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

Christ, Neanderthal, that's horrible.

I can only hope that this will help more people realize that the system just isn't working for them and that something's got to give.

i might get wfh access weds sometime

ill have to set out my productivity every day

pity they didnt ask me today i couldve written "100%: setting out a case for me and this other fella to work from home in a fucking pandemic"

This morning I tested positive for Covid 19. I feel ok, I have no symptoms so far but have been isolated since I found out about my possible exposure to the virus. Stay home people and be pragmatic. I will keep you updated on how I’m doing 👊🏾👊🏾 No panic. pic.twitter.com/Lg7HVMZglZ

— Idris Elba (@idriselba) March 16, 2020

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/16/us/nj-coronavirus-update/index.html

(CNN)New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy issued a curfew Monday that restricts travel from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. to fight the spread of coronavirus.
"All non-essential and non-emergency travel in Jersey is strongly discouraged beginning tonight at 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. each day," Murphy said. "This will remain in effect for the foreseeable future. We want everybody to be home, not out."
In doing so New Jersey becomes the first US state to take such a step. On Sunday, the US territory of Puerto Rico instituted a 9 p.m. curfew.
As of Monday morning, New Jersey had 98 confirmed cases of coronavirus and two deaths.

I would assume NYC starts a similar curfew before the end of the week.

"Shelter in Place" order issued in SF (and 6 other Bay Area counties) for next 3 weeks

Situation in San Antonio (where I live):

1. Fiesta San Antonio is postponed from its usual dates in April to November, which is highly unusual in that almost nothing gets in the way of Fiesta, not even the one mass shooting event at the Battle of Flowers parade in 1979.
2. City facilities are all closed for this week, including our public library system.
3. The one local supermarket chain (HEB) has cut its operating hours down to 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM for all its stores, including ones such as my neighborhood store which are typically open 24 hours a day. That's so that the stockers have more time to restock items and they can get more people working when they're open. The last time I was able to drop by the neighborhood location before work was Friday, when it was a complete mad house and half the shelves were completely barren.
4. The local Catholic archdiocese has suspended Sunday Masses until the end of the month, which is a big thing considering how many Catholics live here. A lot of the larger non-Catholic churches have also announced a suspension of Sunday church services.
5. The largest local electricity/natural gas provider (CPS Energy) announced an amnesty put in place to ensure that no one has their services cut during this period. This is a genuinely good thing and I wish more local/area utility providers would follow their lead.
6. The city mayor and state's governor are going to hold a press conference at 2:30 PM local time (so in about 25 minutes) to update us on the situation and any other important information we need to know. I typically hate Gov. Greg Abbott's guts but he's doing a damn better job of handling the situation than the shit-for-brains pseudo-"president" he sucks up to on the regular, and he's been standing tall with our Democratic mayor (Ron Nirenberg) on this issue at least.
7. More personally, the mood at work is almost of paranoia, with antibacterial wipes being distributed to clean our work surfaces on an almost daily basis, more people washing their hands thoroughly, the people who work in cubicles being spread out to increase the distance between them, all meetings have been cancelled, etc. There's a feeling of general unease.

One thing I keep in mind is that a COVID-19 cough is a dry one and that the virus doesn't present with sneezing. That keeps me from going off the deep end any time I hear someone sneeze or cough, as is my natural inclination as someone with severe and almost congenital anxiety issues.

BTW, since I have asthma I feel like it would be at least a little logical to be slightly paranoid, since I'm considered one of the "vulnerable".

not too sure that a curfew is a great idea? if i have to go out, i'd rather do it at odd hours rather than compressing everyone into the same timeframe

I was in my local cheap chain grocery store, which is a depressing place at the best of times, and there was no TP, eggs, bread, next to no rice, pasta, beans, lentils etc. and everyone was just in a foul mood and being shitty.

and we've only just begun!

I keep thinking about the elderly lady in front of me at the grocery store last Friday who had a cart that was 90% SnackWell cookies and a large bottle of vodka

priorities!

I'm watching Trump, and initially he looked properly mortified and ghostly, but now he's talking, and Sanders summed it up perfectly last night with his first line: "The first thing we have to do, whether or not I am president, is to shut this president up right now." When Trump just related a conversation he'd (supposedly) had with his son (presumably the 10-year-old)--"How bad is this?" "It's bad, it's bad"--I honestly wasn't sure which part came from Trump and which part came from the son.

Sorry--mixed up threads, thought I was on the politics thread.

looool

it's funny, regardless

my boss let me know that we are aiming on wfh. we're just scrambling to move in-class courses to online right now but once that's been dealt with wfh issues will be ironed out. going to be very strange to do my job in my apartment but I'm very glad. time to hunker down for a few months

my mum's eccentric thespian cousin who lives in a bothy in the middle of nowhere in the Scottish highlands with no running water or electricity looking p otm rn

I'm driving out of NYC tomorrow morning for the foreseeable. My bf thinks he's coming back next week for work but that'll depend on the extent of quarantine/shelter in/curfews/etc. Shit is gonna get mad real without income though--maybe some of those rich ppl who fled to their country houses will need refinishing?

xp och aye

bothy

Cool word I'd never encountered before. Wouldn't mind languishing in a bothy myself right now.

My uncle tested positive. He's in his 50s and generally very healthy but still worried. We're also all very concerned because he visited my 90yo grandmother last Monday.

bothy
Cool word I'd never encountered before. Wouldn't mind languishing in a bothy myself right now.

― romanesque architect (pomenitul), Monday, March 16, 2020 12:43 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

bothy ballads are interesting: the traditional songs made up and sang by the labouring men at night in the bothies. as it was just of rustic Scottish lads a lot of the songs are very puerile

not too sure that a curfew is a great idea? if i have to go out, i'd rather do it at odd hours rather than compressing everyone into the same timeframe

― mookieproof, Monday, March 16, 2020 3:16 PM (thirty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this was my thought

could always go out at exactly 5 a.m. :/

godspeed io

of course the food stores won't be open at 5

best wishes to Fetchboy & uncle

and anyone else with friends/family (or themselves) affected, by COVID itself or by income worries - these threads are moving fast so I know I've missed som

my mum's eccentric thespian cousin who lives in a bothy in the middle of nowhere in the Scottish highlands with no running water or electricity looking p otm rn

Up till a year and a half ago, I lived in a cabin in the woods in Alaska with a woodstove and a freezer full of moosemeat and salmon. Then I decided it would be a great idea to move to Seattle. Brilliant move on my part.

I'm down to my last pair of contacts so I called Fred Meyer optical today to order more, and they were like, "Well, we would happily do that for you but our whole system is down and we're not even allowed to open to day soooo, we'll call you back?" I guess this is the modern version of that one Twilight Zone episode.

No surprise, it has hit my town of 6,000: "There is now one confirmed case of COVID-19 in a St. Marys resident." So a bunch of things have closed indefinitely.

curfews are not bad. It sounds bad, but it's fine.

<3 <3 <3

I reupped my contacts in Jan juuuust before I left my job (and my insurance) so I'm feeling very lucky/grateful. If your old ones are driving you crazy, my uncle is an optometrist who has worked for medical equip company Topcon for decades, and he told me a secret for prolonging contact life: You can make a watery paste out of baking soda and storage solution and gently abrade the lens with your fingertip. It gets all the deposits off and doesn't harm the lenses. Rinse well, obv.

I know it sounds crazy! But I've done it for years when I didn't have insurance and I wasn't supposed to keep wearing the same pair of lenses for 6-10 months. Every time a doctor says "Hey that's really bad for you, your eyes are probably scarred from that" they have been wrong and my eyes are fine.

I'm down to my last pair of contacts so I called Fred Meyer optical today to order more, and they were like, "Well, we would happily do that for you but our whole system is down and we're not even allowed to open to day soooo, we'll call you back?

I'm overdue for an eye test but I suspect this isn't really a good time to press my face into optometric gadgetry and have someone inspect my squishy virus-contracting humours. however they did send me a free eye test voucher and that's testing my resolve slightly. I can get a free one through work, but the paperwork...

(yeah, probably still best not for now, although who knows when "now" ends, and I'm paranoid about leaving my eye test too long after my mum had a previously unnoticed serious problem spotted in an eye test)

my 6 month supply of contacts ended up lasting me 4 yrs because i just put them in saline overnight until I decide it's time. I finally just got a new batch (4 month supply) from costco 2 months ago.

My town, depended on tourism, is deserted. Like a ghost town. I work in a shop geared toward tourists. I have been put on “economic leave” for one day this week. But I suspect it’ll be 100 percent next week (and the rest of april).
1 we have very little sales
2 in all honesty it is not really smart healthwise.
(But I get it: are we going to survive this financially? I fucking hope so.)

i just got an eye exam a few weeks ago and was shocked at how deteriorated my vision is because i wait too long between prescriptions and my astigmatism gets worse. i really need new glasses. but i guess i gotta wait to get them because opticians are too much close physical contact and i won't die.

already broke down sobbing twice today. the same friend from above is sick, with a sore throat and a dry cough, no fever, but she said she feels mild pressure in her chest. she's only 24, and isn't worried, but says they won't test her. and....she told her boss this and he said it was "statistically improbable" that it was COVID and that she was no longer welcome to talk about it anymore.

we're such an idiotic people. just four days of quarantining and I don't know how I'm going to make it. today it's just the one friend, tomorrow another, soon my parents, who I can't visit today because they're at risk. and I'm home alone with a roommate that isn't ever here.

I'm usually the calm one, and I'm just not right now.

feelin you, bro

Hugs, Neanderthal. Let me know if you need to talk.

thank you both <3

debating trying to find a friend that I know and ride quarantine out with him and his wife. i don't even care if I pay rent at a house I'm not living at for two months.

good luck nath, and hugs to neanderthal

my roommate's work is run by conservative shitheads who believe this is overhyped and they're refusing to close their office and i'm ready to go there myself tomorrow to kick all of their asses

Begging the boss of my part-time job to close (retail) for the sake of my coworker. I don't have to go in for a few days but I'm really worried about my coworker. bosses are "following the CDC guidelines." FUCK!

I really feel like we should form a task force to risk our own health and just kick the shit out of conservative bosses who won't close or let people work from home.

we need one treasurer to keep bail money. sorry, yours is a no-action job.

I feel like all the iTs nO wOrSe tHaN FlU* people should be quietly hoping everyone forgets they ever spoke but ime they have just taken it in stride and carry on having opinions

*I am a bit tired of doing this and think we should bring back tildes

For good or ill, one effect of this whole debacle is that we all know for certain who the selfish shitheads are.

Thanks for the contact-cleaning tip, in orbit. I'll give it a try in a couple of weeks when they start to really bug me.

I'm sorry, Neanderthal. I spent all of last year in a similar (though non-pandemic-related) situation, so you have all my sympathy. Finding a friend to ride out quarantine with doesn't sound like a bad idea at all.

Opinions are like flus, everyone catches one once in a while.

My heart goes out to you, Neanderthal. These are trying times. I'm grateful to have an awesome partner and two really close friends next door. I don't think I could ride this thing out on my own. You should definitely consider crashing with friends if it seems like a comfortable enough option.

A little sweet levity:

oh my god, the chicago aquarium closed due to coronavirus, so they let the penguins run around and check out the other exhibits. (staff was present.) pic.twitter.com/YGa8CugymE

— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) March 16, 2020

FB friend 0wen M@ercks runs a famous reptile store in the Bay Area, some asshole called yesterday to ask if he could trade his hoarded TP and sanitizer for a snake

they told him to fuck off

Thinking of all of you, in your various situations and stresses. This feels more and more unreal.

I've worked from home for years now so this isn't as disorienting as it could be. But it's been weird to not go anywhere or see anyone - and this plague meant that I had to cancel a two week trip to the Austin area to visit my son. (Was supposed to leave last Saturday, cancelled last Wednesday as it became clear that shit was starting to get very real.) My son was irate when I told him I cancelled the trip, but the more he's read about what's happening worldwide and the more things have changed where he lives, the more he's come to understand. Still, it SUCKS. This is his spring break week and our tradition for the past half decade or so is for me to fly down there, take time off, and for us to spend a lot of quality time.

my brother in law lives with my mother in law and his own (adult) son at her apartment (which my wife and I pay part of the rent on ... long story and we're annoyed by that anyway). today he decides he and his son are flying to colorado to look after his younger kids who are with his ex-wife (who is a bitch, admittedly). but he's leaving his 71 year old mom here (bay area) with no groceries, didn't set up delivery, etc. Thanks, asshole.