Dad wanted some ferns and other stuff for the garden, and since he is on lockdown, I went out to get him some. What I saw terrified me. Both garden centers I go to and Lowe’s were PACKED, with the parking lots full and a shitload of people elbow to elbow, half or more not wearing masks.
I didn’t even get out of the car. I just turned around and left.
I hope I am wrong and this virus is going to burn out, because if it isn’t the next couple months is going to be awful.
Elizabelle
My sister told me that was going on a few weeks ago at a Lowes in central Virginia. Blood red Hanover County, which has the lowest rate of mask-wearing of Richmond’s neighbors. (Possibly because it’s semirural, heavily Republican, and the houses are spread out on big lots, but these weasels have got to get a clue about disease spread in close quarters).
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
The republican family who lives across the street had been doing a really good job until a couple of weeks ago. Now, they’re no longer wearing masks, nor engaging in social distancing, and they’re hugging their friends who driver over. It’s horrifying to watch.
In contrast, my next door neighbor, who is a Democrat, won’t even drive without wearing a mask.
mali muso
Yeah, here in VA I am limiting myself to shopping at Costco where masks are mandatory and sticking to Instacart delivery from Aldi (with heft tips). I don’t have a death wish.
M. Bouffant
It’s as if many many people have been infected w/ a stupidity virus.
Baud
I guess the governor cursing at them didn’t work.
randy khan
I can’t say I’m surprised. Here in blue, highly educated northern Virginia, people are extremely compliant – I was in Safeway this morning and I didn’t see a single person without a mask; the biggest problem was people who don’t notice the arrows showing that each aisle is one way (and there weren’t that many of them, either).
I have something of a feeling that people outside of the big population centers just don’t see coverage about how bad it is around them, and figure COVID-19 isn’t coming their way. That, plus the general red-state attitude, of course.
Dorothy A. Winsor
If they were only taking themselves down, I’d say go to town. But they’re around the rest of us too.
OTOH, some good news.
Tom Levenson
West Virginia’s population is about 1.8 million. As of Friday, the state reported completing just over 70,000 tests–conducted at a rate that one group thinks is close to the necessary number to be able to trace cases. The 1.2 percent positive results are also well within the range this one group (a Harvard public health team) defines as a prerequisite for opening.
So maybe y’all may get lucky–especially given the population geography of the state.
OTOH: the start of an upward curve can look very benign until it doesn’t.
TL:DR–seems to this Acela Corridor Masshole that John did exactly the right thing by getting out of Dodge.
Jeffro
I guess they feel like they’re betraying their orange emperor if they put on a mask. Good for them! Let us know how it all shakes out/how that kool-aid tastes, trumpublicans!
(Here in central VA, in Wegmans today, the customer base was at least 90% masked and so was the staff. Good deal!)
Amir Khalid
Idle question: what is the retail price of a mask in West Virginia, or wherever you are if you’re not The Bloglord? They’re a price-controlled item in Malaysia, at 1.50 ringgit, or about US35¢.
Kristine
As best I can, I’m sticking to once a week grocery shopping during senior hours. Last week, everyone wore masks, entry and exits were separate, and there were few folks shopping because senior hours are always first thing in the morning. There have been demonstrations downstate (IL) protesting the lockdown. Maybe smaller towns and more sparsely populated areas could indeed loosen up sooner, but they need the data to back up their claims.
Cathie from Canada
Our daughter teaches in the School of Public Health here at the University of Saskatchewan so she keeps us up to date on what the epidemiologists are saying. And its not good – nothing has changed about the virus itself or its transmissiblity. We are learning more about it as the weeks go by – outdoors is good, indoors and air conditioning are bad; yelling and singing are bad, masks are good. Social distancing is keeping us relatively safe but If we stop doing that, it will come roaring back. I read a doctor’s tweet: opening up the economy doesn’t mean the virus is gone, it only means we now have room for you in the ICU
Elizabelle
Went to a farmer’s market yesterday, in the libtard republic of Richmond (City) VA. Wearing a mask was mandatory. They had men at the entrance reminding us to put ours on. No entrance without.
All the merchants were masked, too.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Mr DAW is watching a NASCAR race that’s being run without a crowd. The drivers, pit crews, etc are all wearing masks right now, which is before the race has started. The reporter interviewing a driver has a mask and is standing 6 feet away. Hope the Yahoos in the garden store see that. They’re at Darlington.
PIGL
@randy khan: I think the main problem is they think rural and exurvan white people are immune because Jesus. Trump and minions Have as much as told them so.
Brachiator
History is not on the side of it simply burning out.
How 5 of History’s Worst Pandemics Finally Ended
germy
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’d never heard of H.E.R. before, but I was impressed as hell by her performance. Quite a talent.
khead
I mentioned this last week with respect to Mother’s Day, but the boardwalk in Wildwood NJ appeared to be packed again mid-afternoon yesterday. Not a lot of masks.
kindness
‘Herd immunity’ will happen sooner rather than later with some of them I suspect.
Baud
@kindness:
Dead men
tell no talescatch no Rona.moops
I recommend curbside pick up if your Home Depot or Lowes has it. We shopped at both with curbside. The parking lots were packed yesterday here in California. There was no way we were going into those stores.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
I don’t get this at all. Do these people think they’re immune?
Shit. I hate this. I hate it a lot. I’m stir crazy. I hate staying at home all the time, other than to go for a bike ride or a walk or to go buy food or medicine. I hate it too. We all hate it.
A big part of my week was going to the Quaker meeting I belong to. I looked forward to it each week. We sit, mostly without speaking for an hour, and then we have a nice, common meal afterward. It was one of the week’s high spots for me, and our younger daughter loved it, too.
And now I can’t do that. I miss seeing people. I miss getting out and talking to people, both friends and strangers. It sucks.
But I’m really thankful Northam shut the state down two months ago. I mean, yeah, I hate it. But I know it’s something we have to do. I don’t understand people, from the president [sic] on down, who seem to think that this is some magical fairy tale, and that if we just believe hard enough it’ll all go away! Like a miracle! It’ll just disappear!
How fucking old do people have to be before they give up believing in magic? The only way this is going to “go away” is if we make it go away. This is up to us. Once we get through this, then it will be over. Not before.
I’m lucky. I live in a fairly enlightened–read “Democratic”–part of a fairly enlightened (Democratic) state. I don’t see too many people milling around, or going around breathing on each other.
But we here and in other like parts of the country can’t do this by ourselves. We need crackers in Georgia and idiots in Florida and all the assorted and variegated yahoos and morons in red America to pitch in as well.
I have a friend from childhood I keep up with still, even though he’s a Trumper. And he still thinks this is going to end well.
I don’t get this thinking. It isn’t going to end well. We had a shot, three or four months ago, only Trump pissed it all away. And now we have two prospects ahead of us: this can end really badly, or it can end catastrophically. But it isn’t going to end well, however much we’d like it to.
Right now, I think this is the biggest hurdle we have to get over as a country. We need to wake up to the fact that this is going to be really, truly awful, and there’s no way to make it be not awful, and yes, it sucks, but this is the hand we’ve dealt ourselves, so we need to make peace with that, so we can get on to getting through this.
People need to wake the fuck up and grow the fuck up.
Jackie
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Oooooh… We ALL know who tracks TV ratings!!! This will chap somebody’s hide! Well done, President Obama! And, all those millions watching a REAL president!???
Brachiator
@PIGL:
I think it’s more they think rural and exurvan white people are immune because
Jesusracism.They read that in some areas nonwhite people have been more seriously affected and think, “Yes! The mighty white man does not have to worry about this.”
But even here, it’s true that “Trump and minions Have as much as told them so.”
AliceBlue
We were at Lowe’s earlier today-luckily we were doing curbside pickup of an order and didn’t have to get out of the car. But yeah, the parking lot was so crowded you couldn’t stir people with a stick and I’d guess less than half of them were wearing masks, no social distancing. The employees I saw, including the guy who brought out our order, were wearing masks.
M31
The next couple months is going to be awful.
TaMara (HFG)
I ventured to Lowes because I needed pellets for my grill. Never again until this is over. People were compliant, but the set up at Lowes was a nightmare for any kind of social distancing.
I’m venturing out to the garden shops tomorrow morning, hoping a Monday will be less of a nightmare.
Kelly
Mrs Kelly went to buy plants this week. She picked a midweek rainy day and only went inside to complete her purchases. Skipped her usual nursery due to cars lined up on the road to get into parking lot. Local farm store only had a half dozen customers that were well behaved and masked. Clerk was not. She completed her purchases masked and gloved. Sanitized at the back hatch before getting in to drive home.
Sab
@Amir Khalid: In NE Ohio I don’t even know where to by them. Everyone I know who wears a manufactured mask got it at work. That’s problematic because that means they are reusing them.
I have made a bunch out of scrap material I have at home (I am a crafter and a pack rat.) I made half a dozen for us, and gave the rest away to friends and family.
I could kick myself for donating a bunch of pajamas last year. I could use the cotton flannel now. I told my husband that this morning and that every time I throw something away I am sorry. He just laughed. ” Of COURSE you should have planned for a global pandemic where American manufacturers couldn’t make face masks.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid: I’m in metro Atlanta, and although I’ve been looking for weeks, I’ve not found any store selling masks (or gloves, or hand sanitiser, or thermometers, for that matter). Out of stock, and staff has no idea when they’ll get more inventory. I ordered masks online a few weeks ago (price controls? are you kidding?), but haven’t been notified yet about delivery dates. So my “masks,” such as they are, are jerryrigged out of bandanas and rubber bands — and, more recently, of cut-up socks. They look kind of stupid, but they cover my nose and mouth, which is the main thing. And they’re infinitely more comfortable behind my ears than the rubber bands ?
trollhattan
@Tom Levenson:
Getting out of Dodge by not getting out of Honda. :-)
My scant shopping experiences show the smart move is monitoring capacity and controlling entry based on monitoring departures. This is what the local Costco does and what the teeny tiny Japanese grocery does, and it seems to work just fine. I won’t go any place where customers are allowed to clump, whether outside or in.
Our brewers have it down to where you show up at the front entrance and collect your order, and at least a couple use an online order and prepay service.
Chief Oshkosh
@Jeffro:
That’s not how masks work (unless you’re wearing an N95 or better). Wearing a mask protects others from you spreading the virus. So, the horrible irony here is that if you’re an asshole and shedding, you’ll spread the virus to people who are wearing masks because they are trying to protect you (and the rest of society).
I am beginning to think that it would be perfectly acceptable for a mask-wearer to shoot a non-mask wearer in states that have “stand your ground” laws.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Same. They don’t exist as an in-store product. My April Amazon order was last heard from on exiting China May 2. Do I keep ordering, hoping somebody can deliver them? That way I’ll become an unintentional hoarder once they all arrive.
Eric U.
So far, Home depot is requiring masks. They have made noises about limiting the number of people in the store, but I have never seen them do it. I only go on weekdays.
Sab
@SiubhanDuinne: Vermont Country Store still has cotton “lotion” gloves that you can rewash. Once again, I threw away all my mother’s cotton gloves from the 1950s, and now they would be useful.
SiubhanDuinne
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):
Well, you say that because you’re a grown-up.
Starfish
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):
People are extremely stupid apparently. I have a friend who is a medical doctor married to a Trumper. She is the most understanding human being on all the planet, and she was muting people left and right on Facebook because of all the anti-doctor nonsense.
I had not run into that level of stupidity until today when someone was “Why don’t we let everyone catch it so they can get immunity?” I was just bewildered because we don’t know how much if any immunity people are getting, and we do know that people are dying.
My mom is a medical professional in a small town. She said she saw two people out without masks whose father had just died of COVID-19 and whose mom was on a ventilator. I don’t know how we fix that level of stupid.
Jeffro
@germy: she was part of that Prince tribute concert that aired about two weeks ago, singing “The Beautiful Ones” – amazing
Gary K
On Facebook I generally stay inside a bubble of sanity, blocking or unfriending anyone who shows a sign of Trumpian idiocy, but there’s one friend I keep because we’re friends in real life, as chamber music partners (and she’s quite accomplished). Yesterday she posted about a Texas doctor who’s been conducting his own uncontrolled hydroxychloroquine experiment on patients in a nursing home. He’s a bible-thumping ex-official of the Republican party, and he’s proclaiming his success, despite lack of controls, lack of consent from relatives, and even several deaths among his guinea pigs. My friend’s husband is (can you believe it?) a professor of statistics. I don’t know if he would explain to her why this “evidence” of success is nonsense, or if he agrees with her—I fear the latter.
Xenos
Reporting from the heart, such as it is, of the EU, we flattened the curve weeks ago, have one or two new cases per day in a population of 600k. Less than 1% confirmed infected, around 105 dead.
we dodged the bullet, stores and schools have opening and workplaces open next week. Daycare and restaurants still closed, at least until the current level of opening is working out for a month. Then they will decide about that.
everyone wears a mask, unless you are outside and not near anyone. At some point the disease will get reintroduced, and that day could be today. No screwing around – people know how lucky they have been.
germy
@Jeffro: Sometimes I visit music blogs where commenters complain about new music: “Nobody plays instruments anymore!” and they’re certainly wrong.
Sab
@TaMara (HFG): I have heard nothing but horrible things about Lowes throughout this. I was going to order some stuff for delivery but I don’t think I will even do that.
Gretchen
https://www.freep.com/in-depth/news/local/michigan/2020/05/17/how-coronavirus-riled-up-michigan-and-spawned-resistance-movement/5185632002/
My favorite detail about this Michigan protest is the family who is protesting because the Gov’s executive order cancelled the 16 year old daughter’s class trip to Cedar Point, an amusement park in Ohio which is closed. “She’s not God”, says the daughter. She would have to be to close amusement parks in another state.
TaMara (HFG)
BTW, I’m on a chat session for Biden with his campaign manager. I’m impressed they seem to have their shit together on organizing.
Jackie
Michelle Obama and MTV are joining together to host a viral Senior Prom! https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/15/entertainment/michelle-obama-mtv-virtual-prom/
trollhattan
IIUC it’s galloping through Mexico City now, which isn’t too surprising and puts to rest any thoughts that heat and UV exposure will stanch the spread. (Altitude there ranges from 7,300 to 12,800 feet!)
germy
@Sab: That’s a shame, because we usually pick Lowes as the lesser of two evils (Home Depot being the alternative) because Home Depot is owned by a trump supporter.
HumboldtBlue
I’ve put 32 miles on my car since I last got a hug and a kiss mid-March. I will say this, folks here are generally really good about distancing and mask-wearing. We have our idiots but at places like the Coop you’re not getting in without a mask and social distancing and that means lining up outside like you were waiting to get into a nightclub. One person leaves, one goes in.
@Starfish:
You don’t there is literally nothing we can do, these people have to make the effort and if they refuse death is going to fix it. It’s that simple, they’re going to get sick or even worse, make others more vulnerable sick and the death will continue.
Meanwhile, in New Zealand, they are ready to fully open the country because they have an excellent and competent Executive.
cliosfanboy
I have found the local home despot is best during the week, esp on rainy days. The same with groceries. Here in northern Va the ones without masks seem to be…
trollhattan
@TaMara (HFG):
If I don’t read anything else positive today, this will do just fine. Joe’s been to a few rodeos and so long as he’s gathering a focused, talented team he should win.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne://
Masks and hand sanitiser were out of stock everywhere in KL (and probably the country) in late March as the lockdown began here, bbut now all the pharmacies seem to have them. I bought a pack of ten 3-ply masks for the equivalent of US$3.50, and a 500ml (1 pint) bottle of sanitiser today for US$8.75. I’d never seen a pint bottle of sanitiser before.
Kay
I assumed the governors ratings would fall some – they would step back towards 50 as it normalizes, but the Trump decline is encouraging since it was barely over 50 even at the high point :)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Haven’t they gone Zoom yet? Many meetings have.
Pendle Hill is a local Quaker retreat center, and they’ve been pretty successful at moving workshops and meeting for worship online. They have Meeting daily and it’s been drawing over 100 people a day, from all over the world.
Our little local church is also heavily using Zoom. They draw much more modest numbers, but it’s comparable to the numbers they were getting in person. Plus you see people on camera who haven’t been to church in years. I find it surprisingly satisfying, and really feel like I’ve had a chance to visit with people. The pastor uses the “breakout rooms” feature to give people a chance to chat in the middle of the service, and then there’s a “coffee time” afterward as well.
SiubhanDuinne
@Sab: Oh, I hadn’t even thought of those. Might give VCS a try. I had been looking for the disposable one-use vinyl or latex gloves. Thanks for the suggestion.
Sab
@Amir Khalid: I have seen them on TV and in online ads for $20 to $30 each. Those are the washable reusable fashion forward kind.
satby
@Elizabelle: The health department showed up at our farmers market yesterday and apparently did nothing about all the vendors (farmers and food sellers) not wearing masks. Because the market manager blamed me for complaining to them, she came over specifically to tell me they did nothing about the refuseniks. And that they didn’t want the market to have to be the enforcers for fear of violence. I wasn’t the one who complained, but I know several customers who did. Most of the vendors refusing to wear masks are from the Michigan county over the border, where cases have been rising at a rate of 11% day over day. Mask compliance was down to about 60% of customers, and they’re all pretty unclear about distancing, which is impossible while completing a sale anyway.
It’s going to get ugly again, and face it: the Republicans don’t care. They don’t think that it’s bad if they do get it, and the sickest people are olds and browns, which they would like to have less of anyway. The official policy of the federal government and Republican governors is to “decrease the surplus population”.
Elizabelle
Long excerpt from the Richmond Times Dispatch, because it’s behind a paywall. Your modern south, and this is in a blue state, mind you, with a former Army physician as governor. I wonder if this is actually going on in majority of states, since all have rural areas. Those Lawn Guyland weasels sure weren’t doing their state proud. (Take that, “King Cuomo.”)
Half of people around Richmond aren’t wearing masks to go to the store. We counted.
trollhattan
@Starfish:
Earlier posted that several sailors on the Roosevelt are infected a second time. If it’s not a testing screwup it’s very bad news on the immunity front.
Jay Noble
@randy khan: Out here in the blazingly bright red and more educated than they let on Nebr. Panhandle, Safeway and Walmart both have the one-way aisles going on but they aren’t terribly effective because they are on the floor where nobody is actually looking. They need to hang them from the “What’s Down This Aisle” signs.
Because both places are part of big corp.s, The staff was masked, the carts were getting disinfected. The more local grocery chain store was mostly masked, but they had the plexiglass up for the cashiers.
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne:
I ordered some masks through Amazon. At first, I got an estimated June delivery date, but they actually arrived a couple of weeks ago.
Before that my sister and niece had made some workable masks for some family members. But I could not find any local masks anywhere.
Some folks on Ebay and other sites have done well coming up with home-made masks that they are offering for sell. And also Etsy? I think.
But yeah, it’s crazy. Here in Southern California I’ve seen a lot of home-made masks.
wmd
I went to my local feed store and hardware store on Friday. Both were strictly limiting the number of customers. Masks required. Bought a couple of strawberry plants to propagate in a hen and chicks planter.
Local nursery is also enforcing social distancing and mask wearing from their signage, I’ve not been this year. They had a nice collection of plants available.
Elizabelle
The Richmond farmer’s market had some lavender-scented hand sanitizer that was very nice. For sale, and also freely available outside the portapotties.
Really nice stuff. Liquid, not gel, and gentle on the hands.
And: the local vendors selling masks ($6 for colorful fabrics/prints) were sold out. Will buy from them next week. Guy’s mask had little red lobsters all over it. I want one!
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: I have some masks I bought for my kids (N95 type) that they turned out not to need and I should have hand sanitizer in stock to sell soon. Send me your address and I can mail you a mask at least.
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
I have re-usable masks.
Cheapest one that I have bought has been $4.
Been buying a variety to see which one fits best.
Redshift
I went to Costco this week and everyone was properly masked, but they weren’t controlling how many people entered like they were a couple of weeks ago. Almost no one was making much effort at staying six feet apart inside, which made me pretty uncomfortable. I think the workers didn’t have much trouble staying separate, which is good since they’re the ones who are most at risk, but it was not great. (I’m in Northern Virginia.)
germy
I’ve been seeing shortages of cat food.
I usually buy a box of 24 small cans. Lately those boxes have been gone.
So now I’m buying individual small cans. But the shelves are emptying.
Brachiator
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
A former co-worker and I had a nice online chat not too long ago about how his tech-savvy church was using Zoom. I love this kind of stuff.
I think that one of the reasons that Zoom took off was because it works fairly easily on multiple devices, from PCs and laptops to phones and Chromebooks.
It’s interesting how your group uses “breakout rooms.”
Also, I note that weeks ago, I didn’t even know what a “breakout room” was. I mainly had been a Skype user.
MisterForkbeard
I’m in the North Bay in CA, and went to Target and Safeway today for the weekly supply run.
Lots of social distancing in both places, masks required. Not everyone was adhering to the 6ft rules, but people tried and definitely did it when you were stopped – but would still pass each other in the aisles.
Interestingly, lots of people laughing an d having a good time. I think we’re going to internalize this, and that’s the best thing we can do. Accept that mask/distance/sanitizing is the new normal and move on, keeping outdoor trips down as much as we can.
Litlebritdifrnt
Update, it is now pouring down! Yeah!
dnfree
@Amir Khalid: in suburban Chicago the paper ones are now available at the local CVS drugstore chain for $2 apiece. They are kept at the cash register and maximum purchase is 10. For a long time they weren’t available at all.
Redshift
We have cloth masks that a friend made, and Ms. Redshift got a couple of packs of disposable masks through Groupon that arrived last week. (Simple surgical mask type.)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Sab: I did order some stuff from Lowes via home delivery and it was OK. Just incredibly wasteful packaging. For example, I opened one huge box, and dug through the packing material to find one paint tray at the bottom. Another large box contained one paint brush.
So for the time being I’m going with Home Depot, and just getting stuff that they will agree to deliver for a reasonable price. My last order I had to go with the $79 delivery charge so I loaded up the order with about 4 projects’ worth of stuff to make it worth it.
Now we see if I actually do any of these projects.
HumboldtBlue
@MisterForkbeard:
There was a discussion last night about frayed nerves and angry outbursts (courtesy of me) so today I got in my car for the first time since Tuesday and drove around a bit and stopped at my favorite drive-thru coffee shop.
They had changed the lanes to one-way and used only one window. As I got to be the second car in line I decided to pay for the folks behind me because the clerks were coming and taking orders (line was 6-8 cars deep) and it seemed like a good thing to do on a Sunday morning on my way to the Coop.
Sab
@SiubhanDuinne: A jackal After Dark suggested those about six weeks ago, and we have been using them and rewashing for a while. My husband objects, but he never goes out. My latex glove supply has really diminished and I see no hope of getting more. No way would I touch the bank drive thru canister without gloves on.
MomSense
Same thing going on here. Today I drove out to a farm. You have to wear a mask, only touch the items you are going to buy, pay online, and only one at a time can enter the stand. I picked up a box of produce and tons of seedlings for the garden.
I finished cleaning my laundry area. I pulled up the linoleum, organized everything, cleaned the washer and dryer, and reinstalled them. Next up is deep cleaning the bathroom before I pot up the plants I bought today.
MisterForkbeard
@germy: I’ve been getting shipments from Chewy. they’ve been pretty dependable so far – I get about a month’s worth of cans at a time.
John Revolta
Any string players out there notice that hand sanitizer seems to make your callouses peel off? Or maybe it’s just that I’m washing my hands all the time. The alcohol wipes don’t seem to do it as bad…..when Mrs Revolta and I go on our weekly shopping expeditions we clean up after every store. Last week we pulled into Home Depot, took one look at the crowd there and pulled right back out again.
Auntie Anne
@SiubhanDuinne: I have good luck finding Nitrile or vinyl gloves in the cleaning aisle at Big Lots. I’ve scored enough there to share with some of my more at-risk friends.
For sanitizer, are any local distilleries making it? I scored a liter bottle at my local farm stand that came from a local distillery.
Elizabelle
@Sab: Stupid point, but couldn’t we use bread bags over our hands for gas pumping and bank canister handling?
If they worked for Joni Ernst …
FWIW, I think they’re flexible enough you could even hit an ATM keypad with them. And then discard safely, once used.
===
Does anyone know if Target and stores are still accepting plastic bags for recycling? They had bins up front. Haven’t been to a Target or Food Lion since lockdown …
RSA
@Brachiator:
I got a 3-pack of 2-layer cotton masks (with a filter pocket) from an Etsy seller for $22. They’re good quality; this was a middle-of-the range price, if I remember correctly.
Ohio Mom
There were disposable masks at my CVS last week, $2 (!) each, limit five. I have no idea how much masks are wholesale but I recognize a hefty mark-up when I see one.
Still I bought five of them to supplement the cloth ones I’ve been sewing.
I would guess about half the people I see when I am on my errands are bare-faced. That includes the staff at stores.
I wonder how much more compliance we’d see if we each got ten free masks every two weeks in the mail, like they do in Turkey (and I imagine there are other countries with similar set-ups).
Or if masks were really, really cheap, like in Malaysia, and were for sale at every checkout in every type of store, the way chewing gum, batteries and the like are.
Sab
@Litlebritdifrnt: Weird weather. You are west coast British and want rain?!
satby
@Amir Khalid: average mask price for the homemade ones at my market is $5. The N95 type ones I bought were also $5.
The homemade ones are washable and can come with a slot that you can insert a filter, like a coffee filter, into. One maker even has it configured so that the bottom strings loop around your neck and the top strings tie behind your head, so nothing pulls on your ears. They fit much closer to the face than the square pleated ones too. I got two of those as well.
Jeffro
@Redshift: You’re pretty brave to go into a NoVA-area Costco to begin with…we went about once a year back when we were living in Fairfax and it was a complete mob scene no matter what day or time of day that we went. =)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Brachiator: I’m not quite sure why Zoom took off the way it did. Google Hangout has been out there for years, and I’ve used it for a lot of video chats both personal and professional. Haven’t used Skype in years, it just didn’t seem to work as well.
And there are lots of other competitors in this market too, like Slack.
I never even heard of Zoom till this year. I think they just had the right set of features to make it work for a lot of different purposes. Another feature I’ve seen used very effectively is the ability to create two tiers of participants. That works well with large meetings with hundreds of attenders and a small number of presenters.
This seems like a good place to plug a Zoom Play. We read about it in “New Yorker” and then watched part of it last night. We’ll finish tonight. Performed on and written specifically for Zoom. It works really well. (The setting is a family Zoom call).
I had a similar question. Check this link. I went to a local grocery store. Masks required, there were a couple of employees there in front checking for compliance. I dropped off a big garbage bag full of plastic bags and they said it was fine. Everybody was masked but I found I was still extremely uncomfortable entering a store. I’m going to collect for at least a month or two before I go again.
germy
zhena gogolia
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Zoom wasn’t working this morning so we missed prayer. I guess they did something on Facebook Live, but we’re not on Facebook.
germy
Some of the beltway media seems to have had enough:
zhena gogolia
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
And unfortunately, I’ve gotten into tussles with Sanders supporters a couple of times during prayer sessions! We were supposed to pray in mourning for him dropping out of the race.
HumboldtBlue
Remember Sep. 2016 when we still had hope?
Seems like 25 years ago.
germy
@zhena gogolia: I prayed in mourning the day he got into the race.
Jeffro
PS Someone just messaged me a link to Ben frickin’ Sasse acting like a complete jackass in a commencement address to students at his alma mater…principals everywhere, take note: you DON’T want a Republican speaking to your students under normal circumstances, much less at pandemic-canceled virtual commencement exercises! Ugh.
Martin
It’s very mixed bag where I am in SoCal. If you go to stores, awfully close to 100% mask compliance. But the walking/biking/running paths are fucking packing, and almost nobody has a mask because they’re either exercising or figuring that they’re among friends. They’re always packed here, everyone has a dog there’s a whole dog owner social culture here, but they are now unusually packed. 4th of July packed. Just, no.
@MisterForkbeard: We seem to have quarantined all of the angry people to Huntington Beach. They’re out there protesting nearly every day. The news is ignoring them. Our county Covid statistics unfortunately cannot.
RandyG
@AliceBlue: Had a parking lot pickup at Home Depot last Sunday (in Arizona). Lot wasn’t particularly crowded, but of all the people coming in and out of the main entrance the only one wearing a mask was the fellow who brought out my package. I even saw some HD greeters without masks, or they may have just been HDers milling about near the entrance.
Horrifying.
Sab
@Elizabelle: Good idea, although my initial reaction was “then how do I clean up after my dogs?” Of course, Republicans mostly don’t do that.
I made homemade yeast bread today. That’s why I don’t do it more often. I used to make it a lot back when I was very young and thin and also had no life.
An ancient, supposedly Pepperidge Farm recipe that does taste just like their whole wheat bread that I can’t buy anymore. I started it at 10:30 and after all the yeast proofing and multiple risings and all two gorgeous loaves came out of the oven at 3:15.
And I cheated and used my kitchenaid pastry hook so that I wouldn’t have to scrub the breadboard and my fingernails. I see why so many jackals have breadmachines.
Redshift
@satby: I went by our farmers market today to take some pictures for a project Ms. Redshift is working on. It’s run by the city of Alexandria, and they’ve set up requirements for masks and social distancing. It’s supposed to be order in advance and pickup only, but there were few enough people at the end that they were shopping.
I guess one advantage I hadn’t considered of order-ahead is that people have to acknowledge the public health requirements to order, so they’re less likely to make trouble. And if any vendor wouldn’t comply, they’d just be out immediately. But in any case, the overlap between people who would shop at a farmers market here in the suburbs and the “freedumb” crowd is pretty much zero.
Another Scott
Just back from our quasi-weekly pickup run from Balducci’s in NoVA. Today it seemed like only one person was working for Instacart today (at least when I got there) and I had to go inside to pickup our order. Got everything on our list, except she substituted a larger carrot cake for the tiny one I ordered. We don’t really need the calories, but it’s so good… ;-)
They require masks of everyone in the store and it was being observed. Wipes to clean off cart handles, etc., too.
We get a quasi-weekly delivery from Safeway. We get more of our staples there, but they’re often out of stuff (lunch meat, low-fat yogurt, etc.).
I’ve had a jones for making a trip to Target (I went every week in the Before Times), but J refuses to let me go inside the store. Sometimes she makes a pickup run there, but the last time she saw a customer without a mask spend a few minutes in the face of one of the “team members” and she’s nervous about going back. (The list of items for pickup is much less than what’s available inside the store.)
I want to go back to TJ’s sometime soon (a similar jones) too as we’re out of cheap wine and some of our favorite cereals, but I don’t want to stand in socially-distanced for about 10-20 minutes to get in the store. (I applaud them for doing it, I just don’t want to spend the time now.)
The historical data from the UW site for WV doesn’t look so great – https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america/west-virginia – but it looks worse for VA. We still haven’t hit a peak here (maybe from the prisons and the meatpacking places, but …). My step-mom is in MS and just had cataract surgery a few weeks ago. They haven’t hit a peak in MS either. (She’s in a college town and apparently everyone is wearing mask, but still…).
Stay safe, everyone. It’s still early in this travesty. :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Sallycat
Etsy is selling masks online. It has masks that you can put a filter in and several styles. The cheapest that I saw was ten dollars.
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
One big change Costco made for all stores is only two people per membership. After it went into effect I realized how many ginormous extended families had been clogging the joint up, now that they’re gone. Of course, eliminating food samples may have reduced it some.
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
Sasse just oozes superiority. And since he’s what, nineteen? he could be working his schtick for decades.
Do better, Nebraska.
Royston Vasey
@HumboldtBlue: Today (Monday) is the day schools & colleges return. Restaurants, cafes (socially distanced tables, <10 per party), opened last Thursday, bars/pubs open this Thursday. Lots of shops open.
My office is still closed as we can all work from home.
I live in Wellington (capital of NZ). The entire Wellington region (Wellington city, Kapiti Coast, Hutt Valley, Porirua, Wairarapa) currently has no active cases, and no one in hospital (with COVID-19). The region (pop. 0.5mil) has had 2 deaths (out of 21 total across the country). You could say we are over the worse.
RV in NZ
Jim, Foolish Literalist
this takes place in Dana Point, CA, just north of San Clemente, the google tells me. A woman claims she has a medical condition that prevents her from wearing a mask (any doctors in the house?), offers to shop for her are a risk to her “private credit card”and privacy cause she wants to buy “private things”, and she’s being discriminated against and she’s going to speak to their (regional) manager, and file a lawsuit. Two minute video of indignant privilege
Jeffery
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Little Donald will have a sadz about that.
AM in NC
I own a small chain of garden centers in NC and VA, located mainly in college towns, where the people are generally liberal. Our employees are all wearing masks and have been for weeks. We opened up online ordering for curbside pick-up in mid-March, and we only allow a small handful of customers inside our stores at one time. The overwhelming majority of our customers appreciate our efforts, and are wearing masks, and practicing social distancing, and ordering from home much of the time; however, there are still RW assholes who do not wear masks or who just want to come in with their kids and browse around for however long they want to. And they let us know it’s because they value “FREEDUMB”. And the GOP is still planning on holding their convention in-person in Charlotte this summer. 50,000 people from all over the country converging, remaining in close proximity for days, and then dispersing back across the country. I don’t want to wish death on anyone, but an own-goal by suppressing the vote because you infected so many of your voters would be beautiful karmic justice for these horrible, horrible people.
trollhattan
COVID might be putting coal on the back burner. An excerpt (RTWT):
Bill Arnold
A hand-written letter to the CEO of Lowes reporting your extreme displeasure at their store’s threat level from the unmasked is easy.
My father occasionally wrote such letters. He got a response greater than 50 percent of the time.
I’m in a masks-required state (New York), and went into a Target yesterday, full compliance, then I saw a store employee with mask pulled down (on phone), then I saw a teenage boy unmasked in one of the isles. Left store immediately. Will not return for quite a while. If I write any letters, it will be to Cuomo informing him that lifting his mask/face coverings order means no retail shopping by me (excepting groceries, curbside pickup).
The effect of the mandatory face coverings order April 17 2020 is now getting clear in the new (tested positive, reported) cases graphs for New York. To my eye at least. State is still pretty fucked because of the late shutdown; a week earlier would have halved (or less) the cases, but it’s about halfway down the downslope. Pandemic time is exponential.
jimmiraybob
I’ve found that shooting to be the first or last customer at the garden center is a good strategy. But, like you, if there is any crowd whatsoever I turn around and figure on another day.
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That is really worth watching.
HumboldtBlue
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
She’s also tested positive and she’s a fucking Trumper.
@Royston Vasey:
Now you’re just rubbing it in.
zhena gogolia
@Royston Vasey:
Wow.
Baud
@trollhattan:
A lot of words to say “Obama.”
trollhattan
@Royston Vasey:
Well done–hope the return goes smoothly and is not a premature one. Huge Jacinda fan; good lord, the contrast could not possibly be more stark. Not to mention she’s had one crisis after another.
Martin
@satby: Another item to consider is a wide band with buttons on each end that you wear on the back of your head to hold the elastic that normally goes over the ears.
Ms Martin is making a buttload of those right now with patches on the band (flags, etc.) for frontline workers. She’s back at it after a shipment of thread arrived from Canada. (1000yd for 2.50, she got 10 spools for under $30).
It’s hard to believe she’s burned through nearly all of her thread collection. She tore through the box of bias tape ages ago and is making her own now using a tool we 3D printed (we’ve been printing loads of those for local sewers).
Thanks to the uniforms being donated for mask material, she’s harvesting the buttons and patches to make the mask holders and sending those back along with the masks. So if you find yourself pulled over by CHP and they’re sporting a bitchin’ mask and headband in matching fabric, feel free to drop a ‘hey, I might know who made that mask for you’ and maybe you’ll get off easy.
dc
@SiubhanDuinne: Distilleries in my area are making and selling hand sanitizer, as well as fine spirits. Check your area. There should be some around Atlanta.
Martin
@Baud: Fuck man, that was California. We’ve been working on that goal since Obama got out of college.
Sab
@Martin: Great idea! Thanks!
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
She sure knew to throw HIPAA rules out there. Karen done practiced that routine beforehand.
“No shirts, no shoes, no mask, no service” is that so hard, lady?
Jeffro
@trollhattan: he had a trumpian primary challenger already, so my hope is that Sasse’s overall R support lags and the D candidate (Janicek?) somehow pulls it out.
Fingers crossed!
pamelabrown53
@TaMara (HFG):
EVERYWHERE in the country, I read that Lowe’s is a friggin’ madhouse mess (including mine). Seems to be a no rules place. Just won’t go there even though I have a growing list of stuff I really need. Plus stuff I want like potting soil and purslanes for my pots.
Even with a high quality mask and gloves, I’m unwilling to frequent a business that doesn’t do a damn thing to protect its customers.
japa21
Mrs. Japa has made a lot of masks for us and some family members and friends. She makes two types, one two layer and one three layer. Both have pockets for filters.
Yesterday, some neighbors across the street had a graduation party. Not a lot of people, would say maybe 20. Still not supposed to have. I may have been meant as a drive-by salute to the graduate in the house but several people stopped and got out of the car. Only one wearing a mask.
Our eldest grandson graduated today from a very small private school in MO. We had thought about going but for reasons previously disclosed ended up not being able to. Glad as it turns out. Only 5 seniors, but probably around 70 people attended from the looks of it (live-streamed on FB). We only saw one person with a mask.
Jeffro
@Royston Vasey:
@HumboldtBlue:
@zhena gogolia:
@trollhattan:
No real reason why we couldn’t have (and frankly, we still could) pull off similar results here…oh, except for the lack of leadership, resources, and commitment to the collective good.
Other than THAT, though…
Glad for the awesome results, Royston!
Sab
@Bill Arnold: That is agood idea. I have been a loyal Lowes customer and I don’t even think about going there this year.
HumboldtBlue
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yup.
SiubhanDuinne
@satby: Oh, that would be great! Messengering you now. Thank you!
sheila in nc
@Elizabelle: Re bread bags: I have a diesel Golf and I have always used bags over my hands to dispense fuel. Bread bags, dead-tree-newspaper bags, vegetable bags, whatever. I just like to keep the fuel smell off my hands.
trollhattan
@Martin: Checking CAISO we’re getting a whopping 10.7% of our electricity from natural gas ATM. 69.3% is renewables and 7% large hydro.
Royston Vasey
@trollhattan: new Zealand borders are still closed (to anyone who is not a NZ citizen or permanent resident) during Level 2 (see https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-system/covid-19-alert-system/), and have been since 19th March.
Anyone who does come into the country has to go into a two-week mandated quarantine.
RV in NZ
Baud
@HumboldtBlue:
Looking forward to the stories about how Biden bankrupted a casino.
trollhattan
@sheila in nc:
It’s a very…persistent fragrance. So’s jet fuel, in a kerosenish way.
Sab
@pamelabrown53: Or its employees. I have a nephew who works there part time because he needs the job.
Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, the local GOP facebook groups even have a little card you can print out saying you can’t wear a mask because reasons.
That must be particularly hard on her. She went to Gelsons hoping to maximize her ‘I have money, cater to me’ opportunity, and still got shut down. She’s gonna shit the bed when she hits up the Apple store, sees that they require masks and a temperature check to get in the store – with max capacities about 1/8th what the fire marshal says.
Noskilz
In Tennessee, virtually all restrictions on dining and retail are set to be lifted soon, but many people started acting as if the crisis was over as soon as the Governor dialed back on the lockdown in early May. When I was picking up a takeout order from the Mexican restaurant down the street on Friday, virtually no one aside from the staff was wearing a mask or making any effort to keep their distance.
That staff are taking precautions while the general public does not seems to be the general rule around here – although I have noticed a few of the staff at Walmart who seem determined to wear their masks on their chins for some reason.
Parking lots at area stores are full. Goodwill is open again. Mask usage and even elementary caution seems to be markedly down, which seems like a recipe for disaster
trollhattan
@Baud:
Hah! Joke’s on us, Biden Casinos have all been yuge money-makers.
Sab
@Baud: Just one?
Tony Jay
It’s getting like that in parts of the Rotten Borough of Lesser Brexitania, I’m afraid. Ever since Tang the Demented first hooted out his support for the Astroturf Arsewits our own bunch of criminally incompetent slugtrails have been hard at work devising a plan to break the national quarantine and force the lazy plebs back to their labours on the corporate plantations, but without taking any blame for it. As in, “We’re not saying you have to go back to work, we’re just saying you can if your employer says it’s safe, and your employer wouldn’t lie, would they?”
Cowardly fuckers, perfectly figureheaded by Prime Minister Flatulent Wordgust, who bestirs himself from his wine-splashed chaisse-longue maybe once a week to give an end-of-the-pier rendition of Churchill: The Gap Years in front of Number 10, barking out barely coherent strings of nonsensical sound bites for his minions in the Press and BBC to buff up into stirring rhetoric for the common folk to take however they choose to. He prefers that to the faux-democratic kabuki of Parliament, where the silent mockery of the virus-emptied benches behind him provide none of the baying wall-of-sound he grew used to pre-Covid 19, and in Labour’s new leader he faces a trained and forensic lawyer who politely dissects each moronic blabberboast over the course of an hour, while enjoying the novel advantage of not having to operate with two arms pinned behind his back and a spine pincushioned with ‘moderate, centrist’ daggers driven there by his own side.
Officially we’re still on ‘Lockdown’ but with the Tories openly chipping away at all the important parts, like trying to force the schools to reopen so they can function as drop-off stations for the mini-proles while the full-size versions get bullied back into unsafe workspaces, the message is getting broadcast loud and clear by the right-wing Press that everything is on its way back to normal, and it’s only carping know-it-alls with their alien ‘science’ and bolshy Union bullyboys with their mission to destroy capitalism who are standing in the way of another resounding
EnglishBritish victory over Johnny Foreigner and his devious oriental plagues.Come June, a LOT of morons and non-morons alike are going to be very, very sick, and the only certainty is that the British Media will be happy to let everyone know that while the Government isn’t specifically saying it’s the fault of the sick and dying for not ‘staying alert’ to the microscopic threat, it’s definitely not the Government’s fault, and that’s what’s important.
I hate these fucking people.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
They are doing zoom, but it just isn’t the same. All the same, I check in now and again. I grew up about a half mile from Pendle Hill. It was just a short walk through the woods and then a few hundred feet down the road…
Baud
Haven’t seen this posted here, but it seems to be making the rounds.
satby
@Martin: a lot of the ladies are making the earpiece bands too, I just haven’t tried one yet. It’s really amazing how quickly crafters ramped up to fill the gap in PPE when the crime cabal let the country down.
SamInWa
This kind of post is actually very helpful to me.
I’ve been only going to the grocery store and for as little as I can get away with. I’m lucky that I can work from home 100% of the time, though that is a change from the normal.
It would be really easy to convince myself to run out to the hardware store for some yard stuff. I don’t *need* to, but it sure would be nice.
I’m going to stay away from all that for a while longer or maybe a pickup order mid-week on a rainy day or something… I dunno.
trollhattan
@japa21:
Congratulations to your grandson! Hope he’s prepared for entering this crazy world we’ve crafted for him in which to “become an adult.”
We did a driveway signing ceremony for my kid when she committed to her chosen college. Borrowed a backdrop from the HS and set a table in front. A couple dozen–friends, teammates, teachers, coaches, the principal–came, which was wonderful, and she was beaming the rest of the day. (Masks and spread up and down the street, appropriately.)
Sadly there is no one-size-fits-all solution for the vanished graduations, but people of good heart and a little creativity help.
Skepticat
I enthusiastically second that recommendation. I have my supplies (cat food, treats, and Ringer’s lactate) shipped to a carrier in Florida who has a special dispensation to deliver cargo to this desert island. Chewy warns about long lead times, but shipments have come earlier than expected, and their prices are very good.
The Bahamas continues under strong constraints, and the results are very good. There’s a hot spot on Bimini, which now is under hard lockdown for two weeks, but that seems to be the only place. I finally made a trip off the rock to the grocery last week, and everyone had on a mask (stores won’t allow people in without them), most wore gloves, and there were big bottles of hand sanitizer everywhere. If only the States could emulate this second-world country. I’m in not hurry to leave, as being without power, refrigeration, and a home is preferable to dealing with covidiots.
James E Powell
@HumboldtBlue:
I filled up on the way home when they closed LA schools on March 13th. I still have 3/4 of a tank.
satby
@trollhattan: after an accumulated 10 years as a healthcare worker over my life I have to say I have never heard anyone say “I have a medical condition” who actually has one. They invariably say “I have xxx”. And the HIPPA retort is being spread by the RWNM, because they think it’s a get-out-of-mask free card. It’s not.
Royston Vasey
@trollhattan: Did you know that in NZ about 84% of electricity generation is with renewables? Mainly hydro, then wind (growing sector), and geothermal.
I do some work with a major NZ power company (Meridian Energy, 35% of the sector), who only generate using renewables.
RV in NZ
germy
HumboldtBlue
@Tony Jay:
That’s a helluva paragraph. Rotten borough of Lesser Brexitana needs to be a tag.
@James E Powell:
I was trying to remember the day everything closed, I knew it was pre-Paddy’s day but couldn’t recall the exact date, primarily because March 12 is the date of our mother’s death eight years ago.
JoyceH
Lot of Virginians on this thread! I’m in the Northern Neck, and it’s not too bad here. My county has had 44 cases in total, 4 deaths. Last time I got groceries I went to Walmart and I was pleased at the restrictions they had in place. They had a line (with appropriate distancing) and would let people in as people came out, to keep the numbers in the store down. Everyone masked, one way aisles.
I would be perfectly willing to just spend the rest of the year sequestered, with bi-monthly grocery runs and online shopping. The difficulty is that my late sister’s house is still sitting up in Northern Virginia with all her stuff in it, so that has to be sorted before it can go on the market. Some NoVa friends posted some hair-raising stats from NoVa – 73 new cases/day in Loudoun and 246 in Fairfax!
I asked my sister’s boss if she thought I could get up to the house anytime, and she thought late June or July would be workable with precautions. (Emergency management is what her company does so I’m being guided by her advice.) She said NoVa was still in the upward trend of their curve, but she sees it flattening and trending down soon. Fingers crossed…
Martin
@trollhattan: I’m really hoping in this process of dealing with this pandemic we manage to transfer at least a little bit of the ‘we all need to sacrifice a bit to solve this’ thinking.
Hard to believe that we’ve shut down as much electricity demand as we have, though. I was about to start guest posting about my household carbon reduction plans/efforts when this all hit, and I’ve not been able to make much progress on those plans the last few months.
But it’s nice to have not seen the inside of a gas station in 4 months. Had to jumpstart 2 or our cars from lack of use, which annoyed Ms Martin, but pleases me to no end.
trollhattan
@James E Powell:
For folks who are hardly driving, consider a maintenance charger for your battery–just hook it up and leave it (presuming you’re not parked on the street). Had to coax mine back from near-death the other day and I want no part of shopping for a new one right now (not to mention the car has a fancy-ass battery in a weird spot and the car has to be told there’s a replacement and what its specs are.)
hitchhiker
I was in a convo on reddit last night about mask-wearing that was very civil right up until it wasn’t.
I got told, by god, that if it made me feel better than everybody else to wear a mask in the grocery store, good for me.
That kind of bullshit is so discouraging, especially in the middle of what had been a reasonable back and forth about the perfect conditions for transmission of the virus. Closed Space + Density + Time = Spread.
If wearing a mask becomes the same sort of thing as driving a goddamn Prius, we’re screwed. There should be a subtle campaign resembling the one that made it unacceptable to drive drunk back in the 80s.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@James E Powell: What’s really weird to me is how usage of cash has stopped, at least for me. I still have every coin and bill that was in my pocket on Mar 12, and expect not to spend any of it in 2020 or well into 2021.
Cameron
Would this be a good time to push Community Supported Agriculture? Yes, it’s a pet cause of mine, but I genuinely believe it would be a major improvement on food security. (End of my commercial.)
Royston Vasey
@Tony Jay: Well said, sir. Have a like (if I could do such a thing).
Skepticat
The Bahamas entered stage 1B last Sunday (we’ll have another update later today, and we expect some further easing in the Family Islands), and now for the first time they will let citizens, residents, and homeowners into the country IF they have proof they’ve had a negative test in the previous five days and they commit to a two-week quarantine.
Bill Arnold
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Sheesh. It’s looking like the various “corporate”s will need to be informed that they will lose a significant number of customers, perhaps forever, if they allow such Karens to enter the store and threaten their customers with death.
I have not yet figured out how to complain to Target Corporation about maskless customers (in a mandatory masks state)
trollhattan
@Royston Vasey:
That’s an enviable portfolio. Converting energy sources combined with increasing efficiency (e.g., LED lighting) can meet in the middle and make serial energy crises a thing of the past. One must be relentless with both.
I dream of a world where Russia and Saudi Arabia (et al) throw a tantrum and nobody cares.
ema
@Sab
@SiubhanDuinne
My local supermarket was selling masks (the regular, blue surgical ones) for $1/mask, $2.99/3 masks. I can check and see if they still have them, if you’d like, and get some and mail them to you.
OtherSuzanne
Slightly OT – Been wanting to give an update to my query/lament in March (I think) re: loss of my unemployment bennies as C-19 was bearing down on us….just received word today that I am eligible for PEUC since my benefits were exhausted after July 2019. But….about a month ago, I went ahead and reapplied, figuring I was eligible, per their flowchart. I have filed 2 bi-weekly claims since and just got this notice today.(!) Now I have to wait for an official letter, send it back and file once again. Meanwhile, May rent has yet to be paid and damn it, I’m hungry! Thankfully, I have family and friends to provide a few ducats during this between-time. And, I know they (PA) are backed up with the millions of folks filing, but still…..I should be getting my 1st pymt some time in June, at this point.
‘Nevertheless, I persist’
Royston Vasey
@Skepticat: Strict. And so it should be. 96 cases/11 deaths in a population of about 400K.
CaseyL
I can’t report much about what’s going on here, because I’ve hardly left the house for the past 6 weeks. Grocery run about every 10 days, and a couple walks on weekends and that’s it.
Most people are masked, esp. in the grocery stores; but quite a few not. I think all the checkers are masked, but not gloved (I wear gloves as well as a mask when I shop). Still no rubbing alcohol to be had, but they did have hydrogen peroxide again, so I got one of those. They now have disposable gloves in stock, so I got a big box of those, too.
Besides the N95 masks I had from way back when (bought ages ago because I work with glass powder), I ordered a bunch of masks for me from local crafters on Etsy in cute little patterns (cats and cat paws). I also ordered a bunch with floral designs for Mom from Etsy – she got them a couple days ago (belated Mother’s Day prezzie) and adores them.
King County has a data dashboard for tracking cases, and you check by zip code. It is *fascinating*…in a gruesome way: My zip code, a northeast area of the city, has logged an astounding 246 cases and 23 deaths. Zip code 98105, which encompasses the University of Washington, has logged 63 cases, 1 death. That might be because the students have all, or mostly, left the area – but there are still a lot of permanent residents. I can’t figure these stats out, to tell the truth: I don’t know of any outstanding socio-economic reason for my zip code to have such a high rate and the U District such a low one.
JoyceH
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: With debit cards, I’ve gotten away from cash almost entirely. One day before pandemic, I was using my debit card at a store and I tried to remember the last time I actually touched cash – and couldn’t think of it. So weeks, maybe months.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jay Noble: I’m sure I went the wrong way the first couple of trips to Kroger for exactly this reason — didn’t see the arrows on the floor. Apparently I wasn’t the only one in violation, as the store quickly began putting arrows and “wrong way” notices all along every aisle at eye level.
Tony Jay
@HumboldtBlue:
I wish they didn’t inspire me to vent about them, but they do. Utter scum and they’re turning my country into a fucking Nether.
On the brighter side, no actual zombies yet, so swings and roundabouts.
Amir Khalid
I was in the grocery store Sunday afternoon and saw a young worker with his mask down over his chin. I said to him, “Please cover your nose and mouth. There’s no point in wearing that thing if you don’t cover up.” I think the reason I got him to comply is that I’m about his dad’s age. ETA: Plus, giving me grief in reply might have cost him his job.
Nicole
Went for a run this morning in Central Park and as the weather warms, it definitely seems that mask wearing is dropping, especially among young men, who, not at all coincidentally, are also the least likely to make any attempt to social distance. I yelled at 2 shirtless ones who, apparently too weak in the lungs to ride their bikes up the big hill at the north end, took over the pedestrian lane to walk them up. Side by side and maskless. Douchecanoes. I know outdoor transmission is unlikely, but for fuck’s sake, show some consideration, Chads.
Cuomo got a Covid-19 swab test during the briefing today, to show it’s not that bad. I was equal parts impressed and squicked out, watching that. Good for him, though. Lead by example.
Horse racing will start back up in NYS in June (no spectators). As sports go, it’s a pretty safe one where Covid-19 is concerned. It’s outdoors, and the vast majority of the employees (grooms, stablehands, hot walkers) already live at the track, so they’re not coming or going and have been basically quarantined there already for months (horses still need to be taken care of, even with no racing, so they’ve been there the whole time racing’s been shut down). And it’s a sport where the majority of the money comes from gambling, not attendance, so the lack of audience won’t affect it. Hell, hardly anyone goes to the track for anything except the really big race days anymore, anyway. No one will be able to tell the difference!
Cuomo is also allowing drive-in movies to operate, which I find really sweet. Probably because I grew up near one that managed to hang on until its owner died, so it makes me think of childhood. A diner here in Queens turned its parking lot into a drive-in theater, but they are really enforcing the “drive-in.” No car, no movie. Pedestrians cannot stay.
Bishop Bag
@Eric U.: Went to Home Depot in Ridgecrest on Wednesday for plants. Both the main entrance and garden entrance had employees posted with counters monitoring the number of people entering and leaving. All employees were wearing masks. 50% of the customers were wearing masks. People seemed to be pretty aware of social distancing and not acting like idiots.
Royston Vasey
@trollhattan: In 2007, NZ (under Helen Clarke) set a target of 90% renewable energy by 2025. We are on course for that.
NZ still has a huge amount of petrol/diesel vehicles, but that is changing. The goal is for 64,000 electric cars nationwide by end of 2021
RV in NZ
The Thin Black Duke
@germy: By September or October, it’s going to be so damned bad that people won’t care what Trump says. No, this isn’t good news either, but some knuckleheads have to learn the hard way.
SiubhanDuinne
@JoyceH: Don’t remember whether I told this story here, but the first weekend in February I was heading to a regional stamp show and wanted to have cash for making purchases (many dealers will offer better prices or throw in some extras if you pay cash). Anyhow, on this particular Sunday morning I went to my bank’s drive-through ATM, and to my amazement in one of the slots there was a messy wodge of cash shoved any which way and fluttering in the breeze. I grabbed it and it was $600 (or $650 — can’t remember — anyhow, a lot of cash). I took it to the bank the next morning in hopes they could review the transactions immediately before mine and get in touch with the customer. Never heard anything further, so I assume they did.
I think that’s the most recent ATM visit I’ve made, and I still have some cash left over from my own withdrawal. But I wouldn’t do it now without gloves.
Bill Arnold
@JoyceH:
You should be able to do that safely. If it has a working bathroom, then just pack a full picnic, and have at it. If more than one person, then masks.
I did this, with some help from my sister very recently. Closed on a sale of my late fathers house, mid-pandemic in Westchester County NY (hard-hit). (Lawyer was so proud to pull it off.) The dumpsters were delivered and paid for no-contact. We moved everything to be kept ourselves, but it should be easy to find a mover that agrees to masked employees.
Royston Vasey
@JoyceH: Here in Wellington, NZ, most people don’t use cash at all. Most items can be purchased using contactless cards (“Paywave”). Even the local buses and trains have their own contactless card system (“Snapper Card”), though you can still cash (but each journey costs more than the card).
RV in NZ
Lyrebird
For ferns, try these folks in Tennessee
..as they don’t seem to be sold out yet… Some of what they sell is bare root so Dad might not be pleased with the look, but they have great stuff for a low price. “Great” for people into native plants and such.
If you want stuff that looks pretty this season and you’ve got the cash, white flower farm still has ferns!
laura
Back in mid-March Quinerly mentioned something as “too people out there.” That’s my lodestar. On the rare occasion I do a Chernobyl dash, the final check is to see if it’s Too People. If it is, I’m either out, or not venturing in. So tip O’ the hat Quinery.
Tony Jay
@Royston Vasey:
Am I right in thinking your local shop for local people is located in New Zealand?
So jealous. So, sooooooooo jealous.
J R in WV
@Xenos:
No offense, but where is the heart of the EU? Belgium? Geneva?
I have trouble with people who are from the US not telling us what state they’re in… but all those places could be the heart of the EU.
JoyceH
@Bill Arnold: In my case, the difficulty is that we’re going to have to send in a cleaning crew before I get there. Yes, I have cats, but I also have a cat allergy (mild, the allergist said). I can control the allergy pretty well with the cats in my house, but when you get into closets that have been hiding places for generations of cats for 25 years, boy howdy. I went through her bedroom closet in February and managed to kick off the worst case of bronchitis I’d ever had.
FelonyGovt
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That took place in a regional supermarket called Gelson’s. I went to my local one (masked of course) this morning. They are doing an amazing job of taking care of their customers, so this woman’s behavior is particularly infuriating.
JoyceH
Has anyone else noticed all the mask ads on Facebook? I think it’s kind of funny – I recall in pre-COVID days, when you’d see news footage of crowds in Japan or wherever, and people were wearing masks, they were always the plain white or light blue masks. But now there’s all sorts of different colors and designs. You can have a whole mask wardrobe.
Brachiator
@JoyceH:
I had been using Google Pay before the pandemic and it’s use only intensified afterwards. There are still a couple of places where I have to swipe a card through a reader, but these places are few and far between.
ETA: I think that all the budget smartphones coming out soon should at least have NFC chips, which will make it easier for people to transition to a near cashless society for most transactions.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne:
These are great gloves from Amazon – you get a dozen pairs of white cotton gloves for 20 bucks. They are washable.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JQCN5RH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
And still available.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
The first time I saw masks for sale was my last trip to town, a 35 minute drive from the rural hollow. Town is 55,000 people along a rivel valley, and Drug Emporium wanted something like $14 for 12 masks… they looked like very small thin masks to me. The sanitizer was something like 63% ethanol, which seems to be skirting the level that is protective.
I bought several bottles at the beginning of the shut-down at Aldi which were 75% and very reasonably priced. Have only used part of two bottles so far, most in the bottle in the car while I’m shopping.
We’re having more traffic at the house lately, after the tree fell on us. Estimators, insurance adjusters, construction guys. Scary. I keep the wife away from them as much as I can, she’s quite vulnerable from her medical history…
Bill Arnold
@JoyceH:
A good dust mask (or better, an N95) will at least partly solve that, if it is well-fitted. I had some dust masks prior to this pandemic for mowing the lawn, because I found many years ago that the dirt-dust and pollen made me feel like shit for days without a mask,but with mask, no problem. Have never been allergic to cats, but pollen yes. (Another major jump was switching to good-quality air filters (from spun glass) for ducted forced air heating; no more pollen in house, and almost no dust accumulation either.)
way2blue
Agreed. Our local nursery in San Mateo County, CA, just opened for walk-in customers this week, so I called our them on Thursday to find out if I needed an app’t to visit the garden center. And was told, ‘No, it’s not crowded’. Well Friday was sunny after weeks of gray weather. And the nursery was too crowded given the aisles are narrow. But at least everyone wears a mask — as required in California.
In contrast, my cousin who lives in King County, WA, needs to make an app’t for a 1-hour slot to visit her local nursery. Seems like a good model to me…
BBA
NYC remains closed until the hospitals juice the numbers enough to meet the “Phase 1” criterion.
We had the bad luck to be exposed to the more virulent European strain of the virus first, which we met with bad policy driven more by the financial and operational well-being of the health care sector than actual disease prevention. Cuomo failed, deBlasio failed, the CDC failed, the FDA failed, the WHO failed… I almost have trouble blaming Trump for any of this, since after almost five years of his blather everyone else should have recognized his uselessness and worked around him. It feels like criticizing a pigeon for being lousy at checkers. But oh god do I hate that pigeon.
I’m a pessimist by nature, and I think I’m about to crack.
Matt McIrvin
Just went back to Market Basket after three weeks away (we’d managed to stretch it out by getting some delivery stuff from BJ’s and elsewhere). Still 100% masked, and they’re maintaining a nice spaced-out line at the door so it doesn’t get crowded in there, per state and local orders. But it seemed like more people were ostentatiously ignoring the one-way signs.
Also, it was completely impossible not to do some passing in the aisles–there were employees restocking the shelves everywhere, and if everyone took the rules literally, that would have to shut down the traffic flow in essentially the whole store.
The most notable new shortage: pork is gone. There is none and the whole section is shuttered. You can still get most other kinds of meat, in fact chicken and turkey seem in more plentiful supply than before.
Paper goods, most cleaning supplies and all-purpose flour seem to be readily available, though I think hand sanitizer and rubbing alcohol are still out.
phein60
@Amir Khalid: Don’t know about WV, but in East Central Illinois, Meijer’s is advertising 25 “surgical-grade” masks for $7.99, or about $0.32 each. They sell washable reusable masks, too, but I don’t have a price on those (besides, Grandma works cheap). I did see a couple of vet med professors wearing the surgical-grade masks under cloth masks, which is making me think.
SWMBO
@Sab: My sister is a cardiac step down nurse. (She’s also a Trumper). She said the best homemade masks were double thickness and had an opening to put a filter inside. Her recommendation (seconded by my high school friend who is an ICU nurse) is to use blue shop towels. They are thicker and more absorbent. The idea is to keep others germs out but mostly to keep your germs in.
Anotherlurker
@M. Bouffant: The Stupidity Virus is 30+ years of Fox “News” combined with scum like limbaugh, hanity , o’rielly and other media trash.
Another Scott
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: The only paper cash we have is $20 bills. I’ve been tipping the Instacart shoppers with a ziplock baggie with $5 in quarters when I pick our order up. It feels weird, and we’re about out of quarters.
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
cain
Lowes and Home Depot here has been good. We have about a 50/50 on masks. But we are all social distancing. I have to get some lumber though so that I can make some planter boxes for the patio. I’m hoping that I can just get it delivered instead. It’s so easier ot shop online and get precisely what you want wihtout hunting for it.
Matt McIrvin
@BBA: My impression was that most epidemiologists consider the “more virulent European strain” idea to be a statistical artifact–that strain became dominant, but there’s not a big functional difference between it and the one that infected Wuhan. One bit of evidence is that they both seemed to spread equally effectively in Washington state.
JoyceH
@Bill Arnold: You’re right, but I didn’t realize there was a problem until it was too late. I guess I figured, I have two cats, she had two cats, so I’m used to this dander level. But when you start rooting around through stuff, all bets are off! I do have a bunch of plain cloth masks now, that I’m sure will get a lot of use post-COVID, for when I dust or brush the cats, etc.
BruceFromOhio
Took a drive yesterday to return a piece of equipment to a family member. We keep our distance, of course, then he drops the “if they open it, I’m going, I am so sick of this (isolation).” I just said, well, please be safe.
On the way back home, the traffic is nuts, and the Home Depot and Lowe’s I pass are jammed zoos. I stopped at the local microbrew to stock up on cans, and they were all masked and distanced, with a fresh bottle of hand-sanitizer at the register. They plan to re-open the restaurant on 5/20. I wished them good luck, and that we would be sticking with take-out.
MrsFromOhio and I spent the rest of the weekend kicking around the property, staying the hell away.
Gaia getting plenty of help working her craft to demonstrate Darwin was correct.
Matt McIrvin
It’d been a while since I looked carefully at the global numbers. Looks like a bunch of South American and Arabian countries are entering the deep shit right now. The situation in Brazil is particularly appalling.
Royston Vasey
@Tony Jay: The local shop is in New Zealand. We’ll have no trouble here!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Two online friends who are Iranian showed up recently, which pleased me they were in good health. The claimed the high mortality rate in Iran is because of the Opioid Addiction epidemic in the country. Long term Opioid abuse weakens the immune system.
Now what other religion of the would has a Opioid addiction problem, the virus is spreading into and the population thinks they are immune because the are good folks (as in white and Republican)?
Dan B
OT Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens. I was hiking on Lake Chelan 100 air miles away – 100 miles of continuous mountain ridges – and we heard it like large artillery fire, and later saw the wild dark clouds and thin white fog down lake.
There’s a huge difference between a short and sudden catastrophe and the plague without end. There was stubborn ignorance that resulted in many of the 57 deaths. People did not believe the danger despite the experts. Sad to see the ignorance repeated.
Bo
John, down here on the MS Gulf Coast, I’m seeing the very same thing.
Sigh.
Like you, I very much hope I am wrong about what this portends but, unlike “conservatives” (and I use that in quotes to denote the difference between those who call themselves conservatives and what conservatives used to actually be), I listen to the science.
“Belligerent ignorance” is a traditional conservative family value …
trollhattan
@Dan B:
My folks saw the St. Helens plume from their Seattle house. I was in CA so, nope, but backpacked the area when she was a big mountain and not today’s sheared-off remains. It’s still quite the contrast, still shocking to see.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl: Looks perfect! Thanks very much!
Citizen Alan
@germy: My understanding is that Home Depot was founded by a conservative nutcase but that he sold his interest long ago. Thus, Home Depot is no more evil than any other corporation.
Brachiator
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Google hasn’t really been supporting Hangouts, except for the Enterprise, and appears to be trying to push Google Meet as a Zoom competitor.
And Microsoft seems to have been left in the dust even though Microsoft Teams is supposed to be good.
I’ve never used Slack. I didn’t know that they had a video conferencing component.
The companies I’ve worked for have used Skype and GoToMeeting. I didn’t even know Zoom existed until the pandemic.
Since then I’ve participated in a couple of Zoom sessions unrelated to work, just to see how it worked. It was pretty easy to use as a passive participant. I’m trying to see if my family wants to use it for a group meeting.
BBA
@Matt McIrvin: okay, so it’s just colossal incompetence by deBlasio and Cuomo, good to know.
rikyrah
@satby:
I was worried about you. Thinking about people not complying.??????
Cheryl from Maryland
For those who need gloves — I recommend band gloves. I used them to handle objects at the Smithsonian as they are tightly woven and washable (and I had several pairs squirreled away at home). They are also cheap and seem to be still available. CF:Band Shoppe
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This is peak Karen?
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: If I’m going to 3 stores, I bring 3 pairs of gloves, one for each store. put them on right before I walk in, keep them on while I shop and while I put my groceries in the car. Then peel them off and put them in a bag. hand sanitizer just because.
drive to next store and repeat.
leave them in the car for a day after I shop, then throw them in the laundry. with 12 pairs, you always have plenty.
Aleta
@SiubhanDuinne: Here are some options too.
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/search?query=gloves
I see they now have boxes of vinyl gloves on stock. There are also some flexible thin work gloves that are part nitrile and comfortable (though the sides are fabric-y, so not as impermeable as vinyl, nitrile or rubber, etc.)
Their while cotton glove ‘liners’ are the same kind used for handling antique books, dusting, etc. I got some years ago, and since April have been using them. I like them. There is a wrist length version (doesn’t quite cover my wrists) and (a few pages later) a long version that goes up your arm.
Shipping has been free lately no matter how small the order.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
I don’t do gloves.
I think that gloves would lull me into a false sense of security. That’s why I have been using hand sanitizer like crazy??
wvng
@Tom Levenson: I live in Hardy County, WV, the poultry capital of the state. We have a poultry processing plant in Moorefield that saw the National Guard arrive at the Governor’s order to do testing at the plant last Monday. For some reason it was not mandatory. A station was set up in town for testing of anyone who asked. We don’t have results back from any of that yet. But numbers in WV could suddenly rise, a lot, if the results are bad.
rikyrah
@satby:
Wait…you are making hand sanitizer? For your store?
I would love some.??
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: whatever makes us comfortable, that’s what we should do. as long as we’re protected!
SWMBO
My nephew sells artwork at TeePublic. He does mostly Godzilla and Transformers and they just recently started selling masks (in addition to t shirts and other clothing). If you know someone who likes Godzilla and wants a mask with images from the movies, give it a look.
https://www.teepublic.com/user/almightyrayzilla/masks?page=3
Aleta
@Cheryl from Maryland: Those look great. If you can play an instrument in them they must be tactile and fit well. Thanks.
J R in WV
@Bill Arnold:
Just say what you just said — your store is not following mandatory mask rules, your store may be responsible for multiple cases of Covid-19, you nor any of your family will shop there as long as people without masks are shopping in your stores.
I will sincerely turn you into the health department if I see this the next time I enter your store, Bill A. Same as letting people excrete in the snack bar, if you ask me!
debbie
Seven patio restaurants received citations from the Board of Health last night. One of them had also been cited on Friday; it’s closed tonight and will stay closed “until I can figure this out.” It’s a real puzzlement. //
SiubhanDuinne
@ema: Much appreciated, but I think I’m now okay. Thanks for offering.
White & Gold Purgatorian
I went to Lowe’s on April 5, for garden supplies. Everyone had to enter through the main door, even if you just needed to go to the garden center. All checkouts were through the lumber department or the garden center. It was about 9 am, so pretty early, but the checkout lines in the garden center stretched all the way to the back of the store. Impossible to keep a distance with so many people lined up in all the aisles. I was petrified, but since I was already in it, got my stuff, plus anything else we might need for the rest of the summer, and eventually got out. Not going back. Maybe never. Got a big delivery of garden supplies like potting soil, mulch, straw from Home Depot later and that worked well.
My best results shopping are to go to smaller stores if possible, and be there when they open. I mask, glove, and wipe down everything before it goes in the house unless it can be left for a few days in quarantine in the back of the car or our designated quarantine area in the house. Mask usage here is maybe 60% at the places I shop but when the store isn’t crowded it’s not too hard to keep a good distance.
Last week our Whole Foods store had hand sanitizer for the first time since early March. Have not seen masks or gloves in a store since early March. Maybe soon.
SWMBO
Deleted since FYWP didn’t let me see the first post. Sigh.
Dan B
@trollhattan: I saw the August eruption plume from Seattle. It was only 40,000 feet unlike the 60,000 feet from May. It is 120 air miles or so. Huge frickin ash column!
Sm*t Cl*de
@M. Bouffant:
Ingraham and the rest of the death-cult duckspeakers have decided to make Not Wearing Mask into a purity test – a mandatory demonstration of one’s faith in Dear Leader.
SiubhanDuinne
@Aleta: Have bookmarked the site. Thanks very much.
J R in WV
@Bishop Bag:
Sounds like 50% were proven idiots, actually, to me!!
rikyrah
@SamInWa:
I went out yesterday for the first time in 2 weeks.
Went three places:
Bank-did drive thru
Denny’s for breakfast; curbside pickup
My favorite Bakery; curbside pickup
I have decided to only go places where I don’t have to get out of the car . As is, I still took off all my clothes and put them in the washing machine.
These folks are out here being crazy.
If you don’t have to go out–DON’T??
Origuy
I bought some masks at my local dry cleaners. They have a tailor there for alterations, so they can make them in the shop. They are two layers of cloth with elastic for the ears. Fairly comfortable, as masks go. There are also people in my neighborhood grocery store parking lots selling masks from China in plastic bags. They are made of Spandex. Both types were going for $5 each.
WaterGirl
@SWMBO: The first one went into spam. I released it.
debbie
@Sm*t Cl*de:
Huh. Things might work out after all.
Rob
My wife and I alternate grocery shopping. On Tuesday or Wednesday I hit the Silver Spring Whole Foods (and/or other grocery stores as well as drug stores), on Saturday she hits the MOM’s in College Park. Everybody is masked; entry is sometimes controlled in Silver Spring depending on occupancy; the MOM’s isn’t crowded at mid-day Saturday so she hasn’t seen controlled entry. Other than toilet paper and paper towels, we haven’t seen any prolonged unavailabilities, and there seems to be more of those paper products than even a month ago.
Amir Khalid
@WaterGirl:
Don’t white gloves make you look like a Disney character? //
SWMBO
@hitchhiker: There has been a meme on Facebook
Remember when it was CLICK IT OR TICKET?
Let’s start a MASK IT OR CASKET!
I’m in for that one.
Sandia Blanca
I haven’t set foot in any store (except for in-store pickup at two liquor stores, what can I say?) since the first week of March. We get take-out restaurant food once a week for a treat, and everything else comes to us via our normal food delivery service (kind of a CSA-plus), Instacart, Favor, or by UPS/USPS, etc.
We are trying to use our privilege to pump a little extra cash into the pockets of those who make all this work, so we tip well, and donate extra money to local charities with every paycheck. We are planning to live this way as long as necessary, but it’s hard not to be able to see friends and family in person.
sukabi
Same here John, garden centers full. Very little social distancing. Fewer masks. Think we’ll hit the 147k mark by early July.
HumboldtBlue
@Amir Khalid:
Only if you wear oversized yellow floppy shoes/clogs as well.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Until now, the last time I wore white gloves I was making my first communion in second grade. (it’s a Catholic thing.)
I never even thought of Disney, just church!
SWMBO
@WaterGirl: Thank you. I wonder why FYWP sent me to spam. Maybe I was having impure thoughts or something.
WaterGirl
@SWMBO: I just went back and read the comment, and it does a little bit follow the formula for spam. ?♀️
Feathers
Here’s a link to a good no sew T shirt mask, without ties. You cut out a hole for the ears and then twist the fabric around before putting it on, which creates the tight fit. I like it because I am able to trim the fabric so that it covers my nose without getting up into my eyes. It has seven sizes, Youth Small through Adult XL, with sizing based on the measurement from ear to ear. I haven’t been using a filter on any of my masks, but you could cut one to wear between the two layers here. Make a No Sew T Shirt Mask
Notes on working with knit fabric: Knit fabric does not fray, you can just leave the edges raw, no need to hem. You do not need to sew the two mask layers together, they will stick. Use sharp scissors. Cut out the mask pattern and then trace the cutting lines onto the fabric, taking care not to stretch it out. This is much safer and more accurate than pinning the pattern to the fabric and cutting out, like you do with wovens.
Thread is probably dead, but I will post again.
burnspbesq
@Citizen Alan:
i inherited a couple hundred shares of Home Depot common stock from my parents. It’s a decent investment, but nothing special.
david
Last Sunday, I made a trip to The Home Depot thinking it would be relatively empty.
Wrong. It was packed, and I left. Although, I researched what I was looking for a bit further,
learned what aisle and bay it would be located in, and tried again the next morning (Monday).
Store was empty Monday morning.
Cole, check your Lowe’s early in the morning, as in the moment they unlock their front doors.
I think you will find it much easier to get in and out without encountering humans. Even in a
pandemic, the weekend DIY’er crowd is undeterred. But they are weekend-only.
FlyingToaster
@Bill Arnold: It can be far more effective to complain to the Health Department in that Target’s municipality.
Our local Target and HomeDepot (across beautiful Arsenal Street from each other) have folks with walkie-talkies and line markers and all.
I can only speak to parts of metro Bwhastin (just west & northwest), but people who try to enter a building without a mask during regular hours get the cops called on them. Old folks who really have problems have to come shop in the wee morning hours, or accept delivery.
burnspbesq
With the benefit of hindsight, Austin mayor Steve Adler looks like a freaking genius for forcing the cancellation of South by Southwest.
Taking into account the lack of reliability of the data, the four-county Austin metro area (Travis, Williamson, Hays, and Bastrop counties) has gotten off pretty lightly in comparison to other major metro areas in Texas. The numbers aren’t trending down, however: it’s obvious to everyone except the state’s shit-for-brains leadership and the millions of their dumbfuck followers that reopening came too soon.
Gvg
I have the impression people around here (north Florida) are very divided on masks and other behaviors. I have figured out how to do curbside pickup or mailorder for everything and haven’t gone in a store in weeks. My stress level is down because of it. Sigh, but work wants to start bringing us back. They seem to have fairly reasonable ideas about how but I don’t see why. Most of the jobs are working perfectly fine remotely. The ones that would be enhanced by actually being on site….would be safer if we only brought back those.
as for John’s Home Depot experience, around here they started doing curbside about 2 weeks into lockdown and it works although they are annoyingly slow to answer the phone. I have a minivan so the back would be open to sneezing or coughing which bothers me and i put in my pvc liner bag in the back so that I now have a barrier between me and the clerk. I recommend mail order nurseries for ferns. Home Depot also does delivery for larger orders but they are slow and curbside has been a better choice for us. In general though Ace hardware has been better since the virus. They did curbside sooner and get to my car faster when I go. Their website is inferior though and sometimes I need to make a phone call . They are just being more responsible though so they are getting more of my money.
i am thinking about my own little fridge and microwave for my office when I go back. Stay locked in. We are going to be allowed to close out doors and no meetings except by zoom. Testing is being arranged before return and masks are ordered as well as other supplies. They say the supplies are challenging.
ziggy
@Tony Jay: Your reports are so over-the-top, I love it!
I wonder if New Zealand would still take me?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well according the World o Meter today the US only had around 865 deaths. So while it’s spreading into the hicky country, no one gives a shit and the urban areas are getting it under control now. I will take a moment to consider all the registered Republicans who are to die lonely, unrecorded deaths for Trump and the Freemarket Jesus and then say better them than me.
Another Scott
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Reported deaths in the US have been dropping, but they’re always much lower in the weekend reports. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re above 1500 again by Tuesday’s report.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Nelle
@Dan B: my husband is a pilot. We flew up, stayed upwind, and watched the eruption. Incredible.
bluefoot
@Starfish: It blows my mind that people think we should just let the disease rip through the population to get to “herd immunity” – assuming that’s possible with this disease. From the data I’ve seen, IFR is about 1% on average. Of the people that recover, we don’t have good enough data yet to say how many have long-term health issues (lung damage, kidney damage, cardiovascular damage, neurological damage, etc), but let’s low ball that and say 1% recover with long-term health issues. That’s without the healthcare system being overwhelmed. So left unchecked, that’s 1 in 50 people who will die or have permanent damage. In the US, that would be about 6 and half million people.
If bombs were dropping that were killing or seriously injuring 1 in 50 people, people wouldn’t be clamoring to go out and get their hair cut or whatever. And if they were holding a bomb that would kill or incapacitate 1 in 50 people if they stepped outside, they wouldn’t.
Or maybe they would, if white people had a 1 in 100 chance and non-white or older people had a 1 in 25 chance. I don’t know. People are idiots and sociopaths.
rikyrah
@Feathers:
Thanks for this
texasdoc
@Gary K: I actually know this doctor in Texas who treated his NH patients who had Covid 19 with hydroxychloroquine. In person, he is one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. I had always thought he was a good doctor, from what I had seen, but this is an unfortunate insertion of his political beliefs into his medical practice. You would be amazed how many physicians in this area wrote prescriptions for themselves and their families for this drug, to take prophylactically. I think it just confirms what we thought when I was doing my PhD–that medical school is a trade school, not science education.
Brantl
I have read the theory that once a species becomes inventive(proxy tool-users), that natural selection will lose sway over them; corollary theory: after they develop enough tools that natural selection has no sway over them, they’ll breed dumber than rocks for several generations, returning to natural selection’s thrall. I think the Republicans are leading the charge.