Priorities!

No, thanks. Do you have any idea where 100 $1 bills have been? :eek: :stop:

I've been carrying hand sanitizer for a couple of years now specifically for when I'm out handling money and using the bathroom. I actually have a large refill bottle I bought at the time. Unconsciously I prepared with toilet paper and hand gel.
 
Dr. Fauci, perhaps our hero in all this, is raising the possibility of a national shutdown to help manage this crisis. Those of you in relatively untouched areas should expect things to change rapidly in the coming days (rather than weeks).

Here in the Bay Area (between SF and San Jose), the pace of closures is mind-boggling. Wednesday, SF shut down large gatherings so one of the big stories was that the Warriors basketball team would be the first to play in an empty arena on Thursday evening. Trump gave his speech and a few minutes after it ended, they cancelled the Pelicans game and then the NBA season. 15 minutes later Tom Hanks announced that he was infected and the world changed.

Thursday almost all the school systems in the area shut down for at least 3 weeks. Many events cancelled, including our uke meetups. Costco stories started in all the news reports. Yesterday our libraries announced a shutdown and my wife went to her gym for a workout and found out they decided to close indefinitely last night. Now gatherings of 50 are banned and if there are 10 - 50, they must have room to stay six feet apart or they are not allowed.

Fortunately, my family is reasonably stocked up although I anticipate two runs today. One is to REI to buy hydration/electrolyte tablets if they have them. This might be needed if someone fell ill and needed the electrolyte replacement. Gatorade might work, but has a lot of sugar and calories. The other is to the library (close starting tomorrow) to get a bunch of videos that will not be due back until they reopen.

The ukulele will receive a lot of attention during this time. Everyone stay safe!
 
Dr. Fauci, perhaps our hero in all this, is raising the possibility of a national shutdown to help manage this crisis. Those of you in relatively untouched areas should expect things to change rapidly in the coming days (rather than weeks).

Here in the Bay Area (between SF and San Jose), the pace of closures is mind-boggling. Wednesday, SF shut down large gatherings so one of the big stories was that the Warriors basketball team would be the first to play in an empty arena on Thursday evening. Trump gave his speech and a few minutes after it ended, they cancelled the Pelicans game and then the NBA season. 15 minutes later Tom Hanks announced that he was infected and the world changed.

Thursday almost all the school systems in the area shut down for at least 3 weeks. Many events cancelled, including our uke meetups. Costco stories started in all the news reports. Yesterday our libraries announced a shutdown and my wife went to her gym for a workout and found out they decided to close indefinitely last night. Now gatherings of 50 are banned and if there are 10 - 50, they must have room to stay six feet apart or they are not allowed.

Fortunately, my family is reasonably stocked up although I anticipate two runs today. One is to REI to buy hydration/electrolyte tablets if they have them. This might be needed if someone fell ill and needed the electrolyte replacement. Gatorade might work, but has a lot of sugar and calories. The other is to the library (close starting tomorrow) to get a bunch of videos that will not be due back until they reopen.

The ukulele will receive a lot of attention during this time. Everyone stay safe!

I'm replying with a big " +1 " to make sure that everyone has a chance to re-read your thoughtful post.

I'll miss watching the rest of Paris-Nice (cycling) and the Spring Classics, the rest of the Premier & Champions Leagues games, but it's a minuscule inconvenience for me for the protection of even one person who might otherwise contract the virus.

A personal upside... all my ukes will get extra attention over the next weeks. (even that damn Fender Montecito that's been hiding in the back of the closet)
 
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Folks, as of yesterday the US is under a level 2 travel advisory. The biggest takeaway point for this classification is that community spread for COVID-19 has been confirmed and not just suspected. Yes, don't forget to properly wash hands for 20 seconds, but that may no longer be sufficient as an effective strategy to prevent transmission. As mentioned in an earlier post, the next two weeks are really critical to stemming the tide of spreading the virus. Please minimize exposure to other people. Limit and avoid contact when possible. If "nothing" happens at the end of all of this, then all these efforts worked because that's the point. May we be so lucky. Stay healthy everyone.
 
Sorry to say that Charmin was running a plant with triple shifts to keep up with the demand. The plant was pushed too hard and there was an explosion.

No one was killed or seriously hurt but there was plenty of soft tissue damage.
 
Here's one a family member sent

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As an old guy with complcations I do take this seriously. But I dont think panic buying is the answer. Odd that alot of people go to the store to hoard up, close quarters lots of people to help them cope with a disease that is spread by lots of people in close quarters. And yo the guy who pulled the broken bottleon someone for TP. I nominate him for ambassidire to North Korrn. Obviously, not a uke player.
 
As soon as I saw the idiocy of the results of the WHO calling this a pandemic, I gave it a new name. I call it a "Pan-ic-demic".
Honestly, people are acting like a heard of sheep in a lightening storm. Large quantities of tp and paper towels are a FIRE HAZARD.

We had Sunday service today in UNITY. All greeters and ushers wore gloves. The place was prepped by 30 volunteers who wiped down absolutely everything. Only about 3 dozen people showed up, 5 of them were brand new attendees. Tithe baskets were not passed, they were posted at the exit doors. A response handout was provided, as were lots of signs and hand cleaner. The people with comprised immune systems stayed home and watched on the internet.
I don't know what more could have been done, and I'm a nurse!
 
Saw this quote today, which seemed appropriate:

"I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.” – Rosa Parks
 
I feel blessed that my wife and I are semi retired and I don't really have to do anything. What work I do, I do it from home at my own pace. We were just going through our usual Sunday routine, minus church, which was cancelled. But we were talking, my career job, the one that I actually retired from, I was out in the public all day every day. And it wasn't always the best environments to be in either. I was around and in close proximity to lots and lots of people every day. There are people who are out there today working, and people who will go out tomorrow, and who don't get to sit in their safe homes looking at the world go by with a piece of glass between them and the outside. Especially doctors, nurses, emergency responders and hospital workers. But not just them. I mean the pizza delivery guy and people like him are probably can't afford to sit this one out. The people in the grocery stores and pharmacies are working like crazy to keep shelves stocked and check people through. I have everything I need. I can hold out for the long haul. My thoughts go out to those who regardless of how they've prepared at home, are going leave it to go out there and keep things rolling. For their sake, I hope things get back to normal soon.
 
I feel blessed that my wife and I are semi retired and I don't really have to do anything. What work I do, I do it from home at my own pace. We were just going through our usual Sunday routine, minus church, which was cancelled. But we were talking, my career job, the one that I actually retired from, I was out in the public all day every day. And it wasn't always the best environments to be in either. I was around and in close proximity to lots and lots of people every day. There are people who are out there today working, and people who will go out tomorrow, and who don't get to sit in their safe homes looking at the world go by with a piece of glass between them and the outside. Especially doctors, nurses, emergency responders and hospital workers. But not just them. I mean the pizza delivery guy and people like him are probably can't afford to sit this one out. The people in the grocery stores and pharmacies are working like crazy to keep shelves stocked and check people through. I have everything I need. I can hold out for the long haul. My thoughts go out to those who regardless of how they've prepared at home, are going leave it to go out there and keep things rolling. For their sake, I hope things get back to normal soon.

Absolutely. I really feel for the hospital aides, the janitorial staff, the maintenance workers, EMS and safety all of the people behind the scenes and on the front lines. Not to mention the home health workers, the nursing home and assisted living workers. The daycare people. Sanitation workers. Postal & bank employees. News casters, reporters and crews. Government workers. Well, the list goes on and on. Everyone the public depends upon for information, assistance and services. They all have to show up and do their jobs so we can continue on.

My wife has several friends in other countries working in the medical fields. Several are working to exhaustion to care for the sick and dying in Italy. (And remember, other diseases haven't gone away while this is happening.) In fact, her mother's physician and seven other doctors who were helping out in the hospital ER are all now in the ICU with COVID 19. Normalcy seems a long way off.
 
Nutrition is on a sliding continuum. For you and I canned vegetables would be a step in the wrong direction. For members of the Fast Food Nation it would be a step in the right direction.

Y'know, you are absolutely right! I was right there with kookoolele - I don't have a single canned vegetable or can of soup in the house, but I have the stuff to make soup, and both fresh and frozen food... So for me, canned stuff is the wrong direction. But yeah, I see people who eat nothing but fast food, and the canned stuff would be lower in sodium and fat for them.

Of course, I've just seen this is the latest local newspaper post:



ALBANY - Gov. Andrew Cuomo Sunday asked all businesses in New York State to voluntarily close to fight coronavirus transmission and have people work from home.

"I'm asking them to aggressively consider work at home strategies, I'm asking them to aggressively consider voluntarily closings to help reduce density."

Depending on the results, he could consider mandatory actions later on, Cuomo said.

Cuomo made the request as he announced a third death in the state and that total cases have jumped to 729. The three who died all had underlying medical conditions.

So I may not have enough... the farmers market where I do most of my shopping was closed today...

-Kurt​
 
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My friends,
As a retired health care employee, there's nothing hoaxie or fake about this. If you're offended by the flurry of media attention, pick up a book and educate yourself about what is a pandemic and how populations are affected.

We are SO fortunate to have all of the professional news media (not OPINION mongers like Fox, etc.) researching and reporting along with real experts.

There NEEDS to be up to date information available so that we can make decisions based on the most accurate information available at the time. I don't consider the Rose Garden "praise-the-leader" session in any way informative. Put on the real scientists, medical officials, and people who have to deal with everything on an minute to minute basis. To that orange stained narcacist... shut up.

Web_Parrot, I have turned to page 122 in the hymnal. And up here in the choir loft, I say "Amen!".


-Kurt​
 
I feel blessed that my wife and I are semi retired and I don't really have to do anything....

I was thinking much the same thing. My wife and I are retired, and won't even have to leave the house for over a week (and even then it will just be a quick stop at a grocery store). I sure wouldn't want to have to ride the subway or bus to a job right now.
 
You are between a rock and a hard place regarding hoarding. Right now recommendation is to have food and supplies for fourteen days. Well, since this is going out to everyone, there is not enough meat and other goods for every household to stock this much right away. So first is to stock nonperishables so that if you do not have to quarantine or stay home where you are, the money is not wasted. That is partly the psychology behind the tpaper hoarding: It might take you 18 months to use it, but that is better than running out (to an earlier post: the Sears catalogue would have made a good backup to the TP). I went out today and there was no frozen packs of chicken and almost no beef on the shelves. No frozen vegetables but lots of pizza as freezer space is rationed.

So you have to play the game some or risk getting in trouble personally if you get exposed or infected and MUST quarantine for two or three weeks.
 
When people are nervous or frightened, they sometimes feel the need to do somethin’ about it — anything! Hence the outrageous shoppin’ and hoardin’ which makes them feel that they are really doin’ somethin’ about a seemingly unsolvable problem.

And maybe they really do feel a bit better, but what about their fellow Americans who may not have enough to get by with. I guess fear breeds a type of greed amongst people. It’s a shame that some of us have to go without so others can feel a little better. :eek:ld:
 
When people are nervous or frightened, they sometimes feel the need to do somethin’ about it — anything! Hence the outrageous shoppin’ and hoardin’ which makes them feel that they are really doin’ somethin’ about a seemingly unsolvable problem.

And maybe they really do feel a bit better, but what about their fellow Americans who may not have enough to get by with. I guess fear breeds a type of greed amongst people. It’s a shame that some of us have to go without so others can feel a little better. :eek:ld:

I believe most people are not "hoarding", but preparing. There are some bad apples and some who overbuy. But the recommendations is to prepare to have at least a 14 day supply, which is good advice since many or most of us have some exposure to the virus. My two children are teachers in Santa Clara County with the most cases in CA and believe that they likely have been exposed. They have stocked up, not hoarded, as their schools have closed for the next three weeks.

It would be wonderful if you are not required to hunker down. But beware the consequences of being unprepared and now having to have other people provide you with the necessities that you did not acquire. They would be putting themselves at risk to assist you due to your belief in not acquiring what is recommended should you be affected.
 
I stopped by the local Target this morning, hoping to find some sanitizing wipes for my wife's shop (Where the average customer is well over 68 years old), after striking out at two grocery chains and a warehouse store. There were two large containers of wipes, and some personal-sized packages of sanitizing wipes. I took one of each, and then showed someone else (who was holding 2- count 'em, 2!) rolls of paper towels. where they were.

A few moments later, I saw someone with a 4-container package of wipes in her basket, and asked where she had found them; she pointed over by the shelves where I had just been, and said, "Oh, look - she's putting some back." I walked over, and a woman had just put two of the 4-packs on the shelf, and said "I realized I only need one package."

So I took one 4-pack, put the large container of wipes back on the shelf, and someone said "Thanks - I only need one container, not a whole 4-pack!".

People at every place I've gone in the past couple of days have been kind, considerate, and willing to share with people who couldn't find anything.

I'd love it if that would continue.

(As opposed to one of my knitting guild members who told of a fist fight where she works, because someone didn't cover up quickly enough when he sneezed...)

-Kurt​
 
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