The enforced isolation and togetherness may be getting to us. A couple of evenings ago, the mister found Daisy’s collar on the floor (it had come unfastened). He picked it up and started ranting about how she’d been raptured up to heaven and we (himself, Badger and me) had been Left Behind. Eventually, even deaf old Daisy heard the commotion and wandered into the room to find out what was going on.
My sister works at an outpatient clinic, and one of her colleagues tested positive for the virus a couple of weeks ago. Sis feels fine, but she’s a social person, and quarantine life is driving her batshit. She wants to have a virtual happy hour this evening, so I guess we will? I’m bringing Ina Garten cosmos:
Somebody please check on @inagarten pic.twitter.com/H1eJwkLj7p
— Phil (@prettygoodphil) April 1, 2020
How are y’all holding up? Open thread!
Steeplejack (phone)
Steeplejack (phone)
MattF
A little loose, there, with the fluid volume units.
CaseyL
@Steeplejack (phone):
“Covered with dust, flakes of plaster, and cobwebs, Arlene emerged triumphant from the crawlspace under the house. Clutched in her hands, held high over her head, was a 1992 Sears Wishbook: a mighty 834 pages wide.
“‘We’re set!’ Arlene said. “Gotta be at least two, three months’ worth of asswipe right here!’
“It’s hard to say who was more relieved or happier: Arlene and me, or Miranda the Goose.”
…ok, more than one sentence. Sorry, I got carried away.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack (phone): OMG, that was funny!
raven
I’ve posted twice about my friend here in Athens. The town is shaken.
Nicole
I was about to post that we’ve been handling things fine but I just snapped at my 9-year-old because he’s been moving a metal crochet needle around on the floor with his foot for AT LEAST FIVE MINUTES AND THE SOUND IS DRIVING ME CRAZY.
So yeah. There’s where we are.
In other news, we have a crochet needle and I have no idea from whence it came.
Nicole
@raven: I saw your post in the other thread. I’m so sorry.
Miss Bianca
@Steeplejack (phone): OMG! I can’t believe how fucking funny that was!
danielx
I did catch two hours or so of the Thursday evening broadcast of Tedeschi Trucks Band (recorded) concert last night, which took me completely away from covid-19 worries for a while.
RobertDSC-Work
The only thing I really miss is baseball. I’m wearing my Dodgers hat and lanyard to work for the duration of the emergency.
Major Major Major Major
Instant pot just declared that the pot of chili is ready. Now to wait an hour for it to release, lol.
Things are going okay in chez Major. We have unfortunately run out of cheese and it was dropped from today’s delivery. But that’s okay, there are more things in heaven and earth than cheese.
Tonight we’re “hosting” a movie night, we’re going to watch Escape From New York with our friends (they vetoed 12 Monkeys). Tomorrow, maybe a long walk? The “write a chapter of a novel in 24 hours” event I signed up for starts at 7pm, so maybe the walk will be Sunday instead. Shrug.
Glad I have y’all to kick around, apropos of nothing.
different-church-lady
Just fuckin’ enjoy every sandwich.
Elizabelle
@raven: Did you post today too? I saw yesterday’s. Tragic.
raven
@Nicole: I only posted it again to try to encourage folks who may be struggling to reach out for help.
scav
“Is he gone yet?” whispered the muffled voice from inside the poorly mortared brick wall. “‘Cause I’m not coming out until he’s left that bg white house and crossed into international airspace.” “I can do it!” she added. “The mushroom crop is still holding out pretty well in here.”
Gin & Tonic
I’m viewing this work-from-home period as a sort of practice for retirement. Get up in the morning and don’t have to leave the house.
Emma from FL
@CaseyL: you absolutely owe me a pillowcase. I have just spit coffee all over mine!
raven
People are really disturbed that they can’t get together but this is her place.
Elizabelle
LA Times: John Prine on ventilator for 8th day; has pneumonia in both lungs.
Major Major Major Major
@different-church-lady: And don’t forget to stock up on lawyers, guns, and money.
Nora
@Gin & Tonic: You and my husband have the same idea. He keeps saying, “Hey, if this is what retirement is like, it might not be too bad.”
Though we miss seeing his Dad, who lives 45 minutes away and, at 92 years old, is going a little stir crazy from not being allowed to go to work.
ziggy
Governor Inslee just extended our quarantine, from the middle of April until May 4th (at earliest!). So I’m kind of down today. Having to psychologically readjust and come up with new ways to stay motivated. If this is what retirement is like, no thanks! I”ll just work until I die, which was the plan anyway.
prostratedragon
@Nicole:
Just a little angel strumming his harp.
Bucky Pizzarelli on the left channel:
First thing I ever heard him play.
HumboldtBlue
Bill Wither has died.
And Bookshop.org is the place to buy your reading material and at the same time tell Amazon to fuck right off.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Gin & Tonic:
Your pants budget is going to go way down.
Nicole
@raven: You should post it in as many threads as you want.
prostratedragon
“I Don’t Know,” Bill Withers
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major:
This is not true.
Major Major Major Major
ziggy
@HumboldtBlue: I’m going to do that!, order a bunch of books from there or Powell’s books.
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: yeah you know I wasn’t ? on that one when I hit post
Taken4Granite
In a normal year I would be putting in my spring mulch order and buying garden plants this weekend (I’m in the NH Seacoast region), but in anticipation of coronavirus-related supply issues moved that up to two weeks ago. So the plants are planted and the mulch is spread. We have had rain four of the last six days, which normally would be a good thing (I don’t have to water the plants as much), but that means one less reason for me to go out into the yard or outside world.
I also had to tell off a Sandernista (who is not even from the US) on another blog who mentioned the debunked rape allegation against Biden. In explaining why most Democrats in the US aren’t feeling the Bern, I pointed out that although Stevie Wonder wrote “You Haven’t Done Nothin'” back in 1974, the lyrics are remarkably applicable to Wilmer in 2020: “And we are sick and tired of hearing your song/Telling how you’re going to change right from wrong/But if you really want to hear our view/You haven’t done nothin'”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxrzT8WNxDc
Litlebritdifrnt
Just got done following the #fishcustard hashtag on Twitter celebrating the anniversary of the arrival of Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor. Everyone was there Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill and Stephen Moffat. It was great fun!
Kristine
Just took a maple-pecan coffee cake out of the oven. House smells amazing.
raven
@Litlebritdifrnt: Get access to your dough?
Cameron
@Steeplejack (phone): “It was the best of times; it was – no, fuck it, it was the worst of times.”
HumboldtBlue
@prostratedragon:
Bill with Grover Washington Jr.
@ziggy:
That’s the ticket!
Suzanne
@Steeplejack (phone): “My father told me a story about the day that Jared Kushner was hung by his ankles in Times Square and flogged with pine tree branches dipped in napalm and set on fire like the Cuyahoga.”
satby
My sleep cycle is a bit kattywumpus right now. I woke at 5 am, decided after 3 coffees I was still tired and took at nap from 9-10 am. Normally, I’m usually on FB sharing news and things from the blog. I woke up at 10 today to three texts and a voicemail from friends who were worried about me because they hadn’t seen any FB posts from me since 3/25 and thought I was slowly croaking in my house. Which was sweet and also alerted me that I had messed up the privacy settings on FB. So, other than scaring people, I’m fine ?
With all the time in the world to “get projects done” and no one coming over, my motivation to do more than putter around is non-existent though. My new spirit animal is the sloth.
Ivan X
I’m super grateful to have ended up where I have, really by accident timingwise, in a small pretty city in CA that doesn’t have a lot of cases, doesn’t have a lot of people, and a couple of blocks from my brother’s family (we’ve decided that we’re not social distancing from one another, only everyone else). And I can do a lot our business’ work remotely. And extremely blessed and privileged that we have savings we can afford to use at a moment like this for our rental home here.
With that said, I feel utterly ungrounded and dislocated, and having a hard time motivating, structuring, and well-caring for myself (which are challenges for me personally anyway). I live in NYC and have this nagging question of when, or if, I’ll ever being going back there. I miss it, or at least what it used to be. I’m an introvert, but I feed off the feeling of others around me. I’m still drinking but I need to stop because it’s not fun at home compared to a bar. I’m trying to pursue my creative projects like writing music but they don’t feel like they mean anything. I have a full workload one day and zero the next, so I don’t know if my business is viable or not. I can hear a kind of siren’s song of nihilism I’m trying to resist.
I’m safe and with loved ones in a place of beauty, so I am certainly not complaining. Just trying to figure out what I need to do to carry myself and those I care about well through this very disorienting, upsetting, scary, lonely timeline.
pamelabrown53
@Betty Cracker:
I know! Deep belly laughs from me. So therapeutic.
Betty, as a front pager, could you post that “Coronavirus Rhapsody” parody (set to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody)?
Zelma
OK, so I’m being a good girl and working with my trainer on FaceTime. I do a side leg lift and there is a very weird noise in the hip of the leg I am standing on. And suddenly I am using a cane and waiting for a friend to bring me a walker. I guess that since I can’t go anywhere it hardly matters that I can’t go anywhere.
raven
@Ivan X:
Woke up this morning my house was cold
Checked out the furnace she wasn’t burnin’
Went out and hopped in my old Ford
Hit the engine but she ain’t turnin’
We’ve given each other some hard lessons lately
But we ain’t learnin’
We’re the same sad story that’s a fact
One step up and two steps back
Ruckus
How am I doing?
Not as well as Ina. I stopped drinking 17 yrs ago. So far haven’t been rethinking that. 4 more years and I’ll be old enough to start again. I’d have to shop for alcohol as I have none in the house. And the only place I know to get George Dickel is at bevmo. Of course there is one nearby………
danielx
@satby:
Come sit by me – at a suitably safe distance, of course.
I’ve got about fifty little projects that need to be done and I cannot for the life of me rouse motivation to do any of them. It’s taking all I’ve got to fix meals, do laundry and most importantly, clean litter boxes.
Keep calm and scoop on…
Patricia Kayden
Hmm mmmm.
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
Blasphemy!
kindness
I see these threads and the things people are posting on FB & I marvel at them from afar. Some of us (me) are still working at our work locations. Yea I’m social distancing when I leave work but my routine isn’t much different during the day. Other than the lines I have to wait on to be allowed into the hospital parking lot and then again at the front door where you have to show them that day’s colored dot on your work id card which clears you to enter the building.
misterpuff
@Steeplejack (phone): It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, nope, it was the definitively the worst of times in the darkest timeline.
Ruckus
@Miss Bianca:
@Betty Cracker:
People really do have too much time on their hands. And now I know why normally only old people retire, most of us would never think to do something like that, too much effort.
prostratedragon
@HumboldtBlue: Ah, that was quite the shocker in its time too, although without the bitterness.
Crashman06
It is hard working a full-time job at home, with your spouse working a full-time job at home, while “home-schooling” at first-grader and an almost two year old.
Edit: Not to be complaining; very happy we’re still both employed. It’s taxing though!
Steeplejack (phone)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Reminds me I’ve got some good Brie in the refrigerator. Will let it warm up for later.
Ivan X
@raven: Nailed it!
WaterGirl
@raven: Is that the woman who committed suicide? Or did people bring those flowers in her honor
either way, it’s heartbreaking.
Roger Moore
@ziggy:
Yeah, I think ours was extended until the end of April a little while back. My personal feeling is that we should understand the stay at home orders to be until further notice and not expect any dates given right now to hold. It’s going to keep getting pushed back until the pandemic is controlled everywhere in the US, or until we have good enough testing that we can switch to quarantine of known or suspected cases.
Peale
I’ve grown fond of watching energetic Thai actor Oujun playing with his pet hamsters, puppies and birds. Here he’s built an obstacle course to race his hamsters.
WaterGirl
@ziggy: I think it’s better to extend for a longer period of time like that so people can kind of settle into the timeframe, rather than 2 weeks at a time that seems like it will go on forever.
Ksmiami
@Steeplejack (phone): The pangolin stared out from its cage at the throbbing masses of biped apes. It did not understand how it got here or even why but only dreamed of going back to search for tasty grubs
misterpuff
@raven: My favorite later mature Springsteen song from an underappreciated album Tunnel Of Love.
Of course, Thunder Road is my fav Boss song.
mali muso
@Crashman06: I have a three year old and DH and I are both “working” from home. I hear ya!
Ksmiami
@WaterGirl: even though we’ve been socially isolating since March 4, I view this week as week 1 of at least 6.
Crashman06
@mali muso: Solidarity. Good luck, friend!
chopper
@Steeplejack (phone):
“Look, we all knew Trump was a dumbshit going in to the whole thing,” Sam said as he slowly turned the curtain rod over the flames.
Mary G
@satby: My sleep cycle is also a mess. I’m taking long naps during the day then being wide awake at night.
Steeplejack (phone)
I’m leaving in a while to take my friend to work at Trader Joe’s. She’s been off for two days while the store (Clarendon, Arlington, VA) had a deep cleaning after an employee tested positive for coronavirus. That person supposedly hadn’t been in the store since before last weekend, but still . . .
Let’s remember the other front-line heroes, the (underpaid) workers who keep us fed and supplied with the essentials.
Ksmiami
@Ivan X: Watch Zorba the Greek- it’s a paen to dancing in the face of human futility
LuciaMia
Is it the Christmas issue?? Save the back toy pages for me!
Litlebritdifrnt
@raven: Yeah it hit my account last Friday! Yayyyyy!
raven
@WaterGirl: In her honor at her place.
Ajabu
re: Bill Withers. The drummer in those videos is James Gadson, a close friend from my studio days. We just talked two days ago to confirm that we’re both still upright and breathing. Never mentioned his old employer so I guess it must’ve been unexpected.
as for the quarantine, because I play music for a living and it requires an audience I’m just sitting home spiraling down the grease slide to financial oblivion. If this is what retirement is like – Fuck this!!!
Robert Sneddon
@Steeplejack (phone): My friend Charlie Stross had plans to write a novel that got shelved for reasons but about five years ago he emitted the first fifteen hundred words or so of this work, set in a post-pandemic Scotland. He’s given up on writing it now due to the current circumstances catching up with him before he could get back to it.
You can read this initial fragment on his blog here.
raven
@misterpuff: I’m stuck on Highway Patrolman.
Me and Franky laughin’ and drinkin’ nothin’ feels better than blood on blood Takin’ turns dancin’ with Maria as the band played “Night of the Johnstown Flood”
raven
@Litlebritdifrnt: Great!
LesGS
@Nicole: If he doesn’t know how already, teach him how to crochet. All my kids knew how by nine. We called it “yarn engineering.”
ziggy
@Roger Moore: I know mid-April was completely unrealistic, but it was so much easier for me to keep motivated, thinking–“Just 2 more weeks”. A month seems like a really huge chunk of time. My work is getting further and further behind. I know I’m super fortunate to have work waiting, and a beautiful house and yard to work on, etc… I just need something to look forward to.
JMG
I alternate between boredom days and anxiety days. Today was an anxiety day, but I did my laundry and took a shower so I feel better. It is my belief that the authorities extend the stay-home directives a month at a time because they believe the public will take it better in doses than in a “we’ll tell you when it’s over” frame. As for how long it might last, my leading indicator is sports. The big tournaments in professional golf are now tentatively planning on October and November dates. Of course, mass gatherings will be the last things allowed to return, so maybe other elements of normal life will be allowed to reopen a little sooner.
PS: As a senior, I am prepared if not happy to be under extended stay home orders after they’re lifted for the general population.
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
If they really rolled their own encryption, it doesn’t matter if China has access to the keys; any country with a competent spy agency will likely be able to crack them without too much trouble. Encryption is right up there with cancer drugs and supersonic aircraft in the list of things whose design should be left to qualified experts.
LuciaMia
Im basically sleeping okay but keep rousing up at 90 minute intervals, like I feeI I should be doing something.
Me: Alexa, what time is it?
Alexa: 1:30 am
Me: Shit
*********
Me: Alexa, what time is it now?
Alexa: Its 3:47 am.
Me: Oh for Christ sake.
Jerzy Russian
@Nicole: My cat chases bottle caps and knitting needles around. These are short spurts a few times a day. I give him bottle caps, and the needles be found for himself.
Dispatch from the Department of Anal Retention: “whence” means “from what place or source”, so the “from” that precedes “whence” is not needed.
Mary G
CaseyL
@Emma from FL: We aim to please :)
On Topic: It is a huge relief to hear that other people, when faced with a non-schedule schedule, are also finding it hard to get motivated to do much of anything.
Besides working from home for my regular job, which isn’t taking up much time, I was hoping to get a lot of work done on my Etsy site – like, getting product up onto it. I’ve even taken a few photos. But the sturm und drang to get the photos from my phone to Etsy is a PITA and for some reason I just can’t be arsed to do it. Even with all this extra time.
Martin
Best headline of the day.
It’s derp all the way down, guys. In a few days we should get the following headline:
WaterGirl
@raven: It’s lovely. I’m crying and I never even met her.
Jeffro
@misterpuff: that album is indeed way underappreciated!
As are these songs:
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: Indeed, though there’s a difference between being able to crack any one targeted video with minimal trouble, and a government having full access to every video with no trouble at all.
Miss Bianca
@raven: oh, that is lovely. Sorry to hear about your friend.
MoCA Ace
You watch your filthy mouth!!
Martin
This is why the navy was probably a bit hasty in removing the aircraft carrier commander.
The navy commander broke policy for the right reasons, and the Navy had the right to punish him for it, but the Navy should have also acknowledged that removing him was the wrong decision despite that. The guys at the bottom know good leadership when they see it, and it’s now clear to them that upper leadership doesn’t. They made their situation worse, not better.
Martin
@Major Major Major Major: It’ll probably be easier to break the algorithm than a specific key. It’s the former that they are trained to do moreso than the latter – it’s way more productive.
Bold choice on Zooms part given how hard battle tested encryption algorithms are to find. /s
MattF
@Roger Moore: Today’s Pearls Before Swine.
ziggy
@CaseyL: We need some pointers from the successfully retired on how to fix our motivators and keep them running!
prostratedragon
@Martin: The preposterousness of that just doubles me over sometimes. Like when, back in 2016, people talked about liking T—-‘s “policies.” I laughed in a few faces, and I rarely do such things.
Patricia Kayden
SiubhanDuinne
@raven: Oh my, what a floral tribute. I didn’t know her but she was clearly well-loved throughout the Athens community. Again, I’m just so sorry.
Immanentize
@raven: One of the greatest albums ever cut, and I am no big Bruce fan.
Ruckus
@satby:
Damn, I hope there is enough to go around……
satby
@danielx: omigod, the litter boxes! So, sort of funny story: oldest cat is Snuffy, a female tortie starting her 16th year. After Hershey and Rosie died, I gave all the cats free range of the house but Snuffy wouldn’t leave her room or the upstairs. She finally ventured downstairs after a month (so around the end of January) but then got very creative about not going back upstairs to where the five litter boxes are. So I made her a temporary one in her favorite potty spot in front of the front door, where I had removed the rug she was ruining. Now all four of the lazy buggers are using the same box and not going upstairs to the other ones. Just as well no one can visit.
JPL
There’s always good news. I finished cleaning my house and let the dog in. He was covered in dead grass. Now I have a project for tomorrow. ?
MoCA Ace
I am lucky to live on some acreage here at the 45th parallel so I can get outside. Yesterday I put up a small cold frame in the garden to warm the soil… planting spring crops tomorrow. yard work, projects in the workshop, yard-work, walks in the woods, and commenting on Balloon Juice when I should be working from home.
Basically anything I can do to keep busy and keep my mind from focusing on all the horrific scenarios that keep bombarding my brain. Most involve my kids, grand kids, and elderly father.
JPL
@Immanentize: How’s little immp doing? His friends are already home and he’s still stuck inside.
Kattails
It’s a relief to see others posting about having difficulty concentrating! I had been working 5 chopped up days at an outside job. Wanting so badly to be able to stay at home and work through the ideas I had for some commercial designs as well as things I might put up on an Etsy site, and/or putting time into my oil paintings, getting them photographed and getting a website up. Things that could work me OUT of that outside job.
Now my one gallery has been closed for three weeks, I have all these ideas circling in my head but can’t get them visualized well enough. Sketch for an hour and then go online. Naps and then awake again and stay up until 3 AM. Practicing lettering actually helps because it’s repetitive.
And yet I’m so thankful to be living in a relatively “safe”, rural area, with some unemployment insurance, some social security, a tight-knit neighborhood, decent congresspeople. I made scones and corn muffins yesterday.
Ah well, Picasso said “I don’t know what inspiration is but if it comes I hope it finds me working” so best get back to it.
Tony Jay
@Steeplejack (phone):
“Before the wreckage, when there was still good ground to grow on and the skies were not our foe, minds far greater than yours or mine lent their idle scrutiny to the question of how, not when, not if, but how, all of this could be brought down. I’m hindsight, of course, they were fools. The question wasn’t ‘how’, it was ‘who’, and the answer, dear reader, was you. It was always you.”
leeleeFL
@Steeplejack (phone): In spite of some nuclear-grade stupidity, or, perhaps, deliberate malice, most of the Global Community survived COVID19!
Brachiator
I had already been working at home for a while, so this part of life was already built into my routine. This time of year, tax season, I am already working hard and often too tired to do much after, but I would sometimes go to the movies on Sunday.
It is damn strange to google “showtimes at [theater]” and get nothing. Then it hits me again how unusual the times are.
I find myself getting annoyed at the sounds of other people near me in my apartment building who are now working at home or who are locked down. They disrupt my previous peace and quiet.
But I have also emailed and chatted with some people I had lost touch with.
I also watch British satirical panel shows on YouTube. Love “Quite Interesting.” and “Would I Lie to You” is a lot of fun.
I usually check in with the Los Angeles County pandemic briefings. It is now a part of “regular life” now.
MCA1
I’m lucky in a number of respects, which have made this bizarre blip in everyday life tolerable, if not in a weird way almost enjoyable for me (at least during those blocks of time when I can put aside temporarily (i) the knowledge of the massive suffering going on in the world, (ii) the guilt at my own privileged position combined with anxiety that it could still all crumble away, and (iii) the rage I have that this was all mostly preventable).
I’m an introvert, I’m a Gen X-er, I work in a profession where my productivity has dropped some but I can still be 85% effective at my job from my basement office, I’m not means constrained the way a lot of people are and don’t live in the city anymore where everyone’s packed in tight, my kids are old enough that they don’t need constant attention, and their schools are top notch so they’re actually getting something out of their e-learning regimen. All in all this is an inconvenience, rather than a catastrophic upheaval, in our lives, so we’ve been counting our blessings. And given my personality, hitting the pause button on everything for an extended period isn’t all that bad psychically.
The weather’s been a drag, for sure. There’s a mundanity to the new “routine” since the whole day’s mostly constrained to a hundred foot radius. It’s amazing to me how quickly the days go by and how despite best intentions I still haven’t managed to learn a bunch of new songs on the guitar and send videos of playing them with the kids to extended family. But those are minor things.
On the plus side, with no pickups/dropoffs for school, sports, etc., no commute, no social life, and no outside activities or community involvements at the moment, I have decided that it would be a terrible shame to not use the gift of time that’s come from all of this on something other than TV binges. So every Tuesday is now slow and low barbecue day. I prep something Monday night, put it on the Egg in the morning and check on it every couple hours to break up the workday. I’ve also run almost 60 miles in the last 19 days, and I’ve started organizing a “virtual” half marathon for mid-May. Various folks are going to all start at the same time on the same day, run their own 13.1 mile route, and then we’ll meet up for a champagne toast later on Zoom. I’ve got about 10 people signed up so far, with another 10 or so who are going to do whatever shorter distance they think they can handle.
Immanentize
@JPL: It’s hard on him and his friends, but he has been able to take some socially distant walks with a couple who live nearby. Luckily, he is an online native so he is doing OK. His current worry is whether he will be able to go to college in the fall.
Ugh.
Ruckus
@ziggy:
As someone very, very close to retired I can say that motivators are way overrated and besides, learn not to give a fuck. It’s easier.
The reason is that by the time you get to retirement age your motivators are burned out, over used, and no longer worth a shit, wouldn’t lift a cup of feathers or a box of air.
mrmoshpotato
@Steeplejack (phone): Hahahhahaha
Another Scott
ICYMI, AlJazeera has a good interview with Chomsky about the pandemic, but he had to throw in “neoliberalism” a few times, because of course he did.
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kristine: Recipe for that, please? Maple/pecan is one of the loveliest flavour combos I’ve ever encountered.
Major Major Major Major
@Martin: From my reading of the article, the issue isn’t “the algorithm itself is bad”, rather “they’re using a shitty key length and also not managing their keys correctly and also they give all the keys to the CCP.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack (phone): That. Was. Hilarious.
SteverinoCT
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Timely: https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2020/04/03
hitchhiker
@danielx:
We love Tedeschi Trucks! They get to Seattle every year or two, and we never miss a chance to see them play. Just insanely great musicians.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: Haha, what’s the context? Has someone not been enjoying sandwiches lately?
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic:
Still doesn’t explain your lack of pants. ?
Nicole
Okay, it gets worse. My 9-year-old just begged me to cut his bangs so he could see again. I consulted YouTube, did my best effort, and after I finished, he looked in the mirror, started laughing and said, “I look like I’m three!”
Well, at least he’s laughing…
Patricia Kayden
Poor Iowans. Elect a better Governor.
lgerard
Has everyone ordered one of these yet?
Suzanne
These two-week extensions are making it worse, I think. It makes it impossible for individuals or businesses to plan and it’s going to lead to panic, if it hasn’t already.
Honestly, if this goes on past April, I think a lot of people are going to say “fuck it” and stop obeying the directives to stay home. Are kids going back to school in the fall? This cannot go on indefinitely.
mrmoshpotato
@Major Major Major Major: No need for lawyers or guns. But are you stocking people up with money?
Martin
@Patricia Kayden: Like I said, derp all the way down.
JPL
@Immanentize: that sucks. I remember when I mentioned that we’d be here for you when he went to Rice. Now it’s gonna be a relief for both of you.
hitchhiker
Help me out, juicers …
We live in a 650 sq ft apt in downtown Seattle. Have been very careful for more than a month now, just me and Mr H and the dog and the cats.
Our 29 yr old daughter and her spouse live in Port Townsend, about a 2 hr drive away, and we’re thinking of going to spend a little time with them tomorrow. We’d be in our car w/the dog. We’d stay outdoors, 6 ft away from them, keeping warm by their fire pit and only eating stuff we brought ourselves.
My argument: we should do this. The risk is minimal, and I can’t think of a good reason not to. Because we might get in a crash and need medical attention, is the main issue … odds very low with decent weather and no traffic.
His argument: we should probably not do this. We’d have to get gas, and probably use a bathroom once or twice. Also, risk or no risk, there’s a need for solidarity. They’re telling us not to go out unless we absolutely have to, and we don’t absolutely have to.
Sigh. I think he’s right, but maybe not? Would you go?
trollhattan
@Patricia Kayden:
Swear I had never heard of this woman until this a.m., when a story about her leadery leadership snapped my eyes open like a backfiring car in the next room. Her “principles” that aren’t even principles, are making everybody in that state, and adjoining states, less safe. Perhaps sick and dead.
Another Scott
@Suzanne:
VirginiaPilot:
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@Steeplejack (phone): “Looks like your ‘Fuck Hillary’ vote worked out swimmingly.”
Martin
@Suzanne: We’re still going to be chucking down thousands of fatalities a day end of April. Everyone will have a family member, coworker, favorite basketball player, etc. die. It’s not going to be that easy for the public to just shrug off.
Major Major Major Major
@hitchhiker: One or more of you may be asymptomatic carriers and it is irresponsible to breathe uncovered near others any more than you have to. Whip up a mask and the calculation changes though!
satby
@ziggy: I was semi-retired (I get SS), and without the financial stress of the last few years I’m not finding staying home all that difficult. I like having no set schedule (always have) and I love to read and garden and sometimes just sit and enjoy the nice weather when we have it. This will end eventually, and I intend to be around when it does, which makes the current stay-at-home guidelines much more acceptable to me. My 65th B’day is next month and I have asthma, so I’m extra motivated to stay home.
edited to add, God I hate my IPad. My kindle can stream music for hours without a hitch, the IPad constantly stops. I know it’s some setting somewhere, but the Apple engineers obviously believe everyone is too stoopid to adjust those things.
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne: And I asked, “Only him? What? The? Fuck?”
Major Major Major Major
@mrmoshpotato: That’s why the money printers are going brrr
ziggy
Ha! I like it! Let’s see what the hubby thinks about that….
Suzanne
@Another Scott: It’s not a matter of stamina and personal boredom. If kids cannot go to school, society isn’t functioning. And the online stuff is nowhere near an acceptable substitute.
Our leadership needs to communicate how long this is going to take, or at least what the criteria are for ending this.
Ruckus
@Steeplejack (phone):
375 days in, boredom washed over me, for the 373rd time…..
hitchhiker
@Major Major Major Major:
Right … but six feet away at all times? I don’t know. I fucking hate this.
About an hour north of us, in the town of Mt Vernon, a community choir decided to rehearse on the evening of March 10th. WA was already closing itself down by then, but I think the official word was still something like, no gatherings larger than 250 people.
60 of the 121 members of the choir showed up that night. None of them had any symptoms.
Within a couple of weeks FORTY FIVE of them had the virus, and two of them were dead. Again, no coughing that anybody who was there can remember.
So, yeah. I know you can be asymptomatic, and that the thing spreads like crazy under certain conditions (singing together apparently being one).
And I know our daughter would never get over it if she gave it to her dad somehow, because his health is compromised and a bad case would be very bad.
Ugh, I hate this so much.
Suzanne
@Martin: And everyone still has bills to pay at the end of April, too. And lest anyone accuse me of prioritizing the economy over people’s lives…. I’m not the one doing it. If we need to stay home, then the Feds need to pay us to do so, and not with some one-time check for a few hundred bucks. Lots of people are going to be economically destroyed for their whole lives at this rate.
Miss Bianca
@Patricia Kayden: What, she thinks *she’s* got more information than Fauci?
Jesus.
Nelle
Who says that there is no sport to be had? I just finished a rousing game of telephone tag with my doctor’s office. I think we both lost, though.
Jager
I sent this out to family and friends yesterday:
Day 15,
I’ve left the Springs twice, I drove Cakes to the store and sat in the car. I drove to the gas station on Pleasant Valley Road to put air in the RR tire of the Jeep.
I walk the dog, stand 10-15 feet from our neighbors and we yell back and forth.
We’re taking care of the lady across the street, she doesn’t drive anymore. It seems Carole has become Cake’s new grandma…that’s a good thing.
Cakes is working from home most of the time, she had to go in the other day to do payroll. Her online business is pretty solid. She has an outside door to her office, the warehouse is 150,000 sq feet. She talks to Francisco on a walkie talkie.
When she works at home, Anze the Dog is confused, he picks a spot in between the two of us.
The gardeners didn’t show up yesterday, I hope they are all right.
The best line I’ve heard in the last two weeks:
“I drank so much on Saturday night, I could have undergone Civil War surgery.” -a retired doctor down the street
Listen up you sorry bunch of bastards, social distance and wash your god damn hands!
Love from here.
Major Major Major Major
Unfortunately. Six feet is even the minimum distance, if I’m remembering correctly. Sneezes can go twenty-five feet. None of us are saints of course. I would imagine a drive to meet up in the woodlands to be one of the less-unsafe excursions, though. idk. it’s tough.
It is terrible! I’m also in a small apartment, but I sometimes remind myself that while I live with a spouse and a cat, some people are completely alone… :-/
But we will get through this!
mali muso
It’s kind of weird but it’s almost nice to be in VA where the governor already said we’re under a stay at home order until early June. Sounds like forever but it’s also easier to stomach.
Miss Bianca
@hitchhiker: Sounds like you know the answer to your question is ‘no, don’t go’, but you just don’t want to accept it.
I get it. I can’t excuse it, exactly, but I get it. : /
Major Major Major Major
@Suzanne: They’re rolling out some pretty nice small-business “loans” and “advances” that don’t have to be repaid if you use them for payroll and rent and such. The latest rescue package has some good stuff in it. So that may get money in the hands of laid-off/furloughed/soon-to-be-laid-off workers faster than UI or sending out checks. (Why? Apparently sending out checks takes some ramp-up time I guess.)
This particular implementation is an artifact of how we already have infrastructure in the form of banks giving out small business loans which can be backstopped and forgiven by the federal reserve; it’s faster to roll out than even sending people checks, theoretically.
Obviously we’ll need more relief but it’s not peanuts either.
Nelle
We had a long discussion about who is fetching milk for the granddaughters, one of who was just taken off of formula at her first birthday. My husband is very healthy, but he is 76. I’m not in great health at 68 (still haven’t shaken The Cough that I came down with in December, though it isn’t shaking me with spasms anymore). My son is healthy, but has poor sinus and nasal structure and always has had some breathing issues.
Our conclusion? Grandpa is going in. He would rather something happen to him than the father of two little ones. We take the milk to their driveway and wipe it down. They yell across the yard and pick it up after we leave. We do quite the ritual of cleaning when things come in the house.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
You are of course right.
But. And it’s a big, firm, round but, no one really knows how long this will take. Do you want full safety? Then it’s probably at least a year, maybe/probably more. Do you want 80% or 60% or 50% safety, and to know which side of the equation you and your’s will be on? There really is no good answer – from anyone. This is an airborne pathogen. It’s been around for what, less than 4 months and it’s everywhere in the world because we’ve made it possible to get anywhere in 24 hrs. And look at the places with good responses, lots of death. The places with shitty/no responses? It will get far worse before it gets close to better.
This sucks, to hear and to say. I’m not trying to ruin your day at all, just trying to be honest about what is. There really is no comfort for anyone in this disaster, it isn’t just one state, or county or even country, it’s the entire world.
SteverinoCT
@Jerzy Russian:
Surely, a Guys and Dolls reference?
https://youtu.be/vgLz2SoHT0k?t=102
Major Major Major Major
It is not airborne, which has a particular meaning in epidemiology. We do know that aerosolized enveloped virions can linger in the air, though we don’t know to what degree (if any) these aerosols are effective vectors.
Miki
@Jerzy Russian: Now do “less” vs “few.” xoxoxo
Suzanne
@Ruckus: Of course I want safety. But there are multiple kinds of safety to consider, too. This social distancing requires solidarity, and many low-risk people working against their self-interest on behalf of higher-risk people. Solidarity is not going to be a thing if those low-risk people feel threatened. And our government’s response to this threat is led by…. KUSHNER.
I would feel considerably less terrified if we had competent leadership.
pamelabrown53
@MCA1:
@Immanentize:
@MCA1:
2 sentences: Are you for real?…and…I think I hate you.
@MCA1:
John Revolta
@mrmoshpotato: That’s a quote from Warren Zevon, after he found out he had cancer.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@raven: I m sorry raven is there anyway we can help. I m really sorry ?
StringOnAStick
I’m actually doing OK with this trial run for retirement, something we were planning for Feb of 2021 and we’re still on track for that. My husband the software developer is working from home currently.
The main thing now is I know my boss is raring to get back to work and I’m pretty sure I don’t ever want to practice as a dental hygienist ever again. CO is saying April 15, the mayor of Denver says April 30 so I suspect he has the upper hand since the office I work for is in Denver. I’d be fine with being shut down for the rest of the summer TBH. The ultrasonic scalers produce a cloud of potentially contaminated aerosols 6′ in diameter, the hand polisher is bad too so that means hand scaling everyone. I can’t tolerate the latter anymore (too much arthritis), and I think the former two are no goes until a vaccine is widely deployed (12 -18 months). The truth is the masks we use are just simple surgical masks so not protective like an N95. Being done up in full PPE and working even harder physically in the hot months of the summer (the AC sucks) is of zero appeal to me. I’m applying for a job writing up test materials for the profession; I’d much rather do that. My husband is immunocompromised so the last thing I need to do is drag this thing home from work.
Dan B
@hitchhiker: Sigh. A trip to Port Townsend sounds wonderful. You didn’t mention the ferry ride acriss Puget Sound on a lovely spring day or crossing Hood(s) Canal on a mile long floating bridge. After a long dark and chilly winter spring fever is going to be rough to resist. We endure long dark nights so we can enjoy long days the other half of the year. Your decision to go or isolate is tough. I’d go with isolate to set an example for friends and family. We are at a moment where the progress of this disease can be turned in this state. And more people are going to go stir crazy before May 4th. We need to ramp up the social pressure to show we still believe in the light at the end of the tunnel, and to focus on our frontline heroes whose options are highly constrained.
Hang in there.
mrmoshpotato
@Major Major Major Major: You had me at “money printers.”
Brachiator
@StringOnAStick:
This is a very good point. I wonder if some professions may change radically or be given up when we emerge from this pandemic.
Fair Economist
@Major Major Major Major: “Airborne” is a problem term, because to a lay person it means “transmitted through the air”, which includes aerosols. If you say “Infectious droplets can remain floating in the air for hours after the source has left but it’s not airborne” most people will look at you like you’ve lost your mind.
IMO epidemiology should change its terminology. The current meaning of “airborne” in the field is really more like “airborne plus infectious when dehydrated” and they should use a different term to allow communication with the broad population without a stream of clarifications.
mrmoshpotato
@Major Major Major Major:
Are we really alone when we have each other to gripe to and talk about what a shitpile Dump is?
Fair Economist
@StringOnAStick: I wonder if it would be possible to control the aerosols from dental procedures with an airflow + filtration system like a kitchen filter system.
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro:
Just shook my bones to the Live in New York version. It was excellent.
Yutsano
@Ajabu: Lionel Hampton played his vibes until the day he died. No reason you can’t do the same!
Ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
Point taken. How about – “It is expelled into the air in the form of droplets, both relatively large and small.”
@Suzanne:
As I said earlier today, I’d feel comfortable if jared and FIL were hung by their ankles until the blood rushed to their heads and they drowned in it. But that’s just me……..
Fair Economist
@Suzanne: Elementary school might be a good “first item” to turn back on because the risk for young children is so low, plus there’s a reduction in risk for family caretakers. Older children or adolescents can also run errands more safely than their elders. Our society has infantilized minors but they can be much more capable. My late father-in-law survived the Japanese invasion of China as a 10 yo orphan.
mrmoshpotato
@John Revolta: I see.
Kristine
@SiubhanDuinne: Here it is–it uses pancake mix, and I haven’t tried a piece yet, but it sure does smell good. I added the pecans myself–1/3c pieces toasted–in the streusel topping. I also added a tsp of maple extract to the streusel and to the batter b/c imo the syrup alone doesn’t impart enough flavor. I also added a tsp of espresso powder to each because I read about using maple syrup to sweeten coffee and thought why not?
trollhattan
Holy fucking shit Georgia, who the hell is this governor of yours?!?
Gobsmacked I am. My gob, it is smacked.
Elizabelle
@Kristine: Do report back. Sounds amazing. And coffee in the mix. Brilliant. Let us know.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Zelma: oh my I am sorry that happened. What the heck?
RSA
I’ll share my story–not a happy one, but I’ve told parts of it before on BJ.
My wife died last month. She’d gone into hospice care at the beginning of February, and I was able to spend time with her throughout that month in her assisted living facility. Then COVID-19 became serious.
The governor declared a state of emergency, second week of March. The assisted living facility put out a no-visitors policy, aside from healthcare workers–almost all of the residents are elderly. My wife’s sisters were caught in the middle of planning a visit; one had already driven a couple of hundred miles on her way. The sisters are in their 60s and were coming from distant places on the east coast, so in the end it did seem maybe for the best that they didn’t make it, for their sake and the residents’. I was locked out as well for the last week.
COVID-19 had nothing to do with my wife’s death, but it made the situation worse. I’m guessing that we’ll see more stories of what happens at the periphery as time goes on.
Fin
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
It knows what it did, and it fucking deserved it. :)
Seriously, are Floriduh and Georgia trying to kill themselves?
Ohio Mom
RSA@172: My condolences, and sympathy for being cheated by this pandemic out of attending to your wife in her last week. It is a loss on top of a loss. I hope you can find solace in knowing you did all you could in unbelievably rotten circumstances.
In my circle, the mirror image: both my my sister and a very old dear friend, about to become grandmothers for the first time, are too far away from their children and will have to wait who knows how long before they meet their grandchildren. They freely admit how trivial their situations are in the face of everything else but you can hear in their voices that they don’t feel like it’s trivial. What we know and what we feel can diverge so!
RSA
@Ohio Mom:Thanks for your thoughts. And you made me smile! Your mirror image is a sad situation, but there’s so much hope and promise in it. The next generation.
Kristine
@Elizabelle: I just tried it–I think it’s great. Very moist. Nice maple flavor, and imo the espresso powder added some depth. You can’t really taste it, but you know that something is there.
I do recommend sifting the baking mix first. I did wind up with very small clumps scattered throughout. They don’t interfere with taste, but they’re there.
CarolPW
@RSA: I am so very sorry, and all of my condolences and best wisher for eventual peace. The virus is removing the comfort of our presence at the end of our loved ones lives. The need to isolate also makes it much harder to cope with death’s emotional aftermath for the survivors. It’s a crap timeline.
frosty
@Ruckus: That’s good to hear. I’m recently retired, had some things I wanted to do and nothing’s getting done … some of it not even started. The motivator done broke down n
Kristine
@frosty: I’ve been painting the kitchen cupboards for years now. You find other things to do.
RSA
@CarolPW:Thanks for your thoughts. You’re right—what we want sometimes is exactly what COVID-19 prevents us from having. Closeness. Connection.
Amir Khalid
@Jeffro: The performance of Light of Day from the Live in New York City DVD is epic.
Ohio Mom
RSA: I suppose that the grandmothers might make it into a story that they tell over and over: “I wanted so much to meet you as soon as you were born but…”
Then you have to wonder what the children will make of the story, what it will mean to them. We will hope that they never get to experience a pandemic like this one themselves.
Please take good care of yourself as you adjust to your new world as a widower.
RSA
@Ohio Mom: Thanks again, Ohio Mom. You give good advice. I hesitate to say this, but it sounds as though you’ve been down similar paths before.
rekoob
@Dan B: @hitchhiker: Allow me to weigh in. Dan B has the right idea — solidarity. Perhaps target Memorial Day weekend, sooner if possible. If nothing else, perhaps Memorial Day will once again rise in our collective consciousness of the importance of remembering the sacrifices we share.
MoCA Ace
@RSA: so sorry. I cannot imagine the hurt. I wish you peace.
Elizabelle
@RSA: My condolences on the loss of your wife. Very sad news.
rikyrah
@raven:
???
rikyrah
@RSA:
So sorry???
hitchhiker
@Dan B:
thanks, Dan.
you probably won’t see this, but I do appreciate the thought.
where I left it was, because Mr H is the one of us who is most vulnerable, he gets to make these kind of calls, and I get to smile and work with whatever happens. I can do that.
we usually do take the ferry and then cross Agate Pass and the Hood Canal .. but the plan was, this time, to drive around and skip the contact with the ticket taker. the Tacoma Narrows bridge is pretty fantastic, too.
anyway. staying home.
RSA
@MoCA Ace: @Elizabelle: @rikyrah:
Thank you for your thoughts. Good luck to you all in getting through the crisis.