How is everyone doing?

[cwsmith]

How are you all doing in the midst of this pandemic? Between the virus, shortages, confinements and restrictions, and the rather complex times we are all living through, my thoughts are with everyone. Here in New York's southern tier we've seen a rise in Covid cases in the last month, even though we're supposedly one of the less contaminated areas of the country. After some scary weeks in March through April, by June 23rd we were down to just 35 cases in the county; but, on July 23rd we were up to 135 cases. Today I believe the numbers are have surpassed 154! Differences though, were that this past May everyone was alarmed and every afternoon there was a News posting and the county Exec had a daily News conference. Today, Monday, the local News doesn't seem to bother and the last 'official news' was this past Thursday! Here we are on Monday and it's not even mentioned.

Most of the local stores have posted "Masks Required", yet this afternoon I stopped at Walmart and the first thing I see is some Dolly bare-faced with her mask around her neck. Everyone else had a mask, except several children that I saw. Problem was that all too many wore their mask below their nose! The store management does nothing and the security people at the entry appear to be worthless, more interested in flirting than protecting. Too many retailers in our area, though having a "mask required" order, are just not interested in actually enforcing it.

We're continuing to see shortages. Everything from meat products to pasta to paper towels. My wife and I are doing okay, we keep up our guard and stay busy at home, but we do have to go out a couple of times a week, if for nothing more than a change of scenery. Not much otherwise except it's hot. The inside of my shed hit 110 degrees this afternoon, but at least with the A/C here in my basement office, it's a nice 68 degrees!

I hope you are all doing well, staying healthy, and keeping up with the News. This is going to be a year we're all going to remember, I'm sure.

CWS

[leehljp]

Same here in Walmart, some wear correctly, some don't. One of the pastors I work with on occasion refuses to wear a mask except when absolutely required, and his mom is a medical doctor, working in the Covid unit in a St Louis hospital. I asked him what his mom says and he smiles and said: " She tells me to, but I"ll take my chances of 1 in 100 of getting it."

Some people are just dumb.

I don't stay home very much and either go to the office or travel around quite a bit, but I keep my distance, plan my stops, wear a mask and use sanitizers or wear gloves.

I have been coming home an hour earlier most days and getting some work done around the house and yard that has long been needed. It isn't that extra hour that has helped me time wise, but less tired and have more gumption-energy to get started. I have been quite surprised how much more energy I have with one less hour in the office or on the road. I guess if I can get started on a project before I get totally tired, I get my second wind and manage to get things done. LOML has noticed the same thing about me.

[Pappy]

Ginger and I are both in the high risk category (She more than I) but I'm not paranoid about the virus, just cautious. I wear a mask anytime I go out, try to maintain distances and she rarely leaves the house. Plenty to keep me busy around the house.

Worst thing for me to deal with is my brother. We put him in long term care just as this was beginning. Nursing homes are locked down to all visitors so I can't go see him and he most often isn't capable of talking coherently on the phone. His son is one of those that doesn't believe it is worth worrying about. Thinks everything should go back to the way they were.

[GrumpyDad]

Giving my Father an Alexa device in the nursing home was a fantastic help. I linked it to my account so there was no issues with orders/monitoring. As he slipped away he tended to ask the same questions over and over which caused even more isolation as people were tired of the questions. But he could request music.. temperature...what day it was...who won the Cardinals game and other tidbits of information and that made him very happy.

GD

[LCHIEN]

We are OK, retired so not working or going to work and no income is normal.
However we curtailed all social activities and going out except for essential shopping for groceries and hardware/home project items.
We particularly miss going out to eat; we pick up take out but its not the same to us as enjoying a meal in restaurant and the trash pile of styrofoam, plastic and paper we make after each carry out meals makes us feel very wasteful.

Familywise its bad because we were used to seeing our local grandkids 2-3 times a week; now we are reduced to some driveway visits and no touch visits instead of wrassling with the boys like we should. The grandson in Austin we would visit once a month; now we haven't seen him since February and he's grown from 3-1/2 to 4 years old and that's a big difference.
Worse for my mom, she's in a retirement apartment and is under lockdown so there are no contact with other residents and no visitors even family. Meals are delivered but all social activities are off. She's 95 and I call her every day video call but who knows if she'll get "free" again before she dies.
I should be spending my time cleaning and organizing but mostly I read and surf the internet and do a little woodworking.
All our traveling is canceled or on hold. Two cruises cancelled and so I have credits for future cruises who knows when. (I hope the cruise companies don't go out of business).

[twistsol]

I got a new job in Minneapolis on March 9th and got rid of my truck and bought a small car for commuting. Drove the new car to work 4 times and have been working from home ever since. I spend all day on the phone to other countries so it doesn't matter where I am. The hardest part has been I haven't seen my dad since February and missed his 97th birthday at the end of March. He has an appointment at the VA in a few weeks and is planning to stop by (**** the rules) on his way back home.

My wife is a school nurse for 4 schools and has been working with the CDC, MN dept of health etc trying to figure out if, how, when schools can reopen. Lots of time on the phone for her.

In the meantime not much else has changed except moving, driving alot less, and cooking at home instead of going out. I do miss Saturday morning breakfast at the North Pole Cafe.

[Carlos]

No huge issues for us, but the wife is mostly home bound because of being high risk, and things she would do like yoga are all cancelled. Our area went through a month or two of the anti-mask morons trying to fight it, and even being violent to store clerks over it. I was standing at a store holding a can of pepper spray, finger on the trigger, as I watched a nut with a flat earth shirt scream about her right to shop without a mask. If she had touched the kid, I would have sprayed her. That was when I stopped going out for a month. I also believe I had COVID in February, but that doesn't mean I won't take good precautions now, and expect others to do so. I have one close friend whose wife has it, and a few people I know less well who have had it.

We run a small phone company, so our revenue comes monthly and none of our customers have failed, so income is the same. We have actually added new customers as they try to go remote and reduce costs (we enable both, a lot). At the same time customers have been making fewer changes so I had more time in the shop. Our nice weather ran longer than usual this spring, then BOOM, we got hit by extreme heat. In the last few weeks I've only had a few hours out there, swamp cooler blasting, it's just too hot. So I'm spending a little time playing with a new 3D printer, indoors.

[atgcpaul]

Until a week ago, we were living in Arlington, VA in corporate housing while my wife was in training for our next post. Of course, part way through all this COVID happened. All her training transitioned online. All the kids' school work transitioned to online. My whole organization transitioned to online. I had been back to the lab for just 2 months from being full time remote for 2 years. Then our lab transitioned to do COVID research and the irony is I was then deemed essential and my subordinates were not (for good reasons) and now I was the only person in my group who could go in to perform research. For the past month now we have been rotating through the lab on a daily basis and only if needed.

We also did something crazy and bought a house with the intent of renting it out when we go overseas again, but the new departure date is up in the air because the country where we're supposed to go is still at Phase 0.

Now I've got a honeydo list again. It's killing me that I have every tool under the sun but they're either in a shipping container crossing the ocean or in a storage facility in VA. I'm at Home Depot practically every day now buying something or returning something. I had to borrow some tools from my Dad like a hammer and even my old CMS to work on some stuff here.
Our new house is further out from DC than we were before but it hits all the right buttons compared to our old house for many reasons. The two car garage is bigger than my last 2 car shop and it's attached with a bathroom and then the kitchen right inside.

I did splurge and bought a Kreg Rip N Cut that pairs nicely with my small Ryobi cordless circular saw. The seller left some melamine shelving behind that I used to build a simple shoe storage shelf. I need to throw together some nightstands and maybe a coffee table, too.

[Carlos]

There's good evidence that 30-50% of Americans have a pre-existing ability to fight the virus: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-020-0389-z