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

Oh, the end of my relations with various bartenders around town during the pseudo-lockdown killed me, I realize, as banal as it sounds. I'm single and a hermit for the most part during the week; bringing a book to a bar or bar-restaurant on a Saturday and wiling away a couple hours while chatting to the bartender refreshed me. I returned to it when positivity rates bottomed out in late February; I've retreated, slightly, in the last couple weeks, preferring outdoor joints. But man...

I had an interview yesterday for a once/week bartending gig at an outdoor seasonal spot near me, and the people interviewing me were like, "Oh yeah, totally recognize you— you always tipped well. Haven't seen you in a while, tho," and I had to explain that I'd basically stopped going to indoor bars during the pandemic. I hope I get it, would be nice to make a couple hundo under the table once a week.

(That is, Alfred, I feel you, tho once again, because 2019 was "my cancer year," I've hardly spent time in any bars since late 2018 (!!)

I've been feeling that too. the few occasions I've gone out or had get-togethers it's really been amazing, like there's this whole part of my personality that just went dormant for 18 months. had also forgotten what it felt like to be drunk :)

unfortunately everyone in my house has got it. annoyingly it wasn't all at once, I got it first, then my wife 3 days later, then my son a couple days after that, now my daughter. all told it's gonna be about 2 1/2 weeks out of school, coming right at the end of the year. the house is a mess, the furnace AND the dishwasher broke (and we can't exactly have anyone come in to fix them), I'm not getting much work done, and obviously no one can help us out. as for the virus itself I was pretty knocked out last week, now it just feels like I've got a cold that's been lasting forever. shortness of breath, still coughing, etc. etc. it sucks.

yeesh frogbs, sounds brutal, hoping everyone recovers soon.

i'm a person who definitely does not thrive on socializing, and even i found myself doing stuff over the last few months that i never would have allowed myself to do last summer when rates in my area were 1/20th what they are now, like going to a few bars and indoor music shows. i truly thought i could stay locked down forever, but it turns out 2 years was my breaking point. now, though, feels like a good time to count my blessings that i was able to do that stuff without falling ill and go back to being more cautious.

Ugh sorry frogsb

frogbs I mean!

Sorry to hear all that frogbs, that sounds like a lot to have to deal with all at once. Good luck!

i'm in a play right now and wished I could bail out for weeks, but there are no understudies, so it'd sink the show. Plus I REALLY need the paycheck that comes with the production to help reduce my mounting debt.

the COVID levels were extremely low when we started and the original outlook for BA.2 wave here was rosier, and things didn't really tick up to concerning here until 2-3 weeks ago. it's part of Fringe Festival so can't just 'postpone' it, plus this producer, a dear friend had to cancel a production earlier this year that caused her to take a big hit. Her company might sink if it happens again. she and the costumers/set builders would be out 5k in expenses if we went under.

I masked with a KN95 at every rehearsal. I got boosted (again) two weeks ago to try and reduce the risk. lots of the cast got Omicron BA.1 before rehearsals started, all are vaxxed and boosted (requirement to be in the show). and yet the fear someone eventually gets it still looms over us. not just because of the show, but none of us want that shit.

I'm not enjoying myself at all and just looking forward to it ending.

frogs, really sorry your fam is having such a bad go with it.

thanks all, looking forward to doing this 1-2x a year from here on out :)

I have tickets for Dry Cleaning tonight at the Ottobar bought in a fit of optimism but: I’m old and tired and it’s a Thursday, and I haven’t been in a rock club for years now and masks in Baltimore are not required. Even if I mask up I’m not feeling comfortable. I’ve avoided Covid this long it would suck to get it now.

I’ve been to classical concerts for months now but they all require mandatory masks and vaccination checks and the audience isn’t young and yelling and drinking.

hope this all clears for you and the family soon frogbs

i have the worst cold i've had in five years! just pints and pints of stuff. it's not covid apparently which seems unlikely.

I hope you all get to feeling better, frogsbs.

Yes, sorry frogbs, good luck with this. Caek as well.

feel better frogbs and caek!!

Yes, please.

How are you, table?

Fine! still become nasty tired once or twice a day, but otherwise I am doing great. Went through boxes of old poetry books with my bookseller friend for 2+ hours today ( we were outside and i wore a mask) and it was a real treat, plus i got some neat stuff out of it.

Fine! still become nasty tired once or twice a day, but otherwise I am doing great. Went through boxes of old poetry books with my bookseller friend for 2+ hours today ( we were outside and i wore a mask) and it was a real treat, plus i got some neat stuff out of it.

https://i.redd.it/ppkvi4q0potx.jpg

A good friend of mine was scheduled for bottom surgery _tomorrow_. She's been taking all the precautions - avoiding too much contact with other people, masking, etc., etc.

Her surgeon tested positive for COVID today.

Like, we have enough stress about this shit already, right? I was a wreck for weeks before bottom surgery, on the regular I would have flashes of panic like "What the hell am I doing, am I really doing this, why me", because literally my whole life I was taught that it was the worst thing I could possibly do, that I had to protect that thing at all costs no matter what. As soon as I was through it everything was fine, but right before? A wreck. If I didn't know that cancelling wouldn't solve anything, that I'd just have to go through the whole process all over again, I definitely would have cancelled.

Scheduling has been terrible throughout this whole thing. It's just a fucking mess scheduling "elective" surgeries like this, and there's no communication, no transparency on when or if it'll happen, until one day somebody calls and says "So we have an opening next week, can you do it then?" NO I CAN'T FUCKING DO IT NEXT WEEK, I can't just take a month off work with three days' notice. It goes like this, the constant uncertainty, and you call them and _everybody_ is calling them and they can't deal with all the calls so they tell you whatever will get you to stop calling them. But nothing will get us to stop calling them because we fucking need this and we need to at least know _when_. Because we're putting our entire fucking lives on hold waiting for them to have some availability for this.

I mean I guess the people who don't take precautions against COVID, who have made it impossible to keep this fucking thing under control, most of them want us all dead anyway, so I can't even be mad at _them_. I am mad that none of these people face _consequences_ for their bullshit, that they fuck around and we find out. I'm done. Completely done living life under those terms.

that's terrible regarding your friend :(. i'm so sorry. and for all of the distressful things you've experienced above.

I really don't know how I haven't gotten COVID yet. I was at a show last week where the performers and apparently a decent portion of the audience tested positive afterward, but I dodged it again.

(actually my theory is that the band had COVID, and my friend whose whole family got it all moved up to the front row in a small venue, while we stayed in the back. But who knows.)

I spent about 5 hours in a crowded club full of knuckleheads on Saturday night. If I somehow dodge it, I'm declaring myself indestructible.

The friends who got it the same time as us— who perhaps exposed us, but who knows?— were also at the Low and Divide and Dissolve show that we went to, and they dodged it then, too. That was when I thought I was totally going to get it.

The friends who got it the same time as us— who perhaps exposed us, but who knows?— were also at the Low and Divide and Dissolve show that we went to, and they dodged it then, too. That was when I thought I was totally going to get it.

apologies for double post

I don't want to link to give it any additional clicks, but I've been several usually considered folks in my feed retweeting some account called "COVID News Network (CNN)", which seems to be twisting the most alarming possible takes out of any "update" they share. Considering the account just popped up in January of 2022 and claims absolutely zero authority, I'm assuming its safe to file right next to EFD where it belongs. Just annoyed that it seems to be getting traction.

lol I've seen those clowns on Twitter. just report every one of their tweets as misinformation and move on.

for that doomer crowd, facts don't matter, the message is correct if it's:

a) bleak
b) gives them an opportunity to act superior to everyone else

i'm sorry, but "COVID News Network (CNN)" is like the very first question on a test measuring your bullshit meter, in a test that dynamically increases the challenge every time you get one right

You aren’t wrong! I was just surprised to see at least two level headed people retweeting them.

Running into another one of those weird "pandemic cognitive dissonance" eras right now. I've heard nothing but reports of friends, coworkers and acquaintances with positive test reports in their families, but then I walk into an in-person meeting with 18 people this morning and I'm literally the only masked face in the room.

Yeah it’s really jarring. After my “post Covid exuberance” led to my getting Covid I’m masking up consistently in public again.

Just booked Pfizer booster shot 2 for Monday. Much easier vs. not finding a spot less than a month out on the last booster.

"pandemic cognitive dissonance"

otm, the "pandemic of the unvaccinated" rhetoric was quite short-sighted imo

strong disagree tbh

🧐

Covid for the first time, testing positive on the first day of my annual leave. Likely traceable to partner's colleagues at a work do, where they were blatantly symptomatic. I get that some people's employment situations don't give them much choice but this wasn't one of those cases. Wearied.

(UK question not that it should change anything).

What's the "correct" point for considering yourself free from Covid?

I'm sure there was a point where it was "Test from day five and you're fine to be out and about when you've had clear LFTs on two consecutive days", where the day you were clearly symptomatic or the day you first had a positive test were considered Day 0.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do/

^ England. Wales and Scotland are devolved for health matters and have different options. it's actually quite vague and there's no legal requirement any more, just guidance. (when i had symptoms this time last year, which came to nothing, i was legally barred from being out except to post the pcr test back to them)

Thanks Koogs.

(Definitely trying to do the "right" thing rather than necessarily the legal thing and not wipe out friends and family!)

Of course, I mean "vague government advice" thing rather than "legal" thing.

Every now and then I notice what I think of as "covid detritus" - i.e. posters with instructions for social distancing, notes urging you to wear a mask, hanging from windows of stores that absolutely are no longer following those guidelines. Even air travel seems to have a fair bit of this, abandoned empty containers of hand lotion in airports and such.

On the one hand I kinda understand because obv there was no D Day of "covid is done now" but at the same time there's something quite eerie about this, I wonder how it must feel like to grow up around these strange reminders.

(nb this is not an attempt to belittle ppl still taking precautions, I'm just talking about places that absolutely do not do that)

Ha. I just walked past Bradenton Beach City Hall and its COVID precaution signs that I'm sure lost their potency a couple years ago.

A couple of months ago I used a hand sanitizer at a local establishment that must not have been used for area as the alcohol had turned to vinegar which was extremely unpleasant

Ages not area

wow

You see this stuff everywhere in London. Agree that it's eerie. Big post-apocalyptic video game energy. Even my doctor's office still has "you MUST wear a mask" signs up. Which.... has not been true for at least a year and a half. Feels like the next logical step is to rummage for crafting materials and audio diaries.

For some reason this feels like the right thread rather than the masking one—

got my shot today, first time with Moderna rather than Pfizer. i was weirdly more nervous than i’ve ever been?!?