covid-19 (new corona virus)

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I deleted a few of the posts that were touching on the political side of coronavirus. Since the government is involved in many of the decisions being made it will be hard to keep politics out of the discussion but please try. Thanks!
 
We had a family GTG, altogether too much travel on planes and hugging.  I did not allow any access to the van, and spent 3 hours cleaning the site today. Hours of fun.  -crofter

Did not mention any clowns, employed or wanna be's.
 
It was a sunny day, lots of people out walking their dogs, a few small groups of teens walking around together. The teens were the only ones I saw who were closer than 3 feet to each other. At that age they think they are invincible and as far as Covid 19 goes they likely are.
 
Have you noticed how many disaster movies there are to watch?  Not so many about germs though, mostly ship wrecks, plane crashes, and storms.  To do justice to a germ disaster movie, the whole thing would have to be filmed through a microscope. Who would they get to play the germs? A lot of screaming by the germs when lysol is sprayed around. Just imagine how long the credits would be!  -crofter
 
Reporting from Seattle, now known as "Little Italy" along with its other name "Ground Zero USA". Soon to become "Skeddadle from Seattle"

I fell asleep very early and missed the latest announcements for the Seattle area including more closures
and restricted access in stores to no more than than 50 people at a time.

Uh oh, too bad I only filled my gas tank up halfway the other day. It is almost 4:00 am, I guess I had better get my shoes on and go fill the tank all the way up. The Safeway has 24 hour pumps as does a local 7-11 in the neighborhood. I don't want to wait in long lines if I don't have to simply because I hate long lines. Otherwise it would be like it normally is on a Sunday at Costco, sitting in the car for half an hour before you get to the pump.

The bars and gyms have to close. Grocery stores, pharmacies, hardware stores and gas stations can remain open. I suspect that those places will soon go to being open 24 hours to adapt to this new restriction.

Weather will be decent for working on my build. Should be an OK day as long as I don't have to go to the local hardware store :)
 
mjbeam said:
It might be smart to get exposed to the virus now if one doesn't have an underlying condition that puts them at high risk. Get it over with.
As long as you get tested and then self quarantine after you are recovered for 14 days. Then you will be a dot on the map at CDC. Let us know which dot is you. 

Did you hear whether all the foreign travellers were able to leave China?
-crofter
 
get ready for a positive for nomadics from the situation. The 5:00 am news just announced that today gas prices have started plummeting all across the nation. That should make it easier to have a little more time on the road or more funds for other needs. Enjoy it while it last :)
 
I have seen photos and videos of the drive up testing for Covid-19.  If you even consider doing this, plan on getting sick!

The tester is dressed in safety gear, (s)he makes contact with every person tested, wearing the same gear!  What idiot thought this up??  This is gross violation of contact isolation techniques!

Two years after 9/11, I was forced to fly commercial airline out of Chicago.  The anthrax scare was at its height.  A young man (19?) was assigned to do random checks of carryons.  Myself and a 70+ year old woman were chosen to be searched.  He searched through her carryon wearing gloves, she passed through to board, then wearing the same gloves, he began going through my bag.  I told him that if she had anthrax in her bag, he just contaminated my bag with it.  He said, "They gave me only one pair of gloves."  I told him to tell his supervisor that they were risking sending anthrax all over the nation by that carelessness.

Those people reaching into every car to swab the occupant for this virus should be changing the gown and gloves between every person swabbed.  That is an unrealistic procedure due to shortages (we are told) of gear and the time it would take to do it properly.  And have those people been trained on how to do it?  I was watching a program with two doctors discussing how the viral swab was done.  The swabber was wearing gloves and when he was finished, he removed the gloves by pulling on the fingers from the outside, carefully straightened them out, laid them on the table and patted them flat, nice and neat.  I almost choked!  Now his hands and the table were as dirty as the gloves.  Then they did the elbow bump, all proud of how smart they were.
 
mjbeam said:
It might be smart to get exposed to the virus now if one doesn't have an underlying condition that puts them at high risk. Get it over with.


You are kidding right? It’s a virus. You can get it over and over again like the flu.
 
It is best to avoid getting it and continue doing so until there is a vaccine for it.

I was very glad today to see on the news that the grocery stores and stores such as Target are letting 60 years and older come in an hour earlier in the morning that other shoppers to reduce the risk. That also means all the surfaces will be much cleaner from the cleaning that got done after closing time.

I am in for the week, nothing I need at the store unless I need something from the hardware store for my build. Other than my workshop mate I won't have in person contact with anyone, which is not at all unusual. My primary social contact used to be at a neighborhood coffee shop but that place closed last year, the new owner of the building raised the rent so high he could not afford to stay open.
 
CORRECTION TO MY POST #114 above.

Two weeks after 9/11, not two years. So sorry.
 
They are talking about upping the max on weekly unemployment benefits and waiving the waiting week. They give a box to check off if your claim is due to the virus.

I hope it applies across the spectrum though. Now it is more difficult to find something.

If your in a training class, they hold your check 5 weeks during to make sure it is work training, now how many weeks because of the number of applicants.
 
notsosure said:
They are talking about upping the max on weekly unemployment benefits and waiving the waiting week. They give a box to check off if your claim is due to the virus.

I hope it applies across the spectrum though.  Now it is more difficult to find something.

If your in a training class, they hold your check 5 weeks during to make sure it is work training, now how many weeks because of the number of applicants.
There is no possibility that state employment agencies are going to be holding any in person training classes for quite some time to come. It would all have to be done online. But that won't work out because not everyone has access to online, especially someone is is going to be out of work for quite a while. Since the public libraries are closed that makes it even tougher for an unemployed person who can't afford to pay for a service to get online. With the cafes and coffee shops closing that too makes it tougher to get online if you can't afford to pay for an online service. I just don't see that whole training and holding onto checks thing as happening at all. They will have no choice but to go away from the requirement under the present circumstances.

Tune in daily, read news updates, listen to radio and TV news, that is all you can do at present if your situation is in flux.
 
Washington State just closed all of its drivers license, renewal facilities. Everyone now has to apply online to get their license renewed. They are going to renew it online this time around even if has expired or is due to expire. They are also going to renew it without having to take a test even if you are over 70.

The news report was of course not complete regarding all information you might need to know.
For instance:
I do not know what will happen if you are trying to get a new license when coming in from another state.
I do not know what will happen if you are trying to get an enhanced license instead of a regular one.

One piece of luck for me, my license would have expired next month but I thought that I would possibly be out of state this spring so I renewed it early last fall and I did get an enhanced license.
 
Things are going to get very complicated very quickly for fresh fruits and vegetable supplies. Of course those go into the grocery store but they also go into the canning facilities and frozen food facilities. This country still relies heavily on migrant workers who often are housed in communal living facilities and the ride the same bus to where they are employed. You can't telecommute to that kind of work and you have no real option to self isolate either. The National Public Radio today put out an easy to understand article describing this situation. https://www.npr.org/2020/03/18/8166...hain-as-farms-worry-about-workers-falling-ill

Because it is spring people who live in sticks and bricks will be able to supplement in fresh produce by quick growing crops such as lettuce and also plant slower growing crops that will produce food all summer. That will make a big difference in their lives. But it will be far more difficult to do this if you are nomadic. But maybe a creative living situation, if you are willing to stay in one place, is to arrange to be the personal garden patch keeper for someone who has some property and just wants to put in a big garden area to feed themselves and a few friends but does not have the time, ability or energy to do it all on their own. Not a bad way to spend a summer if the normal camp site options are closed. If you know someone who has that kind of property then you could approach them with that win/win solution. An alternative to the traditional workcamping jobs at the various campgrounds and resorts, jobs which might not be in plentiful supply this spring and summer. An alternative that reduces the contact with the public rather than increasing it. How we present our request for such work is of importance, there must be benefits to both and you don't go into it feeling like you are asking for charity because you are offering beneficial labor. Garden tractor sales will be on the rise as will be tools, seeds, compost, baby chicks, etc. It is warming up, it is time to plant in many areas, start looking for those opportunities if you need one to get by for a while.
 
There is now a text message going viral (pun intended) that says Trump is going to institute a nationwide lockdown of all businesses and a forced two-week quarentine for all American citizens. This is false! Do a google search on "covid-19 quarentine", and you'll find an article by Factcheck.org debunking this text message. It is a false message started on social media by persons unknown. Some idiot just trying to whip up more public hysteria.
 
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