How are you dealing with life now with the Covid-19 virus situation? (1 Viewer)

[Malcolm R]

Yep, the highlight of life now is trips to the grocery store. Whoopee.

Many of the stores here that had reduced hours have largely resumed regular hours. Strangely, I think Walmart is still closing at 8:30 (they used to be open until Midnight).

 

[Josh Steinberg]

NYC released data showing public transportation ridership basically doubled this month over last month.

I think that’s terrifying.

Because the stay at home orders haven’t been relaxed, the social gathering restrictions haven’t been lifted, and there are no new exceptions or changes in what is or isn’t allowed.

So that to me says people are already saying in rapidly increasing numbers “F the death count, F the law, F the community, I’m gonna do whatever I want to do.”

And I think it is that kind of reaction and behavior that will cause this to last much longer and be much more deadly than it had to.

 

[Malcolm R]

Anecdotally, based on the status of the parking garage at the local airport, air travel must be increasing too. At the peak of "stay home," the garage was at 2% capacity. That has inched up to 9%, then 10%, then 12-13% for a few days. Today it's up to 15%. Prior to the pandemic, it was usually at 80-90%.

The TP aisle at one local supermarket was fully stocked today (though I haven't been to this store for a couple weeks), first time I've seen that in months at any supermarket. Though now there will probably be a glut of TP, as the manufacturers ramped up production and many people have hoarded a year's supply or more. Walmart has had a good supply over the past month or so. Oddly, another area supermarket was still completely bare of TP when I was there a couple days ago.

This store also had a good stock of earloop disposable masks, though they seemed quite pricey. A pack of 10 for $10, or 20 for $15. I supposedly still have a pack of 50 on the way that I ordered over a month ago (supposed to arrive tomorrow or Tuesday), so I didn't pull the trigger on these.

 

[Nigel P]

Agreed Josh, I am more concerned with the easing of restrictions (of which there have been very little so far) than when lockdown was at its firmest. Weather turned nice the other day and the amount of people hitting the beaches was ridiculous. People have had enough of being stuck at home and they want to go out so screw the consequences. They are talking about wanting to get schools reopened and people back to work, which I understand but it needs to be right way and I just don't have much faith in that happening. I hope I am wrong, but I think we will get hit with a second wave.

On a personal note we have had a death in the family, one of my Scottish uncle's who was in a care home. He had some health issues so once we heard he'd got it we knew his chances weren't good.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

That’s rough, Nigel, I’m so sorry.

 

[John Dirk]

@Nigel P - Very sorry to hear of your loss.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

We had a cool event at our local USA Hockey Arena today. The restaurant, called CJ's Brewery, attached to the arena does take out / curbside pickup. Today former USA Hockey National Team Development Program (NTDP) alumni and current NHL players Quinn and Jack Hughes, along with current NTDP coach John Wroblewski, were handing out orders at the curbside pickup -- we ordered a pizza. There was quite a lineup of cars getting orders, and local Channel 7 News was also on site.

FYI for you non-hockey fans, Jack and Quinn are brothers. Jack was the #1 overall draft pick last summer of the New Jersey Devils, and was the first player ever to go directly from the NTDP to the NHL. Quinn was the #7 overall pick of the Vancouver Canucks in 2018, and joined the Canucks after playing one season at the University of Michigan. Their youngest brother, Luke, currently plays for the NTDP.

EDIT: Here is an article about the event.

 

[Carlo_M]

Lol. Plague car. I bought 2 guitars during the pandemic. I'm going to refer to them as my "Plague Guitars".

 

[Clinton McClure]

This store also had a good stock of earloop disposable masks, though they seemed quite pricey. A pack of 10 for $10, or 20 for $15. I supposedly still have a pack of 50 on the way that I ordered over a month ago (supposed to arrive tomorrow or Tuesday), so I didn't pull the trigger on these.

I still have a box of procedural masks I bought last summer when my mother-in-law was undergoing chemo treatments for leukemia. I paid $12 at CVS for the box of 50. Two weeks ago, I had to order some for work through Amazon because they can’t be bought locally. I ended up paying close to $250 for 250 masks. Yesterday, I had to order more. This time I ordered another 250 and it cost me about $175. The price seems to be going down as masks are becoming more readily available.

 

[DaveF]

What are the Traditional and Modern Themes of Anniversary Gifts for the Pandemic-th year?

 

[Ron-P]

We are doing well, my wife works from home and because I work solo, I haven't really stopped, very lucky in that regard. Family is healthy and doing good as well. We have been saving a ton of cash due to not going out, no Disneyland and so on.

One nice perk, our local dive bar does "cleaning" shifts, it's total speakeasy status. No charge for cocktails and just tip out the bartender. Been going since all this started.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

What are the Traditional and Modern Themes of Anniversary Gifts for the Pandemic-th year?

Probably whatever the most elaborate home cooked meal you can come up with is, along with a promise to clean the kitchen afterwards

 

[Malcolm R]

I still have a box of procedural masks I bought last summer when my mother-in-law was undergoing chemo treatments for leukemia. I paid $12 at CVS for the box of 50. Two weeks ago, I had to order some for work through Amazon because they can’t be bought locally. I ended up paying close to $250 for 250 masks. Yesterday, I had to order more. This time I ordered another 250 and it cost me about $175. The price seems to be going down as masks are becoming more readily available.

Mine arrived today, a pack of 50 for $25. The downside was they were shipped from China and it took 40 days for them to arrive (ordered via Amazon on 4/12, arrived today, 5/23). A few of those days were touring the U.S., apparently. They seem to have arrived in New York, then went to Kansas City, then back to New Hampshire, and finally to Vermont.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Mine arrived today, a pack of 50 for $25. The downside was they were shipped from China and it took 40 days for them to arrive (ordered via Amazon on 4/12, arrived today, 5/23). A few of those days were touring the U.S., apparently. They seem to have arrived in New York, then went to Kansas City, then back to New Hampshire, and finally to Vermont.

I had a similar situation. I ordered a pack of 50 for $24.35 from Amazon. Like you, my order came from China. The order was placed on April 15th and it arrived yesterday, 05-22-20. My order took a more conventional route from Cali to Illinois then to Indiana and finally to Michigan.

 

[Robert Crawford]

By the way, I've got some more masks on their way and they are having a curious transportation route too. The order was placed on the same day as my other order April 15th. These are cloth masks made by a US company. The order was delayed for weeks and then reportedly left LA on May 14th, arrived in Detroit May 17th, and then sat there until today and now shows up in Indianapolis on May 23rd. What the "you know what"? I understand that USPS is overwhelmed, but damn.

 

[John Sparks]

Went to get my prescription and passed a park with baseball being played, walkers, runners, motorcycles in groups. Seems where I'm at, life is coming back to normal. Didn't see any mask wearing, but then I wasn't looking for them. I did wear one while in the pharmacy.

 

[DaveF]

Today: four mile jog this morning, a personal record. Some shopping in the farmer's market. And borrowed a friend's power washer and cleaned my deck. And listedn to the HTF podcast while doing it.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey guys, for weeks I’ve been wanting to re-enter this thread, I started it because at the time, I was feeling very concerned and stressed over the virus. And I wanted to see how people are dealing with the situation. I wasn’t feeling good about what the future will bring. The news everyday kept stressing the death toll numbers and the numbers of people who were infected, especially New York. So I turned away from the two Covid 19 threads and focused in on my job and the other threads for movies and TV shows on blu rays that allowed me a diversion. And an escape. I tried to avoid watching news 24/7 and limited it now. It was really feeling like the movie Omega Man.

So as of today, I’m less stressed because I’ve been able to sort of create a bubble in my house. I don’t go outside unless I have to, such as taking the garbage cans out. I’ve not gone to the grocery store in over a month. I started buying groceries from my local grocery store using Instacart. At first it was tough, as demand was so high and wait times were a week and items were mostly sold out but last time I was able to get a delivery the next day and most of the items I wanted was available. But there is still shortages. I plan to make an order today.

I’ve gone completely from a person who would not do on-line banking to embracing most of the functions. I was able to use my phone to deposit paychecks, I still have not done direct deposit. . And I pay bills online now. But I still won’t give my routing number out. I don’t want to go to the post office to mail checks. So it’s nice as I save some time from writing checks which is not fun. And I save on stamps.

Prior to the pandemic, I had started converting DVD and Blu Ray‘s of TV shows and movies to MKV files and built a Plex server in my Mac Pro. So now I’m able to stream and binge watch tV shows, an episode a day, so that’s been something I’m enjoying, revisiting Frasier and all Star Trek. I still have a long way to go converting TV shows and movies. I completed Star Trek TOS several months ago, I‘m almost done with Star Trek TNG, with other Star Trek series to convert still. I’m still watching films on blu rays on my main HT set-up. So not all films are converted yet. I’m continuing my weekly series from last year when I watched one Hitchcock film a week in chronological order. Except now it’s the Bond films. I’m up to Octopussy. And I also got the Star Wars Skywalker box set and I’m watching in chronological order in terms of the episode order, not theatrical release order. I’m watching one of those films a week. Or skip a week. The bottom line, it’s great I can escape into the fantasy worlds and other places via movies and TV shows.

Another thing I’m starting to do more is cook. It’s becoming a bit stressful to think of what to make. I bought a Instant Pot at the urging of a friend. I’ve made some stews and soups. So I’m trying to Make things that could last me a week for dinners. Several weeks ago, I saw a post by Josh that I wanted to address. He talked about making these great pork chops and that sounded really good. I have not tried getting any pork chops yet. I am admiring you guys who know more about cooking. I’ve found it’s a lot like my job. Once you know the steps, and have all the parts you need, it’s like building a model. In my job, I design stuff, and part of the job sometimes involves making things like mock-ups of the design, so I have that skill and can transfer it to cooking. I just need to be able to get more parts and supplies to make the models. Or recipes in this case. I can’t get a lot of stuff like corn starch still or active yeast. I wanted to make a pizza too. I miss a pizza. So need to find some more ingredients. And need to find more easy recipes so I can gain more experience. I need a nice set of knives too. And no, I’m not comfortable ordering take out yet. But I’m curious to try those pork chops.

Most of my days are full, I have a full time job that can go late in the day. So cooking and cleaning leads to a late evening. Weekends are sort of lost between personal time and projects and work stuff.

Carlo may find this interesting, I’ve stopped going out on my bike ride work outs since the first week of March. Instead I’ve set up an old road bike on an old trainer and watch YouTube videos and crank on that trainer for 30 minutes each day. I’ve been religious about it and consistently kept it up. The Apple Watch has been recording all three activity rings are closed each day. The Apple Watch is a really good tool to help encourage the work outs. I hope to get more into a weight training regime too. Nothing serious, but I’ve joked with my coworkers I’d like to get my fitness up and my body to the level of Strauss Zelnick. Ha, ha! ( look him up if you’re not aware of his fitness) Its great now that I don’t have my 1 and 1/2 hour commute to work and use that time to exercise.

Another thing that still has me stressed is anything coming into the house from the outside. When the mail comes, I put it in a box and leave it for a week. Which can be bad as I missed a bill. I joked on another thread that when the blu ray of To Catch a Thief and others arrived, I sterilized the shrink wrap before touching it. But I still wonder, did the person in the replication facility who placed the disc in the case touch it? I suppose it’s automated with robots now. I still feel uncomfortable with blu rays now! When groceries come in, I wash things like cans and bottles in a bucket of soapy water. For things like bread, I transfer the contents into new bags. Same with chips. For meat, I’ve removed it from the container and use new ziplock bags. Etc, I just spend an hour or two getting rid of packaging that I can and watching containers that are sealed. I put veggies in new bags and wash them well before I prepare them. Maybe it’s a little overboard.

I listen and read some of the latest medical news and science. It looks like it’s less likely to get the virus from surfaces like the food containers. And is 100% transmitted from aerosol droplets from someone exhaling or coughing. But I still want to wash stuff that I can wash and eliminate anything from the outside that’s new to the house. It’s extreme living. Felix Unger in overdrive.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Today I enjoyed my first round of golf with two from my normal weekend golf group. Since we didn't have a foursome, we had to come up with a couple of different gambling games (we play for very little money -- it's mostly for fun). It was nice to have some male bonding time, even though I came out on the losing end by $3 -- all because of an absolutely evil pin placement on the par 3 thirteenth hole. My golf league was supposed to start up each of the past two weeks, but poor weather has kept us off the course. We usually start in mid-April, so starting after Memorial Day is really strange.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Finally got sick of my hair, went out back, and shaved it all off.

That'll take me to the fall, when we'll see whether it's okay to go to professionals again.

To be fair, though, this isn't a corona thing... I've never seen the point of haircuts. I've either let it grow for a decade or so, or shaved it. There's usually been no middle ground. I've probably spent less than $200 on haircuts in my adult life.