This Happened

[Zen]

Well... the State of Illinois has been officially ordered to "Shelter in Place" until April 7th, so my company is closed until then...

[Mike]

Free meals to all kids seems to be the standard model for all the public schools here as well. Good to know.

Also, all the stores here seem to have restocked right on schedule with no hiccups, so that's good.

[Tahlvin]

Several of the grocery and convenience store chains in the area are hiring thousands of full and part time workers, to help people who were laid off from other jobs and to keep up with stocking and cleaning.

[Phoebe]

I think this is one of those memes circulating around, but isn't it weird how much child nutrition depends on school meals? We are really seeing things close up now and it's not so pretty.

[Zen]

Well, I finally went to a doctor about this persistent cough that I've had for the last week and a half. He decided that I probably needed a round of antibiotics, probably based on my history of sinus infections and the fact that the illness doesn't seem to be getting that much better and it's going on two weeks that I've been sick. (Not that I don't feel better than I did when I first got sick, but I still feel like crap.)

It was also an opportunity to establish myself with my new primary care provider since my doctor that I've had for the past... many years... is retiring at the end of the month. She has wonderful timing. (She also has a picture in the attic. If you asked me how old she is I wouldn't be able to tell you because she looks exactly the same today as she did when she became my doctor. I cannot say the same for myself. I'm positive that she's older than me, but, frankly, I look older than her at this point. I know that she's been my doctor for over 15 years because she was my primary care physician when I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and when I had my last round of sinus surgery. The sinus surgery was in 2004. The fibro diagnosis was most likely in 2003.)

On a related note, my wife commented, as I was getting a drink because my cough was bothering me, "Well, thank you for social distancing. I'm sure we both appreciate it." (Referring to herself and our daughter.)

After a minute, I poked my head around the corner to where she had gone to sit in the living room with our daughter, having realized that she was referring to the fact that I've been working from home in the basement and, when not working, generally also spending my time in the basement where the big screen TV and my computer are...

I asked, "So... you mean living the way I normally do?"

Both of them said, "Yeah... pretty much."

[Phoebe]

Lol, yes, it's not an enormous departure here. Glad you are taking care of yourself though!

[Phoebe]

I was laying here with my kid discussing my, you know, infinite wisdom about relationships, and after maybe ten minutes of me rattling on about what works or doesn't work well in them, she passed out cold and now cannot be woken and extracted from my spot in my bed on my pillow. I also put the dog to sleep, at the same time, and he's passed out so hard that the upper half of his body has fallen off the dog bed and he's just laying there sprawled as if he fainted. I am that boring. It's incredible.

[Ronster]

On the way to work there is a long straightaway (long for Georgia backroads...about a 1/4 mile) and then I saw 6 small bright green lights bouncing in pairs...at first I thought dogs, then cats or puppies....Nope! It was a raccoon family. It was nice to see nature being normal

[Zen]

Well... earlier this week the husband of one of my wife's semi-retired coworkers was diagnosed with COVID-19... then, even more recently, one of her coworkers, who she worked with and interacted with for approximately five minutes the last time she worked, was diagnosed. Out of 42 diagnosed cases in the Champaign-Urbana area, two are associated with her department of the hospital... This probably suggests that there are several asymptomatic people either among the families of the patients (neonatal ICU) or staff of the unit. She's fairly convinced that she's going to get it.

[Phoebe]

Oh, I hope not! How are they doing on supplies and staff? I've been figuring out how to make masks in case they get to that point of desperation even for cloth ones. I am using cute rainbow-animal prints if that helps make them less scary for kid patients. My daughter was terrified of plain masks for years after having surgeries, so cute ones seem desirable.

[Stan]

Here, patients are not generally allowed to have visitors, which would help.

[Tahlvin]

Today is my son’s 16th birthday. His girlfriend came to visit, and they had to stay at least 6 feet apart. Her mom sat in the car and watched to make sure they didn’t get too close. She’s their oldest child, he’s our third, so they are definitely not yet used to their child dating. But such is teenage love in the time of coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Republican Party refuses to move our election from next Tuesday, or so automatic absentee voting by mail for everyone. They’re worried their candidate for state Supreme Court will lose if there is high turnout. So they are forcing in person voting this Tuesday. The governor can’t override that legally, since the legislature is responsible for setting the elections. A federal judge demanded that the deadline for receiving absentee ballots be extended, but the Republican Party has said they will challenge that to the Supreme Court. WTF!! When this is all over, I hope there’s a reckoning.

[Phoebe]

Oh, I hope he enjoyed his birthday even if the circumstances were unusual! It's hard on these kids, even the ones who aren't galloping extroverts, who miss seeing their friends, girlfriends, etc.

[Tahlvin]

Found out yesterday that the mother of my childhood best friend broke of her friendship with my parents because she found out my child is transgender. Honestly, she threw away a friendship of 45-50 years over something my parents had no control over. Who the fuck does that?

[Kyle]

[akiva]

[Mike]

[Phoebe]

What the hell? I struggle to wrap my mind around this. Like, it's one thing to be a bigot who hates other people, and it's something stratospherically beyond that to be so bigoted that you cannot be friends with people you were friends with for years, because their grandchild falls into the category of people you hate. That's really something. People are really something.

[Stan]

While working, I've been listening to music to drown out the voices.

Working full time at home.
We have a raccoon problem in the attic. I found how they got in. Now I need to drive them out first so as not to trap them in and make them super scared and destructive. Replaced the light bulb with a strobe light so it's not a dark, restful place. Someone told me that the sound of voices scares them. So I took a cheap radio, set it AM talk radio at a fairly loud volume, and placed it in the attic.

From where the desktop pc is, I can hear the radio if there is no other sound source. Music is much more soothing.

Not sure if it's working far. If I see a raccoon in a MAGA hat, I'll know that it backfired.

[Ronster]

So...my options at work are:
1. Go on a Leave of Absence and collect unemployment for 30,60, or 90 days
2. work at 75% of normal hours
3. Go on Pay Protection until July 1 at 75% pay due to multiple High Risk health factors

I chose #3 so I might not be in here much until July. I will miss you folks. Stay Nerdy!