paper. toilet paper holders, on the other hand.

Have a bad feeling any success from e-teaching is going to have fallout down the line.

students at most US colleges don't want it and wouldn't pay nearly as much for it

and public K-12 schools won't offer it at all because of equity issues

I have a conversation class hosted by someone who is >70 tomorrow evening and thinking I should prob cancel just in case, but if they are less panicked than me then maybe my cancellation will seem weird, or induce panic that I may be definitely ill and therefore already have infected them, or just annoy the teacher who won't get paid? Eh.

Probably the right thing to do but will need phrasing carefully - in an sms-sized chunk of not-my-1st-language, yay!

also the bf thinks I'm overreacting (which is fair, I'm a worrywort/hypochondriac) so if I stay home I'll need to tell him an excuse that definitely doesn't involve me cancelling

OTM Silby/Milo. But also, I've DEFINITELY taken great online classes. However, they are engineered from the ground up to foster digital engagement, not just videos that's transferred to Blackboard or Canvas or Moodle, and have discussion boards monitored by a disinterested TA.

However, teaching scared little guys is a different issue. I've got preadolescent children to think about. I'm going to try to provide consistency and emotional stability. Some nominal objectives, but mostly just a sense of community. It's gonna be rough.

News from the front: Whole Foods I stopped at this afternoon looked ravaged for the first time and the shoppers generally looked shook. Pasta aisle was almost completely picked through except for some of the specialty/high-end brands. I had bought $300 of shelf stable stuff (pasta, rice beans, lentils, etc) three weeks ago but you can't help pick up some vibes from the herd.

I just want to wish the best to all ilxors; let's be good to each other over the next couple weeks.

the large department store I went to today was out of toilet paper, most bags of dried beans/rice, and all sanitizer & alcohol.

here we go.

oh and no digital thermometer, of course

My mom (71) just emailed to tell me she and my aunt are going on a Viking river cruise in October, up the Danube to Prague. "Viking has cancelled all cruises in Europe this month and next. Those travellers are pushing into autumn so I needed to jump in."

xps: TP isn't a high margin item for grocers/discount stores, certainly not by volumes required. Sensibly, most stock more days of supply of canned goods etc than of TP. A not-so-great uptick in demand from those stocking up to self-quarantine, and TP is among the first things to disappear; that starts an entirely different sort of consumer demand fed by scarcity value. Hear about TP being out of stock in Sydney, Australia, and some will race to their Costco. Costco out of TP? There must be some sense to stocking up at the grocer.

We've witnessed similar runs with gasoline before hurricanes. If everyone filled their tanks at once, the stations would be out of fuel for about a week...

I got TP at the gas station

Ah, white people:

https://apple.news/AeYT3Z5mdTYis0-6Ml8TbFg

formula 1 grand prix in melbourne just got cancelled. our local park gets disrupted massively for this thing, and suddenly it’s off (they definitely made the right decision though).

Mandatory telework day tomorrow for everyone. This is as close to a serious COOP exercise as we’ve ever done in my 13 years working at this (very COOP-wary) agency.

Almost all the chicken, rice and pasta is sold out at local grocers, plus the other stuff people have already talked about to death. Funny to see what’s left - you could go for the Jordan Peterson 🍖 🥩 🥓 diet, easily. And anything organic, that shit costs too much to hoard, apparently.

I went to a local pizzeria for lunch and the three people in the front of the house (bartender, self, other customer) had a short rap session about mortality and how silly it is to take extreme measures to avoid death when you could get hit by a truck crossing the street

I was loling at the stuff left at TJ’s today — people turned up their noses at the fully stocked freezer of frozen carrot spirals and the only canned tomatoes left wee the ones w green chiles, of which there was an entire shelf.

I had some quality lols w students, fellow shoppers, and store clerks today. School finally announced a plan, I’m willing to admit that I’m going to miss being around people.

Might be time for me to be growing more food than I do now.

My face let me touch it