The Navy has authorised sailors to exceed grooming regs – beards must be shaved, and sideburns and moustaches must remain regulation, but hair on top of the head can be let grow.
Affecting me personally? The public libraries are all closed, and my cardiac rehab sessions have been put on hold for two week (though I expect this will be extended). Was going to use the exercise machines at the senior centre whilst waiting for cardiac rehab to start up again, but that’s been closed, too.
Kroger was out of my cats’ favorite dry food Monday (they won’t eat wet food). I had most of a bag at home and bought another brand to supplement that. But they will only eat it as a last resort before starving. Being a good slave, I ordered 4 bags and a container of treats from Amazon (that many so I could get free shipping. :)). It should be here in 7 or 8 days so they won’t have to suffer long.
As for me, I just ate the last salad I guess I will have for a while. Which sucks because I always have a big salad for dinner. I’ve got other food, of course, but I’m going to miss that.
My wife was diagnosed with ALS three years ago. As she lost the ability to walk, our house was no longer accesable. I took early retirement, we sold the house, bought an RV, and have been on the road for two years. She had applied for SDDI twice and denied both times. Want to apply again but Social Security will not let us apply online and won’t say why. We made a trip to NM (our resident state, tho we spend little time there) to see our dentist and pediatrician (we have two boys). Parked in the Coronado RV Park in a state park on Tuesday. State parks were closed the day before but the RV park stayed open. Drove to SS office and it closed that day and would not open for at least ten days. Thought we could visit relatives but that night I had a fever, muscle aches, headache, and dry cough. Called the state corvid-19 hotline. Nurse took my symptoms and promised a call back that never came. Called my doctor and was told I could not be tested unless I had contact with someone who had tested positive. Confirmed that on the NM Dept of Health web site. Spent the next two days mostly resting but had to go shopping for food and medicine. Walmart was surreal, lots of empty shelves and people in line for toilet paper. On day three, my fever abated but my youngest got a fever. Leaving for Nevada tomorrow,. At least gas prices are down, I paid $1.59/gallon this morning.
We have one of those where I work too…she was telling anyone who would listen that, according to her friend who works for some level of the state government, that they’re organizing the military and everything will be locked down in the next 48 - 72 hours.
I would have thought that my workplace would be deemed “essential,” given that we primarily serve power plants, but there’s a strong enough chance that the office will be closed next week that my department distributed boxes and allowed us to take our computers and a monitor home. (The idea is that a direct internet connection is better than logging in through a VPN on your personal computer.) Some customer service agents took their computers home as well. It was pointed out that, without our testing and inspection departments, we’re going to reach a point where we can’t do much work at all. I brought home enough stuff to complete some non-critical reports that will require a lot of research, so that should occupy me for awhile if work is called off Monday.
Given that the next county over has reported a case of community spread, I’m sort of concerned that the state might issue a shelter in place order, so I went ahead and brought my plants home too. They needed a little maintenance anyway.
My daughter’s worksite is laying off all FIFO workers…so unless you live in the nearby town or are happy to live at the mining camp for the next 6 months, you’re out of a job…
Lunch today will be the last served in our mess hall. After this we will pick up I presume a bagged meal from the front desk.
So far, I think I’ve got it better than many. My work was mostly remote before, so everything was already in place to go home office only. We’re being encouraged to spend our overtime, unless we’re actively working for clients, in the wake of reduced volume in client contracts. I was about to get a raise, but all raises have been postponed by company policy right now.
My wife’s employer has slashed her hours, she’s now supposed to go to work only one day per week. It’s a mixed blessing: on the one hand, I’m grateful she doesn’t have to leave the house (there’s no real home office infrastructure for her workplace), but of course, this is going to impact us financially, particularly if the situation continues. Right now, she’s home sick anyway (garden-variety cold or mild flu). But we should be able to cope, as long as my work doesn’t also dry up.
I’m missing out on several events I was looking forward to, although most are officially only ‘postponed’ so far. We had tickets for three readings in the context of a local literature festival; Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds have announced to postpone their tour a couple of days ago. While that’s sad, it’s of course entirely necessary, and there’s a good chance these events will take place at a later date.
We’ve got an annual family gathering for Easter; that’s off the table now, too. Likewise, my wife and I were planning to spend our fifth wedding anniversary in May revisiting the location of our ceremony, staying at the same hotel—we haven’t canceled yet, but expect to. We’ve also got tickets to Rock am Ring, a large music festival in Germany. It takes place from June 5th to 7th; so far, word is that it won’t be cancelled.
But it’s the little things that make this seem so surreal. Like, in the morning, I was wondering whether I should have a cappuccino—but decided against it, because we’re low on milk, and the shop didn’t have any last time I went, and I want to keep my grocery trips at a necessary minimum. First world problem, of course, but it’s just not something I ever envisaged myself having to consider.
No general curfew in Germany yet, although some states—Bavaria and the Saarland—have already announced them. My hometown has banned all gatherings larger than two people. Frankly, I expect curfews within the week.
I feel you!
My ‘IDK throat’ from last week has gradually metamorphosed into a persistent dry cough that gets just that little bit worse each day, and two people from the Uni have officially confirmed Covid, but I don’t count as a close contact so I can’t get tested. I don’t really care so much for me - I can just act like I believe I have it - but it burns me to see people on Facebook blithely reassuring each other that the newest travel bans are going to fix everything because ‘it’s all people bringing it in on planes’ and all the social distancing stuff is unnecessary :smack:
Sunny I’m sorry to hear about your sister. I hope she’s not in a risky category
I am so sorry y’all are going through this. It’s encouraging that your fever eased up. Check in again, please.
Someone else mentioned that you can’t get tested unless you’ve had contact with someone who has tested positive. In the first place, how can you possibly **know **if a random stranger has COVID and/or has tested positive? Not to mention, if you can’t get tested and you are positive (without knowing it), how can you let anyone else that you’ve come in contact with know so THEY can get tested? This is obviously being run by Major Major from Catch-22. :smack: I know, I know… don’t try to make sense of it. Just shut up and wash your hands.
Okay, my plan: when you test positive, you get a t-shirt that says (on the back AND the front), “I tested positive for COVID-19!” Then others can take a selfie standing right next to them and present it when they go to get tested. Ta-DAH!
All petty stuff but the list keeps growing.[ul]
[li]The museum I volunteer at - closed[/li][li]Arizona Game Con whis weekend where I was going to be part of a crew hosting our favorite game - cancelled[/li][li]The work party today where my camp at Burning Man cleans, repairs, and replaces the gear we use - delayed until May[/li][li]Saguaro Man, the regional burn here in Arizona is postponed to a date TBD; being high risk, I was skipping it anyway[/li][li]The meet-up in April for my online game in San Diego - cancelled[/li][li]The Kentucky Derby I was going to call reservations for next week - delayed until September[/li][li]My birthday today - no fancy dinner for me[/li][/ul]First world problems.
For the first time in my adult life, I am out of work. The combination of the low oil prices and COVID-19 shut down most of the clients we had, and as a result, my employer decided to essentially lay us off until at least mid-april, dependent on the industry picking back up again.
My wife left me and the kids about six months ago, leaving me to adapt to being a single dad, with all the same bills but only one income… so I am one of the umpteen millions who have no savings for things like this. The kids are high schoolers, so school being out wasn’t a big deal for me, and especially isn’t now that I have no work.
Groceries are scarce, but I can usually pick up a few essentials each day. Worried about mortgage payment, but I’m hopeful that I can figure it out.
This pretty much sucks.
It’s a weird feeling. We’re stuck in our deer-infested mountain home while the world collapses around us. MrsRico watches TV news and we both gorge on online material but it’s all abstract, external, not really touching us while a deep snowpack remains. I’ll try to move the AWD car today, hit some stores downhill, see what’s open, maybe patronize Mr Beefy, bring home a gourmet bison burger with sweet-potato fries to share. I doubt the taco wagons will be out. The www.nextdoor.com posts are all about power outages and bears, not food shortages or shopping horrors, so I’m not too worried.
Tip O’Neill said, “All politics are local.” Substitute “bothers” for this situation. Weather trumps even pandemics. Should I dread upcoming springtime when the world flows in?
I teach high school. Due to school closures tacked on to the end of our spring break, we have been off for two weeks and we will have at least another two weeks off ahead of us. And right now I am expecting it to last longer than that. We are starting online instruction on Monday.
I feel fortunate to have job security for now. I don’t have to worry about not getting a paycheck for at least the next few months. If schools are still closed when the next school year begins in August/September… then I worry that many school districts will cut back on teaching positions and manage online learning with a streamlined staff. But I have a hard time imagining schools won’t reopen by that point. If these social distancing guidelines haven’t relaxed well before then, our society and economy is well and truly fucked.
In the short term, I worry about family and friends that don’t have job security. My nephew was laid off from his job at a restaurant because of the slowdown in business, and a different job he had been applying to is not an option now since they froze all hiring for now.
My parents are in their late 70s and Dad has a compromised immune system. They live a few hours away in a small country town. Which is good, since it is a bit isolated, but there are a lot of older folks in their community and if the virus were to sweep through there it’s likely their health service providers would be overwhelmed. So I am thankful for the actions we are all taking to help keep people like my parents safe, but I am also worried about the economic stress and harm it may be causing to a lot of people.
Work is still ongoing. We are considered essential, so I expect it will continue, but at least we aren’t the public facing side of the supply chain. Employees who are concerned about CoViD-19 have been told that we can take leave and collect unemployment benefits under the state’s emergency measures. I’m still mulling that option over, and may take it if the virus shows up in my county. So far, we have no confirmed or presumptive cases, so that’s a big plus.
I’ve stopped dining out and started doing more cooking at home. I never was much of a cook, so that has been a learning experience. This week, I made a haddock chowder that came out about as good as anything I’ve ever gotten from a restaurant, if I do say so myself, so I was pretty pleased with that. When I need groceries, I’m opting for the smaller, local grocery store so as to avoid the crowds at the big box stores. It costs a little bit more, but that is more than offset by not eating out.
I’ve been bleaching everything to death when cleaning, but I’d have been doing that anyway this time of year due to the seasonal flu, so that hasn’t really changed much.
Instead of going out for entertainment, there’s the Internet and video games. I’m currently playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and I seem to time travel five or six hours into the future every time I turn that game on. It’s doing a good job of keeping me from wanting to go out.
Well, I think I’m about to get a huge windfall. I received this email today:
That she is no longer the managing director of the IMF and seems to be now living in Hungary (her email address is christlagrd0255@vipmail.hu) is not at all concerning. I’m confused why such an important woman would contact me personally, but it seems she might want to give me some money, probably to relieve any financial distress I might be experiencing in these tough times. I inquired about her proposition and hopefully she will get back to me soon. I have the anticipation of a child wondering how much money she wants to give me.
Until I receive this windfall, I live in central Illinois as a pharmacy technician in grocery store, so I am considered essential, will not get laid off, and will be on the front lines. As an aside, working in a grocery stores has the benefit of not having to go somewhere else to get food. I’m a single hermit anyway, so staying at home except for work does not affect me. I am a little worried about contracting the virus.
You should start buying iTunes gift cards now, to pay the minor fees of course, before they stop selling them!
I went to the mess hall for breakfast. They had moved the coffee machine to the lobby. I filled my cup and filled out a little form with my order. I then went outside to a picnic table and enjoyed the gray, cloudy morning. After a few minuted the mess boy brought me my food on a disposable foam clamshell thing.
Have you ever tried eating cat food? It can’t be poisonous and spices might go a long way.
My mom’s been asked to self-quarantine since she learned that she’s been around someone who tested positive. At this point honestly we probably all have, so that’s what we all should be doing by default, but at least she’s less likely to get it if she hasn’t already by sheltering in place, and she shouldn’t be working anyway because not only is she over 65, her clients are even older (as a part-time job, she is a once-a-week home visitor for several clients.) Thankfully, her company is still paying her and has offered to help with home delivery.
Got a text this morning that we’re working from home tomorrow, so I now have a second computer set up at my desk. Strangely enough, no one has seen fit to get the workplace listed on the “closed” list hosted by the local news channel, and no emails have been sent out about this.