I am alone. My routine is just wake up, work (I work a remote job,) eat, sleep, buy groceries or things as needed, spend a few more hours on computer, call friends, walk around, sleep.
Ditto.
I did receive a look of pity yesterday from the tech who did my blood draw yesterday. I noted she was the only human face to face contact I had since Sunday, and would probably be the only face to face contact I would have for a few days.
My office has been divided into zones and they’re letting in a couple people each day for things that absolutely can’t be done from home. I had to take something there yesterday. I dropped it off outside and waved to our receptionist through the glass door. I realized she’s the first familiar face I’ve seen in two months. I was chatting with a couple women on a dating app, but they seem to have both ghosted me in the last week. Apart from that, it’s sleep, work, eat, and read. I will have to go to the grocery store this week. I’ve been letting my beard grow and it’s quite full already. When I need to look presentable again, I’m thinking of trying the moustache that Kenneth Branagh had in the Murder On the Orient Express remake. On the plus side, my lingering cough from early this year seems to be gone, and I’ve been losing some weight.
I’ve got an all-hands video conference this morning; time to break out my alter ego.
As time goes on, people are less willing to accept drastic restrictions on their natural way of life. Compliance with social distancing rules is already slipping (see e.g. here). I would expect this to continue as things drag on.
In theory, if it were known/accepted that there will never be any sort of medical breakthrough and that the rates of infection will never change, then people would just accept the infections and deaths as part of the natural order of things, much as we accept car crashes and the like. What’s keeping this from happening already is the notion that this is a temporary disruption and we just need to hold on until this passes (whether naturally or due to scientific advances). And hopefully that will in fact turn out to be the case. But in a worst case scenario where it doesn’t change, that will just become the new normal, and people will just accept it for what it is.
Still holding in there. Had to deal with some health issues two weeks ago, which included having a friend come by to help out. As I mentioned elsewhere, I’ll be having some follow-up treatment in a few weeks, and my friend will once again be coming over for a day or two.
The only supply issue I’m having is that I’ve run out of juice and non-dairy milk (I’m lactose intolerant) and the store I shop at hasn’t had either on sale recently. I may have to bite the bullet and actually pay full price when I go shopping tomorrow.
People’s willingness to get sick. That will be very different.
The government can let people go back to mostly normal life, or they can get shot in the revolution. Those are their options. There is no chance - none, zero, zip - people will accept a lockdown that long.
You think people will be more willing to get sick?
I’m not seeing that. I’m seeing some people being quite willing to get somebody else sick, combined with their being under the delusion that they and everybody they actually care about are guaranteed not to get any significant symptoms themselves.
The second part of that is false, and the first part of it is nasty.
We are not going back to a “normal life”. That option is not on the table, violent revolution or no violent revolution (and what on earth would be normal about murdering government officials?) The choice we have is between taking measures to limit transmission, and having so many people sick and/or dying at once that “normal life” isn’t possible.
It’s certainly possible to discuss which measures are actually necessary to limit transmission, as well as just how drastically we need to limit it. But claims that we can re-impose 2019 “normal” at the point of a gun are nonsense.
I don’t agree. The culture here (Chicago area) will support shutdowns to the end of the year, and beyond, easily, without any significant public pushback. The few people who object can be waved off as Trumpists and Granny-killers.
And with that cheery thought in mind, I need to update my earlier quote:
Was I speaking of days and weeks? How last-month of me. It should be, next month will be exactly like this month which was exactly like last month. Later on, I can update it to “year”.
From Gallup Polls: Social Distancing Eases as Some States Lift Restrictions. In particular:
People become accustomed to risk. It’s how human beings work. Once the level of risk is predictable and doesn’t change much, it’s only a matter of time before people just shrug and make whatever easy accommodations don’t cost them much.
Yes, we absolutely are. With or without a vaccine. There will be no actual revolution of course because no government has the political will to even do this until the end of 2020. There may be a second and worse wave later this year that imposes another lockdown; it might cause quite a panic. In time, though, things will look the same. People will go to concerts, malls, and basketball games. They’ll eat at buffets, ride public transit, and very few people will wear masks in public. They will go on cruises.
Many people won’t wash their hands.
Thanks for this. I was starting to feel like I was the only person who thought things will slowly drift back to normal even if there’s no miracle drug or vaccine, and I was beginning to wonder if I was totally delusional. (Although masks-in-public is one change I can see sticking around a bit longer, as it’s minimally disruptive and serves as visible social signaling that one is Taking This Seriously, while also making people feel safer.)
Even during wars and civil strife, people create some kind of normal… Belfast, Beirut, Sarajevo…
Checking in. It’s been hell, haven’t touched another human being or even an animal since March 15. I live alone ina 520 sq ft apartment. Getting almost everything delivered. Cutting my support of local businesses back a lot going forward. It’s a budget buster and I’m still unemployed. Being unemployed makes it worse, once things return to something like normality, there’s still a massive recession to deal with.
No, people will not stay home indefinitely. There’s a huge gap between those carrying firearms and demanding revolution versus those who are slowly cracking. Friend of mine has jumped on the social shaming bandwagon early, even jumped all over a social media post I shared about a Beatles concert. Didn’t even take one second to read it or look at the obvious 1960s clothes, those people at that Beatles concert needed to be shamed immediately!! Now he’s posting about visiting relatives. Nice guy, but I’m sure he thought he was gonna have a 2 week Netflix binge and then life would resume as if you’re taking a movie off pause.
And, ugh, wish the SDMB was more stable.
I was living with my mother who died on the 12th. I have 3 kitty companions. Handling the practical matters has kept me busy, except in the evening and the long weekend. A new roommate will come in by June 1st at the latest. My former stepsister is keeping in touch with me/tabs on me.
I’ll do more exercise and meditation.
Hugs, MEM. What are the kitties’ names? If you could manage a picture, that would cheer ME up. 
I’m also getting into meditation. And lots of walking. Fortunately I live in an area where it’s possible to walk and never get closer than half a block to another walker.
Since I started this thread, let me invite anyone who feels moved to link to a picture of their nonhuman roomies… that would be very cool. When I get back from my walk I’ll do that.
I use imgur.com BTW. It’s free and I can upload pictures directly from my phone. When I upload them, I mark them “hidden,” otherwise random smart alecks will post stupid comments. You can still get a link to post here.
Something will become defined as normal, yes. But for Belfast or Beirut or Sarajevo, it was hardly the same normal. Even for the recent USA, we keep getting told that “everything changed” after 9/11; and that killed a few thousand people and was over in one day. Obviously for most people nowhere near everything changed; but some things changed quite a bit.
Yes, of course at some point far enough in the future, when either a) we’ve got a vaccine b) we’ve got mostly-effective treatment or c) a whole huge shitload of people have died and an additional whole huge shitload have possibly-permanent organ damage, people will routinely go to public gatherings. This doesn’t necessarily mean that things will all be “the same” as they were in 2019, especially if we chose option 3. And, of course, if we choose option 3, nothing will be 2019 “normal” again for the people who died or the ones who are permanently damaged; or, in some cases, for their family members.
Insisting that we can go back to 2019 normal right now amounts to choosing option 3. And option 3 won’t give us 2019 normal while it’s happening; because, while that many people are dying and large numbers of additional people, whether or not they’ll recover entirely eventually, are too sick to work or to care for others or in many cases to care for themselves, no we are not going to have a 2019 economy or 2019 behavior.
So I stick to it: we’re not going to get 2019 normal this summer, guns or no guns. Almost certainly not this year. Quite possibly not next year. We can argue about what sort of abnormal we’re going to get; but this mess is not going to just quietly disappear.
That’s what I meant. Obviously it’s not normal to worry about getting shot by a sniper on your way to a grocery store. Or to wonder if that cute kid is a suicide bomber (and it turns out he is). I meant that people somehow go about their business and adjust mentally however they have to so they CAN go about their business.
I agree. And we don’t need to argue about it.
Just had my first timeout of the day. Sigh. Will this edit go through? <**ThelmaLou **spins the Wheel of Fortune>
Normal? For many it never will be. I doubt very much that this summer will be like last summer. The new normal Thorney Locust mentioned re 9/11 changed air travel completely.
IMHO, the ‘re-opening’ of the country is way too soon. But I understand businesses and employees are hurting. I’m not one of them, so I’ll have a different opinion than someone that has lost their income. It’s a gamble that you may lose either way. We are in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.
What happens if we ‘open up’ and food supply chains collapse?
Check out this mapping/data site (seems to work best in Chrome) Things just are not getting better enough. If at all. There are many, many ways to customize the graphs.
Bummer Dale. Have you tried any games online with other people? It’s some contact at least. I used to play chess on line and played with people all over the world. There are absolute beginner games and instruction at chess.com. It’s free. I’m sure you could find just about any game.
My Wife and my life has not changed that much. But we have each other, offices at home (now) and two dogs we walk. We were already living pretty remotely, so not a heck of a lot has change for us.
I’ve been trying to learn how to play guitar again. It’s pretty humbling.