Corona virus, what's different for you.

The bigger difference for new so far has been my commute to work. Normally around 45-60 minutes depending on traffic, lately around 30-35 minutes. And my gas mileage had gone up, from about 18 to 21 mpg. Work had been work, starting this week work is asking for volunteers with a temporary pay raise.

But seriously, traffic is so low now, it's crazy. On the interstates in Atlanta, the traffic is about what you'd normally see late at night or early in the morning. The typical 15-20 minute drive is around 5 minutes.

Still there's no toilet paper in the stores, bread is there, small amount of pasta, plenty of pasta sauce. The chicken is almost gone. Plenty of beef and pork. Water is cleared out, plenty of carbonated water. Milk was stocked yesterday, and beer is fully stocked. That's an essential right there. So at home I've got an ok supply of toilet paper, freezer compartment full of meat, plenty of carbonated water, milk, bread for a week.

How are things for you guys, any differences worth noting?

At home, no major differences since I'm something of a homebody. Most businesses in and around Boise are still open, although some are limiting hours, taking steps to keep people separated at the checkout counter, and so on. Bought a lawn mower at Lowes yesterday, and they are regulating the checkout lines to keep customers 8 feet apart. Don't know what difference that makes when everyone gets face to face with the cashier eventually, but whatever. Went to a pet store for some KMR for our mama cat/ foster kittens, and they are open but only meeting customers at the door, doing on-line orders and pick-up, and not allowing people to physically enter the store. The Verizon store is limiting the number of people that can be in the store at one time. Most of the restaurants are on the 'delivery / carry-out' model. Grocery store is mostly stocked; TP is in short supply, but we get that sort of stuff in bulk at Costco and haven't been out looking for it since all this started. My wife's big gripe is that she can't find eggs or chicken breasts, but she's gotten everything else she's been after when shopping. Dry cleaner was open and operating normally when I got home from my last trip on Thursday. No sense of panic around here at all, but a nice drop in traffic. As some of you may remember, I'm a mild prepper and my son takes it more seriously than the Mormons, so there is nothing in terms of vital supplies, weapons, or ammo that we're short of or stressed about. At present my job is not at risk, neither are either of my kids', one of whom is in law enforcement and the other in health care. My neighbor was laid off from his construction / contractor job, but his wife works for the state and is okay; they see it as temporary and aren't too worried. My son-in-law, a diesel mechanic, interviewed for a new job last week and got it, so he's leaving one solid gig for another, for what that's worth. Experiences and mileages may vary for others.

At work, airlines and GA are still running. FBO's are still open, flights are still happening. A couple ATC facilities, notably Midway and McCarron control towers, closed temporarily due to ATC controllers testing positive. The ATC system is equipped to deal with hiccups like this, although it can cause local delays and disruptions. The big problem for crews are the 'support systems' in terms of hotels, transportation, and so on. Some hotels are closing, all have closed their restaurants (except for some limited room service / carry-out, in some venues), UBER/ taxis can be hard to get in certain cities during the off-hours (early AM / late PM). In some places, rental cars can't be found. Caterers are hit-and-miss, and in some venues are hurting bad enough that they may not survive as working businesses. Private and Commercial flying has dropped off dramatically- airlines are less than a third full and tickets are pennies on the dollar. I flew a four-day tour last week and hit the following cities: San Jose, Reno, Bozeman, Waukegan, Minneapolis, Palm Springs, and Los Angeles (Van Nuys and LAX). No sense of panic anywhere, a few people wearing masks. Going home Thursday, LAX was gloriously empty and traffic-free. I saw several people with masks ditch them when they saw the majority of the people around them going about their business normally, not wearing them. I definitely see more people washing their hands in the restroom, the disgusting fuckers. (I commonly see people skip that step, and tend to avoid buffets like the plague even under normal circumstances.)

So, my overall experience has been that 'this sucks', but it's far from the zombie apocalypse. In terms of less traffic, empty airports and airlines and such, it's been downright...well, pleasant, from that perspective alone. Hotels are empty- therefore quiet and restful. The travel experience has been blissfully hassle-free. I'm not afraid of this virus, so I'm not worried about being out in the world when working. I'm limiting my human contacts to the extent that I can, but again, I'm not overly social to start with. I'm hitting the road again the middle of next week, unless lack of flying demand dictates that the company parks me at home. I get paid either way, so no worries.

Marso pretty much describes my experience in Boise. The biggest concern I have is that the gym I go to is closed. Exercise is something that's not optional for me. The weight loss surgery means that I have to load up on proteins and do strength training to keep from losing muscle mass. Cardio work is a bit easier to deal with since the weather is perfect for outdoor roadwork.

Can't get TP or paper towels or bleach at the stores. All restaurants and cafes closed except for take out or delivery. Hard to find chicken or beef at the store.

Work is a ghost town. Most non-"hands on" people are working from home. Can't have meetings with more than 10 people in a large conference room, or six in a medium, or two in a small. Splitting our non-"hands on" people into an A and B type rotation. While A is on site, B works from home, and vice versa. Basically I'll be at the site Mon-Wed this week, then home telecommuting Thursday and Friday. Following week on site Mon-Tues and telecommuting Wed-Fri. This pattern will continue until we return to business as usual or we go on a full lockdown (which I doubt, since I work in the semiconductor industry I highly doubt that we will shut down).

Since I am in Arizona (where it gets unbelievable hot) we are cautiously optimistic that the impending arrival of summer will dampen the worst of the spread of this thing.

No toilet paper, Lysol, or bread. Could only find organic $6 eggs. Limit on how much formula I can buy at once. That’s the only thing that really makes me nervous. I still have a decent supply of diapers and wipes, but I gotta make sure I can keep this nugget in formula. Was able to order some online but I will run out before it gets here.

Gas is at $1.79 at one station around here. Currently sitting in a bar/restaurant about 5 miles from my home. So that's one place that's open. Got an email from work, asking forr volunteers for other roles that may need to be filled. About 1/3 are work from home. With work paying two weeks for those who are self quarantined, need to be at home for kids or care giving, worried about coming to work, etc, and time off I have left I'll have over six weeks of pay coming if needed without actually having to go in. So there's that.

I'm worried about some of the people I work with. There's a few I know of that can't go more than 2 weeks without pay. Or less. Work does let us donate our time off to others if we want to. Only thing is I don't know if we can donate it directly to other employees or if it goes into a pool. If directly, there's two guys I'd be willing to donate a week to each. And one of them, probably two weeks.

I've been working from home for the past week. We can mostly work from home but being in games there is a lot of nervousness remembering the damage the GFC did to our industry. The Aus dollar is really low right now so hopefully that helps us but I'm only expecting a 50:50 chance of getting through this.

Australia is shutting down all non-essential locations as of today, so my wife is indefinitely out of work at midday.

My state did a soft closure of our borders over the weekend. Essential traffic can still move, but anyone else has to go into 2 weeks isolation after entering the state.

They put wipes in all the cockpits so we can clean all the places we touch. All those controls and buttons and knobs get grimy so it's been nice to get them cleaned up.

There's one bar still open in town, but they are limited to ten people. Restaurants are open for delivery or take out. TP is still scare and there wasn't a whole lot of meats on the shelves. Bottled water is scarce as well. I've been just watching a lot of TV and hanging out at the bar a few hours a day. I've been looking for jobs, but there's just not much out there. It's really boring. No lockdown, yet. It's going to be a looooooong next couple of months.

A @Prufrock sighting!

Working from home now everyday. It’s interesting to find out what used to be impossible is suddenly possible. And I’m working with two kids at home. That also used to be against the rules but not now! Though it is a pain to do it. I don’t give them enough attention. I’m on the phone all day now it seems dealing with client response to COVID.
Went to target today. Empty. Security guard on the TP. So I got a pack. Does TP treat the Corones? I don’t know.

All of California is locked. It seems every state is a few days too slow to react.
For us Amazon and all grocery stores are hiring on mass. Target was too. Some grocery stores are increasing pay too.

Am currently furloughed until the lockdown ends. Hopefully, there will be a job to go back to. Worst case? I have sufficient reserves to keep going for quite some time. It's not like I can start interviewing now.

Have ventured to the Safeway and Target a couple of times. Both stores were pretty well-stocked except, of course, toilet paper/paper towels/baby wipes, canned soups, and frozen dinners. I've gotten takeaway lunch from The Texas Roadhouse and the Outback Steakhouse a few times. They give you peanuts at the Roadhouse; I discovered the garbage disposal does not like to digest their shells.

In the meantime, catching up on my Criterion film backlog. Every time they have their 50% off sale, I go a little nuts, so I'm a lot of disks behind. Spun In the Heat of the Night, Shampoo (VERY young Carrie Fisher is the only reason to watch it, IMHO), The Breakfast Club, and The Virgin Spring (in rememberance of the great Swedish actor Max von Sydow) so far this week. Other than that, watching a TON of YouTube and streaming services. Am up to date with Picard and am catching up on The Mandalorian.

I've been working on my Russian and am determined to conquer adjective and noun declensions. Doing a little writing, a little drawing. Reading some work-relevent material. Am finally re-shelving and organizing my books.

Friends and family are pretty much as accessible as ever via social media. To my knowledge, I don't know anyone personally who has been infected.

As things started I went out and got food from Costco/Publix as I felt we were on the verge of having a panic buying spree. However I dropped the ball on toilet paper. Said I'd come back in a couple days and get it. Came back two days later and it was gone. Now I know. Don't wait. Just buy it.

I also got heavy duty wipes, the type you use in a hospital and it says to wear gloves with. Also got gloves. No masks. Not to worried about masks since in reality masks really won't do much to stop you from getting Covid-19 as much as keeping your distance and cleaning surfaces will.

Still have not seen any hand sanitizer though we did manage to get toilet paper because apparently someone at Bravo supermarkets was even more on the ball than anyone else in the country and had the company stock up on toilet paper and cleaning supplies when this thing first reared its head in China.

Since than eggs, bread, meat, fresh vegetables and fruit, canned food, and milk fly off the shelves as fast as it comes in. We have been able to get all at various points. Water is starting to appear back in the stores. I think soon we will see toilet paper again as eventually the population will reach a point where everyone has enough and will stop hunting for it.

I'm still working. It's day to day on what's going to happen. I keep expecting them to go to 12 hour shifts.

Wife's job shutdown but she may be working soon as she's an RN and her office is actually owned 51% by the local hospital.

Kids are off. Waiting for the school system to start computer learning.

Been keeping gas tank full as much as possible.

Just in a holding pattern basically.

You know what's not different for me? Baba getting on my fucking nerves.

He's spreading across the board like a weed.

Isn't it time to do some pruning?

Yeah, given everything that's going on I think we might have to start boxing his posts.

I blocked him ages ago and it improved my viewing experience on Wordforge more than any other person I blocked, except maybe El Chup.

I'm lame, so I don't do much anyway, but this past week my dog had been a bit more listless and it dawned on me after the order that the foot traffic outside our window had slowed down quite a bit even before I was stuck at home, so Sunny doesn't have as many passersby waving to him.

Our apartment has a lot of older people, including his favorite person who is unfortunately in the hospital for the lung cancer she's been fighting for over a year, so he can't even play with them

Baba is 10x smarter than you.

I don't expect hoards of zombies or gangs of toilet paper seekers, but I do expect the police will become less responsive going forward (they will be busy) and that some may try to exploit this situation.



Remember that things stay the same right up to the moment they don't. As any Boy Scout will tell you: be prepared.

This is just in case the .45 automatic seems inadequate to the task. I'm not breaking out the AR-15s...yet.

I get laid far less because

(a) I'm cut off from my harem in China and

(b) new Tinderellas are too scared to leave home and come meet me.

I'd imagine having that pulled out on someone would cause them to shit their pants, and with toilet paper hard to get, that's something no one wants right now.

Driving around is a lot nicer with the traffic thinned, but this means people are making crazy attempts to make left hand turns out of shopping centers and developments. I can cruise a lot better down the road, but there are a ton more jump scares.

The pool is closed.

It is interesting. I always try to keep space between me and people. I get pissed when that person behind me in line has to be right up next to me, or when people just come sit by me in a completely empty place. However, I got the evil eye from a couple of people because I was not far enough away from them. One old man even tried coughing at me. I just laughed because if he was actually sick he was dead.

People are walking and riding their bikes everywhere. There were people who did it before, but there has got to be a good 5-10 times more of them out there. It looked like a healthy happy day with everyone walking around.

I had a good laugh in walmart when I was trying to pick up stuff for dinner. I went to get some canned mushrooms and there was nothing in the aisle but hearts of palm. So I decided why not check fresh produce. All of the canned shit is gone and the fresh stuff is all there. Before you all get your hopes up, I cooked everything.

All in all coronavirus floriduh is not that bad. It is like everyone taking a few steps back from each other and being a little more isolated has made things better.

I only leave the house infrequently to go to the shop for essentials or to go running. The latter is really my outlet at the moment and I'm concerned that they may even restrict it as well since people are gathering together outdoors too much.
Both my wife and I are working from home and attempting to look after our one-year old simultaneously, which is not easy although we are avoiding conflict so far!
I'm starting to get a bit more time for reading which is a positive I suppose.

No doubt this isn't your first battle with a virus!

I am now down to three rolls of toilet paper before I have to go to the garage and get another 9 pack out of the BJ cube I bought a while ago. I am not sure how many 9 packs remain in the cube. I may not make it and might have to kill for TP in a few months. I cannot believe it has come to this. I must keep my butt clean and not waste the divine squares of anal wipage.

If I should die from the virus I leave wordforge my great treasure of whatever is left of my TP so that you may carry on wiping the shit from your bunghole. It is my wish that you use it in peace and harmony with the community, but don't get too close because you might die.

For now I am jerking off into a crusty sock to save on tissues in case I have to use them in lieu of TP. OH THE HUMANITY!

Corona is like herpes. Most of the world's population will be infected sooner or later; few will have noticeable symptoms.

Been isolated at home since last Monday, when I found out I'd been directly exposed to someone since hospitalized with the virus. Checking in with work by phone. Official instructions as of Friday are that my directorate is to work from home as much as possible - which for me means there's very little I can do. Wednesday will mark two full weeks since I was exposed, and as I've no symptoms in evidence, I'm expecting to go back to work, at least long enough to catch up on official information.
Not going out aside from my girlfriend's house. She was exposed to the same guy I was, so we're not taking much of a risk by doing this.
Traffic seems thinned out. Otherwise not noticing a whole lot of differences.

Yeah, I went to the big supermarket a week or two ago and nearly all the chicken was gone. Specifically chicken. Target was out of all but four of the cheapest toilet rolls, but there was plenty at the little supermarket here in town.

At FleetFarm the other day to get my tires replaced, walked into the store -- pasta mixes and soup cans almost all gone. Rest of the store seemed in decent shape.

KJ's on baby leave deep into May, so one way or the other this doesn't affect her income, but her doggy clinic is going to emergencies and sick cases only and cutting hours accordingly. It's a well-to-do clinic so I have no worries about it going under. I'm in food of all things, so I'm continuing to get 40 hours per week and hopeful of that continuing through the worst of this. I'm not worried about us, other than thinking of the virus getting into the baby and having a week or two to proliferate before we notice it's there.

But church is suspended indefinitely and I'll probably have to get my hair trimmed by KJ soon. The toddler's school called and offered us an opt-out of attendance and KJ agreed so he'll be staying home for a while. My parents were going to come up next month and again in May to see their new grandbaby, and maybe they won't get to now.

We're in the countryside so plenty of space to go walking, no cabin fever even with winter trying to get rid of the last bits of snow it was saving up. I think KJ is content to snuggle the baby most of the day anyway.