I have no idea whether I have a cold or a mild dose of the lurghi. Staying out of contact with everybody except Mrs Y, who has no symptoms of anything at the moment. As long as I can breathe OK there doesn't seem to be anything else I can do.
Take good care chris, and please update us.
Normal temperature, no persistent cough, no other symptoms means it's probably just a cold - hope that's right.
Stay well, Chris.
My questionable research practice decided to drop out of contact when I suggested a visit (and who knows maybe was in the process of doing so when I suggested a zoom call). I suppose either he's not dead and his situation is remediable or he is and it's not, and either way I'm pretty mad at him. This is actually a mutation of the same behavior which eventually caused me to break up with him. I don't know whether he doesn't understand that his shitty communication affects other people or just doesn't feel like it's in his power to change it.
My therapist has had a fever for 11 days, though no cough or sore throat. My roommate felt well enough this week to return to work. She reiterates that the task of cooking is stressful for her and her partner; she already has had probable Covid as determined by a doctor and they live together in a studio; I remain bewildered that they don't use their zillions of dollars to order restaurant food.
I delivered Meals on Wheels food yesterday and it was pretty much the greatest. Work outside the home! People to talk to and joke around with while we did our route! A bike ride there and back plus three miles of walking! I also signed up with Invisible Hands, and New York Cares also has some park maintenance volunteer spots but I think those are in short supply because I'm going to have to wait a couple weeks to do one of those. If everything else in life stopped and I could just take advantage of my relative robustness and lack of illness anxiety to do essential worker tasks I think I could be pretty relaxed right now. The only problem is that none of my normal responsibilities have paused; they just went online.
Also I not only did I get my clients back, I am un-laid off from my clinic job permanently now? Something extremely confusing happened behind the scenes. The old clinic director, whose transition out was the occasion of me being laid off, is just bafflingly dishonest, I guess, in the sense that who can tell what her motives are for what she says and does. I guess I am going to have to continue balancing work and school at least to some degree but on balance, doing therapy takes a different kind of energy than doing schoolwork, helps me remain emotionally connected to why I'm in school, and gives me a sense of professional identity.
I'm trying to concentrate enough to apply for a job stateside, the job description includes the following: "must upload a resume and cover letter and mark them as a "Relevant File" to the submission."
I'm assuming that "relevant file" applies to the job title, so I would title the files something like, say, "Barry Freed_Curator of ritual scrolls and grimoires". Does that sound correct to you?
That sounds right for the file name. I would interpret "mark them as relevant file" as something that will be apparent on the site you're uploading them to when you do it.
Newt and I continue fine, although nervous and twitchy. Where is everyone on the mask-wearing front? I have gotten to feeling as if I should, but I haven't acquired any (cloth, not the scarce important kind) yet.
DeBlasio just said everyone in NYC should be covering their face when outside, I believe, at least if they were around non-household members.
continuing to improve slooooooowwwwwwllllly damn so slowly. had to go to the hospital pharmacy to pick up the heavy duty cough medicine and they had people at the door checking temperatures and asking questions to dole out masks for those deemed to be germy prior to being allowed in the building, and the lady took one look at me and told her colleague "get a mask on her." so i have one surgical mask! and cough under better control with judicious application of the syrup, which i loathe taking, but oh well. fever still comes back if i attempt normal levels of activity.
used a bandana to make one of the no-sew masks for a walk around the block (one measly block but it was so sweet!), and my extra strong hair ties are a bit much for my relatively small ears. i mean, not abnormally small but not huge. and the hair ties are extra strength. fine balance, apparently.
kid and better half bouncing through whatever the hell it was, thank god.
cannot believe newsom is coming out of this looking good, i mean he's better than trump (obvs) and cuomo but guys he is awful.
I have a stretchy cloth thing I can use but I've also been meaning to try this.
Doing OK, starting to feel cooped up with the rain making me not want to go outside for even my usual short stroll. Getting a little tired of doing all of the cooking/mealplanning 7 days a week, though.
Getting food delivered is a mitzvah in terms of keeping restaurants open, as long as you tip well.
15: yes, that was the method i used, it works but choose your stretchy bands carefully. or do ear exercises, or something.
My best friend sends this and asks me to film a video interpretation wearing a not dissimilar dress I have. I think I am maybe morally obliged to do this for her since she is a primary care doctor. I was trying to figure out funny stuff to put in the bath that wouldn't make people freak out about waste. I think if I took empty soup boxes and faked soup with food coloring and cornstarch that might work. If I can find it and it's still active I also have a face mask that makes you look like swamp thing when it's on.
18: I was going to try their cutting up stockings method.
Delivery should maybe be a bigger part of our life than it had been in the Before Time. The other snag is Picky Mr. 7, who will eat fewer and fewer things as time goes on. Last night he threw a fit about the beans I had cooked a few days before, because he could find a few bits of ham in it. Mind you, he likes ham, just not TOUCHING THE BEANS and THAT BIG (which is to say, thicker than deli-slice ham).
22: The Calabat went through that phase at age five. I DON'T LIKE STUFF MIXED UP! Now I get "Mom, did you know that when the onions and beans are mixed together they taste better?" but now the other kid complains about everything that I cook.
Hawaii is the pickiest of our four, and she's a royal pain in the ass, and Rascal is not far behind. Ace is very good at "UGH DISGUSTING...[munch munch]...can I have thirds?"
22- Ms. 7 over here will eat a ton of baked ziti but will not touch lasagna even essentially the only difference is the pasta has been unrolled.
You must make bad lasagna. Try to do better.
Next time I make it I'll roll the pasta into little tubes.
Oh, yeah, in addition to everything else, Mr. 7 won't touch anything at all with tomato sauce, including any red-sauce-based pizza, so that limits a lot of options.
Delivery is also causing some non-negligible amount of stress about safety. I've pretty much convinced myself that air-based transmission is really what I should be worried about, but the few times we've gotten delivery have involved a lot of careful washing of container exteriors and transferring to clean bowls and dirtying as many dishes as if I had cooked the stuff myself. I think this is overkill, but I don't know how to finesse it and maintain domestic harmony.
The cheese is different. Or supposed to be different.
If you wash the cheese it will definitely be different.
Except cream cheese. That sort of slouches alone.
My mother was a saint for indulging me and making pizza that was nothing but a thin layer of ground beef over crust, to which I would add ketchup.
I am enjoying the phenomenon of students in 350 person lecture courses being able to write in Blackboard chat during lecture. One just chimed in with "Free Joe Exotic."
I live in Utah and my ex lives in South Carolina. He has been determined to fly my daughter out to SC for his custody each week because he also has to take care of his wife's children. I finally capitulated and said we could shift to a three-week custody schedule until June because at least then our daughter wouldn't be in the airport every week. I hate him so much, he's so incredibly selfish. On the plus side, the anger really helped fuel my 9 mile run today.
Still fine physically over here. I feel a bit guilty we aren't doing a better job of social distancing. Just now we went to Atossa's school across the street to get lunch. If we manage to go from now to Tuesday without going to any kind of a store, I think it'll be a record. Yesterday we might have managed a contact-free day, but Atossa and I went to the park to fly a kite and it got stuck in some playground equipment and I had to ask a guy who was sitting to eat his lunch to help me get it free. (Then the wind took it more than a quarter of a mile and we spent at least 20 minutes recovering it. That was an adventure.)
34: Our kids like tortillas with ketchup, which is arguably grosser, but requires less special prep by us, so I think your mother is saintlier.
He has been determined to fly my daughter out to SC for his custody each week because he also has to take care of his wife's children.
What the utter fuck?!
It's like "Boy Named Sue" with viral immunity.
37: that sounds immensely frustrating. We've had some tensions around shared custody with my wife's ex-, but nothing close to that terrible.
Rascal was crying last night when he realized he wouldn't go back to preK, and I consoled him that he had his first zoom meeting today with his friends, and then just now I blew through it without remembering, even though I set my goddamn alarm to remind me. Then I lost all perspective myself and felt like I ruined the world.
Aside from that, we're actually adjusting rather nicely to quarantine. At times it feels like this cozy oasis that I'll miss in the future. Sibling friendships are deepening. It's like it's good for us as a family. I hope this doesn't sound too sanctimonious. There's still a lot of screeching.
I say let the spiglet rack up airmiles.
On the plus side, the anger really helped fuel my 9 mile run today.
I used to jog on a treadmill with the TV turned to Fox News (not by my choice). I did find that rage helped keep my mind off of exhaustion and boredom. But now that I'm able to choose my entertainment, I generally go with ESPN. Exhaustion and boredom turns out to be better than rage.
Then I lost all perspective myself and felt like I ruined the world.
Jimmy Carter is no longer history's greatest monster.
37: Wow that's fucked up. I'm sorry.
The public tennis courts are all locked up and the parks are closed, so yesterday I tried going for a run in my neighborhood. My area is hilly and has a lot of dead ends and areas without sidewalks, so there are only a couple of streets that have long runnable stretches. Of course these are thoroughfares that are moderately well-trafficked by pedestrians, cyclists and cars, and trying to stay six feet away from other pedestrians meant I had to run in the street a lot. This would be a bad time to get hit by a car and end up in the emergency room. But I felt a lot less wound up afterwards than I have in a couple weeks.
Yes. The motive power for your legs is provided by the unwinding of your spring.
I haven't been out for tennis since last weekend so I don't know the status of the nearby courts now, but shutting them seems like a mistake to me. (Basketball courts were also available, though I hear they are being shut down in many places, and I find that more understandable.)
Still fine and healthy in CA, though allergies went crazy yesterday for the first time this season. So a sore nose, but nothing worse. My wife is doing better; Monday was rough on her, but she's going in an working & cleaning the shutdown store each day now, and the bit of normalcy is a big help.
My work had a round of layoffs Tuesday, just ahead of the 4/1 deadline for the new coronavirus leave, etc. Three of the four people I've been training for the last year were among those laid off. Yesterday that was followed up with a pay cut for everyone remaining for the duration; the degree of cut is progressive, which seems as fair as possible. We've also been instructed to delay non-essential tasks, avoid costly training, etc. until building departments begin opening up for business again.
Also yesterday I had a huge project assigned, so I'm personally feeling good about being directly billable for the next week plus.
I have a theory that we're being too strict on people outdoors and not strict enough on people indoors. I bet 6' is more than enough outside, and while the outdoor surfaces would still be suspect and playgrounds should be shut down, that, say, the beaches in Florida aren't the cesspool petri dish that they look like. Whereas I bet the grocery stores , especially smaller stores with lower ceilings and poor ventilation, are worse than we're imagining.
This is brought to you by Scientist Heebie in conjunction with some youtube videos on microparticles.
TCDC is saying wear a mask at <1m outdoors or 1.5m indoors.
We're still doing fine. I read somewhere that scarves are likely to be considered appropriate if authorities start recommending masks, so that's my plan. It's still winter here (in fact it's been snowing the past couple days) so a scarf would be quite comfortable over the nose and mouth.
Thank you guys for sharing my outrage. My ex is excellent at making me feel like my concerns are ridiculous. He loves explaining that his doctor wife doesn't think it's a problem, so I shouldn't either.
52: I agree. I saw a headline for an article saying joggers need to maintain 25 feet distance between them and everyone else because of the way you breath when you run. I...am not doing that. But I also run in the mountains and see less than 10 people on my runs and I can usually maintain a six-foot distance.
I have a theory that we're being too strict on people outdoors
I agree with this, and anecdotally it is causing pointless anxiety among New Yorkers who now feel it's too dangerous to take walks. I tried to suggest to a fairly local friend that we meet for six feet apart walk and he was hesitant, said he was wearing running shoes every time now so he could dodge people. And I thought, would you under any circumstances think it was plausible that you could catch the substantially more contagious common cold by passing within four feet of someone for a second on the sidewalk? And also that I don't really want to take a walk with him while trying to accommodate that anxiety.
I also just read a Facebook post of a friendquaintance saying she won't take her child to a park to run around and is keeping him indoors. This seems totally unsustainable to me. But she is temperamentally extremely anxious.
the beaches in Florida
people gather with large groups of friends and touch each other at the beach though.
40: Could you maybe just say no, she's not coming until the current restrictions are over? Unless he goes to court, what's he going to do?
Last I saw the tennis court near my house was open, but the pickleball courts next to it were closed. Can't maintain 6 feet distance while playing pickleball!
I don't even know what pickle ball is. I'm going to assume it's like gaga ball.
||
Things are crazy today but just now via email: my "hey PIH, can we get some of that?" response was apparently more widely shared. "Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced a new initiative Friday to accelerate the state's efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, by dramatically scaling up the state's capacity for contact tracing through a new collaboration with Boston-based global health nonprofit Partners In Health (PIH)."
|>
!!!
WAIT A SECOND. We have all been typing > as part of the "play" symbol for years and years. Why does it work there?
The blog software predates the invention of rewind.
> works when there's no <, but < is the beginning of HTML elements so it doesn't work.
I've been making masks using this pattern.
I don't know effective they are, but they're maybe better than nothing? I've heard people say that wearing a mask helps remind you not to touch your face, but in my experience I keep wanting to adjust my mask, and end up touching my face more than I would otherwise.
> has always worked, I assume because it closes a tag rather than opening one. It's < that causes problems.
Man, HTML is ridiculous. The unpaired greater-than sign should devour everything preceding it as it vainly searches for its origin. But fine, fine, stability trumps destruction.
OK, so mask piracy by the US is genuinely a thing after all. From the front page of the Financial Times:
Protective medical equipment made by US manufacturer 3M and bound for Germany was intercepted in Thailand and diverted to the US, in an incident a senior German official described as "modern piracy".
The city of Berlin had ordered special FFP2 and FFP3 masks that are used to protect emergency staff and care workers from infection with coronavirus. The order was for 200,000 such masks, according to the German newspaper Tagesspiegel.
Berlin's interior minister Andreas Geisel confirmed that the consignment had been "confiscated" in Bangkok and never reached Berlin.
"We consider that an act of modern piracy," he said. "You don't treat your transatlantic partners like that."
people gather with large groups of friends and touch each other at the beach though.
This is true. But it's the same danger as people going over to other people's houses.
I'm still bitter that they closed the river and parks.
You should never touch your friends. You don't know where they have been.
I guess it is safer to touch them while on the beach. Their bare skin and swimsuits have almost certainly been fewer places than the filthy street clothes they'd wear otherwise.
That's why you can't wear cut offs and a denim vest in the hot tub.
I do not have skin cancer!
One of my basement housemates (very little interaction lately but we share the kitchen) was possibly exposed and had to get tested for Covid19. If he tests positive then my man friend and I will also need to be tested. I am pretty mad at him (the housemate) for doing an extremely unserious job of social distancing. It is a textbook scenario. He hung out/has been hanging out with this girl*, and she is still going to work, and one of her coworkers had some interaction with someone with a confirmed case, so now there is a whole chain that would have been cut in half if everyone did what they were supposed to do. Don't be a link in the chain!
*At least once he invited her and possibly some other people over here. No discussion with me, I just saw the fire pit alight and more than two people standing around. He's very stressed out right now so I'm holding off but we are going to have a Conversation on Monday, when the results come back, whether it's positive or not.
(also he's a fucking nursing assistant. Take things seriously, you asshole!)
Public service announcement: This has been well publicized, but successful people sometimes don't even think about whether they qualify for government programs. For businesses with less than 500 employees, including non-profits and including sole proprietors with no employees, the Payroll Protection Program is an in-fucking-credible deal. Basically you get a loan for 2 1/2 months salary cost per 2019 employee or owner, maxed at $20,833 per employee. No payments for a year, then it's forgiven if you still have a payroll equal to the previous year - and if you don't get full forgiveness, it's 4% interest over 10 years, without a credit check. The form to get one is really simple. Doesn't matter how profitable, or un-, you are. Business owners, get one. Employees of small businesses, tell the boss, or whoever you know who talks to the boss, to get one. If you've been laid off this might get you your job back.
I'm healthy, but it's closing in. A month ago, it was (almost) all in China and Italy, two weeks ago all the cases were concentrated at the far end of this state. Now almost 200 cases and a few deaths in my county (about 300,000 people), and 8 cases in my township (population 10,000). Also one in the assisted living facility where my mother resides. They are on complete lock doan, which sucks for a relatively healthy octogenatian, but is necessary.
I keep feeling like this stimulus is being really poorly advertised, aside from the $1200 part. It makes me worry that it will be really poorly implemented, the way I remember stories from post-recession where they were just sitting on giant stacks of money that was supposed to go to people trying to avoid foreclosure.
Poorly implemented? With this crew? Inconceivable.
At least the $1200 part is mostly automatic. The small business loan program seems really rushed and poorly thought out, though.
Yeah, it's a boon in theory for the social services nonprofit I have a connection to: we still have our regular revenue from the local government to pay for operations, but are incurring tremendous added costs in response to COVID; the loan-to-grant amount we are eligible for would cover more than twice those costs, giving us some nice cushion.
74 That's so reckless!
76 I kind of feel like the PPP is pretty well advertised. And pretty poorly executed, from my perch. (I'm applying myself, and also the non-profit I'm involved with is applying. In both cases, waiting for the banks (who handle the applications) to get back. What's the rush? No one thinks the amount appropriated is going to cover the demand, and it's first come first served.
74.1: Great news.
74.2: Maybe suggest Zoom and Chill.
56: I agree, but man, people find weird ways to interpret the stay at home soft closure. My mother-in-law's quiet corner shop has had to ask people not to browse just because they're bored. Families in Utah are still having massive playdates and taking the kids to Home Depot to touch everything because they're bored. I'm surprised LizSpigot is finding empty trails because most of the ones I've seen are full of big groups hanging out. We shut down the whole state three weeks ago and a small set of morons were gathering in large crowds at the airport with signs and balloons for their returning missionaries (this is a thing.) I'm starting my fourth week of being basically in one room in my house working all the damned time and really starting to resent the idiots who are doing whatever the fuck they want because it won't occur to them that this is serious until someone from their family dies.
75: hey, what makes you a sole proprietor? Is anyone who made independent contractor money a sole proprietor? Or did you have to turn yourself into a business somehow?
Eh, I am unlikely to have IC money equal to my last year's IC money so it doesn't really make sense for me anyway. But I emailed my aunt about it; she's definitely a sole proprietor. She didn't know about it.
I don't even remember what we were talking about.
https://www.businessinsider.com/349b-small-business-relief-program-may-be-dead-on-arrival-2020-4
A human being can be a sole proprietor.
"But demand on financial institutions is also shaping up to prove problematic. In another interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Hurn said his office received more than 2,500 loan applications in less than a week."
Can't they just fake the signatures? They have a solid process in place for that.
My ex is excellent at making me feel like my concerns are ridiculous.
Your concerns are NOT ridiculous! We're all supposed to be staying at home, avoiding all non-essential trips to the grocery store, never mind non-essential trips to another state. I like LB's suggestion.
Sirens are a constant feature of the environment now. My rabbi made a comment today about sirens blaring and just as he was speaking a siren was wailing outside my window. It wasn't a particularly striking coincidence.
My housemate tested negative.
My dog found the 8:00 howl to be cause for much concern.
Everything else is the same as it ever was.
While I typed that comment I was listening to one. Since then, two more.
We do have lots of sirens, but not right now.
Haven't noticed more sirens than usual here.
COVID-19 is scary, but it just moved down one notch in the rankings of what I fear.
"But demand on financial institutions is also shaping up to prove problematic. In another interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Hurn said his office received more than 2,500 loan applications in less than a week."
If banks are really balking at this its a potentially huge opportunity for FinTechs, if they could look away from digital pogs for a while. Being able to process loan applications at volume, employing a workforce working from home, is the name of the game.
Traditional banks aren't built to gear up like that, plus they know there is a shitload of risk if you fuck it up. FinTechs will see a shitload of risk and dive in, recruiting a workforce of hastily-trained loan officers/crappy AI models to sift through SBA applications.
Of course, all of this will be highly under-supervised and financial hyjinx will ensue.
Jesus, some of these stories coming out of New York. They're running out of morticians and crematoria, and they may have to start burying people in the potter's field (which for some reason is run by the prison system?).
Yay for no skin cancer and no coronavirus exposure for Messily! It's about time you caught a break.
Liz, your ex is out of his damn mind. Sending your daughter is dangerous for her, you, the rest of your family, your ex, his wife, his wife's kids, everyone at the airport, everyone on the plane, etc., etc., etc. It would be a terrible idea regardless, but if he's this reckless and cavalier about her travel, how careful is going to be when she's there? Let him sue.
Yay Messily.
ISTR the NY prison system has the smaller leftover islands and one of them was the only place to put the potter's field.
Agree with 106. Also, how likely is it that flights will be cancelled in the next few weeks? Is there a possibility that your daughter could get stuck in SC?
Seconding what LB and Sir Kraab say about Liz's situation. This is a bad ex who should not be gratified.
And let us join in the chorus of "Yay Messily" (perhaps an undiscovered oratorio: I can hear the announcer intoning "tonight., from the Albert Hall, we broadcast the world premiere of Mendelssohn's lost oratorio, Yay Messily, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and choir. The work is a setting of the Parable of the Social Distancer, ' Messily, Messily, I say into you ...' "
I'm sorry, Liz. And I don't know what jurisdiction your case is in but I'd also worry (because I always worry, sorry!) that he'd do something like file for emergency custody once she's with him, claiming he's home and there's a doctor in the house blah blah. I know some of the shelter-in-place orders have had guidance on how to handle split custody, but no one I know who's dealt with that is in an airplane situation and your situation seems much more extreme because of that.
I'm recovering a bit more every day, though still with a lot more (productive) cough than I'd like. Nia is cheerful and charming when she's awake and also sleeps most of the time, which I hope will last through the weekend so I can get work done. I plan to pick up kits to make masks today. I'm being a little nervous about what the newspaper article will be like and feeling guilty because I didn't hold the line on making all the girls bring their school iPads out to the front porch for the photos, which were supposed to actually show us working and eventually did because I made them use phones but I'm afraid it will look stupid and frivolous. So I either have time to worry about dumb stuff or I'm worrying about dumb stuff to distract myself from bigger things or I guess both. I'm more worried that it will inadvertently say something hurtful about Mara's history or family in a place they might read it and she may regret later, because I don't know what she said to the reporter but know she ended up crying after talking about her anxieties. (He left the conversation determined to call his mom, so I guess that's something?) We'll see. This week would have been spring break for the girls, but we'll use it to make up work and maybe get some short hikes or something in, which is hard when the only person who hasn't had bronchitis is healing from a broken ankle. We'll also all start doing therapy by phone, I think.
(TBC, when I said let the spiglet rack airmiles I meant after the apocalypse, not during.)
British people! What say you about Starmer?
maybe get some short hikes or something in, which is hard when the only person who hasn't had bronchitis is healing from a broken ankle.
Is excellent. (In understatement, not afflictions.)
Yay on both counts Messily.
That's really fucked up and dangerous, LizS.
I haven't asked if my nephews are going back and forth between my brother's house and their mom's. My parents are staying with my brother so that's really bad for them.
10 I can't concentrate worth a damn to work on this job application. I should pull it together since it would be a pretty good job.
Power Barry! Do it! Do it now!
(But bear in mind a bunch of universities may be laying off as their international students vanish, the PRC quite possibly never to return.)
I'll try.
I think I'm going to channel my rage into asking my parents to contact their Republican Congressman (Pete King) into putting pressure on the Trump administration to release essential medical equipment to NYC and the greater metropolitan area rather than arguing with them about Trump's venality and Kushner's rank stupidity. And if they are amenable I'll ask them to ask the same of their Republican friends. This strikes me as more productive than just raging at them.
Barry I've been doing some virtual coworking, and I'm up now and ready to work. If you want support for doing your application HMU on email; we can open a call and do pomodoros and check in with each other about what we did during the last one and intend to do during the next one.
I have a theory that we're being too strict on people outdoors and not strict enough on people indoors.
Mrs Y went to the local greengrocer yesterday. They only allow two people inside at a time and everybody keeps their distance. So, a measured two metres and a bit from Mrs Y and the owner, there was a woman pulling plasic bags off the roll, then licking her fingers to open them, and then pawing through the produce to pick what she wanted.
(I don't seem to be any sicker today; coming to the conclusion it's a cold.)
Oh Tia that would be amazing and is so generous of you.
"we can open a call and do pomodoros"
I'm never up to date on the drug lingo.
120.last relieved to hear that chris, please keep us updated.
We're still all fine, now making plans for a virtual seder for Wednesday night with the rest of my niece's family. (Benefit of living in Texas: there probably won't be a run on the matzo meal.)
Plus, if you're already scrubbing away anything that might be leavened, you're probably helping to disinfect.
117: The chancellor of our university just sent round an email assuring all the staff that there would absolutely definitely be no covid-related layoffs before June 30. If that phrasing was intended to reassure the staff, it doesn't seem to have worked very well. Our funding from the state gets whittled down every economic downturn and never seems to come back afterward, and our international student population from Asia is, or was, substantial.
My unit's probably fine--we run the online course system so our work is rather visible just now--but there's a lot of pain coming elsewhere. We're already back to the hiring freeze that was in place for several years after 2008.
Are you calling me fat?
I think the Trump-inspired decline in students from Asia had already been having an impact locally, but I can't be certain because that would involve looking up things. Local owners of older rental units were having some trouble before, but mostly I think that's good because I think I'd rather have the housing prices stay reasonable. Real estate vultures are circling the neighborhood, not even metaphorically, looking for investment property and "fuck them" is one of my core political positions.
Nextdoor has many problems, but at least people are just as likely to report somebody they think is going around looking for real estate deals as they are when they think somebody is looking for Amazon packages to pirate.
It's probably a bad time for people who steal from porches.
131: Oh it totally is. But fuck a bunch of porch pirates. They are thieves of joy.
Why people get dish soap shipped to their house I'll never understand.
Actually comparisons are the thief of joy. I tell my kids so about twelve times a day.
Are you comparing comparisons and porch pirates?
I was so eager to be obnoxious I got ahead of my vowels.
127:
definitely be no covid-related layoffs before June 30
Does your chancellor just enjoy f*cking with people?
I'm hoping our campus will be somewhat safe, since it includes all of the public health related professional schools. Hopefully the state politicians will think that cutting funding to the schools of medicine/nursing/pharmacy during a public health crisis is a bad look.
My university employer has also gone with a "no layoffs before the end of the fiscal year" promise but it was phrased in a context that was openly "this is bad news and we want to keep you informed" rather than "this is the most reassuring way we can let you know that your livelihood and health insurance is teetering on the edge of the abyss."
But I've heard a couple of stories from people at other universities that ended up making my employer's announcement sound reassuring. Things like "we are authorizing you to rescind written job offers" and "we can't answer any questions about the status of your contract renewal, the paperwork for which you submitted weeks before we shut down campus."
Glad to see this thread. Going to scroll to the top an catch up now. All reasonably well here. Rory is home. "Luke" (??) and I are doing surprisingly well under the circumstances. (We've been doing well for awhile, but I would have expected lockdown to stay the relationship more than it has. Apparently we're good together in a crisis. Rory had to spend her 21st birthday with 40 somethings.... But I did make cake.
The funny thing is that I know perfectly well that she's in college from the other place, but seeing it here with her old pseud seemed like a time warp.
Believe me, it's like a time warp daily for me. I think of you often, though, Heebie, as she's often going on excitedly about areas of math I can't even pretend to grock. She bought a math textbook for "fun," "leisure" reading. I can't even pretend to follow...
Di! You've been on my mind as one of the imaginary friends I hoped would check in. So good to hear from you!
We're still all fine, now making plans for a virtual seder for Wednesday night with the rest of my niece's family. (Benefit of living in Texas: there probably won't be a run on the matzo meal.)
We're also doing one of these, across time zones spanning almost the entire US plus my sister in Europe. For me it starts at 3:30 pm.
Maybe next year you could all be in one place. Let me be the first to suggest Jerusalem.
When my sister cancelled the usual family Seder at her house, she decided we should all have a virtual Seder together. But my wife and I aren't planning on having a Seder. I suppose we can still listen in.
Can West Virginia really outlaw people from Pennsylvania getting liquor from their liquor stores? I'm not dry enough to drive that far for booze and I'm a big fan of social distancing, but I feel insulted. More than a few people commute from West Virginia to Pittsburgh for their regular jobs. Presumably some still are, if working at a hospital.
145: Aww. Thanks for the good thoughts. I think of you all far more often than I check in.
Delaware is stopping Pennsylvanians from coming in to buy liquor. Small wonder and all that.
"It's our stockpile," says Kushner, and then Trump, as they pit state against state in a desperate bid to procure life-saving PPE and ventilators. Like some sick and twisted (and real-life!) version of The Hunger Games. Small wonder that some states are mirroring/echoing that profoundly unethical ethos, I guess.
And I get that we're only talking about liquor sales here. But with that kind of state-against-state animosity, can anyone doubt that it will soon apply to medical supplies and medical treatment?
151: Obviously that's a much fancier state than Pennsylvania or West Virginia.
New Jersey better be like "Sure, come get your booze on."
Just sent in another job application. Wish me luck!
I just want to vent about my boss for a sec.
I say I am available for virtual coworking but I just took an Invisible Hands order and that's going to take some unpredictable length of time because I don't know how things are at the grocery stores. (As it turns out my IH recipient felt it was better to wait a few days so I'm still here on the internet.)
My coworker, also on the email says, much respect for your volunteer work.
I say: "It is, no joke, *entirely* selfishly motivated. I am minimally anxious about getting sick, and extremely stressed about being cooped up in the house with no human interaction. I mean, it's a nice side benny that it helps someone, but I am actually trying to take care of myself here."
My boss says: "Are you minimally anxious about getting sick because you believe you're immune? I assume you plan to wear a mask, otherwise they could call the program Invisible Enemy Hands lol"
WTF. For the record, I do have a face covering, but why is my boss making shitty jokes about me infecting people when I am trying to do grocery shopping for someone who's immunocompromised? I wrote him an email expanding on why I was minimally anxious which is mostly that even if I'm not immune, I am so much better positioned to weather this than so many other people, and I have already thought about and integrated the extra health risk that now exists to me in the world.
Good luck Barry.
I have no interest in making my own mask. Is there somewhere I can buy one that would not be taking from healthcare workers supply of PPE?
I have no interest in making my own mask. Is there somewhere I can buy one that would not be taking from healthcare workers supply of PPE?
I saw someone say that etsy could be a good source. How protective a mask are you looking for? Is cotton enough or do you want something that will offer more income protection?
"income" s/b "incoming"
I was thinking about the difference between a mask that will protect you from others vs one that will protect others from you (cotton should be enough for the latter, not the former).
I don't think the non medical ones protect you from other people. I would want to protect others from me mostly.
I wore a no sew one, made like the video someone here linked. I see it as mostly serving to normalize mask-wearing, since I did not see many customers wearing masks at the grocery store.
I made a bunch last night out of old materials I had in the basement for Halloween costumes. I could make you a couple if you want. They're not great looking and maybe I should add more layers because the cotton is kind of thin, but they definitely held in a sneeze I had this morning while out walking.
I went for my walk last night with a bandit-style mask, but quickly pulled it down so I could breathe better. I pulled it up the one time somebody got within a dozen yards of me.
At least, the big ball of snot that came out. I can't say how well it worked on microscopic drops.
I also did the no-sew mask. At the Costco in my blue state, more than half the people had masks -- maybe two-thirds.
I'm going to the store tomorrow as we're out of bread and milk and Twizzlers. I'll either do the no-sew mask or use on of the five masks I found in our first aid kit.
Ume and I walked to Wittgenstein's grave this afternoon. I found it very calming to be in that lovely quiet graveyard. There was a bunch of dead daffodils on his stone.
I had spent the afternoon thinking about triage and ventilators and as part of it checked out the official Nice guidelines. They can be summarised as saying there will be no ventilators for anyone in a care home.
Not that I expected my mother would get out want one of she catches it, but it was sobering to realise that everyone in the Home is screwed if the virus gets in there.
Boris Johnson is going into hospital. Onanists take note.
173: I get conserving resources and quality of life cost effectiveness, but that is well and truly shitty.
I know that my hospital system (NB: If I were on site now, I would be wearing a mask) is trying to have conversations with sick people who would be likely to die from COVID about what they want in advance of an infection.
SP - that would be appreciated. Even the no sew kind requires more craft skill than I have.
I was afraid that Boris Johnson was going to get a mild case, recover and have all of his beliefs about his superiority confirmed, as well as his theory that the right COVID 19 response is 'let 'er rip'. I am deeply relieved that at the least this is sucking for him. Would not regret worse outcomes neither, although I've learned that we're not supposed to say that aloud.
For some reason, MI caseload has been in the news a lot lately (we're number 3!). I've been keeping my own plots of daily data, and it looks like it's peaking (touch wood). I am awful at mathy things, but I did manage to fit a polynomial trendline, take a derivative, and solve for projected peak date. I don't understand the IHME estimates of peak resource usage falling about April 11, since the governors of ours and neighboring states are projecting end of April, but I'm so relieved that it looks like we'll be on the downside of our curve soon. Detroit just got the newly approved rapid-read tests, which from here looks like the cavalry. They reported receiving 5,000 Thursday and are testing essential workers. They're gathering a team of public health volunteers (likely grad students, I'd imagine?) to do intensive contact tracing as caseload drops. I am so sad it got this bad, but for a poor state with a R legislative branch, it looks like we're avoiding the nightmare scenario.
Plus, the president is actively trying to make sure people die there.
177: Yep. Although at this point, I'd rather have Whitmer, GM, and Ford in Michigan's corner, given that even the feds' "helpful" responses aren't.
(Oh, and Duggan, too. Not sure whether his former healthcare industry connections got the Abbott tests, but I'm glad he made it happen.)
I'm now genuinely torn on something about my response for the first time. I want to follow guidelines and until my proper fabric mask comes in the mail, I've been tying a bandanna around my head bandito-style. But I really need to be able to get in aerobic exercise for both physical and mental health reasons, the main one available is jogging, and I don't see how I can get enough oxygen with a mask on. Today I went out to jog maskless. Any advice?
Just don't go near anybody. Maybe get up really early or run later so there aren't crowds.
Here at least, and I think the CDC guidance is similar, they're recommending masks primarily for contexts where it isn't really practical to keep six feet between people at all time (e.g., grocery stores). If you're jogging outside and can easily keep a proper distance from other people going maskless should be fine.
I truly can't imagine that it's a problem to go jogging maskless unless the trails are so crowded that it's problematic in and of itself. I just think that poor ventilation is a huge part of the problem, and the outdoors is not that.
A weird thing here is that lip-service that everyone is paying to those people who really hard want to believe that everything will go back to normal on May 4th, which is the date the Governor set in his most recent thing. So schools are all still saying "until May 4th" as if they'll go back for the last three weeks of school. Our kids' activities are all acting like they'll start up again on the 5th.
As far as I can tell, it's because the responsible people don't want to waste their social capital fighting those battles of linguistics with Trump supporters, so it's easier to all live in this fictional world where we're in this for three weeks. But seriously, it's projected to peak in Texas on May 6th according to that Washington State model, so it really is poignantly dumb to go through this fiction.
I always say I'm going to be doing something on or by a specific date and I'm usually lying. Society demands it.
180: wrong kind of doctor, but I'm not masking for exercise outdoors (30 mile bike ride today) though I do have one with me (in the event I needed to stop at a convenience store or help someone with a flat.).
Why would you ask somebody on a bike to help with your apartment?
Maybe your Governor is just a Star Wars fan?
Our kids' overnight camp canceled for the summer. This was the only year they could've all gone together. Our other planned trip isn't yet in the window where we can get no penalty refunds but I'm guessing it will be so we'll have no vacation plans.
I've heard people speculating that colleges may not open as normal in the fall. I guess online classes with more planning this time?
Somebody with a bike helping with an apartment.
I always say I'm going to be doing something on or by a specific date and I'm usually lying. Society demands it.
Anyone else feel a bit of joy when you look at your calendar at all the cancelled shit we don't have to do this month? Conferences, presentations, etc...
I saw a picture of someone wearing one with a cycle and drinking
https://twitter.com/Angiologist
Also terrifying twitter thread from a doctor who was a COVID patient and family caregiver.
https://twitter.com/NoopurRajeMD/status/1246905651491717122
She seems to be pro masking at all times.
190: I have been working at full capacity since New Year's Day. So many hours.
174- emailed you at the last address I had for you.
I think that, somehow, this year's seder is going to fail to match the high standard set by last year's seder (later-in-thread description: "let's just do it and be legends"). The restricted diet seems nicely compatible with our new lifestyle burning approximately 4 calories a day, though.
So we have a thing going where folks all over town step outside at 8 pm and howl like wolves. I missed it the last few nights, and finally set the alarm. You can hear it up and down the valley where I live, and it's all over town. Lot's of folks posting videos to FB of their kids howling etc. It's a thank you to the health workers.
Everyone else doing something like this?
Not around here. Unless no longer stopping at stop signs is a way to say thank you.
196: That's what the UK is doing. It feels really really strange to do it for someone of my particular emotional make up, but I guess it's nice to do something with the whole country.
Still fine here! My mom doesn't have Covid-19, so now she can go back to worrying about getting it. (Which is fine, no one is too worried.)
198: We're clapping decorously on our doorsteps for about 30 seconds once a week. None of your howling, banging saucepan lids, or playing bagpipes in our nice middle-class street, sadly.
Our fed government (Canadian) is offering income support for the next 16 weeks. Four months! This will not end any time soon...
Wolves are so much classier than applause, though
I felt a little feverish, though I just ate some mildly spicy food. First reading is 37.5, second was 37.3. Initiate full hypochondriac mode.
Now it's 37.1.
I'm going to be posting my temperature in comments all day.
Extrapolating from 202 and 204, Barry will be dead of hypothermia within six hours, making him something of a novelty in the annals of Arrakeen medicine.
Offworlders forget how cold the nights can be.
We cheer at 7 pm. Not that anyone here has control over it, but some people on a forum for people with mental illness I mostly lurk on expressed a lot of distress about howling in their neighborhood and wished it could be cheering/applauding, and there was serious dread about the possibility of pots and pans.
Have not heard any applause or howling here.
205 ajay may well be right, it's 37.0 now.
Are you sterilizing the thermometer in your vodka? The ice cubes may interfere.
I heard that some folks in. Ostensibly did a rendition of Sweet Caroline.
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This is getting to be a habit. The new Labour economic spokesperson on Sky News.
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