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

People are up at the crack of dawn to add 12 further rolls of toilet paper to the 64 they already have.

It's fascinating to me how the supermarkets have been utterly denuded but the local shops have everything - toilet roll, rice, bread, etc. A woman in front of me at the cornershop yesterday was like 'now everybody's got to use the local shops - like they should have been doing anyway!' and I'm like go off king

suggests it's a car problem - if people have cars there's a temptation to load them right up

yes my Big Saturday Shop™ was limited by wheezy old me hauling the fkn shopping bags on foot, so i will have to go out again and get a bunch of smaller back-up stuff

otoh cars are great for social distancing, maybe supermarkets will just eveolve into drive thru bog rog roll depots

One thing noticed yesterday at Tesco - there was a queue of about 25 people for self-checkout, while there were still cashiers free.

Yes this is a very good time to be using local shops, still loads of pasta, rice, painkillers in the standard Food & Wine type shop down the road from me. We have a butcher and a fishmonger and a few other things within walking distance as well which is hopefully going to be better than relying on the supermarkets as well.

The delivery system is really fucked though, they're going to have to find some way of getting deliveries to over 70s as priority rather than letting all the slots be taken up with panic-buyers.

there are groups organising like this - https://covidmutualaid.org/local-groups/ - but, incredibly imo, it's all on fkn facebook

I, or my neighbours, will die in a ditch because I’m not on fkn facebook.

My supervisor said I should stay home and wait for the phone delivery that would enable remote work login.

Talked my sister off the ledge re my survival here last night. Just got a message from my best friend encouraging me to go live with sis in CT. :/

I can't stand this.

xp our local fb groups are coordinating people to go out and put flyers through letterboxes offering aid & with phone numbers.

Sending best wishes and strength morbs

DC-area Metrobus has reduced itself to "Saturday Supplemental" service on weekdays for now.

I had a dentist's appointment for Tuesday morning, but the office just announced that they are closing for at least the next two weeks.

One thing noticed yesterday at Tesco - there was a queue of about 25 people for self-checkout, while there were still cashiers free.

Bit weird given all the prodding of those touchscreens that self-checkout involves.

perhaps I now appreciate why my bf was annoyed at me worrying at the weekend (which felt unfair as I felt like I was recently walking on eggshells re certain things he gets anxious about and then when I'm anxious I just get told I'm overreacting and to stop complaining), since I am in the office and a coworker has spent all morning monologuing eeyorishly about how bad things are/will get, and a wave of doom has settled upon me

it's not that she's wrong in any of her assessments, it's just the added layers of despair which are now crushing my poor defeated brain, ho hum

No fewer than three people I know in TO have told me "a reliable source" informs me the city is about to "shut down", whatever precisely that means. Very strange.

There is a Fairway supermarket in the upper west side that always has a long ass line winding through the store to use the self check outs, but the staffed registers have maybe 2 people in line. I think people just see the line and get in it.

I guess you can control what you touch at self-check-in, then wash your hands - a cashier otoh will touch all of your shopping.

I never use self-checkout, in the spirit of "I don't fucking work here"

my man

I phoned my parents last night and felt a bit better that they are at least taking things seriously, cutting down on social activities and considering the risks to them and to more vulnerable attendees. some will say they should lock down more but there's a tradeoff and maybe in the end preserving some chipper-ness and quality of life is as important as taking every last fallible measure to keep it at the door

(totally patronising paragraph considering that out of a) staying as safe as possible in the circumstances vs b) staying as sane and cheerful as possible in the circumstances, it has to be said I'm falling well short of either)

I had thought they were safer there than my area might be and had worried about bringing germs to them, but the family 2 doors down have something bad and flu-like but couldn't get tested even though the daughter goes to school in an area with a known outbreak. fingers crossed for the family, but also worrying how long/strictly people who haven't been formally diagnosed will quarantine themselves once symptoms reduce...

I don't use the self check out because people have meltdowns in front of them and I don't like that.

(xp, sorry for monologuing to myself here after complaining about my colleague's monologue, ha)

meanwhile the o/h's dad + his new wife are still planning to go ahead with trips to Europe over the next few months, which seems... not great? the ferry for trip #1 was cancelled because it would've gone on from France to Spain and Spain isn't accepting ferries - so he just rebooked a different one even though we told him France was going into lockdown too and maybe he should leave it and claim on the insurance!

<grumbling about the generation which can afford to go on holiday constantly not wanting to be kept from its constant holidaying> <ok, not fair, stop it spacecadet>

I can't use the self checkout at Target because those cameras make me look like a cadaver

No, under the circumstances that's very fair!

A bit of 'levity':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcr83km7m5U

lol the joys of working from home... trying to set up a call with multiple colleagues, one said he'd call us using teams, the other said teams didn't work on his laptop so could we use skype, to which a third said the same about skype, so how about we do the call on whatsapp

I'm already dreading negotiating the VPN at home, especially as my internet connection fluctuates in speed a lot

done a big shop at the local cornerstore. if there's one thing I went a bit ham on it wasn't toilet paper, it was Oreos

Very glad I'm on fibre optic cable rather than some flaky DSL connection.

Also utterly blessed in having a back garden as spring arrives.

I think it's fair to predict that most cities will "shutdown," since that's what's happening. But shutdown does not mean everyone is locked in their houses. Restaurants are closed for eating in, but many or most are open for take-out, drive-through or delivery. Libraries and gyms and the like are (or should be) closed, but you can still go outside. In fact, I highly recommend, especially as the weather gets better, at the very least going for walks. You will see other people doing the same, kids playing in their front yards, people riding bikes, walking dogs, doing work. It's good for the brain to be reminded that you're not alone, and that life might be weird but goes on, at least in some form. And it feels good to get some sun on your face, too.

Things I would *not* do right now include traveling, especially to other countries, not because it is not safe, necessarily, but because I think the likelihood of getting stuck there is very high. And speaking of the gym, I know a couple of people that have continued going, but I have a feeling the right decision will be made for them imminently.

Heard Pennsylvania state liquor stores are closing, btw. That seems bad.

Talked to a friend yesterday, and she told me her sister, a nurse at the closest hospital, is already seeing an influx of infected patients. Oh, and had a great talk with my mom, who I have been speaking with daily. She's old enough to remember the "Asian flu" of 1957, which she (and a bazillion people) got, and which kept her home from school for a few days with what she remembers was the worse runny nose she's ever had. (I guess she was around ... 12 or so?). But she also told me about the flu pandemic of 1968, which she remembers inspiring more panic, because lines of communication were already much better by then. That late '60s outbreak she recalls is the one that eventually got everybody congregating in gyms for mandatory shots. Fwiw, it killed an estimated 1 million people worldwide, 100,000k in America. Sounds bad and is not good, but only bringing that up because despite that I don't think I've ever heard anyone say anything about the 1968 pandemic, ever. These things happen and these things eventually pass.

the other said teams didn't work on his laptop so could we use skype

been lots of problems with teams today:

https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/16/microsoft-teams-struggles-as-coronavirus-pushes-millions-to-work-from-home/

I've got a head temperature of 96.0 which according to google may be a sign of hypothermia! I've proven the thermometer by testing it on my son who is a very normal 98.4. Although an ear reading was up to 96.8 - maybe I'm not going to die just yet and just am an abnormally cold blooded mofo!

lol I think I did read something about average temperatures trending down, for some reason.

I've been taking my temperature daily (and read the same thing), which is probably a stupid thing to do--the very definition of looking for an excuse to panic.

I went to the large grocery store to see if they got back in stock one of our must items (they didn't) and it seems that people are finally hoarding here. It's Monday morning and I have never seen it that busy or the shelves so empty. I felt obligated to get a 4 pack of toilet paper.

the other said teams didn't work on his laptop so could we use skype

been lots of problems with teams today:

https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/16/microsoft-teams-struggles-as-coronavirus-pushes-millions-to-work-from-home/

― ymo sumac (NickB), Monday, March 16, 2020 9:18 AM (forty minutes ago)

Also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_cImRzKXOs

the website that our kids are supposed today, by the Académie de Paris, is overloaded and not loading for anyone. it's fine, give everyone a week to figure things out, slow down, we're really not in a hurry w/ this whole online school thing.

my forehead temperature is apparently under 35 so the forehead strip thermometer I bought which starts at 36 is no use.

(is this bad? it's been the case for both me and the bf for 10 days and we feel fine, more or less. we are middle-aged and the internet does note that your forehead temperature decreases with age, though the articles are mainly about elderly people, which we would like to insist we are not!)

I've started using a general-purpose IR thermometer on forehead and back of throat every day or two, since I figure all I can do is check it's staying level, but if it does go up by a few degrees then I'll still only have a "normal" temperature, so hopefully I won't need to urgently convince any medical professionals that I have a fever at that point

I should add that my oldest daughter, in classe préparatoire, has had online classes since 8h this morning, but her teachers are using zoom rather than something proprietary.

fuck, that video is intense. i guess we're going in.

The management of my office building just closed the fitness center until further notice. My only issue is that I lugged my exercise clothes in on the bus today (and I won't be seeing Nick, but I tell myself I'm probably better off without him). Oh, well.

Considering treating myself to a restaurant meal (dine-in) on the assumption that any places that haven't yet pivoted to take-out only will do so in the near future. And near where I live there's a German place that gets so little visible traffic that I sometimes wonder how they survive. I wouldn't be surprised if it or other little neighborhood businesses don't survive the pandemic.

Also wondering what happens to bandwidth when kids start distance learning.

There were already reports of households being unable to access remote learning sites.

welp someone in my office officially tested positive. first of many, no doubt

trying to work from home while facilitating 2 kids doing "remote/distance learning" and 1 pre-K kid just cruising in boredom is god tier difficulty level

Well, I was overyjoyed that my job finally authorized working from home, but it looks like the VPN connection is overwhelmed, so I'll probably have to go in anyway (or use a sick day). At least I took my time and made cornbread this morning.

What's the obsession with VPNs, do you all work for spy agencies?

It's absolutely not necessary for this job/industry imho.

I mean in public WiFi of course. Maybe companies just like to think that they are important enough to be a target of sophisticated espionage.

no noel i work for a healthcare organization dealing with protected health information, how on earth would I be able to do my job over an insecure connection?

When I worked for a big publishing org we had to have VPN with a stupid passcode key dongle that changed every minute, just to access the company records and the purchase ordering system. Which I mean I guess that's sensitive stuff but also what's a hacker going to do, order an extra 5000 Joyce Meyer reprint?