Eh, I had to remind mine to wash his hands this morning after helping get our eggs from the chicken coop. This includes getting cwap out of the boxes as the chickens don’t mind going where they sleep/lay, etc. We both came in the house and I went to the sink. He went into our living room and started getting going on with life. He did come to the sink when I mentioned it, but I ended up telling him he had to at least pretend to care about the BASIC things (not even corona related, but chicken cwap!) when his wife was home and not at school.
I imagine when I’m at school it probably doesn’t even occur to him. It’s a good thing I’m one who doesn’t get upset at the little things I suppose. We’ve survived so far.
Youngest S’s school (independent school) has created a website (or a page on their school site) for community members looking for information about COVID-19, with an overview, FAQs, links to useful resources , all the wellness staff’s contact info, and links to all of the school’s communications to the community.
My alma mater has done the same thing.
All very calm, factual, and helpful.
A couple of weeks ago, the other grandparents, retired scientists, drove to pick up our grandchildren and take them home before their parents, our adult children, did business travel. They were concerned about air travel, and were going to wait two weeks to return them. The children traveled to areas that now have escalating virus cases. They are fine so far. I am really grateful to the other grandparents. They are holding on to the grandchildren for the time being and I don’t see a downside here.
We have decided not to do planned European travel this spring, early summer. We are just going to hang tight to able to help out family if necessary. The other grandparents may wear out!
The adult children expect to be told to work remotely anytime.
I jokingly say I have been self quarantined for 6 days. Actually I have been holed up in my daughter and son in laws apartment in Boston cat sitting while they are on vacation in Mexico. I have to laugh about everybody hoarding TP while I ran out here and had to “borrow” a roll from a bathroom here in their building. They will be home tonight and have an Amazon delivery for the precious commodity tomorrow.
Both daughter and son in law are physician s, and the only picture of their vacation they posted was a picture of SIL on the beach, drinking a Corona with the caption, “Birthday boy reminds everybody to wash their hands”. They are (still) annoyed at the hysteria of all of this. I saw this tweet that pretty much sums up my feelings.
"Panic buying is a symptom of a dysfunctional society diseased with individualism
To those with litres of soap at home- do you realise that to slow the transmission of COVID-19 you need other people to be cleaning their hands too?!
A fortress of toilet paper will not protect you"
I will be leaving tomorrow and will take the normal precautions of hand washing and avoiding crowded spaces. Nothing more.
D has suggested we all minimize our time running errands and away from home as much as possible until after the funeral, less than a week from now. Seems like a good idea.
We’ve just given our regrets at being unable to attend a baby shower tomorrow that will be attended by lots of school teachers and young children. Can’t afford to get sick—too dangerous for me with low lung function and my mom who is 90 (whom we help care for).
As a plus, D and I enjoyed cooking together and made a most delicious soup rather than going out to eat.
Went to the post office today and then the library. Nothing out of the norm at the post office, maybe even a bit more crowded than usual. The library is located side-by-side with a ball park with a rousing t-ball game in progress. Nothing out-of-the-norm there. However, in the library the check-out aide wore gloves. She helped a man who leaned over the counter to talk with her and coughed several times. I was up next. I see her all the time so asked how she felt about the cough. She told me she planned to wipe the counter down with Lysol when I left. Since my books had ended up on that counter, I told her to go ahead and do it now - and my books along with it. She laughed and agreed. So my first instance of paranoia has come and gone.
My daughter’s school just canceled several spring break trips for students.
We were at Costco a half hour after it opened this morning and were looking for the large bag of sushi rice we buy every month. When we couldn’t find it we asked a stocker and he told us they had a shipment come in overnight and it was sold out in the first 20 minutes. We stopped at our local grocery on the way home and they were also out of rice. That prompted me to search Amazon and, surprisingly (at least to me), they were also out of stock of large bags of rice.
The TP hoarding is funny, because we tend to only go to Costco 2-3x per year and buy a 4-5 month supply of TP each time. A hoarder by one name is a bulk purchaser by another, lol.
But the funny part is I just realized last week that our TP stock is getting low, right smack dab in the middle of The Great TP Hoard Rush! Oh no, what’s a guy to do?!
I’ve made a huge tactical error. H does most of our grocery buying. He’s always been prone to buying too much, especially since it’s now 2 old people, rather than 5 with 2 teenage boys. He also likes a “good deal”.
I stupidly told him he could get a few extra canned goods. We now have 11 jars of Prego. We eat 1/2 a jar at a time, maybe every 10-14 days. Krogers canned corn, anyone? I put up freezer corn (much tastier) and have a freezer full. We can sterilize a few operating rooms.
We’re set with Kleenex until allergy season 2023 and we can fill up every septic in the county with Scotts. we have minimal storage Arggggg. After 4 hours on errands, he didn’t wash his hands…
@romanigypsyeyes I do use distilled water daily in my NetiPot (we are on a well), and it’s been very difficult to find here, too.
I know! We went out to deliver some cat food and litter to kid. Brought her some of our TP stockpile we always have thanks to Mr.'s policy of never running out of TP. I was expecting to get an eyeroll, but kid said “good, I was getting low but was hesitating to buy any because people will give anyone who buys TP a weird look.”
lol. TP shaming.
@sryrstress I put canned corn in lots of things…chili, many soups. There are some great recipes for cornbread that use canned corn. I even use it when I make corn chowder.
I also have a really good recipe for a corn salsa you eat with chips…yum.
I’d be able to use that canned corn up in no time!
My DH and I are in our mid 70s/mid 60s respectively, and we both have health conditions that increase our risk of complications.
I am retired and don’t have to go out more than I choose; my DH has a full time job but most of the day he works alone.
However, our DD, who lives with us, currently has a counter job in a busy coffee shop. She serves 150-250- customers every day. Sometime in the next month or so, she will start working part time for the 2020 Census (going door to door). I think it’s probably inevitable that she will be exposed to the virus, and we will be exposed through her.
I’m trying to be philosophical about it. We’re doing all we can to avoid getting sick, but it’s anyone’s guess what will happen.
We went to the TJ next to the epicenter hospital. Business as usual, had to park ways away. People were buying fresh foods, no hoarding of anything. The store had bottles with isopropanol for cashiers to wipe their hands. Cleaning crews were wearing gloves, but cashiers were not. We bought blood oranges, eggplant, frozen pelmeni (yummm! comfort food), cabbage, carrots, and mirepoix mix for chicken soup I plan to make. Oh, and a bunch of gladioli. My favorite flowers. Nothing brightens up the place like a bunch of flowers.
I saw friend last night who works in a food bank just to the northeast of epicenter, and she said they had surprisingly few people come through this week. So, they aren’t low yet, but we know demand will go up as people are sent home from work with no pay.
@CTmom2018 I feel the same way. As a cancer survivor who has had numerous lung surgeries I am feeling pretty stressed about the current situation. I am doing all I can to reduce my risk, but some things will be out of my control and I am also being philosophical about it.
I’m pretty offended at the whole “60 and over” - of course I’m exactly 60. It’s my feeling that people shouldn’t focus so much on the age # as the health condition of the person. I get that they have to use a number as generalization but plenty of 60ish year olds are in much better health than those 10-15 years younger!
My first trip to Costco today since all this concern. No samples and while I don’t indulge that much, seemed weird. I’m sure they make a lot of $ off samples (meaning, people then buy the full product). They had plenty of water but I didn’t buy. It dawned on me that I wasn’t even sure where they would keep hand sanitizer if they had it - beauty products? Or cleaning products? It was busy but Saturday busy - I don’t know that I noticed anyone buying out of the usual stuff.
@sryrstress I can’t remember where you’re at but the kroger by my house finally got restocked with distilled water. They’re rationing it out now though along with meds, sanitizer, and some other things.
If you’re in the midwest, a kroger by you might have some!
