Stay Safe Everyone!

[Big Magilla]

Just heard this on MSNBC.

Toilet paper suppliers can't keep up with the demand because there's a 40% increase of people using toilets at home since they aren't at school, work, etc. people aren't so much hoardingit as they are buying extra for extra need. Suppliers are reluctant to ramp up supplies because there isn't a lot of money to be made from toilet paper.

On the other hand, the cheap, one-ply toilet paper that you find at airports, school dorms and work sites is overstocked. Home users don't want this stuff so the stores don't order it!

[Big Magilla]

I made my own mask by cutting off the sleeves of a washed but never worn T-shirt and cut the rest of it in half along the seams, then folded one of the halves in half and placed a paper towel between the two layers. It covered my nose and mouth comfortably and tied nicely in the back of my head. I can use the other half as a back-up. Since T-shirts typically have a thread count of 50-100, I may have to make or buy a mask with a higher thread count (120 is recommended) but this will have to suffice in the meantime.

This is something anyone can do. If you don't have any T-shirts at home, you can easily find them in stores. Men's size large will fit around most heads! They're one thing that stores haven't run out of yet.

[Big Magilla]

A plane is flying with 5 passengers on board - Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel, the Pope and a 10 year old school boy. The plane is about to crash and there are only 4 parachutes.
Trump said I need one. “I’m the smartest man in the US and I am needed to sort out the problems of the World!!”. He takes one and jumps.
Boris says ‘I’m needed to sort out Britain’. He takes one and jumps.
The Pope said ‘I need one as the world needs the Catholic Church.’ He takes one and jumps.
Angela says to the 10 year old boy: "You can have the last parachute. I've lived my life, yours is only just beginning”.
The 10 year old replies: "Don’t worry, there are 2 parachutes left, the smartest man in the US took my school bag.

It didn't take long for the Trump trolls to turn this around and put it out on the internet with Trump replacing Angela and Hillary replacing Trump as if Trump would ever put himself in danger for anyone else.

[Big Magilla]

I was almost in the same boat with two houses when I moved back from the west coast in 2011 but I was able to sell my California house in two days albeit at a huge loss. The mortgage had been paid, but there would still have been property taxes, HOA fees and other miscellaneous items but the mortgage had been for.

I have several nurses in my family and know quite a few retired nurses as well. I'd rather not repeat some of the horror stories I've heard. So far I don't personally know anyone who has gotten the virus but I am concerned that that could change at any moment.

[Sonic Youth]

Oh, one more thing that'll make me sound like an elitist asshole, but it's a real problem. We moved to a new state a few months ago. We moved into our new house on Jan. 6th, before all this shit happened. The area we moved from is growing in COVID-19 cases, and no one wants to move there. Now we can't sell the fucking house! So, for the foreseeable future, we're paying two mortgages, two property tax bills, etc. Very difficult to save money at a time when we really need to.

[Sonic Youth]

I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy. It's really terrifying seeing what's going on around the world. Even if we don't get sick, are we really going to be able to maintain this way of life for the next several months? People are running out of money, and we'll possibly be short of food. Supply is struggling to keep up with demand. Delivery services are already overwhelmed, and it's not going to get any better. I'm more scared of the possibility of social unrest at this point than I am of catching the virus.

The good news is, we're fine and we don't know anyone who's caught the virus as of now.* We stocked up early, we got our toilet paper well in advance, we're getting everything delivered. We're going out only for prescriptions and walks. The only stories I have are mundane ones. I had a mild sore throat the other night. I felt perfectly fine otherwise, but I isolated myself and slept in another part of the house. I wasn't overly worried, but there was a bit of concern of course. This morning, the soreness was gone, I felt great and things went back to normal. But a small physical reaction to dry air in the house led to me confining myself and thinking about calling the doctor the next morning (which I didn't need to do). That's where we are, apparently.

I feel terrible for my kid (all kids, actually). Nina's now seven and can't go to school, can't have play dates, can't play in the playground, can't go to the library or the city, can't ride on a train, and can't see her grandmothers except on a screen. And I feel terrible for my mom who now can't visit and hug her only grandchild. And there's this feeling of irrational guilt, bringing our children into this turbulence and having their childhood taken from them. So far Nina's been great and very understanding, but every other day she gets cabin fever and gets rebellious and maybe has a tantrum and wants to run around the house at 9pm. I don't blame her. Every outlet she should have is denied to her. But it's like they say about getting old: it beats the alternative.

*I do know someone who was hospitalized with a fever, but he tested negative. He said the incompetence of the doctors was astonishing, not because they were bad doctors but because no one had any idea what the protocols were. Truly uncharted waters. Someone I had never met, but was a good friend to many people I know, did get the virus and he was one of the first deaths in our state. (He was in his 50s). I have relatives in Manhattan. They're all fine for now, but I'm really scared for them.

And that's as close to the virus as I want to get, thank you.

[Jefforey Smith]

We are so few and have been around here for so long

Agree. I've been around longer than November 12, 2011 as the "Joined" date indicates. As far back as circa 2000 probably.

(It seems as though something happened & everyone had to re-register here.)

Be safe, all!

[mlrg]

We are so few and have been around here for so long that a zoom meeting would be very interesting. At least for me

[Heksagon]

And if others wanted to do a virtual meet-up at some point, I would be willing!

Now we are 2

Since I'm guessing that a lot of people here aren't too busy with anything else at the moment, would it be interesting to set up a private Discord server, stream some films there and chat on the side?

[mlrg]

Nice to hear from you Manolis. Stay safe

[Big Magilla]

Thanks for the update, Manolis. Stay well!

[Cinemanolis]

Hi guys,

i rarely visit the board, but i just wanted to see if everyone is doing ok. Me and my family are safe and the 10th day "lockdown" in the house.

In Greece, 28 people have died in total and about 1.000 have been infected. However there are no many tests so there must be much more infected people than that. What i really think has prevented the virus being spread much more, is the fact that the greek government took measures relatively quickly, probably because they saw what was happening to our neighbour Italy. On 10th March (when there were still zero casualties) all the schools, universities, gyms and swimming pools closed. On 12th of March all the theatres and cinemas. On the 16th all the commercial shops closed except supermakets, pharmacies, gas stations, couriers and some speciality shops and everyone was urged to stay home. On the 20th the churches closed. From the 23rd March, 95/% of the hotels closed and people are not allowed to be in the streets.

However you can go out for 6 reasons:
1. go to a hospital or pharmacy
2. go to a supermarket
3. go to a bank
4. go jogging or walk your dog (only 2 people are allowed to be together for these activities)
5. go help people in need
6. go to a marriage/christening/ funeral (through i suspect they hesitated to include only "funeral" since the churches are closed for the other two options)
7. transfer a child from one divorced parent to another

Whenever you want to go out for one of the following reasons you have to fill in a form before you leave your house that states the exact reason and the time you leave your house. This can also be done by sending a free sms to the "ministry". You must also carry your id because the police make random checks you and can fine you for 150 euros if you don't carry this form or if you don't follow the guidelines. Of course all these are relative (as you can fill 20 forms a day and be outside all the time) but this measure has worked and the streets in Athens are almost empty. The bad weather helped as well.

Furthermore there is a limit of up to 2 persons per car. For the people that are still working there is a special permit signed by their employer stating the time they go and leave work and they are only permitted to be outside during these hours. The boarders with Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey and North Macedonia are also closed and there are no international flights. There are only specially commissioned flights carrying greek citizens that were stranded in other countries. In most cases they take these passengers to hotels where they have to stay for 2 weeks in complete lockdown in order to make sure they don't carry the virus. The domestic flights have also stopped as they want to refrain people from Athens to possibly "spread" the virus to small villages and part of Greece were the health facilities are very poor.

There were no major problems in the supermarkets. In the first 2 days there was a bit of a panic (the toilet paper was a hot commodity here as well) but after the 3rd day there were no shortages of products except face masks and antibacterial gels. The majority of supermarkets and food halls are making deliveries in Athens, so you don't really need to go outside if you don't want to.

The major concern here is that our health care system and facilities are not strong enough to cope with such an outbreak. In the last 10 years there were many economic problems for Greece and as a result our hospitals have many shortages, so when/if the number of people that will need hospitalisation increases dramatically, we will face a situation similar to the one happening in Italy and Spain. That's the reason the greeks have been unusually and uncharacteristically obedient to the measures implemented by the government.

[mlrg]

And if others wanted to do a virtual meet-up at some point, I would be willing!

Now we are 2

[dws1982]

We're transitioning to remote instruction for the rest of the school year. Next week is officially Spring Break but I'm going to start recording videos for my classes so I won't be behind when we officially start on April 6.

And if others wanted to do a virtual meet-up at some point, I would be willing!

[danfrank]

I’m glad to hear that you’re taking all the precautions, Tee. Stay safe!