How are you dealing with life now with the Covid-19 virus situation? (12 Viewers)

[jayembee]

Most of the activity on the subject now seems to be in the vaccination thread.

Anyway, I wanted to mention that there's at least one thing that appears to be headed in the direction of "back to normal". The last few weeks, I've been noticing that supply chains appear to be back in action. The last several times I've been in the local Sam's Club, they've have a large stock of cleaning supplies, paper products (wet wipes, T.P., paper towels, tissues, etc.), meat and other assorted food stuffs that seemed to be hard to come back not all that long ago. The same is true at the local Wal-Mart, supermarkets, and the other Usual Suspects. At least, here in New Hampshire.

Are you guys seeing this in other parts of the country as well? Or are some places still experiencing supply problems?

 

[Malcolm R]

I haven't really noticed any recent shortages of anything. I was at Costco recently and they seemed fully stocked, save for 40-packs of Kirkland bottled water. Though this was as Texas and others in the south were having their freezing electricity/water crisis, so I thought perhaps they diverted their bottled water down south.

Supermarkets and Walmart also seem fully stocked. The only thing I've noticed is that some stores are still missing some Lysol products (disinfectant spray and laundry sanitizer, mostly), though those seem to be coming back, as well. Clorox has also come out with their own laundry sanitizer that seems readily available in many places. Costco was fully stocked with multi-packs of Lysol spray, so maybe they're getting stock before the smaller stores receive individual cans though I have seen some of these recently at supermarkets and Walmart.

Masks and sanitizer are on steep discount/clearance in many places. TJ Maxx had tons of reusable masks and sanitizer on clearance a couple weeks back. I didn't really need more, but picked up a 5-pack of reusable masks for $4. Costco had 50-packs of disposable masks for $9.99.

There was an article on CNN yesterday that Costco is having issues receiving shipments of imported cheese, so that supply may be spotty in their warehouses. The horror! A first world problem, to be sure.

 

[TJPC]

Continuing with trivia. Due to a heart condition, I am to stay away from caffeine. Up until a year ago I purchased decaf/diet Coke or Pepsi in the can. This became unavailable last year. I happened to see the Coke representative unloading in the grocery store. He told me that for the "duration" bottlers have cut back on the varieties to only regular and diet. Sometimes I can find big bottles of what I want, but these should only be used for gym workouts.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Hmm... caffeine-free Diet Coke is readily available in the lower 48.

 

[Malcolm R]

Continuing with trivia. Due to a heart condition, I am to stay away from caffeine. Up until a year ago I purchased decaf/diet Coke or Pepsi in the can. This became unavailable last year. I happened to see the Coke representative unloading in the grocery store. He told me that for the "duration" bottlers have cut back on the varieties to only regular and diet. Sometimes I can find big bottles of what I want, but these should only be used for gym workouts.

Some varieties of canned soda were hard to find for a while, but has mostly come back around here. I like Fresca in cans, but couldn't find it for a couple of months. They claimed it was due to a shortage of aluminum and/or cans. Stores had signs up with this explanation. I also couldn't find Sprite Zero. Both are now back in most stores and prices of 12-pack cans in general seem to be dropping here, too.

 

[jayembee]

My local Sam's Club went through a phase where virtually no canned soda was available. My wife is addicted to Coke Zero, and that's where we usually got it (35-can flats for ~$12). And it was getting tough to find it elsewhere, as well. For the last month or two, it's been plentiful at Sam's again.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

My local Sam's Club went through a phase where virtually no canned soda was available. My wife is addicted to Coke Zero, and that's where we usually got it (35-can flats for ~$12). And it was getting tough to find it elsewhere, as well. For the last month or two, it's been plentiful at Sam's again.

IMO, Coke Zero tastes more like Coke than the regular HFCS stuff.

I can't say it's my regular soft drink of choice, but when I get the urge for one it tastes like a real Coke, dammit.

 

[jayembee]

That's what my wife says. Me, I can't stand Coke. Well, I can stand it if my wife and I are on a long drive home from somewhere, I have nothing to drink, and need to wet my whistle with a few sips. But no more than that.

For caffeine, I drink either coffee or some variant of Mountain Dew (currently, they have a "Zero" brand that includes the usual Green Stuff, but also for their new melon flavor). For non-caffeine, I tend to drink Ice (a brand of carbonated, flavored, zero-cal water).

 

[Johnny Angell]

Continuing with trivia. Due to a heart condition, I am to stay away from caffeine. Up until a year ago I purchased decaf/diet Coke or Pepsi in the can. This became unavailable last year. I happened to see the Coke representative unloading in the grocery store. He told me that for the "duration" bottlers have cut back on the varieties to only regular and diet. Sometimes I can find big bottles of what I want, but these should only be used for gym workouts.

How about coffee, do you have to drink decaf now?

 

[The Obsolete Man]

That's what my wife says. Me, I can't stand Coke. Well, I can stand it if my wife and I are on a long drive home from somewhere, I have nothing to drink, and need to wet my whistle with a few sips. But no more than that.

For caffeine, I drink either coffee or some variant of Mountain Dew (currently, they have a "Zero" brand that includes the usual Green Stuff, but also for their new melon flavor). For non-caffeine, I tend to drink Ice (a brand of carbonated, flavored, zero-cal water).

Oh, yeah, I remember that Ice stuff. When I first cut sugared drinks out, that stuff and some Pepsi brand of grape flavored water were about all I could stand. The diet/sugar free sodas just tasted like crap coming immediately off of liquid corn squeezins.

Over time, though, as the memory of the overly sweet HFCS stuff faded, sugar-free sodas became palatable, and probably taste better than the HFCS stuff really. So I went back to my lifelong Mountain Dew addiction with few problems. Wasn't a fan of that Zero formulation, personally.

Since I've gotten old, though, I do make sure at least half my daily liquid intake is just straight water. And that was a big hurdle to jump for someone who used to live off of caffeine and sugar.

 

[LeoA]

Only thing I've had troubles finding for months has been Diet Sunkist.

 

[Malcolm R]

Only thing I've had troubles finding for months has been Diet Sunkist.

Oddly, that was one of the only non-cola diet sodas in cans I saw around here for a while this past summer/fall.

 

[TJPC]

How about coffee, do you have to drink decaf now?

When I was working I used to drink about 10 cups of caf coffee a day. My health was always very good. About 10 years ago however, I was found to have sleep apnea and soon after was in the hospital with congestive heart failure. I still take about 8 pills a day, but the pills + my c-pap machine have mostly stabilized my health.

I am still supposed to avoid salt and caffeine as much as possible. Salt was easy to give up and most things I don’t make myself seem way too salty any way. For coffee, I probably have 4 or so a day now, with the first one of the day being caffeinated and the other 3 decaf.

 

[Mark Booth]

The soda bottlers dropped several of the slower selling flavors in cans due to a shortage of aluminum. Part of that shortage is being caused because consumers stopped taking their used aluminum cans to recyclers. I know that was true for us... at one point we had two garbage bags about 3/4 full of crushed soda cans. When I finally took them to the recycle place (plus some plastic water bottles) the guy handed me over $70.

The flavors we've been unable to get (at all) for months are: Caffeine-free Diet Coke and Caffeine-free Diet Dr. Pepper.

My wife does okay if she has some caffeine. I'm supposed to avoid caffeine. So we get just plain Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper for her and I have been drinking Diet A&W Root Beer (which is caffeine-free).

I'm looking forward to enjoying a Caffeine-free Diet Dr. Pepper when the product is finally back on store shelves.

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

A friend is moving to Montana next week. We drove to her place yesterday to spend a few hours visiting and to say goodbye. She is fully vaccinated as are we. This was our first opportunity to enjoy a lunch and face-to-face conversation (sans masks) with someone else in over a year. We got takeout from In-N-Out and ate it at her place. That Double-Double with grilled onions tasted especially good!

It was nice to enjoy a relative amount of "normal" for a change.

Mark

 

[TJPC]

As our Covid vaccines slowly roll out for people 80+ here in Canada, usually in mass centres with long lines, long wait times on the phone, or crashing websites, we got a call from our Doctor. Apparently in an experiment, certain medical centres in some cities were given a limited supply of the Astra/Zeneca vaccine that they can distribute to patients over 65 with pre-existing medical conditions. He wondered if we were interested! We of course jumped at the chance and receive the shots the next day.

We went to the quiet building where the Dr. has his office and where there is ample parking. Everyone was kind and pleasant. The shot took about 5 minutes, was totally painless, and so far has no side effects at all. We can't even find the spot now! The only "side effects" is a bit of guilt for "jumping the queue"

 

[DaveF]

So you’re part of some kind of AZ trial for efficacy in Canada? That’s cool. Especially since much of the rest of the world is using AZ so it’s know to work.

Unless this is a double-blind test, and you might have gotten the placebo dose?

 

[mylan]

Hmm... caffeine-free Diet Coke is readily available in the lower 48.

I've not seen caffeine free Cokes in Atlanta since last year. Last year there was a shortage of toilet paper and this year its pet foods. My cat only eats certain wet foods for the gravy, he doesn't drink water, and his flavor is constantly out of stock. A manager of the grocery store said they are having trouble sourcing ingredients and it is Covid related.

 

[TJPC]

We were not in a trial for vaccine efficacy. That is a given. The trial in Hamilton and a couple of other cities was of the delivery method. The question was whether having a Doctor set up appointments for his own patients and deliver the shots in his office was a good idea. We would definitely vote yes!

So you’re part of some kind of AZ trial for efficacy in Canada? That’s cool. Especially since much of the rest of the world is using AZ so it’s know to work.

Unless this is a double-blind test, and you might have gotten the placebo dose?

sv

 

[Josh Steinberg]

You shouldn’t feel any guilt; you didn’t do anything wrong. Everyone is going to need to get vaccinated regardless and it’s a process regardless. That vaccine will make it much less likely that you’d get sick, which in turn makes it much less likely that you’d unintentionally pass it on to someone else. Participating in this delivery trial will help ensure more people get vaccinated in a timely fashion. It’s a good thing you’re doing.