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Good to hear you're getting some help financially. Hopefully this will be under control soon, or at the very least public overreaction dies down and things go back to somewhat normal.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Good to hear you're getting some help financially. Hopefully this will be under control soon, or at the very least public overreaction dies down and things go back to somewhat normal.

More like political overreaction.

Back home with my folks in the Netherlands things aren't really any better with the measures taken, like reduced public transport, keeping a 1.5 meter or 5 feet distance (not 6 feet like here) from each other, the whole "stay home" advisory and working from home (something my dad already has been doing for years because of his health and importance), but the Dutch have a bit of a habit of disregarding things.
Case in point: what do we Dutch do with the prospect of staying home for weeks? We make the best of it by going out en masse, either to the beach by train, into nature, or to the Hardware store for working around the house.
My mom even had a bit of an encounter: she was out grocery shopping one day, and when she tried grabbing potato product from the open freezer, a "lady" bumped into her cart, got close, grabbed something and left. Mom being who she is yelled at her like "Guess you haven't heard about the whole 1.5 meter thing", but the lady yelled back that she had a Corona patient at home. (I guess that made her feel "more entitled"?) My mom: "What are you doing out here then?!"

For the record, they didn't touch, and no symptoms on her side. Still, inconsiderate much?

On the side, the A4 highway between The Hague and Amsterdam, that my dad uses for commute, is notorious for its traffic jams, especially in recent years. But now it's practically deserted. Yay?

Since this illness has been spreading and I'm staying home a lot more (because the government is overreacting and almost everything is closed), I've been going through some of my stored stuff. Recently I broke out my old Transformers VHS tapes and fired up my VCR, out of nostalgia more than anything. And boredom, I guess. Anyway, I just finished watching the tape with the 2-part G1 finale, "The Return of Optimus Prime," and couldn't help but notice the similarities in circumstances surrounding the coronavirus and the hatespores that were in the TV show. Just as with the virus, when the spores infect someone, that individual can't be allowed to touch others, and healthy people have to stay away. To defeat it, factions who despise each other have to put aside their differences for the common good and find a cure. I just thought the similarity was poignant if not ironic or a slight bit amusing.

These are the things I think of when I'm awake at 4 in the morning.

I hope everyone is still doing well and getting along despite the difficulties.

Nurse as well. The ward is half empty, making space for the estimated influx. A month or so ago it was a little subdued, and I called it. Don't trust it when it's quiet, I told the youngin's, it means something's brewing. Now look what we have! Of course, last time we had a run of peace, it was broken by a big ole bus crash, that's half what I expected.

I'm mostly annoyed at the morons on the book of faces posting the usual conspiracy nonsense about secret labs weaponising viruses, global communist governments and hidden cures.

Kinda worried about the old folk in the community, hope everyone is calling their elderly neighbours and relatives. My mum doesn't have the internet, but it seems that she's behaving and obeying lockdown.

Flatten the curve, buddies, flatten the curve.

We're good over here, not for lack of trying. People in the south seem to have a death wish. Caution to the wind, "we're all going to die from something" etc... Im trying to keep everyone's stupidity on a leash by worrying about everything more than anyone else, like always. My grandma's immune system is compromised, cancer treatment. So, if she catches it, she's done...its scary.

Then there are all these scum suckers going around licking toilet seats and opening food in stores and licking it to spread it further for clout online. **** those pieces of ****. I seriously hope I don't catch one of those people in a store near me, I don't know what I'd do.

I seriously don't understand why flights weren't shut down completely when this was a blip on the radar. This is getting out of hand and its only gonna get worse.

Just Negare wrote:Nurse as well.

Stay safe, sister! We have to get these dopes...errr...people through this!

Just Negare wrote:The ward is half empty, making space for the estimated influx. A month or so ago it was a little subdued, and I called it. Don't trust it when it's quiet, I told the youngin's, it means something's brewing. Now look what we have!

Of course, you have a Sh!tstorm! YOU SAID THE "Q" WORD!!!! SHAME AND DISGRACE ON YOU!!!!

Just Negare wrote:I'm mostly annoyed at the morons on the book of faces posting the usual conspiracy nonsense about secret labs weaponising viruses, global communist governments and hidden cures.

Well, what do you expect, they have nothing better to do sitting at home! Though, I do sincerely believe that China dramatically and intentionally misrepresented the severity of their outbreak for economic reasons. This is going to do a major number on their status of global manufacturing, especially considering three of the last four "pandemics" (SARS, Swine flu, CoVid 19) have come from the same region with the same etiology; businesses are taking long hard looks at transferring manufacturing out of the country as this gets more frequent. The new trade agreement between the US and Mexico may result in a massive boon of manufacturing there, especially as their president is all about creating a new blue-color boom there. Increased costs of manpower would be offset by dramatically lowered shipping costs, customs, and tariffs. This could legitimately be the end of China as an economic world power, at least in this iteration. And so far, Forbes, Business Insider, and the WSJ all are in agreement.

Just Negare wrote:Flatten the curve, buddies, flatten the curve.

There are certain curves I'd prefer were NOT flattened (looking directly at Alexandra Daddario, Kat Dennigs, and Selma Hayek)...no offense intended,sister!

Here in the UK I have a mediocre maintenance type job in a school which is still open, so am still having to work. (Even though we're deep cleaning areas that aren't being used by the small no. of kids with key worker parents that come in.) I'm in a catch 22, our scumbag company doesn't want to do the 80% reduction (Due to the having to simply freeze the contracts to enable it), so whilst we have guaranteed money for April, whilst we are still there - every day in April we work is a guarantee money for May - as we've no idea how long we'll stay open or what money we'll get for that month.

Practically everything is shut bar essentials like banks, chemists/pharmacies, supermarkets and all that sell food, petrol stations etc. Just about all have measures put in place whether it lining up outside or marked out zones inside the stores. Stocks are beginning to get back up but with restrictions of how much of certain products you can get due to all the greedy people that went out and bought everything out, not thinking of the sick/elderly or vulnerable.

I have my mask and don't care if I look silly wearing it because my outlook is this:

If it's a fight for survival, the boxing gloves are on and I'm ready!

Of course I am taking the necessary precautions staying home and only going out for essential work, food or medicine supplies.

I should have mentioned this earlier: since I am in grad school right now (with the goal to be a nurse practitioner), I do have access to scholarly articles and research regarding CoVid that the general public does not. If there are real, legitimate questions or you want data without bias from the media (they NEVER tell the whole story...EVER...no matter who it is) let me know and I can try to get you copies of the actual articles and research.

So far, I'm good.

Things are tightening up here. Walmart only has one single entrance open, and even that is separated into Enter Only and Exit Only (those "Enter Here" signs finally get some attention). Above that, the country judge is endorsing we all wear masks when out in public. My better half is the creative type, so:



Made more for the whole family.

Instead of being open 24 hours a day (most days of the year), Walmart is open from 7 am to 8:30 pm.

Important thing about masks: they do not prevent you from getting the disease because of how it is acquired so dont be careless. Even the N95 masks are not that helpful. It's due to the size of the virus. The N95 mask was designed to filter the microscopic spores used to transmit tuberculosis, solnit filters to a very small level. The problem is that those spores are still hundreds of thousands of times larger than the virus. Does it reduce the risk? Partially. Is it completely effective? Nope. Just be safe.

Yeah, I was given a mask at work, but I'm not wearing it. I just stay away from other people for the most part. I do wear gloves constantly and wash my hands often anyway. But those are things I did before this happened, so it's not a big deal.

Another measure put in place at the grocery store around the corner:

But how many people actually adhere to it?

Rodimus Prime wrote:But how many people actually adhere to it?

We didn't at the second visit Wasn't really enforced as the store was quite empty...

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:But how many people actually adhere to it?

We didn't at the second visit Wasn't really enforced as the store was quite empty...

Honestly, they should do that at grocery stores ALL the time. Inevitably I end up trying to get through the aisle that two hockey moms going the opposite direction happened to run in to each other and are talking for 20 minutes.

I still function. I saw that Netflix is doing a new transformers series, and it reminded me that seibs still exists.

It's been a few years since I've posted and I now live in Massachusetts. Everything is shut down here, same as everywhere else.

I'm still considered essential due to the nature of my job (emissions monitoring with a chemical company), but I haven't had any work to do since ~80% of the site is idled due to no demand. Technically I'm classified as a supervisor (on paper only, I'm at a solo site as a contractor), so I still get paid through all this, at least until my company says I don't.

I've had a rough couple years that just ended, and I actually have a new job lined up for may 4th with the site I'm at as a production chemist for them (I'm going from contractor to working for them). I was supposed to start monday, but that got pushed off because my replacement had to self quarantine for 14 days since he flew in from Texas.

All in all, I'm not getting hit too hard by this. My hope is that we can resume some sort of normalcy soon (TM), because I know the longer this goes on, the less likely that'll be true. I'm hoping everyone else here is doing alright.

Well, I'm going to disappear again for another couple of years. Take care everyone!

EDIT: Oof, rereading my post makes it seem like such a downer

It is wonderful to look around the site and still see names I recognize. I forgot how fun it is throwing my bots into the meat grinder in HMW was

Pretty much my entire family caught it the week before Mardi Gras in late Feb, we pretty much hunkered down for around 10 days (it worked well with the time we had off from work). They took a blood test from me on the 26th of March, found I had antibodies and they asked for my plasma to help fight it. So I donated 8 vials of blood the first Thursday of April.
My wife is working from home for almost a month now and my job is considered "essential" since so many places use copy machines and I am staying home until I get a call, if no calls come in I just relax all day. They cancelled school for the rest of the year down here and my youngest is doing online 9th grade work until the 25th of May.
I just want to go swimming at the damn gym again...

Cyber Bishop wrote:Pretty much my entire family caught it the week before Mardi Gras in late Feb, we pretty much hunkered down for around 10 days (it worked well with the time we had off from work). They took a blood test from me on the 26th of March, found I had antibodies and they asked for my plasma to help fight it. So I donated 8 vials of blood the first Thursday of April.
My wife is working from home for almost a month now and my job is considered "essential" since so many places use copy machines and I am staying home until I get a call, if no calls come in I just relax all day. They cancelled school for the rest of the year down here and my youngest is doing online 9th grade work until the 25th of May.
I just want to go swimming at the damn gym again...

Glad to hear everyone came out on the up and up!!!

Cyber Bishop wrote:Pretty much my entire family caught it the week before Mardi Gras in late Feb, we pretty much hunkered down for around 10 days (it worked well with the time we had off from work). They took a blood test from me on the 26th of March, found I had antibodies and they asked for my plasma to help fight it. So I donated 8 vials of blood the first Thursday of April.

This is great to hear (that you're all recovering, not that you got sick).

I found out tonight that the test I took on Friday came back positive, so... yay.

Dr. Caelus wrote:

Cyber Bishop wrote:Pretty much my entire family caught it the week before Mardi Gras in late Feb, we pretty much hunkered down for around 10 days (it worked well with the time we had off from work). They took a blood test from me on the 26th of March, found I had antibodies and they asked for my plasma to help fight it. So I donated 8 vials of blood the first Thursday of April.

This is great to hear (that you're all recovering, not that you got sick).

I found out tonight that the test I took on Friday came back positive, so... yay.

Keep us in the loop...you've got the full support of all of us here. As long as you aren't in the high risk groups, you've got really good odds. Just stay hydrated, kick up vitamin C a bit, and hit the ED if there is ANY issues with catching your breath. You got this!

To be honest, we have been incredibly fortunate in this whole thing.

My wife's work is flexible and has been very aggressive where this pandemic has been concerned, so she was already working from home by St. Patrick's Day. We stocked up with two weeks worth of supplies, and then made use of pick-up and delivery options to keep our two week buffer rolling forward. Baby supplies went faster than we expected and couldn't be obtained at our grocery store, so we made a couple of Wal-Mart trips, wearing masks she fashioned out of pillow cases. We cancelled almost all appointments, etc. I even had a stock of unopened Transformers I was saving for emergency-sanity-purposes.

One appointment, however, was to get our water tested to see if it would be safe for the baby out of the tap, or if we needed to continue using water bought from the store. We were going to cancel it, but the company insisted they were very aware of the situation and their technicians would take all necessary precautions to protect themselves and us. Instead we got a schlocky salesman who did basically nothing in that regard. Having previously objected to his visit, I took the baby to the back bedroom and refused to come out. My wife dealt with him, then sterilized everything he'd touched or breathed on. Shortly after that, she started feeling short of breath - like we were back in Colorado - and that's been ongoing since. Then I started feeling run down, just way too easily tired, and the baby started having trouble sleeping. I checked my temperature on one of the worse days, registered at like, 99.9F, but that only lasted a couple of hours. By that evening, I was down to normal temperature. Aside from that, we've both had some painful digestive issues, but I'll spare you the details on that.

Last week, our county provided drive-through testing, which was at first only open to people showing symptoms, but then widened the scope, so we signed up and went, as much to contribute to the data they were collecting, as anything else. We didn't think either of us had it, but bam - Sunday night they called and said I tested positive. My wife tested negative, but TN department of health decided that was really unlikely, and put her down as a presumed-positive, as well as our son. We went through the steps we'd taken to dodge the COVID bullet with the TNDH, and the timing of our symptoms, and have been instructed to self-quarantine through Friday, provided neither of us gets really sick in the next few days. (Our son has to stay home until the 8th, since he continues to be completely asymptomatic).

Today we made childcare and petcare arrangements to account for possible emergencies, and then pretty much goofed off. My wife played Assassin's Creed most of the afternoon, and I sorted my chaotic bins of Transformers accessories. I'm really hoping that's the way the rest of the week goes. The only real stress here is the worry that one or more of the three of us will take a sudden hard-turn for the worse, and that fear kind of hangs over you like the Sword of Damokles.

Wow that's kind of infuriating about the water safety. Seems like they didn't care at all, sending someone shady like that. Hopefully all of you come through it alright and nothing worse happens.

Wow, Caelus, just... wow. Did you get his name so you can file a complaint (and possibly have him tested)?

Here in Texas things are the same as before, with it more than apparent that stores are doing their own thing next to standard regulations by corporate: