Thread for sharing personal news regarding the coronavirus' effects

[Ninshub]

I thought I'd launch this thread, yes yet another virus thread , as a place where forum members, if they feel the need, can share information regarding the effects, health- or other-related, of the pandemic on their lives and their close ones.

My main motivation is that I skim through the other CV threads for my own sanity and may miss posts, and I wouldn't want to miss or not respond to someone sharing personal bad news affecting them directly. (If you want to share good news, that's great too!)

Let's try to keep this thread free of any other CV-related discussion, medical, political or otherwise.

Hopefully this thread will stay empty and that in itself will be good news!

Wishing the best for all of you - physically, mentally and spiritually!

I think this thread is a good idea.

I don't have anything personally bad to share. I will be leaving in a day or two to move my daughter out of her dorm. Her university, like most others, has switched all current classes to online only, and is clearing out the dorms wherever possible. I would have been moving her out in May anyways. And the extra cost for storage will probably be more than offset by the refunds in housing and food costs from the university.

For my road trip, I have gloves, two N95 masks, and a bag of homemade sanitizing wipes which I can refresh on the road. Please note that I have the gloves and masks because I use them for dyeing, and the only ones I kept for myself were those I had already used. All my unused masks and gloves have already been distributed to high-risk friends and family, and donated to health-care workers.
  
I am trying to use any good fortune I currently enjoy to make it easier on others - supporting local, small businesses as much as possible, sewing masks, not hoarding flour...

Linda

Here's my report from downtown Austin Texas.

The streets are relatively empty of normal traffic and pedestrians while the number of bums has stayed roughly the same, and I assume the bums are getting quite a bit more hungry than they were. This makes walking down Congress Avenue a bit scary.

We're sticking to the West side of downtown and the hike and bike trail around Lady Bird Lake now which seems a bit more crowded than normal due to the nice weather and the gyms being closed. The parks are full of people doing yoga and meditating and working out.

The grocery stores got hit pretty hard a couple weeks ago but have since mostly re-stocked.

This has forced me and my wife to cook more and eat more sandwiches... we were spending too much money on restaurants anyway, so this is good.

I started working remote at the beginning of this year, so this hasn't really affected my job situation except that one of our employees tested positive for COVID-19. He's doing fine in self-quarantine. He probably infected the rest of the company (about 150 employees) since he interacted with everyone, but so far everyone else is fine.

We have lost business due to the oil and gas prices taking a hit as well as the price wars with Russia and OPEC, but on the whole our company is doing fine. This industry is always boom/bust.

My grandmother, age 91, passed away a week and a half ago in lock down with no one able to visit her. She tested negative for COVID-19. Her service was Friday but no one could come because of lock down.

I hear reports that police are arresting people who violate the stay at home orders.

I received a letter from my employer to print out and keep in my vehicle stating that I work for a company in the Oil and Gas industry which is deemed an essential business; therefore, I'm allowed to travel. This all feels very totalitarian. (Papers please?)

As we strolled around downtown the other day, amongst joggers, and others, someone rolled down the window and screamed, "SOCIAL DISTANCING!!!" in a menacing tone... I think they were joking, but not sure.

About 1 in 5 people at the grocery store are wearing masks. Mostly younger people out and about.

Approximately 200 people out of the 1.22 million people in Travis county have tested positive so far. 1 death reported in a woman over age 70 with significant underlying health conditions.

American flags have started going up on people's balconies. A few Mexican flags and other nationalities as well.

That is all I can think of to report at the moment.

[Ninshub]

All my sympathies for your grandmother Hurm.

All my sympathies for your grandmother Hurm.

Thank you. It was her time... her health and mobility had been decreasing steadily since my Grandad passed away about 4 years ago. We're planning to have a remembrance for her in May assuming we're allowed to assemble by then.

Update 4/6/20

More people wearing masks while out and about now... about 60%. Social distancing rules and signs continue multiplying.

Everyone at my place of employment got a temporary 20% pay cut today. Others being laid off. I had worked for a year and a half to get a guy hired and finally got him on board. Today was his first day and had to break the bad news he’ll get 20% less than what we promised him.

I thought I'd write a little update...

I was already voluntarily self-isolating because I guessed I was probably a higher risk, but then the government moved me into the highest risk bracket last week, which was a bit of a shock, so now I'm supposed to be a shielded person, and not supposed to leave the house under any circumstances, although this new status hasn't made any difference to me.

It's almost 3 weeks since I left the house... I'm walking 1km a day, up and down, up and down my small back garden like a nutter, and exercising 3 times a week.. but it's now helping my knees and ankles which had started to gripe at the lack of normal activity.

Food is ordered online, and home delivered, I've been lucky enough to get the odd store home delivery slot if I persevere with constantly refreshing the browser window for a good while, and I have a couple of friends who are delivering other bits and bobs for me. 

I've knocked my blood test monitoring on the head, until the local practice nurse agrees to wear a mask, the silly **** actually refused to wear one.

I'm still trying to work from home, not very successfully I'm afraid... far too many distractions, and the weather has been sunny, so I've been enjoying sitting in the garden. But still managing to help my employees from home, with the most critical stuff that they need my help and advice with. Daily routine has gone out the window, and I'm losing perspective on weekdays and weekends.

Because I realized I was gonna be starved of my regular morning latte, and I just couldn't face that, I bought a Nespresso Vertuo Expresso Pod machine, so far that's been my best buy this year, sitting in the garden, drinking my latte on a morning really does put a smile on my face.

My vintage Hi-Fi pre/power amplifier blew up, nightmare, I got a new amp last week which is lovely, but it has exposed some damage to my speaker drivers caused when the amp blew up. But you really need to audition speakers, well I do, and all the Hi-Fi stores are closed down, not that I'm willing to risk going out for an audition anyway... but the damaged speakers, and inability audition new ones because of the crisis is a real pain! Particularly as I'm supposed to be stuck in here for the next 3 months according to the government!

Jeez... although I'm getting plenty of daily phone/video contact, I dunno if I can last the full 3 months house arrest...

[Ninshub]

Max, is it too personal to reveal what puts you at a higher risk? If so, then just ignore my question.

Max, is it too personal to reveal what puts you at a higher risk? If so, then just ignore my question.

Just the normal... a particular underlying illness that puts me at greater risk. but when combined with a type of medication for another condition, the two things together apparently increase my risk to extremely vulnerable. So apparently I’m not to leave the house at all, and the government is supposed to be putting priority support mechanisms in place to support this group of about 1.6 million people in the UK. 3 months is an awfully long time though

My employees and my friends are looking after me so far :-)

And the good news... I ordered some rather nice 2nd hand speakers from a dealer this morning, and he says that if I can’t live with them long term, he’ll take them back for a minimal sum when the crisis ends. But in the meantime I will have sound again! Delivered tomorrow, and fingers crossed I like em!

Store delivery in the next couple of days... ordering an Easter egg or two! The inability to buy something spontaneously to eat at the shop, as I normally would, is a real pain.