This came across my feed and absolutely made my day. Just the pick-me-up I needed to make it through the afternoon. Seems like the sort of thing my family might have done, back when I was the younger brother’s age and hadn’t realized that musicals were gay and must be shunned*.
This is the talented Marsh Family.
Here are three minutes and fifty four seconds that will make your day better. Promise.
A COVID-19 lockdown version of Les Mis — with lyrics.
“One Day More.?❤️??pic.twitter.com/Ax3nqJaxcg
— Rex Chapman?? (@RexChapman) March 31, 2020
Here’s a nice open thread for you all! Apologies if I’m bigfooting somebody, though it looooks unlikely.
*Well I got better.
TaMara (HFG)
Awesome.
Baud
Open, not respite?
Ok, so here’s Politico today:
And here’s Reuters today:
What could possibly go wrong?
Brendan in NC
I think an Tony/Olivier nomination is in order!!!
opiejeanne
That was excellent.
Your final comment made me wonder momentarily if you’d been turned into a newt.
Major Major Major Major
@opiejeanne: Closeted adolescent boy, close enough.
zhena gogolia
Oh, that was fabulous.
There’s going to have to be a collection of all this pandemic artwork when all this is over.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I’m sure there will be.
opiejeanne
@Baud: So the orange gasbag wants what Nancy Smash wants, but Moscow Mitch is not having it?
What could possibly go wrong, indeed. Of course, that would include the orange gasbag changing his mind when he realizes he has sided with that nasty woman
Mary G
“Our grandparents are miles away”
“They can’t work Skype, we’re brokenhearted”
That made me snort into my hot chocolate. I also loved the false start when the kids started bickering and dad had to get them to knock it off. Thanks for a much-needed laugh, M4.
Major Major Major Major
@Mary G: My favorite part was the dad’s cut-off “fuck”, followed by the “watch our father drink/watch our mother sigh” line.
Wag
this version of Do-Re-Mi is really excellent, as well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMBh-eo3tvE&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2fT1O1l_q89y0xp_fGfoyvLgREdc59h1M4nsGLa7m6WGTXolmVULNgyXs
zhena gogolia
artem1s posted this this morning, which I think is also really good and should go into one of WaterGirl’s online teaching threads.
opiejeanne
I just realized that today is Tuesday! Ok, I mean I knew it was Tuesday when I got up, but Tuesday is the day that I can bring the groceries into the house and put them away. Three bags of goodies my youngest bought for us, and two bags of Instacart stuff, all of which came on Saturday. I now have more than enough flour, so much flour. (Why did my kid buy 3 of the 5 pound bags of flour?) Not complaining, we will use it.
C Stars
Open thread? Just writing in to complain about my mom friend who is so bad at this shelter in place thing. She’s proposing outings with the kids, meeting up at the grocery store, etc. I keep having to find polite ways of saying UM NO. But I don’t really blame her. It’s rough stuff, being stuck with a first and second grader all day, and her partner has a “big” job (i.e. 10 hours a day on conference calls) so she’s not getting much relief.
C Stars
@opiejeanne: Wow, you are abiding by the 72 hour rule? You are much better than us…we’re just liberally spraying our hands with sanitizer and then digging in to our grocery deliveries.
Major Major Major Major
So I have a friend who’s being very irresponsible. He’s been socializing, having dinner with people, caught the virus, gave it to at least two of his friends (who were also being irresponsible obviously, it takes two to tango). And he’s still traveling across town to see his boyfriend! Probably taking the E from Long Island City to Hell’s Kitchen! What the fuck, man. Fucking Typhoid Maurice over here.
Major Major Major Major
@opiejeanne: For what it’s worth, smear (surface) transmission is still only theoretical a this point. Better safe than sorry if it’s non-perishable, but don’t let yourself starve either!
We spray our containers with alcohol at the entrance roomlet but we are also a low-risk group.
Barbara
@C Stars: I thought I was bad going out once a day for take away coffee, and once a week to the grocery store. Depending on the jurisdiction, you can go to parks and playgrounds, however, when too many people do that, especially in a coordinated fashion, it ends up causing the county or state to padlock the site. That’s what is happening here. If my kids were young like that, I would come up with a schedule and try to stick to it, including free time and tv or internet time. Yes, it’s hard.
Barbara
@Major Major Major Major: That’s hard to forgive. Is he at least wearing a mask?
Major Major Major Major
Major Major Major Major
@Barbara: Doubtful. Nobody’s confronted him about this yet that I’m aware of so I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think he has any.
Mo Salad
Nope. Kid in middle is wearing a Watford kit. Ruined the undefeated LFC season before the virus did.
Amir will be joining my boycott, I presume.
cain
@Major Major Major Major:
Ugh.. yes, definitely a problem.. although he got it right, so possibly is now immune?
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: You and I had the same thought! Earlier today, I added the link to the intro to the series (which can be found in the sidebar).
And I figured I would add that to the next distance teaching post.
Great minds.
Major Major Major Major
@cain: He is still sick!
WaterGirl
@opiejeanne: Hey, my quarantined stuff can come in today, too!
Appreciate the reminder.
rikyrah
This is for a respite thread.
This thread is ????
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Major Major Major Major: When you dig into the studies about how long detectable amounts of the virus can live on surfaces, I’ve heard numbers like 72 hours for plastic, 24 hours for cardboard, and only a few hours for copper. Not sure about other metals. And as you say, that doesn’t mean you can catch it that way.
So we’re trying to keep mail and boxes outside for at least 24 hours, plastic wrapped things for 72, but for groceries that need refrigerating (we just got a delivery today actually) we have to do some sort of sterilization procedure. Today I wiped down with a wet wipe and then washed with soap and warm water.
gene108
@Major Major Major Major:
Wish there was a way to enforce quarantine on people like him, where authorities check on infected people to make sure they stay at home.
Gin & Tonic
My daughter’s birthday is today, and she’s working from home/sheltered in place about an hour away (but across a state line) so our big plan is to take her favorite tart, which I baked, and a card and some fresh-cut daffodils, drive down there and leave it a safe distance from her, give the dog a scritch, and head back home. Technically a violation, maybe? But if we stay in the car and don’t come in contact with another human?
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
My colleagues have loved it.
C Stars
@Barbara: Yeah, we went for a walk in a park near us the other day, warning the kids they wouldn’t be able to use the playground there, and the park was deserted at first, but by about noon the walking path was like a highway. And there were folks having picnics and frisbee games all around. I realized why the edict in Italy has been literally “Stay Home.” But yes, it’s fcking hard to do that with kids.
Sab
So our MetroPark has been overrun with herds of suburban women not social distancing. We can’t really use the main park trail because crowded. My husband yells at them. They yell back that the governor hasn’t ordered it.
More sensible people apparently called the health department and the park main office. So they will be closing off some of the parking to reduce the number of people. Good job suburban women. You want rules with teeth instead of helpful suggestions? You will get rules with teeth.
Major Major Major Major
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yeah, “detecting viral RNA” is not the same thing as “detecting viruses” which is also not the same thing as “you can catch it from that.” Thank god.
From what I’ve read, you’d basically have to molest the packaging and then go right for a thorough nose-picking. Which is possible, but maybe not something to panic about, unless (like many commenters) you’re in a high-risk group and want to do the abundance of caution thing.
@gene108: We carry a way to do that around in our pockets everywhere we go; we just haven’t decided as a society to use that power yet.
Barbara
@Sab: My county has padlocked most of the running tracks and other facilities on county property that can be locked to fence people out. They got tired of warning people.
C Stars
@Major Major Major Major: That’s hilarious.
I think the distancing thing is just hitting people differently. A guy my husband works with who we always thought just didn’t like people called him the other day and said “I’m lonely and freaked out.” I guess he’s only really a loner in the life circumstance in which he sees/interacts with people at work on a regular basis. Absent that, he’s just at home with his own thoughts all day, and it’s getting to him. I on the other hand am sort of glad to not have a zillion social obligations, PTA, etc.
But I do really miss seeing my dad and step-mom, who only live an hour away
Barbara
@Sab: Rules with teeth would be padlocking the site.
gene108
Stayin’ inside ah hahaha Stayin’ Inside
https://youtu.be/nmUXntGlqFI?list=RD9ITkTe5gutM
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Kind of grim personal statistical study I started. I download the table of state by state stats from worldinfo.com every day, and I’m going to start tracking what’s happening in various states, particularly the ones who refuse to institute lockdowns, compared to the states that do have lockdowns.
I started this when I heard about the Mississippi governor who gave an executive order that all businesses are essential in response to a mayor (of Tupelo I think?) who ordered a closure of non-essential businesses. So I’m watching Mississippi in particular.
Speaking of right wing idiots, I assume most of us have heard about the Tampa megachurch preacher who was still packing in the parishioners on Sunday, and claimed to have magic virus killing machines to keep people safe. He was arrested. Only spent about 5 seconds in jail before posting $500 bail, but still it was nice to hear. Florida is another state I’m watching.
oldster
I’m so glad that nobody ever told me that loving musical theater was gay. Because when I was a young man, my whole social world (of the late sixties) was so deeply homophobic, and I was so vulnerable to peer pressure, that I would have fled from it as fast as I could, despite my deep and abiding love for all things musical. And despite the fact that all of my adolescent horniness was focused on girls, anyhow. Still, in those days there were few things scarier than the fear that you might be gay.
Instead, I blissfuly threw myself into musical theater all through high school, and had a *lot* of delicious adolescent sex with sopranos, altos, and the girls who designed the stage-sets and moved the props. My first N hookups were all due to My Fair Lady, Music Man, and South Pacific. Let’s hear it for guys and dolls!
Scout211
@Gin & Tonic:
My daughter’s birthday is today, too!
She turns 40 today. Homeschooling 2 school aged and one toddler and having online parent teacher conferences with parents in her class was not how she thought this birthday would go.
Litlebritdifrnt
Really sad news. Tonight on the BBC millions upon millions of plants will have to be trashed because all the garden centres are closed (not deemed essential). This is peak buying time for British Gardeners and this closure means all of the growers are basically going to go under. I know its not as important stuff but for us gardeners it is really sad. I was really looking forward to going out and buying a whole bunch of bedding plants for my garden I wanted a riot of colour in my new garden and now it looks like that is not going to happen. Luckily grocery stores over here sell tons of bedding plants and stuff too so you can sneak some into your cart while you are doing the “essential” grocery shop.
CaseyL
I am so loving the videos with families singing a LeCovid-19 anthem, and goats taking over towns, and sports announcers doing color commentary on their dogs’ eating race, and all the other lovely, weird, wonderful things people are doing and posting to pass the quarantine time.
Thank you, and keep ’em coming!
Mary G
Why can’t we have a government like this:
Reading further down, it’s the state of Berlin, not all of Germany, and it’s a limited fund, first come first served, from a group of people who believed the art scene made the city. Still would be nice to see some of the 1% (looking at you, Bloomberg) doing things like this.
I have an Instacart appointment in the first slot on Friday, and am hoping for bleach, flour, paper towels, and paper napkins.
Major Major Major Major
@oldster: It’s a wee bit scarier when you actually are gay…
Barbara
@Litlebritdifrnt: It is really sad. Garden centers are still open around here. We spent all weekend planting. It’s too bad that they couldn’t work out some kind of order for delivery solution for at least some of them.
mrmoshpotato
@opiejeanne:
LOL (Riders on the) Baking up a storm.
LuciaMia
President Morgan Freeman announces quarantine restrictions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaZ00_AdPcM
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@C Stars:
as a childless, I can only imagine how hard it must be to keep kids at home and calm, but…. why in the hell is grocery shopping a group activity? I don’t even get couples who seem to need to roam the aisles together in normal times. Rip your list in half, one of you push the cart, the other go and fetch stuff and bring it back. Why would you want to spend more time than you have to in the gateway to hell– again, even in normal times– that is your average Buy’n’Bag or Food and Stuff.
Kelly
@Sab: Our county tried to keep the parks open. Installed hand sanitizer in all restrooms. Within 2 days all the hand sanitizer and TP was stolen. All closed now. Oregon state parks also tried to remain open but were overwhelmed. Closed after a few days. Forest Service closed the entire Pacific NW a day later.
Gin & Tonic
Just saw a phone screenshot from my DIL in Kyiv, and the cell provider changed that text you always see in the top left corner next to the bars (e.g. “Verizon”) to “Stay home.”
mrmoshpotato
@Major Major Major Major:
Sic Cuomo on him! :)
Tracy
A live online concert tonight from singer-songwriter Leigh Jones. She has a beautiful voice!
6 pm Pacific, 9 pm Eastern
Facebook Live
Instagram Live
(I’m not affiliated with her, just a big fan of her band Five Letter Word)
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: Goat tweets? I gotta see what Phil Plait’s been up to!
Amir Khalid
I have had no problems at all with self-isolating. I have the Intertubes, five guitars and a freaking big amp, a cat, and you guys. S’all good.
Baud
@gene108:
Hahaha. The dog makes that video even more awesome.
joel hanes
Here’s a tale of inspired parenting to make your day brighter
https://twitter.com/VafeR/status/1244742759405121536
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid:
Only?
Fair Economist
@KellyLocal parks are still fine here in Orange County CA. Not everybody is being perfect, especially on the creekside path, but seems fine to me considering sanity issues, etc.
Kelly
This explains our situation ;-)
https://twitter.com/KrysiaW/status/1244978985261355008
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
Yeah. The guitar stores are all closed. ☹️
Calouste
@Baud: It might actually be a good time to do infrastructure work. Fewer people using the roads means less people affected by disruption while the work is going on. It might even be possible to do things in way that wouldn’t normally be considered because they would be too disrupting, like closing an entire freeway section for a few weeks.
opiejeanne
@Sab: That’s what happened in WA, two weekends ago when it was sunny in Western Washington; after spending a week of Seattle beingghost town, hordes of people descended on Alki Beach.
Inslee had tried doing this the “nice” way, but he finally had to close the beaches and issue the stay at home order because people are idiots.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Here is a dumb thought why the Evangelicals are acting like idiots;
1. Trump is the Messiah in the Evangelical mind (and one can see why, it defies all rational thinking how someone as utterly worthless as Trump got to be president, outside the doing of some supernatural being)
2. The Blue States drove the Impeachment and therefor are naughty in the eyes of the Evangelical God.
3. The Virus is mostly hitting the Blue States (right now…) Therefor it’s God’s Wrath like Aids and America God Talent.
Conclusion; The Evangelical are God’s Chosen Elect as shown by their Republican Party memberships, so therefor no TRUE Christian is going to get the virus (and any Evangelical gets it, well that means for the voted for Hillary in 2016) So Dr Jesus has told them all in their hearts that stuffing themselves like sardines into a Mega Church is perfectly safe and it’s not going to church (which I understand can be three days awake among the most committed) and not tithing is what will put them at risk.
Conclusion 2: God hates Italians, for unclear reasons. Since it’s Northern Italy that’s been hit the hardest, it presumably is because of white sauce on the pasta.
It all makes to much stupid sense for these asshole.s
Immanentize
@Amir Khalid: Did you see this Lego Kit?
Old Trafford Stadium — M.U.!
I think you need it while we are all huddled in at home?
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: LMAO!
Sab
@Barbara: Padlockimg the site is coming soon. One problem is the operating tax levy was on the March ballot, postponed to end of April. I haven’t seen anything that says that’s in their thinking, but I can’ t believe it isn’t.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Why, to throw stones at it? I suspect if it’s not Anfield, our friend would have zero interest.
C Stars
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hey, I hear ya. Grocery shopping together is just not my bag. Glass of wine in the backyard? Hell ya. Slowly wandering fluorescent-lit aisles trying to socialize while also doing budget/meal planning calculations in the back of my mind? Yuck.
opiejeanne
@Litlebritdifrnt: Can’t they offer a curbside pickup?
I know that one of our garden centers, the overpriced one in town, is considered an essential business. Can’t think why unless it’s because they sell fruit trees and veggie starts and seeds.
Our favorite place, though, is 15 acres, most of it a gorgeous park in a semi-rural area that is trending light-industrial tilt-up buildings. We hope they are considered an essential business because they are wonderful and if they go under the place will be fought over by developers, half wanting to plunk a mansion or two in the parkland and the other half looking at the massive greenhouses and dreaming of how many warehouses they could plant there.
Mary G
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: Piss has to go somewhere in lockdown!
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
People are idiots.
Amir Khalid
@Immanentize:
I might be interested if there’s an Anfield Stadium kit. YNWA!
opiejeanne
@mrmoshpotato: Ye-es, but the flour is all bleached, enriched, and pre-sifted, but I can work with it. She also got me a 2 lb bag of pizza flour. Interesting. She doesn’t bake much.
We are having pizza for supper tonight.
*Thinking aloud*Oh no! We don’t have any Italian sausage! I have fresh mushrooms, sliced olives (thank you Instacart) and a jar of pizza sauce. There is one of those lovely little dry salamis in the pantry, and that’s close enough to pepperoni.
opiejeanne
@Mary G: I have so much flour, if I could figure out how to ship some to you without going off the property I would send you a bag. My kid found flour at Target on Saturday morning.
MoCA Ace
I laughed, then cried a little… this if awesome.
I have posted more today than I have in the last several months… can you tell I started working from home today?
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
Dang, you beat me to it.
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
That’s awful behavior. Awful. He’s okay with sickening and perhaps killing others? Why, because he’s fucking bored and horny? Ugh.
cckids
I never understand this; I’m a PT cashier in a grocery store; the amount of people STILL bringing in their whole damn families is mind-boggling. I will cut some slack for single moms with young kids, I’ve been there and sometimes there is no other option. But 2 parents, sometimes an in-law, multiple kids?? NOW?? (In SEATTLE?) GTFO.
mrmoshpotato
@Mary G:
LOL
Yup!
trollhattan
@cckids:
Last Costco trip I encountered a three-generation (at least) family wandering in a gaggle, including a woman so old she had shrunk to perhaps half her adult size, barely ambulatory and perhaps wondering, “Where the heck am I?” She did have a mask on, so there was that.
Why did they not leave me-maw in the SUV with a few of those surplus family members? What in the actual hell was that about? Had a bet with myself that they were pissed nobody was passing out food samples.
mrmoshpotato
@opiejeanne: Sounds good to me. I bought some flour and yeast last I was out.
Pretzels will be made – eventually.
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan: He seems to be so extroverted that the isolation is causing meaningful psychological pain, but that’s not an excuse. But like I said, it takes two to agree to have dinner, so it’s not just him :-/
Major Major Major Major
cckids
@trollhattan: I will never understand some people’s fondness for shopping in groups. I used to use it as an excuse (yeah, I’ll admit it) to get some space from my kids for an hour or so.
Also, with some couples/families, it is clearly a dominance situation – dad gets to decide what they buy, how much they spend, is this necessary, etc. He carries the money, and you’d damn well better not hand the receipt to the wife. Very uncomfortable.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
If it came with free Internet and indoor plumbing, I would totally do that job.
MoCA Ace
My wife see’s this daily at the pharmacy… a fucking pharmacy!
trollhattan
@cckids:
Youngest of three I was dragged along for Saturday shopping with the folks. It was never fun. Mom would coupon-clip the Wednesday ads and we then dutifully went to three stores, minimum, in order to get the best deals.
In retrospect I am boggled at what a big job that was and also how necessary to stretch every dollar feeding a family of five. And it burned a big chunk of Saturday. Food was once a much larger fraction of the typical family budget; I try and imagine how far mom could have stretched the amount we now spend on our bloody cellular bill.
catclub
reporting because I think it is really good
This is how we can start a pandemic of positivity:
Barbara
@Major Major Major Major: His not sick boyfriend and other friends could come to him, but that doesn’t really solve the problem does it? Because then they get sick. It’s irresponsible and it is brutally unfair to people who don’t have a choice about taking the subway to get to work and whose sickness could impose a much greater burden on them and their family. I think that’s what I might tell him.
japa21
So today I am preparing for tomorrow. Currently that mean clear liquid diet. Later comes the real fun prep.
Having two scopes done. One is a follow-up endoscopy for a condition discovered last year. The other is the other end for a more recent development. The practice has cancelled all screening scopes but the doctor left it up to me with a strong suggestion I have it done. It’s being done at their clinic so totally outpatient.
Yesterday I received a call from the anesthesiologist’s office which wanted to ask me a series of questions, pretty much related to the virus. A yes answer to any question would have been an automatic cancellation. When I was done answering, she asked if I had any questions for them. Sure, I said, does the doc have to answer the same questions. She laughed and replied yes, the whole staff does.
Also, every person entering the facility, patient or staff has their temp taken before they are allowed in and anybody with a fever is stopped and turned around.
So looking forward to this.
Barbara
@cckids: When my mother went back to work she assigned shopping responsibility to one of us or my dad and we never went together. I hate grocery shopping with my husband because we have totally different shopping styles. We don’t even like the same store.
schrodingers_cat
I am all Coronad out so I am listening to love songs.
Preet (Love), if you like gorgeous eye candy you could do worse than to click.
Two words, Fawad Khan.
*If I knew what a hassle falling in love would be , I would shout from roof tops don’t fall in love.
Major Major Major Major
@Barbara: His boyfriend is sick, I don’t know who got it from who. He was asymptomatic during all the socializing except his last hangout with the BF, and I don’t know which one traveled, but again, it takes two so they’re both responsible.
To summarize: Because of irresponsible socializing by these three people, they all now have this deadly disease, and have been going around town shedding virus particles. We do all scold them briefly during virtual dinner parties and such, though not to the extent that they log off…
trollhattan
@japa21:
I had the two-fer once. Such a Gold Star day!
The prep is still worse than the appointment. Good luck!
MoCA Ace
@Barbara: I cannot shop with my wife. I’ll be pushing the cart, look back, and she’s gone. I’ll backtrack and find her standing in front of the tuna, or paper towels, or literally anything, trying to decide which one to buy. I can get in and out of a store before she clears the first isle.
Gin & Tonic
@japa21: I’ve had the both-ends-at-once treatment. There are worse things in life.
Ohio Mom
Japa21@92: Here’s hoping for negative results! I am glad to hear that absolutely essential procedures are still happening.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@japa21: You might as well. It’s not like you’re missing a party by doing it now.
Gin & Tonic
Oh, and I have an appointment to donate blood today. They are hurting for donors, and I’ve done this an awful lot, so they call me all the time. I inquired about precautions, and it’s appointment-only, donor-only, all employees are gowned and masked.
japa21
@Gin & Tonic:
@trollhattan: I know it’s not the worse thing in the world. And the prep is the worse part. I tend to get paranoid about things and have some concerns re the results. At least it gets me out of the house.
schrodingers_cat
Bol Na Halke Halke (speak softly) sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, has the Taj, Humayan’s tomb and other Mughal era monuments.
A Ghost to Most
@oldster: I would note that hating musicals and opera does not make one anti-gay.
Not every shit-kicker is a bigot.
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
Gotta go to the top of that thread for the whole story.
Martin
The only hospital in southern West Virginia is closing in 3 weeks. They’ve been trying to sell the hospital, which is now not possible, and they can’t survive financially.
#MAGA
Gin & Tonic
@japa21: And it gets you some of the happy juice, too.
Martin
@gene108: I call the county health department for every business/person I find not following social distancing orders. Apparently there’s only one person who answers the compliance phone line, and he’s gotten to know me pretty well.
A Ghost to Most
@Gin & Tonic: Good times. I used to give regularly, but a medication change caused me to start passing out during the draw, so they asked me to stop.
The Thin Black Duke
@Martin: Elections have consequences.
JustRuss
@Calouste: Went for a ride on one of my favorite roads on Sunday, and noticed a lot of fresh stumps where they’d cut down trees overhanging the road. So I think at least some infrastructure departments are taking advantage of the decreased road traffic.
Major Major Major Major
@The Thin Black Duke: I don’t know that you can put the full weight of a rural hospital failure on local politics… they’ve been struggling for years.
gvg
@Litlebritdifrnt: That seems ridiculous. I mail order plants all the time. Sunlight with UV is a good disinfectant. Seems like they should be able to mail them to buyers.
Lots of businesses have invented ways to do “curbside sales” you order and pay on the phone, drive there, text “I’m here in a gray mazda 5 ” and they bring it out to your trunk. Drive home, stick in backyard, wash hands,water pots a few days to be safe then plant.
Nurseries around here are allowed to be considered “essential” if they figure out a way to be social distant, which means employees working outside away from each other and I said curbside. However it seems most of them are just keeping the stock alive not doing huge amounts of business. And people are somewhat counting their pennies not spending.
MY garden tours of England were fun. plants for sale everywhere. This year I ordered a ton of seed to try while stuck at home, not plants like usual.
Barbara
@Martin: The thing is, West Virginia expanded Medicaid as soon as it could. So at least it doesn’t ignore the impact of rejecting federal money. The impact of high deductible plans is often brutal for local hospitals. People go there at the beginning of treatment, incur expenses that are not covered and then get transferred somewhere that ends up being able to receive payment from insurance. And of course, lots of people are still uninsured.
Gravenstone
@Baud: If only that $2 trillion wasn’t off by about an order of magnitude in terms of what it would take to effectively address our infrastructure deficiencies. Still, ya gotta start somewhere.
Martin
@Barbara: No, I agree with that. But Democrats would have continued to try and help these struggling areas, but they went full-bore GOP the last 3 elections.
WV is culturally isolationist. They aren’t necessarily stubborn with respect to federal support when it’s there, but they tend to not vote in a manner that invites more federal support. They want to solve the problem themselves, even when there’s almost no viable way to do that.
Barbara
@Major Major Major Major: Yes, it’s true, but the vast majority of closures have been in rural Southern states.
Barbara
@Martin: Yes, well, don’t get me started on WV. But what you say is true. WV and KY both expanded Medicaid without blinking an eye. But they are resistant to taking steps to advance beyond a natural resources economy mindset that allowed them to flourish for so long without changing cultural habits.
Tdjr
@Barbara: I used to love it when my dad went shopping with mom. He used to slip a box of cookies in the cart when she wasn’t watching.
Steeplejack (phone)
@joel hanes:
That is great!
Azelie
@zhena gogolia: that’s a grad school friend of mine! He’s really pleased that so many people have enjoyed the video.
Barbara
@Tdjr: My father’s idea of doing housework was asking one of us to do it. However, when he started shopping it dawned on him that he could just buy whatever he liked, so after the usual Friday shopping trip, we always had donuts and pastries for the weekend, which is what his own mother used to bake from scratch.
ziggy
@opiejeanne: You must be talking about Flower World. Love that place, they used to have massive plants for cheap, but now not as much. Still an incredible place.
Nurseries (in WA state) are deemed “essential” right now, because they do sell starts for food plants. I haven’t seen any retail nurseries close yet. I actually think they would be a pretty safe place to be if not crowded.
The wholesale nurseries have all pretty much closed up though. They tried to stay open, but most of their clientele has shut down. Pretty tough as this is a super-busy time of year for all of us in the landscape/garden industry, and they’ll have to keep crew on to keep things alive anyway.
cain
I warned my family that things are going to get personal.. it just did. One of brother’s colleague died today from complications from COVID-19. My brother talked to him yesterday and said the guy was feeling better and then boom.. dead today. Crazy. He was plumb and had hypertension.. I suspect that he probably got a heart attack or something.
Gravenstone
@Barbara:
If he’s visited them since being sick, they are now exposed and potential vectors. They should be staying home for 14 days minimum as well.
LongHairedWeirdo
Since this is dedicated to song, I have a link to share.
This PSA/song is *old*. Seriously. Years old. Long before Covid-19 was a way to screw the pooch, and play the hero, for Republicans. (Oh, that’s only a couple weeks old, isn’t it?)
This can’t be unseen, I warn you!
But it does show that Washington was prepared for just such an emergency.
The Pale Scot
@schrodingers_cat:
Shout out to SC
Sidhu Moose Wala
smintheus
@Martin: I’m getting pretty fed up with the yakkers out in my part of rural PA. People I don’t even know want to stop and keep engaging me in pointless conversation, and will usually keep sidling towards me no matter how often I step back and away from them.
Scout211
This being an open thread, I am posting a PSA for all rural jackals that only have post office boxes for mail delivery. File this one under Trump’s Census 2020 incompetency.
I live rural and only have a PO box, which is my legal address. The is no home delivery in my little postal area. You have no choice here. I was a bit concerned when I learned that everyone in my family had already received their Census2020 postcards and personal codes to enter into the Census website. I thought perhaps that it was a PO Box problem unique to our address, so I went on the Census site and found that you can enter your information without a card and a code. There’s a box you check if you don’t have a code. I was able to do that successfully.
I asked my tiny rural post office worker what was up and she told me that every single resident in our postal code area was sent a postcard with only the physical address on it–no post office box number and no names. So in addition to all her extra work with all the packages arriving due to online shopping and all her regular duties, she has to look up every single address on every single post card (maybe 200, I am not sure) and match it with a name and a PO Box. She has barely gotten through a dozen because she is so busy right now. And the second wave of “reminder cards” are already in the mail.
For some reason, Obama’s team never had a problem finding us. Imagine that.
I mentioned to her that she could advise people to do what I did and she was very grateful that she could give them a way to work around this madness.
But seriously, should they not know that we cannot receive mail addressed only to our physical address? Seriously?
/rant
khead
@Martin:
Bit of a nitpick but it’s the only hospital in Mingo County – not the only hospital in all of southern WV.
debbie
I’ve officially given up on ever finding Purell and am consoling myself with two new succulents I purchased on the way home. Hopefully, they’ll toughen up and survive my overattentiveness.
Martin
@cain: So, when my aunt got West Nile I learned that a small number of people – like 1% – had the virus get into the nervous system where it just wreaks all kinds of hell. That’s what happened to her.
Covid appears to do the same thing – again for a small number of people, and more commonly among older individuals where that blood/brain barrier doesn’t work as well, and one of the things it seems to do is attack the autonomous breathing function. A few medical professionals in China that got infected observed that they had to consciously breathe, that they could not fall asleep or else they’d just stop breathing and die – despite that they seemed to be less symptomatic.
The doctors were trying to reconsile why these people that seemed to be getting better were insisting on being put on a ventilator. So, the ventilators seem to be for two scenarios:
The latter seems to be relatively rare, but is suspected as why people will seemingly go from showing few symptoms or on the mend to being in respiratory arrest within minutes.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: I would think they would want to count rural people, because aren’t they more likely to be republicans?
zhena gogolia
@Azelie:
It’s really clever and well performed. I’ve gotten a number of thank-yous for posting it on our faculty listserv.
Miss Bianca
@cain: : (
Dear God, we’re all going to be able to tell these stories, sadly. Some of us sooner, some of us later. I’m still fuming over RWNJ brother’s “it’s all a hoax!” BS from a couple weeks back. He lives in Michigan, wonder if it will still feel like a hoax when someone *he* knows dies from it. Possibly because of the lack of ventilators his spiteful God-King has been withholding from the state.
japa21
As some of you probably know, I am one of those folks at Costco who demonstrate food and other things. They stopped the demos a while ago, but we were kept on to help with assorted duties for Costco. Due to pressure from spouse and offspring, I had opted out of continuing to so so a little over a week ago. This was an option offered to all of us and several took the option prior to my doing so. Since we voluntarily removed ourselves from the workforce, however, unemployment benefits would not be available.
Just informed today, however, that as of April 6, all employees are being terminated, up to and including the president of the company. So I will be checking into unemployment benefits after all.
Scout211
@WaterGirl:
Definitely, I agree. That’s why I don’t think it was intentional but is just incompetence.
California is deep blue but my rural county is bright red.
raven
I’m rebuilding the bed in my 66 chevy truck and I’m using two 4×8 3/4inch treated plywood. I cut both down to 3 ft so they will fit in the 6×8 bed. This means I have to have one still strip to run down the middle and I was able to order just one (as opposed to the six that come in a kit for $125). The catch is that the place I ordered it, Summit Racing, Is 120 miles away. They are doing curbside pick-up so, since gas is so cheap, we’re going to load up and drive down there tomorrow. The pups really enjoy riding so it should be fun.
Lyrebird
@C Stars: Back in the first week of March I let the older kids go to the park at the same time as a friend, & they stayed at least 1m apart.
I don’t know. I can’t even get other mom friends to make FaceTime available for the kids to make faces at each other.
zhena gogolia
@japa21:
Oh, I am sorry.
Feathers
@Litlebritdifrnt: What is sad is that it would not take much effort for nurseries to be allowed to sell by appointment only. People could call and reserve a time to come and shop. That would allow for proper distancing and people would be able to do their gardening while staying home.
Martin
@smintheus: I have a similar problem with white male racists on the hunt for a kindred spirit. They put off this ‘lets do racism’ aura, and I cannot back away fast enough for them to get the hint. I finally learned that I need to just go full FOAD, turn heel and go.
oldster
@Major Major Major Major:
Yeah, homophobia sucked for us straights, but it sucks way, way worse — orders of magnitude — for people who actually are gay.
@A Ghost to Most:
You’re right about that — you can love musical theater and not be gay, and you can hate musical theater and not be a homophobe. Absolutely.
It’s almost like people’s taste in art is a matter of taste!
Miss Bianca
@japa21: Whoa, what? Costco employees all being terminated? Or were you working with another company that contracted with Costco?
Steeplejack (phone)
@japa21:
Just got a call yesterday from my dentist’s office rescheduling my checkup appointment from mid-April to late June
Good luck with yours!
artem1s
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Martin
@Miss Bianca: I understand the demonstrators work for a different company on contract to Costco. Its the other company that’s seen basically 100% of their revenue vanish.
ziggy
@Martin: Or what about a cytokine storm? Seems like that could also be an explanation.
Suzanne
Thought I’d pass along a bit more information I received this morning…. a colleague in another company attended a presentation by the US Army Corps of Engineers about how they are looking for facilities to use as temporary hospitals, and what specifics they’re looking for in buildings. They seem to be focused on hotels/barracks buildings, and sports arenas. All in all, my suppositions were correct…. looking for buildings with adequate systems (power, fire sprinklers, etc.) and with good highway access and ease of connection to existing healthcare facilities. I’m also working on some temp work to convert some shelled space at a number of facilities to use as temporary COVID wards, now that state health departments are recognizing the dire need and are waiving regulations (which is both a good and a bad thing, of course). Anyway, interesting times.
japa21
@Martin:
Correct. The only money they had coming in was from Costco to pay the employees they kept on. Actually, once the unemployment benefits kick in I’ll be a little better off.
They don’t know if they will restart doing demoing but if they do, everybody will have to reapply.
Suzanne
Another thing…. I mentioned yesterday or the day before (all the days are the same) that a facility in which I did some projects early in my career that had been closed last year was evaluated by the USACE to be temporarily reopened for COVID patients. (I also noted that the facility is incredibly decrepit and gross.) Anyway, it was in our local paper this morning that that will in fact happen. No word on timeline.
cain
@Martin:
That is just scary as hell. No wonder those ventilators are needed so badly.
japa21
@Martin: I think the numbers at the end of the day are looking pretty grim. It looks like 20,000 new cases and 600 deaths and it is still early.
ziggy
@cain: Hate to be so grim, but getting on a ventilator is very unlikely to help those people. The mortality of Covid patients on ventilators (for all reasons) is very high, somewhere between 66% to 85% don’t make it.
Kelly
@Scout211: Thanks for the info. We also have a PO Box at a small rural post office and organizations that are weird about PO Box comes up a couple times a year. Most recently one Kaiser dept sent us something to our physical address while billing and pharmacy have always been fine.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Scout211: Fellow PO- Boxer here: I logged on to the census site, and hadn’t received a card with the code, but I was able to complete the form by entering my name and street address
Barbara
@Martin: Yes, I read about this effect, and it seems that older adults experience more brain/blood barrier disruption than younger people, and this has been cited as one possible reason for the striking disparity of fatalities by age.
cain
@ziggy:
Seems like if you’ve reached the ventilator stage, your chances of living is low and I guess your lungs are also damaged so respiratory problems as well afterwards. I wonder if insurance companies will deem it “pre existing condition” :P
Barbara
@ziggy: Yep. However, one Chinese doctor I read said that starting respiratory therapy sooner rather than later was associated with lower fatality for patients on a ventilator. A shortage of ventilators will result in delays for respiratory care, so having enough will affect the mortality rate, but probably not as markedly as we would wish.
The Pale Scot
@The Thin Black Duke:
What do you know about this. It’s likes the previous owner was going to close it and a group of locals (former mayor) tried to keep it going. I don’t see a lot of cream to be skimmed off this operation. Id anything it would seem to be a Hail Mary to prevent the local economy and RE prices from cratering.
You could be referring to WV not expanding Medicaid I guess.
Don’t A.S.S.U.M.E. learned again, WV did expand
The Pale Scot
@joel hanes: Thank You
opiejeanne
@Immanentize: It might impress me more if they had spelled Trafford correctly. Or is it really Trafford?
opiejeanne
@ziggy: Yup, Flower World. They’ve updated their website and they are considered an essential business. We will break quarantine when the big tomato plants show up. I am starting some from seed, but the short growing season here makes that a sucker’s bet.
What got me wondering is the email I got from Molback’s saying that they are an essential business. I think half of their sales are from overpriced knickknacks in the gift shop, but maybe they’ve closed that part of the business down because it’s difficult to keep a safe distance from other people there.
WaterGirl
@opiejeanne: If it’s like our big garden store, as long as you are selling veggies that can be planted, you can be considered “essential”. In Illinois, at least, you don’t have to shut the rest of it down. it seems to be all or nothing. If you’re essential for one thing, you can be open.
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl: Yes, and apparently Home Depot is considered an essential business in WA. I may have to run over there for more stuff in a couple of weeks, unless they still haven’t figured out what curbside pickup means. Raven or someone said Lowe’s gets it.