We had a mandatory WFH day earlier this week to test how employees and the network will be able to handle that. Not a big deal for me, as a programmer, WFH has been an option if needed from day 1.
Today, most of the area school districts have announced that they are shutting down for a couple of weeks. Since we have a large number of people working here who have young children, they’ve said that anyone who can WFH, may WFH. We were already down to less than 50% of our people in the office, now I think there may be one person who’ll show up Monday.
The interesting effect for me though is this: my company makes software for private schools. One of the features we have, and the one that was the project I was hired on for, is a web-enabled learning environment. Teachers can create assignments and quizzes, and set up online discussion rooms for specific topics. Students can then turn in the assignments, take the quizzes, and participate in the discussions online.
It’s never gotten much traction before due to several issues, but now a lot of our schools are asking how to get it working, so they can switch to all online coursework until this is over.
A local distillery posted that it was offering hand sanitizer free–bring your own container. I ran over to get some non-potable, 68+% alcohol to mix with aloe vera for my MIL and SIL. I’ve seen several distilleries doing this–try to convince yours. My understanding is that this is a byproduct. They can’t sell it, but they can give it away. I put $10 in the tip jar.
No cases in my county yet, but school districts are closing just in case. The next district over just went into Spring Break and we go next Thursday. I’m sure they are hoping that two weeks will be enough time to get a handle on things. Closer to LA, Claremont USD just closed down until April 13th at least.
Just got back from the grocery store, where every single redneck asshole in town was panic-buying everything in sight. They were laughing about it until the Orange Shitweasel went on the air and told them to panic. Even the produce aisle was barren.
Yesterday it was announced schools in our county were closed for 2 weeks, today it went statewide, I will be doing some online stuff just to try and keep the kids in the loop. I haven’t taught online before, although I’ve taken a lot of online courses. So, I’m a bit nervous wondering how it’s going to work out. I’m hoping once I get through my first class it should be much clearer.
The governor of Ohio has decided that the disease is being underdiagnosed by a factor of 20,000 and that the CDC’s guidelines are therefore irrelevant, and has therefore closed all schools in the state for three weeks. That’s three weeks that I won’t be working, and three weeks in which the students will be forgetting all of their work (which wasn’t even left at a convenient stopping point) before they get back.
Portland, OR here. I teach math at a local community college. Next week is finals week for Winter Quarter, then the week of the 23rd is Spring Break, and Spring Quarter begins on the 30th.
Last night the college district announced that the first three weeks of Spring Quarter will be online. The campuses won’t be closed, but no classes will meet face-to-face. The board will meet on April 15th to decide if classes will resume normally on the 20th.
They also gave a vague directive that instructors are encouraged to “find alternate means of administering finals next week,” and to “relax proctoring rules” or some such. Fortunately, this morning the department chair and division dean clarified this: our official stance is that students cannot be expected to come to campus for finals next week.
After discussing it with the chair, I’ve decided to go ahead with my finals (both are on Monday), but they are now optional. If a student is happy with their current grade, they can skip the final, and their current grade will be their final grade. If they want to take the final to try to improve their grade, they can show up at the original time and place, and I’ll be there to administer it.
My wife is an independent bookkeeper, and I help her out. Our business is run out of our home. She has a few on-site clients, so if we have to quarantine she’ll have to cancel her visits, but we can do most of our work from home with no disruption.
My daughter, who is autistic, graduated high school last year and is in her first year of a community transition program in the same school district. They announced last night that Spring Break is starting a week early, and extending a little bit. Students went to school today, and are now off until April 1st. Tentatively, I’m sure.
All high tech companies have employees work from home if possible. Buildings where I work still have the receptionists (who admit to being bored) and maybe 5 people in the entire building.
Social distancing, stopping all gatherings of 250 or more (I think. Maybe it is 500)
local ski resort has shut their indoor food service, and limited lodge access to bathrooms and 7 minutes to warm up starting tomorrow. Today the bar was packed and the seating changed from long row tables to separate tables.
LA Area:
Chapman University, where my eldest attends school. Is in Orange CA, a couple miles away from John Wayne Airport and Disneyland. Announced on Wed and went to on-line classes on Thursday. Recommended that students all go home. But would you rather be in sunny warm Californina near the beach, or in the Seattle epicenter. Eldest is far safer in an empty school apartment there than back in Seattle
It hasn’t affected us much, yet, except that we’re making sure we have plenty of food in the house, and I no longer have to go to the client one day a week (which was an unnecessary exercise, except the contract said “x days of warm bodies in the building per month”). I expect we’ll begin to feel it soon though - it’s one thing to stay home nonstop because you want to, versus because you have to.
My husband will now be teleworking full time which will be an adjustment for him - he doesn’t work as well at home.
I may be driving to Vermont, either this weekend or the next, to help my daughter move to a new apartment. I’ll have to map out my route carefully to avoid any hot spots, and make sure I have food for the drive so I don’t have to stop at any restaurants. We normally take a westerly route to avoid NYC, but we may stay on I-81 much longer than we normally do (usually we bounce off of Albany one way or the other). Hopefully hotel rooms will be available en route (and in her town), or I"ll have to push the drive in a single day and stay on her air mattress :eek:
Archdiocese of San Antonio has canceled Masses and public gatherings at least until March 31. I’m guessing that will be extended, as there’s nothing special about that date. During Lent, FFS! Like everything in Texas, the Archdiocese is ginormous and includes 139 parishes in the city of San Antonio and the following counties: Val Verde, Edwards, Kerr, Gillespie, Kendall, Comal, Guadalupe, Gonzales, Uvalde, Kinney, Medina, Bexar, Wilson, Karnes, Frio, Atascosa, and the portion of McMullen north of the Nueces River.
My cousin’s kid’s Bar Mitzvah is today. A lot of the attendees either decided not to travel to it or are local but elderly and are hunkered down at home. So they decided to live stream it for those who can’t make it.
He and all of his friends were going to go to the Laker game tonight but obviously that’s not happening.
We are on “recommended” work from home for a month, and people are taking the recommendation quite seriously. I went out and got myself a new external monitor and keyboard, because working through the laptop screen and typing on the tiny keyboard is painful.
Our school board met last night and pulled the plug. All schools out until April 6th. They basically just added 4 days to Spring Break, which was due to start on the 20th. All of our debate tournaments for the rest of the season have been cancelled. Nice money-saver for the team, but a bit of a slap to our seniors.
Our big(?) concern was for the cats, but I stocked up on litter today and Chewie just dropped off a hernia-inducing box of canned food and such, so the Lord and Ladies of the Manor are now better supplied than their human staff, and we’re stocked for a couple of weeks easy. That’s just prudent in Earthquake Country.
My 10 year - old usually spends a good portion of his spring break with my parents who live ~3 hours away.
This year I’m not letting him go. This morning we had the first case of community transmission in our county.
They’re in their 70s and my dad is missing part of a lung from cancer surgery a couple years ago. It’d probably be fine, but if they do get it he’s probably dead. Everybody is disappointed.
I had an appointment at the Apple store today to fix the cracked screen on my phone. There is no more Apple store.
I did go grocery shopping. The place was a madhouse. “You don’t understand what’s happening,” an employee told me when I mentioned that there were, well, a lot of people. “Everybody’s panicking.”
The county executive closed all schools (but not day care centers, yay) for the next two weeks. We’ll see if it continues. Also, the college where I do some work is going to virtual learning for the foreseeable future. I can do virtual learning with the students, but the issue is that the seminar I’m running is predicating on them doing field work in actual schools. Since the schools here are closed and since the students aren;t coming back, I’m not sure how (or whether) the whole thing is going to work.
And my wife is nearing 60 and is immune suppressed and on disability and hasn’t left the house in nearly 2 weeks.
Scar tissue massage (for medical reasons, not relaxing or enjoyable) cancelled. Workshop I was going to lead and be paid for cancelled. Looking forward to a week at home grading, cleaning, and maybe planting my victory garden.
There is a shortage of pasta on the shelves. We have some, but since it’s shelf stable we decided to make noodles from scratch for tonight’s dinner. However, we did yard work all day and now are preparing dinner that will be served around 11 pm.
Been ordered by DOD not to travel which is fine by me. Not wanting to go anywhere anyway. Hubby has a bad heart and has had other issues of late so he is under my orders not to venture out unless absolutely necessary. He says OK but we shall see. There are no known cases in our county but some in Miami about 130 miles away.
<Virtual high-five>