COVID-19 Check-in Thread

[Shader]

Still here. Just watched some the things going on overhead. Still busy, particularly as things start to wake back up. The world still spins.

[aku]

ping.

[Star Ranger4]

*SIGH* Living in LA, right by the Port, I am feeling like Scar this morning.

I am Surrounded by Idiots.

Though, I have to say that somehow this one felt more distant; that even though parts were happening here, it wasn't as visceral, or potentially expanding where I was as the Rodney King Riots.

[Dragonflight]

I like to tell myself that it's not as prevalent in Canada, but recent history proves otherwise. Such as the girl who "fell" off of her balcony after police kept her family outside the apartment and did... something... inside the place.

That's ugly, and I hope the truth comes out soon. But then a friend of mine, someone I've known for well-on 30 years now, tells me "When in Rome, they need to do as the Romans do. What they do during Ramadan or stuff like that, it stays in their homes. What they do in the privacy of their homes is their business. But when in public, they need to behave like we do."

I had to call that out. I don't know if we're friends anymore, but I couldn't let overt racism pass me by without comment. I'm also more than a little shocked that someone I thought I knew turned out to have such an ugly racist streak in them.

[aku]

In the intersection of topics, BLM anti-racism rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Also looks to be a super-spreader event. Sigh. Have to keep an eye on the charts for the coming two tweeks.

[Inquisitive Raven]

Still here. Philly's had a curfew for the last three nights thanks to the protests.

[LynnInDenver]

Still ticking. Curfews started in Denver on Saturday night and are extending at least through Thursday night (I live in Lakewood, not sure if the curfews extend to the suburbs), definitely increasing the hunkering down again.

[Star Ranger4]

Made it through the night. Actually quiet, which I'm sure means City and county leaders will claim because they had the Guard out. And moved the curfew forward an hour.

Would be nice if they told people sooner than 90 minutes before it happened though.

I am hoping I wasn't actually a cassandra, that there were not fatalities overnight as I fear. To be honest I am deliberatly not going looking to see.

[Inquisitive Raven]

Made it through the night.  Actually quiet, which I'm sure means City and county leaders will claim because they had the Guard out.  And moved the curfew forward an hour.

Would be nice if they told people sooner than 90 minutes before it happened though.

Hey, at least you got 90 minutes. While the news services seem to be getting plenty of advance notice on this, the alerts going out to people's phones around here seem to be happening less than ten minutes before the actual curfew. Saturday, I got the notice after the curfew started. Fortunately, I was already at home.

[DHBirr]

No change here.

[Wolff]

Still here.

[Kilroy]

Still enduring.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Weekly check-in time!

Still here, going to work, sane (even if it'd be more fun to be not...)

[LilFluff]

Still here. Work now has an official returning to the office plan, in which I most likely continue working remotely until mid-August. But hey, the plans also include finally disabling and eventually getting rid of the hot air hand driers in the bathrooms (those have been known to spread germs even before the Mythbusters did their review of them).

[Jenova_Silverstar]

Checking in.

Outfit I put together in Animal Crossing: Mariachi Samurai. Caused my co-workers to go "minds blown."

[Foxboy]

Still kicking, working "essential" retail, desperately trying to find the balance between "Dammit lady, I do NOT need to steam fumigate the whole register after every item!" and "Would you let me clean, PLEASE?"

And of course the lady demanding I fumigate isn't wearing a mask herself, has her whole damn family with her, went the wrong way down the aisles, etc etc.

[Labster]

Sorry you have to serve so many Karens, Foxboy.

Jenova, have you considered pitching your Mariachi Samurai idea to Adult Swim?

As for me, still working from home, just like the last seven years. They actually let me talk to a client this week, first time ever. And of course during the troubleshooting call, one of our data managers manages to take down both database masters for the duration of the call. Luckily the browser will still try to send cookies even if the website is down, so I was able to diagnose it anyway.

Anyway, one of us is feeling sick, but it's a little hard for us to tell what's going on yet. It might just be that she ran out of heart medicine for a couple days, and her heart has been skipping beats and pounding really hard. One of those situations where the doctor tells her to take the drug or she could die, but the insurance repeatedly says it is not medically necessary and they won't pay for it. Costs $500/month. Well, I guess I wasn't taking a vacation this year anyway so I have the money. Hopefully my mother will be feeling better tomorrow.

[Star Ranger4]

Well, it looks like at least some of the civil unrest has eased here.

And my new bed showed up yesterday!

[Dragonflight]

Still here. Hoping if Ontario goes to phase 2 reactivation next Monday like they plan, I can maybe get Minto to actually replace the broken washing machine and oven. Things have been busted for months, but because of the pandemic, they won't come into the houses to replace them. So I've been hand-washing clothing for the last four months. And cooking everything with a toaster oven. Not fun.

[Black Aeronaut]

Still here. Hoping if Ontario goes to phase 2 reactivation next Monday like they plan, I can maybe get Minto to actually replace the broken washing machine and oven. Things have been busted for months, but because of the pandemic, they won't come into the houses to replace them. So I've been hand-washing clothing for the last four months. And cooking everything with a toaster oven. Not fun.

You know, laundromats are considered essential businesses.  Even if you do gotta cover up the entire time you're in there, it beats the hell out of hand-washing your stuff.

[Dragonflight]

There's one laundromat within fifteen kilometers of where I live, and they announced over a month ago that they were closing for the pandemic. So that's not an option.

[Star Ranger4]

Yeowch!

Speaking of Yeowchies; Obviously still here... But kinda limping along on a bad back.

Torqued it back on thursday getting my new bed up the stairs to my bedroom. Sleeping better, waking up? yowch.

[classicdrogn]

If you can manage brute force better than bending over and scrubbing for each item, a clean plastic trash bin (the big rugged kind, meant to replace classic round metal curbside cans, not a little beside-your-desk type) can be a field expedient clothes washer, as long as you have a hose or something to fill with and somewhere to dump the water out that won't put the detergent directly into the ground water - a gravel driveway will probably do, or an actual drain, even the lawn as long as you keep moving around (the nitrates will even make it greener as long as you stick to SMALL amounts of detergent as I said) but too often on the same patch of grass will kill it from too much.

You just put some laundry in (but not too much - remember that water is HEAVY and you're going to be doing this by hand. Elbow deep without packing them down is as far as I'd want to try it) add a VERY SMALL amount of detergent if you must, preferably none if they're not really badly soiled, and enough water to cover them, maybe let it soak for ten minutes or so, then tip it up on one edge of the bottom and walk along rolling it back and forth for as long as you can stand it. Tip it down on its side carefully to pour the water out while using a hand or a stick, or I guess even a laundry basket as a sieve if you want, to keep the laundry from spilling out as well and getting dirty again, then refill and repeat (possibly after a break) to rinse. Once should be enough unless you find it leaves your skin itchy wearing them later even though you can keep repeating this several times and still have cloudy water; washing machines do not actually do that great a job of getting things really clean in that respect anyway, and I once spent literal days trying to get an old shirt pulled from behind a shelf to rinse clear despite it looking like it was just fine. If you really feel squeamish about it, a single hand-rinse for critical items will probably do, and still be faster overall than having hand-washed.

At that point, it's just a matter of hanging things up to dry as you normally would when hand-washing. If you were really going to go all-in on a manually-operated barrel you could probably rig up something with a frame and replacement lawn mower wheels to spin in place, and maybe a stationary bicycle to spin it, but at that point you're as well off to just buy a real washing machine. I will note that The plastic barrel does have the added bonus of being able to really hose it out and get the dirt out of the bottom, which you can't do with normal washing machines, even if front-loaders are better about not collecting scudge as much as top-loaders, along with being easier on the laundry. Seriously, the agitator in a top-loader adds a LOT of clothing wear, don't ever put stuff with embroidery, beading, appliques, or that's starting to go past broken in to feeling thin in one if you think you'll want to keep it more than a dozen or so wash and wear cycles. Some of my regular-wear clothes are still perfectly servicable despite being bought in the mid-90s thanks to being minimally mindful about fabric care.

[LynnInDenver]

Checking in a day early; the last convention of our year has fallen to COVID. MileHiCon announced that they're going to go ahead and convert it to virtual because of the continuing uncertainty as to whether or not events of any real size will be allowed to be held come October.

[DHBirr]

Nothing new.