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

[jcroy]

If they're mostly small dishes w/ a few pieces ala appetizers (traditionally during daily brunch time), they're "dimsum", which essentially means appetizers as that's how we (are supposed to) treat them. It's mainly a Southern Chinese thing, particularly Cantonese. Normally, people also order some main course type entrees (that include a fair amount of carbs... usually noodles) to share after some dimsum.

I usually ended up eating several baskets of stuff which looked like "dumplings" with pork (or beef), and some bread-like thing with pork (or beef) inside.

We never had a "main course" after that. I was usually "full" by then.

I guess I've been eating "dimsum" completely wrong for this whole time.

 

[PMF]

Well, there’s staying the course when it’s necessary, but there’s also incorporating new information into your decision making process and making adjustments in light of that new information. In March, we didn’t know how it spread so it was prudent to take all precautions. Now that we do know how it spreads, there’s minimal value in fatiguing oneself with activities that don’t halt the spread of the virus. Being exhausted with taking precautions that don’t protect oneself just leads to general fatigue with all precautions, which increases the chance of letting your guard down in an area where it would be better not to.

Staying the course is inclusive of our gaining daily updates and making such adjustments accordingly. Either way, Covid is outrageously ever present; and fatigue will also be a player, at one point or another, for everyone involved. We must still maintain and adhere to the current guidelines; but most of all, we must never become complacent.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I usually ended up eating several baskets of stuff which looked like "dumplings" with pork (or beef), and some bread-like thing with pork (or beef) inside.

We never had a "main course" after that. I was usually "full" by then.

I guess I've been eating "dimsum" completely wrong for this whole time.

These days that's how we tend to end up doing it too... in part because of my very Americanized wife and kids, haha... and in part because we do a lot of that via takeouts (even before this pandemic)...

It's probably more a sign of increasing comfort and affluence than anything else... as dimsum (instead of relatively inexpensive, large, high carbs noodle or rice dishes) would be considered more of a treat/luxury in traditional Chinese culture (probably not too unlike sushi/sashimi in Japanese culture from what I gather). Dimsum, except for the buns type and maybe some sticky rice ones, don't generally fill you up all that fast and aren't that cheap (though that's kinda relative of course).

_Man_

 

[JohnRice]

I've been satisfying my dumpling needs with frozen ones. They're probably the same thing most restaurants serve, since actually making them would be pretty labor intensive.

I do miss the Asian buffet place where I can get some dumplings, some sushi, some Kung Pao and General Tsao's chicken and some egg rolls. Oh well. I also like pizza buffets, and we have a Mexican place that used to have a small lunch buffet. Time will tell what happens.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

For anyone in the NYC area who needs soup dumplings, check out Bund on Broadway (in Astoria, Queens) - they’re open for fresh takeout and delivery but even better, if you call the day ahead of time you can have them make and flash freeze a batch of them for delivery, and then you steam them at home and they’re perfectly fresh and wonderful.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

For anyone in the NYC area who needs soup dumplings, check out Bund on Broadway (in Astoria, Queens) - they’re open for fresh takeout and delivery but even better, if you call the day ahead of time you can have them make and flash freeze a batch of them for delivery, and then you steam them at home and they’re perfectly fresh and wonderful.

There are probably places like that throughout NYC area.

My wife just goes into the CTowns either in downtown Manhattan or Brooklyn Sunset Park. There are even one or two "holes-in-the-wall" places in Manhattan CTown that do that for very authentic Shan-Dong style dumplings/buns that are/were just $1 per set -- 2 sets and maybe a hot & sour soup (or maybe their traditional, warm soy drink) would be plenty for lunch for most.

Many of them are (still) out there (to some extent), but yeah, a little bit of an "insider" knowledge thing in whatever part of NYC (like a lot of other things)...

I've been satisfying my dumpling needs with frozen ones. They're probably the same thing most restaurants serve, since actually making them would be pretty labor intensive.

I do miss the Asian buffet place where I can get some dumplings, some sushi, some Kung Pao and General Tsao's chicken and some egg rolls. Oh well. I also like pizza buffets, and we have a Mexican place that used to have a small lunch buffet. Time will tell what happens.

No idea what's in your area in Colorado, but even as high cost as NYC is and how (relatively) inexpensive dimsum (and dumplings) can be, if they're all that good (and authentic), they would likely still be largely handmade/assembled (other than certain easily mass produceable ingredients like noodles, pieces dough and certain aspects of fillings perhaps).

There are some long established techniques/skills for dumpling making (by hand) and such that don't replicate so easily or well via machine. The strictly all-machine-made stuff usually don't come out as well, so some frozen ones (probably like the ones Josh mentioned) are still handmade at least in the final stages (of wrapping filling w/ dough). I learned how to do that for wontons when I worked briefly in a NYC restaurant during my college days many years ago (and my father, grandfather, et al all were in and around the bizz ever since moving here to this country). In full-service (all-day) restaurants, it's generally something (some of) the staff does during the afternoon lull (and also early mornings before opening)...

_Man_

 

[Malcolm R]

I understand they are open here in Colorado, but you are served at the dishes. I haven’t gone myself so I don’t know exactly how that works.

I had thought that might be a possiblity, if they re-configured as more cafeteria-style, with staff behind the counters dishing out the food based on your request rather than everyone serving themselves. Though that would probably cost a fair amount of money that most restaurants probably don't have lying around right now.

It would also be a lot of money for a change that would be (hopefully) temporary.

 

[DaveF]

Are we still cleaning everything before taking it into the house?

No.

Transmission by surface contamination is very low likelihood.

 

[DaveF]

Trying not to let a pandemic go to waste: hit a personal goal, taking the twenty out of 2020.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Trying not to let a pandemic go to waste: hit a personal goal, taking the twenty out of 2020.
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Way to go Dave! That’s most excellent!

Since my working hours greatly increased beginning last August, my free time (and thusly time for exercise) greatly decreased. My average work day went from 8 hours to 13 hours with a fair share of 16-hour double shifts and I’ve been averaging 4 hours sleep per night, with many nights only being 2-3 hours. My diet has consisted of mainly junk from the vending machine at work and fast food that I can wolf down in the car on my way home from work at 8:00 at night. Since last summer, I’ve gone from 250lbs to 275lbs. Now that we have hired another employee and my working hours are going back to normal, along with cooler fall weather replacing the hot wet sock humidity of Arkansas summer air, I’m trying my best to change my eating and sleeping habits, get exercise, and lose some weight.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey guys, it’s been some time since I posted here. I’ve been mostly trying my best to cope and focus on work and indulging in watching each Star Trek series and other shows.

However, there’s been a few comments earlier that I wanted to comment on as its part of my coping process. I’m still not comfortable going to grocery stores or other businesses. It’s too bad as I’d like to go to a place like Home Depot to find items I need for various projects on the house. But I’ve been writing this year off as one that I won’t be able to complete several projects.

About how the virus is transmitted, I’m learning as has been said above that it’s mainly through droplets and vaporized exhalation from people. The virus lives in the respiratory system. So I do wear a mask when I have had to go out. The mask is on before I walk out the door and I leave it on in the car too. But I still don’t feel comfortable touching anything. More on that later. Just yesterday I had to go into the office to review some components on a project we are working on and a visual inspection was required. I had to meet with two co-workers there. My company has very strict rules and we need to have authorization letters from the VP level to go into the office for essential work. And I had to scan a QR code on my phone and fill out a wellness questionnaire. I have to say I have not had a fever, or cough, or other symptoms. Then the security guard will let you in. I used gloves once inside. The part that scares me is I know one co-worker has two kids and she regularly takes the kids to school activities or for social gatherings as she feels that the kids need it. I’m sure there’s safety protocols during those school activities, but you never know. The other co-worker is a little cavalier about life and while she wears a mask, you never know. We did our jobs and I got out asap. It was uncomfortable for me to be there. But I suck it up. I used purel once in the car and changed my clothes when I got home. If the car sits for a week, I’ll know any virus in the car has not survived. I have not had the desire to disinfect the interior.

As I said, I don‘t feel good about going into a grocery store, so I still use instacart for groceries. I have a process where I bring the food into the atrium, which is still outside. And I wash bottles in a bucket of soapy water. I have a table inside where I place the food and I still use one side for the dirty side and a clean side on the other. I put meats into new plastic wrap individually and into ziplock bags. For other items in bags, where its easy, I pour the contents into a clean ziplock bag. I think I’ll look for resealable containers. It was kind of cool in the olden days where flour and cereal and grains were kept in resealable tins. I’m not feeling fatigued by this process. I’m trying to steamline it and be efficient. It does a couple of things for me, while the liklihood of virus being on the containers is low, it gives me more peace of mind. Also on a general sanitation effort, might as well clean the containers before placing them in the pantry, it might get dirty from being in the truck and in transportation. Then I can dump all the containers in a garbage bag I have next to the table.

I know the virus is transmitted via the air. But I still wait a day or two for Amazon packages and mail. Even the contents like Blu Rays still in shrink wrap are wiped with a cloth that has a Clorox and water mixture sprayed on it. I know it’s overkill.

I’m still not taking this lightly. Though I’m trying to see if I can go do grocery shopping again soon. And maybe go into Costco. I hear from friends that the stores are not crowded like they were back in March when everyone was panic buying anything they could. I’ll see. I must admit, I have all the Felix Ungar tendencies though I always was like that.

I think the news in the recent day spooked me a little. Though nothing has changed. The conditions where the infections that are making headlines now around the world were due to not following guidelines. If guidelines were followed, these infections of well known individuals would have been avoided. I’m feeling a little more the need to sterilize everything after I got back from the office yesterday though.

By the way, I wear an Apple Watch and it’s been great for tracking activity and workouts. Since right before lockdown, I stopped going out for my usual cycling work out, now I’ve been doing cycling on my stationary bike and I’ve been doing it everyday! It’s a regular activity I do that gives me some satisfaction. And I‘m sure it’s a stress reliever.

By the way, I wear a mask from Outdoor Research. I have two of those. They have flaps inside for inserting a filter material they provide too. It’s not claiming to be N95, but they feel it filters out most particles and viruses. But not medical grade. I feel better that there’s that added layer. On top of that, here in Northern California the air quality is very bad right now from the wildfires. So the mask might help there too. I do have n95 masks at home so I wear that when I’m outside in the yard.

I’m glad to hear a lot of you guys are more relaxed and dealing with the virus well. I’m still at high alert levels. I don’t think I could buy take out food or go to a restaurant. I do feel very fortunate that I still have a great job and I can be busy working.

 

[TonyD]

While I’m still feeling some cleaning fatigue I’m still doing it.
Most of the cleaning is done in the garage at the utility sink with soap, water and cleaning wipes.

Some things I just take into the house and right into the sink where I clean it.

We are going out to the stores when we need to.
My wife has been meeting with her friend and her sister poverty couple of weeks or so.

She is working in a hospital in the NICU so there is the stress from that.

Ive been bringing in extra cash to the house too because well we needed it.
The way I’m doing that is the food delivary services.
I do Grubhub, DoorDash and Uber East.

Started doing that last year but stopped for a few months when all this started.

went back into it when Holly wasn’t working because the hospitals were cancelling traveling nurse’s contracts.

I’m not thrilled about it but it brings in a decent bit of extra money and I have very very little contact with anyone.
About 95% of the deliveries are left right on the step at the front door.

@nelson I do wonder why you’re wearing the mask while in the car.
IS this while you’re alone or with someone else in the car?

 

[DaveF]

...

As I said, I don‘t feel good about going into a grocery store, so I still use instacart for groceries. I have a process where I bring the food into the atrium, which is still outside. And I wash bottles in a bucket of soapy water. I have a table inside where I place the food and I still use one side for the dirty side and a clean side on the other. I put meats into new plastic wrap individually and into ziplock bags. For other items in bags, where its easy, I pour the contents into a clean ziplock bag. I think I’ll look for resealable containers. It was kind of cool in the olden days where flour and cereal and grains were kept in resealable tins. I’m not feeling fatigued by this process. I’m trying to steamline it and be efficient. It does a couple of things for me, while the liklihood of virus being on the containers is low, it gives me more peace of mind. Also on a general sanitation effort, might as well clean the containers before placing them in the pantry, it might get dirty from being in the truck and in transportation. Then I can dump all the containers in a garbage bag I have next to the table.

...

I'm reasonably well read on the pandemic, I think, and comparatively conservative in how I think the collective "we" should handle the pandemic. And I don't know of anyone, including medical professionals who are going to such lengths much less recommend such extreme measures, especially in October. We were in high alert on surface transmission back in March. But seven months later, while handwashing and good hygiene continues to be recommended, the message I read and hear is transmission of COVID-19 by fomite (i.e. by touching stuff) basically doesn't happen.

I say this not because I want to be right in an internet argument -- increasingly I'm not talking about the pandemic online or in person, because I'm tired of it all.

More to say to an online friend: I think you can reduce your burden, reduce your anxiety, and simplify normal living with no increase to your personal risk.

I joke with friends, when I'm recommending some gadget, that it's easy for me to spend their money. Similarly, it's easy for me to tell you how to deal with the pandemic. I don't know your full situation, what increases or reduces your personal feeling of safety or anxiety. So, I hope my comments come across with the good intentions I intended.

 

[DaveF]

As for me:
I'm back in the office full time. My profession is ill suited for WFH. But they've found ways to spread us out in the office, and fill up other facilities that were previously underutilized. And we're wearing masks in common areas, meeting rooms, or if we go into someone else's office. They've even been installing "shower curtains" in some offices to create partial barriers between office mates.

I do grocery shopping weekly in store. I go Sunday mornings when it's small crowds. Everyone's wearing a mask. I've never used grocery delivery services. And then when I started thinking I should, local friends advised they were at capacity and I'd never be able to get a reservation now. That was back in April or May, and I never looked into it since then.

I do restaurant takeout. I've been supporting my favorite, literally mom-and-pop pizza place weekly with generous tips, since they re-opened for takeout around April. I do takeout from other restaurants probalby less than weekly; my restaurant dining is *way* down. I've not eaten in a restaurant since March. Where possible, order online, for quick pickup.

I've started getting my haircut again. Did it today, third time during the pandemic. I was reflecting on how this might be an extra risk I'm taking compared to many friends and colleagues. From what I've read, and relative to my office work and grocery shopping, I think it's pretty low. But, yeah, I'm making this decision that I gets might make me look non-conservative to others, and might not be recommended in pandemic.

I've taken up jogging the past six months. And I workout in my local park on Saturdays. I don't wear a mask when I'm running and exercising outside. I'm in the 'burbs there are maybe five people walking in the mornings, which I easily give go wide to have 6'+ separation. As Another way I've heard it said, is to consider shared breaths: I'm sharing at most a single breath with anyone I pass by. The park exercise section is typically empty. If anyone is there, we don't share stations, which are widely separated around a walking path. My gym is re-opened, but I haven't returned (I continue paying my monthly membership in hopes of returning next year). I've bought a bunch of cold-weather exercise clothes in hopes of continuing outdoor workouts this Fall and Winter.

I'm planning to get my flu vaccine in a couple weeks. I've heard it's best to wait until November. My wife, dubious, checked and said we should do it in October. So I compromised to mid October. (There's evidence the vaccine loses effectiveness after three-ish months, so waiting to closer to real start of flu season in November is recommended by some.)

I was planning to vote in person on November 3. My polling place has been low traffice the past 8 years when I'm voting. But I'm starting to reconsider. Friends have voted early / in person and said it's easy peasy. So I'm starting to consider more strongly doing that. I kinda want to cast my vote and get it done.

 

[Carlo_M]

I too am of the belief that the most likely method of spread is airborne, so I always mask up and, more importantly, avoid people who aren't masked like the plague (pun fully intended).

I still wash my hands and avoid touching my face as a precaution, but don't do it as diligently as I did during the early days of the pandemic (but still more than I did pre-March 2020). All the recent events in the news regarding high-profile infections...let's just say I'm pretty sure they weren't all infected touching the same door handles and then subsequently touching their faces. If anything comes of these recent developments, it's my hope that mask wearing rises exponentially (for those who were mask-deniers).

I will also be getting the flu vaccine, as I do every year. I usually wait until October so if flu season comes late it's still effective. So probably this week.

 

[Mark Booth]

Getting a haircut is low risk UNTIL such time as the barber/stylist is infected and doesn't know it. DISTANCE and TIME are two very important factors. Yes, if both are wearing masks the risk is cut significantly. That is, if they are both decent masks that seal well. If one of them is loose fitting or keeps falling off that persons nose, you could be screwed.

When you get a haircut the person cutting your hair is pretty darn close to you for about 30 minutes. Short distance and a long time.

When you go to the grocery store you aren't near any one person for more than a few minutes (mere moments for most people you pass). And I don't know about you, but I can easily get in and out of a grocery store in less than 20 minutes.

Going grocery shopping is far less risky than getting a haircut, IMHO. I am still cutting my own hair (with help from my wife).

Me, I wear TWO masks. Every time.

Mark

 

[HawksFord]

I'm back in the office full time.

It's the opposite for me. I worked from home from mid-March to mid-June when I made the choice to go back to the office. I was the only one in there, so it felt safe and I liked the generous amount of space I had in the office. But I'm in a small, remote location and the company made the decision to not renew the lease on that space. I can't blame them; it didn't make economic sense to keep the space just for me. Effective tomorrow, I am working from home on a permanent basis and I spent a lot of time this past week getting my home office set up.

I suspect a lot of organizations will be reevaluating their need for office space. If they have been effective with most people working from home, why maintain all that shared space?

 

[Clinton McClure]

In my line of work, I don’t have the luxury of working from home. Since day one, I have been going to my primary client’s office every day as well as stopping by field client locations to service their equipment. The unsettling part is that, even today, some client employees still wear their mask as a chin strap or only cover their mouth with it and constantly touch their mask and mess with it while they talk.

 

[TravisR]

In my line of work, I don’t have the luxury of working from home. Since day one, I have been going to my primary client’s office every day as well as stopping by field client locations to service their equipment. The unsettling part is that, even today, some client employees still wear their mask as a chin strap or only cover their mouth with it and constantly touch their mask and mess with it while they talk.

I occasionally see a person who thinks the mask mostly goes on their chin but I must see 25% of people not wearing them over their nose.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I occasionally see a person who thinks the mask mostly goes on their chin but I must see 25% of people not wearing them over their nose.

Irritates the shit out of me.