Both of these threads have been so helpful for me and I’ve learned so much.
Schools in our area are cancelled until April 5 (or April 13, depending on the district’s Spring Break). Disney and other venues announced closures until the end of March. Does anyone have any idea what will happen at that point? Will things be better in early April? Or will the closures all be extended?
We have a big vacation to Hawaii planned for late April. I so still want to go, but I think we will probably have to cancel. I’m optimistically hoping that 3 weeks of isolation will help dramatically slow down the spread of this so we can return to business as usual.
Yes, as @thumper1 mentioned, we postponed S2’s wedding until August and he will be getting married in our living room next weekend. People have been accommodating and kind and I am proud to be a member of my community. The kids are disappointed but getting a little excited about the silver lining to this very bad, horrible, no good week (which for them, in the scheme of life today, really wasn’t so horrible).
Then there’s my D, a big firm lawyer who is working from home and trying to satisfy her many partners and clients while dealing with her own anxieties about the current situation. S1 and DIL are working from home - sort of, because their 16 month old only wants mama if she’s in the house. For now the nanny still comes but who knows how long that lasts and it’s little tight in their Brooklyn apartment.
I tried to shop at TJ today but walked in the door and walked out. Lines were longer than I’ve ever seen so I’ll try again at 8am tomorrow.
The owner and main chef of one of Madison’s best and best-known restaurants has decided to offer “family meals” that people can pick up starting on Monday. Enough food for a meal for 3-5 people for $50; it typically would cost at least this much for one person to dine in at his restaurant. He wants to be able to stay open and keep his staff employed.
I just got an email from a local winery we like and they are doing curbside pickup at their tasting rooms and deliveries (6 bottle minimum and they‘ll just drop it at your door.)
I just got a refund for a cancelled set of pottery classes I’d signed up for. So I spent the money on plants from an online nursery. Social distancing doesn’t affect gardening, woo-hoo! I can’t wait to play in the dirt again.
Does anyone here have people in their homes who are working retail?
I have two - 19 and 17 - one working in a supermarket which is crazy crowded all day. The other just started a job at Walmart.
I am terrified they will bring Covid into the house.
Neither wants to quit -
Can anyone relate? Any thoughts on how to handle this?
Schools are closing around here. I will be working at the school but students will be home, working on packets or on the computer. I was almost crying at work because I will miss my students and the normal regular school day. It won’t be the same. I hope to make it as good as possible for the students. I will try to spiff up my distance learning computer skills. My husband went to BJ’s today and it was completely out of everything in the paper goods aisle. They were 99% out of veggies and fruit, cheese and meat where completely gone. Huge areas of the store were empty. it’s way beyond the buying all the toilet paper stage. the line went to the back of the store.
Also, libraries are closing. Schools that were still pushing forward with accepted student days are canceling them. Colleges are pushing out decisions earlier than they planned and also later than they had planned.
This came up in our discussion at school today too because many high school kids have jobs.
Do NOT go to work if in any way sick. If anyone does, protest and get them sent home and disinfect.
Be prepared that you might get it - people are infectious before they realize they are sick. Take heart in knowing you’re very much in the “should get by easy” group, but don’t pass it on. Isolate. Be sure no one from the risky group is in your house. If so, think strongly about other options you might have (or they might have). Know the symptoms and when to seek help. Call your doctor for confirmation and to see what to do based on what is available at that time. Also realize that whenever there’s a war (and this is a way, just a war against a virus), that some folks have to be on the front lines. If you can be and choose to be, those in the riskier and “general” groups thank you for your service.
Someone at work expects we will be back in 2 weeks. I think there is about zero percent chance of that. I don’t know that we will open again this school year. This person was very surprised at the idea this might not be over soon. “It’s going down in China now.” yeah, but it’s going up here. I wish he were right. He seems to not have heard or read much about the situation and might be one caught very off guard when he can’t get any food at the stores because everyone is freaking out now.
This is worse than the virus - snow is in the the forecast. There goes my evening walk with Mr! He is a warm climate person when it comes to outdoor activities.
Unless you’re over 60 and/or have an underlying health condition, terrified seems like an overreaction. But yes, they’re likely to bring the new coronovirus or flu or one of the other gross things that circulates into the house because let’s be real - people are not hygienic and anyone exposed to large numbers of people on a daily basis is going to come into contact with just about everything at some point. Hopefully you’ve done a good job teaching them not to touch their face or lick their fingers by now. If they can avoid doing that and wear gloves plus frequently wash their hands at work plus after work plus as soon as they get home, you’ll decrease the chances of anybody catching anything.
@Artist2233 Not retail, but my son works as a server assistant at a restaurant. It was so quiet tonight he only stayed 2 1/2 hours, but he’s on for tomorrow night. I don’t want him to lose this job - he makes way more there than he would anywhere else because of tips. Not sure what to do.
When we lost power from storms we didn’t get it back for a long time. This happened in a wide area around here at the time and several other times in a matter of years. Many are on wells so no power = no water. It took a super long time to get power back because of how many people needed power restored. If a lot of people get sick it could impact how fast regular power disruptions are restored quite a bit. Around here, you want water stored for those times. We have been consistently told for some years now to store a gallon per person per day and to have anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks of water on hand. I don’t think we necessarily need a gallon a person per day except you can’t flush the toilet when there isn’t any power without pouring water into it!! We have stored water ever since we lost it for that extended time. I don’t know that we have 3 gallons per person for any particular number of days and don’t count, but when we have empty distilled water containers we fill them with our own filtered water and store them. Seems like a good thing to us.
My friend has a serious medical condition and I gave her hand sanitizer the other day. I asked her how much she has because I foresee this continuing for some time. She looked at me funny and said, “the bottle you gave me.” I asked how much more she has and she had a tiny little travel size with almost nothing in it. That’s all. I gave her the big bottle that’s almost 1/2 full that I had out for students to use since they won’t be in school and she really needs the stuff. I hope that will last for how long she will need it. She has to use it all the time even normally due to very special, serious health issues. She has almost nothing stocked up at home and is lower income. She has an extra jar of peanut butter. She isn’t going to be working now with the schools having students do distance learning. I worry about her. I told her to call if she needs anything and I’ll help if I can.
My other friend has a test result that means they have to see if she might have a very serious health issue. I worry that the virus cases will make it unsafe for her to get the care she might need. She’s one of my very best friends in the world. Just heard of the test result.