Corona virus, what's different for you.

In a rare case of good timing, I retired in January, so I don't have to worry about work, and the pension and SS money just shows up electronically.
We basically sleep till 8, then from breakfast to lunch I'm online seeing what's what. Read a while in the afternoon, take a 30-to-60-minute walk, build models, watch TV after dinner. We were never social butterflies, and we both have hobbies, so staying inside for a while is no strain at all. No need to drive anywhere, and our gas tanks are nearly full. My wife hasn't kept up her drawing skills since art school, so she started up again and, holy shit, she hasn't lost a stitch with it.

When we did our regular shopping two weeks ago, my wife decided to stock up for a month. We got lots of food, but not so much as to rob others of needs. Just, like, twice normal, and stuff we would definitely use. Then we hit Stop & Shop's new senior hour a week later (last thursday) at 6AM to make up what we couldn't get at first. So did all the other old people in the area. If I got the virus, that was the time - shoulder to shoulder jostling for paper products. The meat was out, so my wife tried the town's Farmer's Market, which was 100% stocked! So we good for a month, with a possible excursion to refresh the milk supply if we can find it.

Diners, delis and restaurants are doing curbside pickup and some delivery. We have a town facebook group, and people are keeping each other informed on what store is well stocked that day. I see people taking walks and walking their dogs all the time, crossing the street to keep distance from each other. I saw a guy teaching his wee son to ride a bike in one of the cul-de-sacs! Making a nice memory in the midst of a sucky one. I saw two families having an afternoon "gathering" by sitting on opposite sides of the road and chatting. My new neighbor is still fixing up the house next door, coming and going a few hours a day.

My mother is a 90-year-old shut-in in SC, with COPD, arthritic feet, bent in half with back injuries and needing a walker to move at all. She has a service of visiting companions a few hours a day. So 'm hoping to hell those girls keep healthy, 'cause Mom is dead if she catches it. I may not even get down to visit this year. I ain't getting on a small regional airliner with a pandemic in progress, especially since I could then give it to Mom. And if United is cutting flights, well, they only ever had one flight to where she is. Oy.

I finally heard from a friend at the old job - my direct coworkers don't bother answering my emails, I guess they're happy I'm gone. . Since L3Harris is a defense contractor, they're still open. They're letting as many people work from home who can - contracts, finance, payroll, etc. Those people required to be physically present have been given a "doctor's note" to show police saying they're engaged in vital DoD business.

My wife worked for a school supply business. She friends with her replacement and called a few days ago - she was still at work 2 hours late (that's unheard of there) trying to catch up, but the owners were considering closing down completely, since the schools are out for the year. That may kill the company completely.

I have either a seasonal chest cold, allergies, or the mildest case of plague ever. Slightly tight chest, light snuffles, slight shortness of breath after exercise (which is not too different from normal at my age), but enough to keep me worried as long as it lasts. They say not to bother the nice busy doctors unless you're showing bad symptoms, and mild cases recover by themselves, so I'll just wait it out.

I have almost the exact same thing. No fever, no cough. If it were any other year I'd just assume I had a mild rhinovirus or else seasonal allergies (I get allergies EVERY year and Phoenix plants bloom early) and barely even register it in my mind. Right now I am in full mental panic even though all of the "experts" around me insist that the fever is "the thing" you need to worry about.

Oh, and sports. Glad we got our Cup last year, but I was hopeful we could get past the second round two years in a row. And I was using hockey highlights to wake up the toddler each morning so he wouldn't take half an hour to eat his cereal . . . of course, he doesn't have anywhere to go now.

In no particular order....

Pro golf and football is off, now working from home no question. Schools and nursery's shut so it's not ideal, fortunately the Stallioness is a teacher so she can be at home. Work is a major pain in the tits as the majority of my work is for government, national, regional and local, plus airports. So things are a bit hairy. My dad has numerous ailments including cancer and he is proper high risk so I have locked him away and the kids get to video call him. Restaurants and bars are all now shut except for takeaway. Had been very much into the gym last 6 months, gyms are now closed. Had to cancel Easter break and it looks like Disney in the summer will also be canned - that will be a nice conversation with the 5 year old. Looks like we will be getting a full lock down any day now. Purchased Disney+ subscription to keep the mob happy - starts tomorrow.

Aside from that, all good.

Catching up on/ watching old episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I'm lovin' it.

If you should die of the virus? Hmmm....

My old friends of the Cayman Islands have some adjustments to make. First they banned cruise ship calls, which will cripple the part of the economy not involved with tax evasion and money laundering. Now His Excellency the Governor has imposed a 9pm to 5am curfew. Violations carry a fine of $3000 (Cayman Island dollars) and up to a year in the slammer. They also are requiring all residents who are returning from off-island to self-quarantine for 14 days.

I've been out exactly 3 times in the last 2.5 weeks. Yesterday and just before the shelter-in-place order for groceries (lots of things missing. Couldn't buy eggs, popcorn, good hot dogs, or oatmeal), once to get takeout from across the street. Going a little stir-crazy. It's a good thing my apartment has stairs, or I'd be getting no exercise at all.

Oregon's on lockdown now and imposing martial law after midnights. Kroger has issued paperwork to bypass the curfew to its Fred Meyer and QFC employee, so that's one less concern for me.

I've been working from home since last week. Other than that, it hasn't been all that much different. We go to Sams once a month to get chicken, pork chops, steaks, ground beef, and stuff like TP, and we made another quick trip for some cases of Chef Boyardee raviolis and Dinty Moor Beef Stew before shit started getting real, so we were already stocked up. Even so, I've been to the grocery store once every other day for ancillary stuff like bread and eggs, and they've not been totally out of stuff, so I haven't walked out without what I walked in for...just have to hang up the brand loyalty. All the fast food restaurants are open. Went to Wendy's for lunch today. Started bulk buying ammo when Trump got elected. I'm good. I've already got my territory mapped out for when I go all warlord.

All McDonalds got shut down in the UK yesterday. They played a blinder however by advertising to the nation that it was the last day. All drive throughs queued back blocking up roads just so people could get their last Big Mac. If thats what happens in the UK, imagine the scenes if they shut them down in the US.......

UK lockdown... I've been semi working from home the last few days, but as I can get teaching stuff done pretty efficiently without students pestering me this has led to more free time that now we can't go out and use... I need to do something to avoid drinking too much of evenings (no pressure to get up early...)

Gonna try and start some home exercises. I have the barbell and dumbbells and going to try and do situps regularly. Beat Saber on the VR headset for some cardio (might look at a new game that's based on "Hole In The Wall" too - though how it tracks leg position on the Oculus is unclear).

Good thing is I might need to ration booze anyway - no home delivery slots going unless in at at-risk group. Amazon Pantry has fuck all. It's mixers more than anything. May have to fall back on the single malt since it doesn't need any.

More concerned about Mum - she's on her own (well, dog) and over 70. She'll go stir-crazy with only 1 dog walk allowed a day and no visitors. Trying to call/Skype more often, but her internet went down this morning - probably all the cunts in Birmingham logging on to try and buy food online.

Dinty Moore and bonus ammo. Locked and loaded!

We had a new fence installation scheduled for today. Waiting to hear if they're allowed. Supposedly construction crews are still allowed to work, being outside and all. But the governor upped the restrictions last night because people were still ignoring the distancing thing.

Let's see. First, I hope you're all doing well and no one has killed anyone yet.

Two and a half weeks ago I was at an international conference with people from about eight countries. Probably 200 people there and there wasn't much concern about this problem. Four days later (12th) schools were closed until April (just extended till April 20th) and we decided as a family to go full lockdown. It was unbelievable, around noon on the 12th you could feel the whole situation turn on a dime. I took the following actions. Keep in mind there are just the 3 of us, myself, wife, young daughter.

Hit Stop & Shop to the tune of $393.00.
Hit Whole Foods for $67.00
Gas in the car $50.00
Panera $23.00
Liquor Store $50.00
My wife had hit Sam's a couple days earlier for cleaning supplies and paper goods for about $150.00 and I had spent about that much earlier in the week as well.

So what could I possibly have spent all this $$ on? Everything from toiletries, meats, pasta, breads and fresh/frozen fruits/vegetables. We have a second large fridge/freezer in the garage so it's really helpful for times like these. We decided at this point we would have no public exposure and arranged the Pea Pod delivery to fill in with the fruit/vegetables, milk, etc. We actually received an order yesterday and I have a process of removing packaging from these items to mitigate the risk. Took over an hour to do this. Oh, we had done some delivery pizza/Chinese food initially, but we've shut that down as well. We can make our own.

We're lucky that we can both work from home. I always do unless I travel and she does twice a week normally. Her company is now full-time remote, probably for good! My daughter's school had them using a Chromebook for most of their homework anyway, so this is no big deal at all. But she misses her friends, her teachers, the vibe of her school. She does get to video chat and call several friends so at least there's that. For those who have young kids I think it's important to structure their day as if they were still at school. Breakfast, morning work, recess, snack, more work, lunch, etc. Seems to work for us at least.

We've also taken this opportunity to work on home improvements, which is just a continuation of what we've been doing for several years. Last summer we put in a new kitchen and it's fantastic. Makes this situation much more palatable. So we're currently working on the laundry room and it's pretty close to being done. Along with this we're looking forward to getting outside and working in the yard for so many reasons, lol. We also are finishing a security system install.

I'd say that the first few days were hardest and that the past week or so has been somewhat easier and actually interesting. I cleaned the treehouse with my daughter, we had a family game night, and had Sunday morning breakfast all together, which rarely happens. Great stuff.

So that's the good. Here's the downside for us.

Our daughter does amazingly well in a blue ribbon school. tremendous grades, great balance of activities, fantastic environment and wonderful friends. While she's doing fine she (and all the kids) misses the whole experience. Hers is a really special class too. Most of the parents of the kids all make a special effort to get them together outside of school on weekends whenever possible. Swimming, roller skating, parks, crafts, etc. All this is missed. She also misses her other activities, tennis lessons and parkour. It's a pain in the neck being the driver for all these things but I wouldn't want it any other way.

My wife misses just going out and doing things all families do. Just family time on a weekend Saturday, for instance. Going to Lowe's/Home Depot, lunch, visiting other family, taking our daughter to the outlet stores or the mall, etc. She also misses her group of girlfriends with whom she's very close.

As for me, I miss it all. Traveling for business never looked so good! I really miss playing racquetball, which I normally do 4 days a week. Finally, I also miss watching sports. I hope they play the Masters this year, but they may just cancel it.

That's all I've got for now. Be safe, everyone.

Because my work is (mostly) critical infrastructure, I'm still on call. We are set up to work remotely, but if a pump house or wastewater treatment plant controller goes down, I've gotta get my ass out there. Also having groceries delivered. I've got plenty of meat, stocked up when China started admitting it's bio weapon got loose, but milk, bread, eggs, ect. I still have to get every few weeks. Online shopping everywhere is rationed. (also have 20 cases of MREs)

Can't see it myself, the course is a burnt out wasteland in Georgia summertime, and would they really put it on in Autumn with no Azelea's etc and the 2021 Masters due only 6 months later - probably not. I think sadly, we are out of luck this year.

Yup, they can still work. Rescheduled for tomorrow because their supplier got the fence to them late.
I can tell you the lawn care companies are certainly working!

So I'm about at the end of my 14 day quarantine. I'm finally all set up to work from home, or at least what little I can do from home. Had to buy a CAC reader, update my WinDoze box to Win10 (I've been on 8.1), and subscribe to Office 365 - I don't use Office at home, preferring to avoid Microsoft's endless problems. My agency is still very much in flail mode, trying to figure out how to operate with all the virus restrictions. For example, we've been told that if we use public transportation (DC Metro, busses, like that) we have to quarantine for 14 days afterward. So no-one is using public transport. And yet our agency shuttles to the metro stop near us are still running. Only the gubbermint, folks.

Working from the office for now, but a few minutes ago one of the IT guys came by and asked if I wanted to take home my desktop computer or use my personal one.

The majority of our employees have been working remotely for about a week, but a few of us actually need to be in the building. In my case it's because I have equipment orders that are arriving almost daily and I need to be here to take delivery of them and arrange distribution to the field crews. As I put it the other day, in this "war" I'm more of a supply sergeant than frontline soldier and I need to be where the supplies are being shipped.

Yesterday the mayor and county judge announced a shelter in place order that goes into effect tonight. News media are exempt and I've got a copies of a couple of official CISA letters stating that I have the right to move about the city.

This is my first day after isolation. Had no symptoms, but had contact with a likely carrier two weeks ago. I felt like I was locked in and waiting for my release; then when I woke up this morning and knew I was allowed to leave my house again, knowing that was enough. I thought eh, I still have enough supplies, and stayed in.

Of course, while I was in isolation Germany has gone into shutdown, so I wouldn't be allowed to do more than go for a walk alone or to the supermarket anyway. The university is almost completely switched to home office. We are trying to figure out how many of our courses we can replace with digital class rooms. Colleagues are actually beginning to miss one another, which is sweet; we have digital tea hour, when we just log onto skype or zoom together with no agenda other than talking for an hour or so.

$50 at the liquor store?

Were you buying pints?

[/quote]

$50 at the liquor store?

Were you buying pints? [/quote]

Liquor stores here are called package stores, selling liquor, beer and wine. I've actually never purchased a pint of liquor, but I wonder about those hardcore people who purchase those tiny bottles. Twice in the past couple years I've seen them drinking them while behind the wheel and called the police with their plate numbers. They can't wait to get home?

I meant why spend so little unless it's low-grade booze.

Liquor stores here are called package stores, selling liquor, beer and wine. I've actually never purchased a pint of liquor, but I wonder about those hardcore people who purchase those tiny bottles. Twice in the past couple years I've seen them drinking them while behind the wheel and called the police with their plate numbers. They can't wait to get home?[/quote]

I meant why spend so little unless it's low-grade booze. [/quote]

Ohhh...no, just stockpiled a case and a half of beer for the next few months if necessary.

GOOD GRIEF! FIX YOUR QUOTES!

Went to go pick a prescription today. Would have had it delivered but they aren't set up to take debit by phone.

To get to the pharmacy requires entering the hospital concourse where they've set up a shielded booths to screen you before entering, even though it's nowhere near any medical/patient areas. Hand sanitizer and a surgical mask just to pass through... but it makes sense.

I've stocked up on nicotine lozenges to help ration smoking for now.

Groceries haven't been much of an issue. Neither of the two national chains near me have parking and most housing around me is either single family or single people, while the UofT student population has mostly evacuated home. Crowds haven't been much of a hassle.

Trying to get out for an hour walk around daily and wave to friends from across the street. Competitive street drinking league is naturally not happening.

Both laundromats near me are shut... kinda inconvenient as I REALLY need to do laundry. Gonna have to check the third place tomorrow that's more of a walk

Kind of stressed about if I'll have a job to go back to, let alone eligibility for relief until then (cash gig).

That one got away from me.

Well, the comic book shop is open for curbside pickup if you call in your order.
But the governor said he'll prosecute anyone doing needless traveling (it's about 12 miles), so I think I'll wait till martial fucking law is lifted. I hope they survive the shutdown.