Self isolation, social distancing, sheltering in place, whatever else you call it

[Anelle 784]

Yeah, no need to make yourself sick with anxiety over it. I just want everyone to be mindful of their health because I want y'all to be ok ;;

 

edit to update: aunt is feeling a bit better today, she's been able to eat and keep it down which she hasn't been able to do so they're holding off on hospital

[webhead 518]

Quicker aren't as accurate unfortunately so that's annoying.

[Mera'din 306]

Yeah, only way to know for sure is with the anti-body test, and apparently that isn't even necessarily going to be 100% at this point as I've seen some articles saying that a lot of people they tested that had it in Wuhan aren't showing anti-bodies (which also throws the whole 'LOL HERD IMMUNITY' argument I kept hearing for a while right out the fucking window, not that it was terribly intelligent to begin with).

 

Hardest part is even if you're sick you can't fucking tell if it's that or not. There's so many damn potential symptoms and so much variance on how severely (or if at all) and how long people are affected that all you can really do is just keep being as careful as you can.

[webhead 518]

I saw someone that seemed knowledgeable on Reddit saying the "no antibody" thing is a red herring.  Basically your body can spin that shit up quick if the virus hits you again with little to no consequences.  I meant to read more about it.

 

The whole herd immunity by everyone going out and getting it thing still seems fucking stupid to me though.  You want to get herd immunity by having a fucking vaccine... Not by everyone getting the god damn virus.

[Tassifox 413]

Ya needless to say I'm dreading working this Thanksiving and Xmas. While I know my friends circles will be smart and my inn e r family. (Haven't hugged my parents since this shit started but I make sure to have my hands washed/sanitized when I go see them and usually stay out of the house unless I have to go in, and then I don't touch anything I don't have to)
But I know my customers are still totally forgetting that we're in a pandemic when they ask us why we can't give rainchecks for out of stocks or why we aren't getting certain things in. And our crowds are just nuts because labor hours are still getting cut. My family hasn't been doing Thanksiving last couple years and I'm sure room mate will just go to the GF's family and they are doing things safe, Xmas will be the only thing my family also doesn't do this year since my grandma on my mom's side can't leave her facility anyways and window visits will probably slow down with weather getting colder. So work will be the biggest suck about this holiday,

ComiCon sent out a survey email about face to face events in 2021, which was just the same type of questions asked about comfort levels and rank options about testing and requirements about 7 different ways Highly doubt they'll be able to have any Cons in spring anyways so totally worthless.

[h2ojunkie 87]

Oooh my turn for stupid family stories. My wife's side of the family wanted to get together for  walk around the neighborhood to look at Halloween decorations. There are 4 families that are all about in the same like 5 square mile community, so I thought it would just be them but it ended up being ALL of them. My wife has 8 siblings and there are 8 grand children between them. We get to this fountain in an outdoor area first, all masked up (4 and 7 year old no less). The first SIL who had Covid (fairly mild case without any complications that I know about. Oh yeah, she is temporarily living with the grandparents) like a month ago shows up without a mask and her 2 & 4 year old do not have masks either. Grandparents and other younger kids show up without masks either. 2 other SIL's and family w/kids show up masked, one who is very strict with precautions because she had bone cancer as a kid so she doesn't want to risk anything. 12 masked and maybe 11 that aren't. Of those 11, 2 are freaking nurses! They had to go back to their cars to get their masks after my wife asked her dad if everyone was going to wear masks. I was ready to leave if they said no. Everyone got them and put them on with lame excuses about forgetting them in the car except for one sister and her husband. They had their dog and said they would walk in the back away from everyone...My wife was talking with them about 20 feet away asking them to put a mask on so I couldn't hear everything. They were so inconsiderate and selfish with their own family that they wouldn't wear a mask for a walk. They didn't even have ones so they had to borrow them from the covid sister who had a box of disposable ones. We started walking and I didn't look back at them much and it was dark, but I'm pretty sure they took them off. AYFKM, how hard is it to do this for your family? This is the first time the whole family has been together since like Christmas. My wife is pissed and is all worked up about the confrontation because that is not something she likes to do. 

[Anelle 784]

god that's fucking frustrating. 

[Tassifox 413]

I would have just left if they made that much fuss, fetching the masks or not. Fuck that.  I won't deny that I'm thankful that my family dealings just pertain to my parents, my brother and GF who live outside their house and only come in when they need laundry done or a shower (trailer water heater is small) and they are all safe. My dad does what he can for my grandparents there and my mom and aunt do window visits to my grandmother on that side and check in with their nurses. No other big family shit. I'm so sorry you all have to deal with this shit when IT'S NOT SO HARD TO PUT ON A FUCKING MASK.  It drives me nuts seeing families at work not be safe or not fully safe so Idk how you can all have the patience for this.

[dr. b 486]

So Halloween is in two days What (if anything) are you guys doing for PANDEMIC Halloween?

 

Home owners: Are you going to give out candy like usual-ish? Or just turn out all the lights, close all the blinds, lock the doors and pretend like you're not home?

 

Child owners: Are you going to take yer kiddos out trick-or-treating?

 

Party goers: Maybe skip out on the Halloween party this year..?

 

It's going to be a bit chilly Saturday night. The forecasted high for Saturday where I live is 5 C, so in the evening it will be a bit cooler yet. At least it's not supposed to rain. But given the cooler temp, I'll probably leave the toddler at home with my wife and take our 9 year-old out to get some candy. I'm curious to see how many homes in our neighbourhood will bother giving out candy. We'll take whatever we can get.

[Anelle 784]

I bought stuff to put together lil treat bags. We never get more than a dozen trick or treaters so I'll have a dozen goodie bags (crayons, colouring pages I drew myself, candy, stickers) and if we wind up getting more for some reason then i still have enough to throw together some bags with just candy and maybe stickers. I'm putting the bags out a few at a time on the porch and will sit by the screen door to greet kids if they come but maintain distance

[Galeigh 284]

We are going over to my parents who are setting up rooms for my nieces and nephew to "trick or treat" in their house as my sister doesn't want to go door to door with the kids. 

 

I will be dressing as a Plague Doctor. 

[MT 900]

I'll be meeting the bf's dad and step mom, for the dad's birthday. Not sure if it's Halloween themed or not.

[Tassifox 413]

I don't work since it's the end of my partial vacation. Debating on whether I want to go candy bag route since we don't get a lot of kids through here anyways. But will definitely be doing movie marathon and snacking. And enjoying the Halloween Full moon.

[webhead 518]

I'm not sure what we're doing.  Luna has a costume but I think we aren't going to do much.  Probably visit my parents for a bit and maybe walk around some idk.  Another holiday ruined by the damn plague.

[dr. b 486]

Kiddo and I went out to the local Party City store to shop for a new Halloween costume (which she apparently had to have ). There were a lot of people in the store, I couldn't get out of there fast enough But we've got the costume secured, so trick or treating is a go for tomorrow night even if it's snowing!

[Tassifox 413]

8 hours ago, webhead said:

I'm not sure what we're doing.  Luna has a costume but I think we aren't going to do much.  Probably visit my parents for a bit and maybe walk around some idk.  Another holiday ruined by the damn plague.

Make it like easter and do a Halloween bucket hunt in the house/yard? Or just have some indoor fun with halloween kids movie marathon/stories and baking goods! There's a lot more to Halloween than just running around in costumes and candy. 

Room mate's GF is offering to make dinner tonight for us so I'll be making my new traditional dessert, blooming baked apples.

[dr. b 486]

I'm not normally sentimental about stuff like this, but man this was a pretty lame Halloween  Hardly any kids out there, probably 2/3 houses in our neighborhood weren't giving out candy. We still ended up doing pretty well, and all the people we did meet were really nice... but it was nothing like trick-or-treating used to be

[Anelle 784]

We never have much of a turnout, which has been a disappointment ever since we moved here because I had been so sure that living in an actual house in a neighborhood instead of an apartment meant I would get lots of trick or treaters so my hopes are never high, but this still blows. It was PERFECT weather here and everything T_T We had one set of kids who came up to get treat bags because we went on and put some out while it was still light out and then we had a set in costumes come up later and that's it. Still gonna leave some out and have our lights on for another hour or so just in case because we're gonna be up so might as well. We've gotten some later visitors in the past so maybe someone on their way back from one of the drive through events or something will stop

 

update--we've had a couple more groups so that officially puts us as more total kids visiting than the other couple of years we've lived here! 

 

 

[Galeigh 284]

our in house Trick or Treating worked out fine. the kids loved it.

[MT 900]

Went to the bf's and met his dad/step mom, her sister and her husband, and had lunch to celebrate birthdays. After that we came back here, watched some Treehouse of Horror episodes, Shaun of the Dead, and are now playing Destiny 2 with one of his friends.

[Tassifox 413]

My upstairs neighbors put out a small bucket and a Trick or Treat sign on the end of our stairwell. Which is fine since their old neighbor moved out a couple months ago and it's still empty, my neighbor across from me has a yappy dog and I ended up not doing anything since we hardly got any treaters in the past. And then when I went to the other building to the laundry room to run a load this morning I found one of the tenants pumpkins got smashed up at their door.   By the time I came back to clean it up and leave a note for them she had already put the smashed bits in a bag and was scrubbing the floor. She told me that she and her daughter were awake around after midnight, heard the smashing happen outside and then the jerks knocked on their door. They didn't open it of course but it was disappointing for the tenant since she said there's never been an incident here on Halloween before.

I saw similar issues some friends post about whether they did the bucket social distance option or the candy chute, mostly teenagers. Covid aside this is why we can't have nice things.

[webhead 518]

Damn nothing like that here.  What a bunch of asshats.

 

We went around and surprised my aunts and uncles with Luna in her kitty costume and then ended the night at my parents.  Was nice.

[dr. b 486]

I didn't hear of much vandalism or other dumb shit around here this Halloween. Hardly anybody was out to begin with.

[Anelle 784]

someone shared a video on nextdoor from their video doorbell of someone coming up, using the provided hand sanitizer to clean their hands then taking the entire candy bowl and running to a car and driving off

 

i'm still laughing when i think about it

[Tassifox 413]

Well this is no surprise for my state, and are people going to actually be smart and safe for Thanksgiving? Nope. They're going to continue to be selfish assholes because "they're over Covid" and going to overwork us like usual and infect more people leading us into a 2nd lockdown. And they're going to blame our Gov again even though they're the ones being selfish.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/washington-state-health-officials-warn-of-accelerated-covid-19-transmission/281-b8267ce8-72e0-46bb-bd69-899774f7c6a5

Also ComicCon announced that they'll be rescheduling for first week of Dec in 2021 here instead of March like they normally have it. We'll see how many of us are alive by then.

[webhead 518]

I think we've all got colds but we're going to get COVID tested just in case because Xy/Betty and Rigo/Jenny are here and I just don't want to take chances even if we plan to just meet up outside and shit.

[Tassifox 413]

Better safe than not.

[dr. b 486]

We were informed yesterday that a toddler from my daughter's childcare centre recently tested positive for COVID-19 Apparently all toddlers and staff that were present at the centre last Friday are considered at risk, so we have to keep her at home for 14 days and self-monitor for symptoms (fortunately there are none). Also we got into a pretty bad car accident on Sunday morning (fortunately we were all uninjured). I'm not having a good week!

[Tassifox 413]

I had a lady checking out through my line earlier today and before handing me what would be already filthy cash. She reaches under her mask to LICK her finger to separate out her bills and hand it to me. I made a big show of hand sanitizing my hands in front of her before taking out her change and placing it on the counter and NOT in her hands.

One of our new hires is out for 10 days since she might have been hit.
One of my friends posted that someone close to him got hospitalized for Covid.
Another customer I had was buying some groceries and a gift card for their neighbor because said neighbor recently lost a relative to Covid and wanted to support them.
And my coworker had a Trumpette coming through with a scarf around their neck and not over their face saying "Won't it be great that we don't have to wear masks anymore one Cheetoh's reelected and has no idea why people are still freaking out over Covid because there's cures for it now."  When my coworker tried to ask him to put on his scarf/mask over his face he claimed "he couldn't breathe with it on. She didn't want him to not breathe right?"

I'm so fucking fed up with this. I hope these ignorant asshats get Covid. I don't care anymore. Purge them. I want another lockdown now.

Oh and NOW there's a possible outbreak of measles that hit our big airport area sooooo ya.

[Anelle 784]

A teacher friend of ours had another teacher friend pass away from COVID this week. She got it when schools opened back up.

 

A longtime family friend from our church passed away today after being in the hospital for months due to COVID. She'd finally seemed to round a corner on the virus and then had a devastating infection crop up as a complication and they made the decision to take her off life support. There is a picture of her husband decked out in PPE holding her hand and stroking her face (she's cropped out of the shot thankfully but you can tell what he's doing) as they were waiting for her to pass on. Her daughters talked about how she went peacefully, surrounded by family, so I guess in a way they were lucky because they got to stay with her but at the same time... dude. Everything's so fucked up.

 

I'm so fucking sick of all this. "Well we can't stop living just because of some virus" obviously we can, Karen, so shut the hell up. 

[dr. b 486]

13 minutes ago, Anelle said:

"Well we can't stop living just because of some virus"

This is more or less the approach that the province of Ontario seems to be taking right now. They are of course worried about the negative impacts on small- and medium-sized businesses if they do a hard lockdown, but, like... how are they small business owners gonna run their businesses if they die from COVID? I guess it's a lose-lose situation for governments no matter what they do, but I'd learn toward stricter lockdown measures. Things are starting to go downhill here and by December I think it could be really bad

[Anelle 784]

The "obvious" but not easy route is hard lockdown with universal pay and support for all from the government but I mean there's fuck all chance of that happening in the way that would be needed on the scale it's needed on. Both nuances and absolutes are needed in how we address this thing and people just aren't capable of it. 

 

I'm so over this that I just said "fuck it, do whatever" to my mom in an email  I censored the word fuck but even a censored version is enough to really piss her off so maybe i'll regret it but who the fuck cares, can't stop livin' amirite

 

i'm not doing well today lmao

[webhead 518]

Jovanna gets her test rushed for free by the city.  Came back negative.  Good to know it's just an annoying cold.

 

Shit is going bananas right now.  We're back up to like May numbers nationwide now.

[Galeigh 284]

Glad to hear that Web. 

 

And yeah, we KNEW it was gonna hit us again when fall and winter swung around. Hell, it will probably be WORSE because morons refuse to accept it's not over and we don't actually have viable treatments or vaccines yet. 

[Anelle 784]

WELL MY MOM COMPLETELY IGNORED MY USE OF THE EFF WOOOOOOOOOORD SO IT'S OFFICIALLY THE END OF THE WORLD BYE FUCKERS

 

she said I gave her some things to seriously think about in regards to me telling her that if they were having my brother and his family come visit the week before thanksgiving then they shouldn't go to the family thanksgiving. Stop exposing themselves via my brother and then exposing the rest of the family for fucks sake

 

My brother and his wife both had it and had very mild cases (they caught it/spread it among my SILs family during a giant family beach trip.) and seem to think this means they're completely immune and therefore don't have to be cautious. For their sake and the sake of those around them I hope they're immune but there's no proof of that and no proof that my nephews also have immunity and it's just so fuckingaedrf;gklaqrf;glkawefda;lfkjda

 

i'm so tired

[webhead 518]

Well you have immunity for a while at least pretty sure from the studies.  They're probably safe tbh but they're still idiots lol.

[Anelle 784]

Well, let me expand--- they had it a month or two ago, and as far as I've seen recently, it's very possible to get it again and be asymptomatic. They quarantined until they realized they weren't gonna have to go to the hospital then resumed normal life from what I understand. Just the other day got a video of them at their giant ass mega church and my brother was the only one visible in the video, rest of the crowd included, wearing a mask and even then he had it loose around his neck. They recently went to Disney World. Do I need to expand more? They're selfish arrogant idiots and my parents are high risk. 

[Mera'din 306]

Our high school is now going full stay at home. Enough staff got it that they don't have enough teachers to keep it going as is. Don't think the elementary school is far behind at this point since there have been like 4 confirmed staff cases at this point.

 

Also have 5 confirmed cases at work that have all happened in the past week or so. Nobody on my shift luckily and all are people that we don't interact with so we'll probably be alright which is good. I've had to quarantine enough times for testing purposes that I've burned all of my "COVID PTO" and I'd really rather not have to burn my real PTO if I can avoid it. >_>

Lo and behold, a few of them were part of an outbreak that happened via the local bar (in one case likely unavoidable as she WORKS at said bar, but still).  

[h2ojunkie 87]

My daughter's school was following the status of some measures the county is tracking for being able to have in person class. They had to go back to 100% distance learning like a week ago. So glad we had already committed to distance learning for the year so it didn't change anything for us. 

[Mera'din 306]

We did that with out 2nd grader (can only imagine how hard it is to keep restrictions up with a school full of  kids that young or younger), but sent both of the high schoolers back as they had a lot of trouble keeping up with their work at the end of the last year so I'm not looking forward to dealing with that again. XD

 

Only downside is for us, the distance learning is not through the schools here. They hired a 3rd party online thing for it and it's absolute garbage. If my wife weren't home 24/7, he wouldn't be learning a damn thing. The course material is full of errors (both grammar based and material based), questions that weren't covered in the material, and a set of 4 lessons about researching/writing for a essay that is repeated across EVERY single class (including math,PE, Art and music). I honestly don't know how the school district thought this shit was a good idea.  

At this point, my son finished an entire semester's worth of work about halfway through the first quarter and the school principal had to force the company to give him the rest of the years work to keep him busy. XD

[Tassifox 413]

We almost had a fight happen in the check out yesterday from someone not wearing a mask and claiming they "had a medical reason" for not wearing it. My manager was able to diffuse it quickly but I can tell this is going to get ugly fast if it keeps up in the next couple weeks.

My work's CORP is not enforcing kicking people out for not having a mask even if they claim that, we have to let it go and not press the matter. If it gets to a point of calling my Store Director, then she handles it. Otherwise "customer service all the fucking way as always". We also got mad rushed yesterday that reminded me of how the first round went before hard lockdown. I left around 4pm last night and the lines were long af. When I came in this morning and glanced at the registers and some of the aisles I saw that there was an email sent with a list of items we're limiting again ahead of things so it's only a matter of time before our Gov will have us shut down or have different restrictions this time. Right now all he's done is make a report with his wife to encourage people to keep celebrations to within the household, follow other guidelines if you do have a gathering, wash hands etc. trying to let people do their thing if they can else he's going to make the hard calls again.

This is so fucking stupid that people just can't fucking listen.

[h2ojunkie 87]

At least it's the actual teachers from the school teaching what they would have, probably in a different way. It's first grade so most of it is early learning to read and do math. 

[Tassifox 413]

Yup, I was right. One of my managers has a BF who works for Costco and his work got an email stating that our Gov and the president of the Washington Food Industry Association met up regarding the new restrictions for the holidays.
* All indoor gatherings are prohibited, which they don't know how that's going to be enforced just yet.
* All restaurants and bars dine in areas are to be closed, outdoor service is limited to five people and to go orders can continue.
* All delis and salad bars will be to go only, no indoor seating allowed for those that are in stores.
* Our Gov will be updating guidance on mask restrictions, which will clearly indicate that stores and other customer facing businesses will have a choice to restrict all non mask wearers in the store and provide other options for providing food and essential products.
* Occupancy in all retail will be limited to twenty five percent for all grocery and convenience stores.

They expect this to take effect Monday, which means it's either been announced my our Gov out in media or will soon tomorrow. So probably still going to have issues with non mask wearers in my work that we're already having. And people are going to be even more angry and hate our Gov for those that already hate him and tried to vote against him in this election. If I die of kidney failure from drinking my stress away it was great knowing you guys. 

edit: Announcement goes live tomorrow morning.
https://www.king5.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/governor-jay-inslee-washington-state-new-restrictions-covid-19-coronavirus-spread/281-6aa36caa-8201-43ff-94de-127737049b8a

[webhead 518]

Ugh this shit is just never ending.  Sorry you've got the extreme misfortune of also working at a grocery store during this bullshit.

[Tassifox 413]

I always joke about how this is why I'm never going to be a manager there because my patience for the ignorant and stupid keeps thinning like a moon phase and it's not enough pay for that BS. But this is definitely a main reason, and if I ever did become one it would be the final push to getting fired because I'd finally lose the last of my filter at 1 dumbass and be fired.

So much of this is frustrating that people really are willing to let others die because they can't go to the fucking movies or that their lives are "on hold because of the flu". My normal vices to help me destress are cut off from me (not talking about the faires but just the few face to face hang out with friends over watching movies at their place and just being in the moment) is taking a huge toll on me mentally. I had to call my best friend to vent about work because I wanted to hear a fucking voice and not just read texts and I could hear my own voice breaking trying to talk and not break down crying. I'm trying not to chew out my room mate over every little thing at home from being pent up at home. I can't fucking remember the last time I got to physically touch and hug my parents since the beginning of this year. All because of all these fucking asshats.

[Eizan 126]

9 hours ago, webhead said:

Ugh this shit is just never ending.  Sorry you've got the extreme misfortune of also working at a grocery store during this bullshit.

It could be worse, could work at a grocery store in a state that doesn't care or a company that really doesn't care.

 

If it weren't for seeing people wearing mask (a lot still don't) you wouldn't think a pandemic is going on. Everything around here is operating pretty much like normal. I really surprised my county only has had 4900 cases despite Georgia having 423K. 

[Mera'din 306]

The worst part is a lot of it is purely belligerence over some perceived attempt to steal their "freedoms" from under them. I've seen it first hand now as I had to go to South Dakota to pick up my PS5 and they have NO restrictions there and the governor their refuses to add them, but I saw more people wearing masks while I was in the state than I ever do at any given time here in Minnesota (at least locally. Bigger cities seem to be much less obnoxious about it). Not that SD is doing terribly well despite that. I'm sure their bars and shit are a fucking nightmare.  

[webhead 518]

1 hour ago, Eizan said:

It could be worse, could work at a grocery store in a state that doesn't care or a company that really doesn't care.

 

If it weren't for seeing people wearing mask (a lot still don't) you wouldn't think a pandemic is going on. Everything around here is operating pretty much like normal. I really surprised my county only has had 4900 cases despite Georgia having 423K. 

Feel bad for you both.

 

My job fortunately allows me to just work at home so I've been fortunate.  Even here with the Republican governor, we still have mask mandates.  Of course I still see plenty of dipshits not wearing them but I live on the side of town with less entitled rich people so it seems to be less prevalent here.  On the other hand, we went to the Kneaders over here to eat outside (it's nice, I don't want COVID by sitting around people inside a building, etc) and Jovanna said there were a shitload of people packed in there.  Like...why?  

 

In "well I guess it could have been worse" news, Jovanna just missed the seniority cutoff and they're making a bunch of the convention center employees move to other city jobs.  I'm glad that they aren't just firing them or laying them off but she has no idea where she's going to go (she started applying for vacant jobs) and she also has no idea how long (UP TO 3 YEARS possibly???).  So she's been really stressed out about this.  It sucks but I am really glad that they ARE going to move her instead of firing her.  Kind of a good news bad news kinda thing.

[dr. b 486]

Everything sucks right now But it especially sucks for the people working retail. It's good that they'll be limiting occupancy limits in your state, Slix, but I guess the trade-off there is that many people really don't like having to wait in lines to get in stores, so you'll probably have to deal with more cranky customers than usual  

 

I'm lucky that I can work from home when needed. Can't drive to the office anyways while I'm without a vehicle. If I'm lucky we might get that shit sorted out with the insurance company this week...  

[Tassifox 413]

We've had to do the occupancy thing before so we have an electric counter that we had a courtesy clerk stand by the doors and count with while sanitizing carts that come back in. It wasn't too much issue last time but I think the only difference will be that it is the holidays so we may have some issues. If so that's what the store director is for. Oddly enough people were actually behaving with the limits we already had posted since Friday so unlike everywhere else, we still had shit in stock. So hopefully today will be the same.
We also still have all of our new hires that we hired the first lockdown so we're checking in with them to see if the new lockdown effects them. (Like hair salons and what not can still be open unlike last time it's just restaurants, bars, and that sort that have to close their dine in areas and to delivery or to go)

The funny thing is this isn't a full ass lockdown like last time. It's a mini version to keep people from being assholes during the holidays. Whether people won't have big turkey dinner gatherings will be the main thing. If it doesn't work this will probably be extended through Christmas instead of just the 14th of Dec.