Everyone tell us you're OK!

[Gregg]

Especially you New Yorkers and wherever else it's weird right now.

I'm parked in Cincinnati and bunkered in.

[obadiah]

I'm in Japan working on an aircraft carrier. They are doing as good a job as they can, temp checks, isolation, etc.

[NYGman]

I am up in Westchester, and hunkered down here. I do work in Manhattan, but about mid-February I told my boss I was concerned about commuting on the train, and subways because of what was going on in China, and that there (Dispute what is being) was no real travel ban from China (We had people at work returning from there). I take immunosuppressants and just didn't want to take an unnecessary chance, plus it is no issue for me to WFH, I was doing it 3 days a week anyway. Then, just my luck, my kids school had one of the first cases up here, and my boys were quarantined from about March 3rd, ending March 17th. By the time it ended, we were self isolating due to my aforementioned immunocompromised state. I also stocked my pantry in February, and booked a future food delivery (Since delivered and another this weekend coming) to replenish fruit and veg. [Wes, need anything, I can leave it on my porch for you to pick up?]

So hanging in for the long haul, hoping not to get it, and that a vaccine is found, as until it is, I think we all are at risk. Had a relative and their family get it, ranged from mild to a short stay in hospital, at least they have some immunity now. I can't afford to do that.

[The Observer]

I'm OK. We established a secret hideout in the middle of Frikintardistan as sort of a reverse-psychology strategy several years ago. It's paid off since we live in a rural area of less than 40,000 people. Several acres surrounding our hovel provides isolation to a degree, although there are a couple of double-wides across the road that could prove to be a potential threat. Wife did a great job over the last year finding deals in the local markets that could be frozen in our 3 freezers, so no need to go to the store except once a month for fresh veggies/fruits and dairy products. I am busy expanding our garden boxes so that will help out once the early frost season has ended. If things go to pot and we end up in the Apocalypse, my armory will allow me to poach local wildlife and an occasional cow from the ranches that surround us. We have a couple of health factors that place us on the risk list so we are adhering to the shelter-in-place.

[AndyK]

Frederick County Maryland. Self isolated with wife.

In about another two days, I think I will finally reach the end of the Internet.

[Duke2Earl]

We're OK so far hunkered down at home in NOVA. Of course I've hardly been out since late Oct after breaking my hip in a fall. I got a new bionic hip the first of March (just before they shut down elective surgeries) and am now walking again. My spectacularly wonderful wife goes out to the over 60 hours at the supermarket every 2 weeks for fresh stuff and I can't wait until this is over.

[Famspear]

My wife, my son and I are OK, here at home in the suburbs of Houston. Fortunately I can work from home.

[wserra]

We're all OK in Westchester, near Gman. Thanks for the offer, Gman, but we're fine. One of us goes food shopping every ten days or so, over-60 hours (which people seem to be good about). I am in the process of retiring from litigation - I know I've been saying that for a while, it's like J.J.'s book - while continuing teaching and consulting. I'm down to one partner (we've been partners for 22 years) who is reducing her practice in a similar manner. We had planned for the last six months to give up our office at the end of February to work from home, and that's what we did - yeah, it's better to be lucky than good. I do have a handful of cases left, the courts are shut down, so I'm bringing everything up to date and beyond (and getting some IT lessons from web) at home. It's no problem since, court excepted, these days it's all doable from home. I've even done a couple of virtual depos (everyone in a different place). I have done depos by teleconference before - many of them, in fact - but never completely virtual before now.

Everyone stay well. Obs, beware the Frickentards. They can be worse than coronaviruses, if not as smart.

[Pottapaug1938]

My wife and I are hunkered down in our (temporary) apartment in Quincy, just south of Boston. Jakki is undergoing treatment for cancer, and is immunocompromised; so she goes out only for doctors' appointments, or if she gets stir-crazy and needs to just go out for a ride somewhere. I do the shopping, during seniors' hours if necessary.

I am retired, and have two part-time jobs. One involves teaching at a homeschool cooperative which uses the outdoors as a classroom; and one involves running the axe yard at my local Boy Scout camp, almost always on Saturdays when the camp is open. Coronavirus restrictions will keep the first job on ice until at least the fall; and the axe job is supposed to begin on April 18th, but may get pushed back into May, if movement restrictions so require.

All in all, I feel like a boy whose mother told him that, unless she needs him to run errands, he must stay inside the house, "just because". I find myself doing semi-makework projects on my computer, just to keep busy. Jakki and I are running out of library books; so we are perusing Craiglist and Freecycle for things to read -- we are both voracious readers, and those books which we salvaged from the house are deep in storage.

[Judge Roy Bean]

Mrs. Bean hasn't killed me off ... yet. She's used to working outside the home at least three days a week so this is putting a strain on her more than me. We also take advantage of the 60+ shopping times but we're in an area in Texas that has very little multifamily rental complexes so our population density remains relatively low and stores are never really crowded. We routinely patronize our three favorite restaurants' drive-up/pick-up services, too. Gasoline prices have dropped to under $1.50 and even $1.23 last night, but with almost nowhere to go it's hard to take advantage of it.

My oldest daughter is a nurse and she equipped us with a few masks just in case some politico decides everyone is going to have to wear one to go outside. Frankly, we don't anticipate wearing them. Then she pointed out the differences between surface sterilizers and hand sanitizers. Your average hand sanitizer doesn't work on viruses - it has to have over 70% alcohol to kill viruses. The surface cleaners will but you shouldn't use them on your hands.

Live and learn.

[Jeffrey]

I really can’t complain. Fairly well sealed off from the outside world. Groceries have not been a problem. Have a hose in the backyard so after any outing I strip off and decontaminate before entering the house.

[rogfulton]

We're in SW Austin (3.5 inches of rain over the weekend). We had just planted some peppers, okra, strawberries and tomatoes.

Working from home for the first time in my 23yrs working for the State is not what I expected - constant interruptions from the 7yo staying with us.

Food-wise, we are good. Our local grocer limited purchases early on and the shelves are slowly filling back on the things that weren't limited. Plus, we have two fridges and an upright freezer completely full.

[Burnaby49]

Three freezers Observer? That should see you through the next year or two never mind a period of self-isolation. I have one medium sized freezer and the lockdown is actually a benefit for that. In the past it's always been full because I keep buying things on special. Now I'm forced to actually take inventory and use things up.

A few days ago I got out a 20 pound turkey that I'd planned for Xmas but didn't use. Ground the whole thing up and made a big stock from the carcass. Then I made a huge batch of Italian Wedding soup using the ground turkey for the tiny meatballs and the turkey stock instead of chicken. I froze it up in plastic tubs and am passing it around to my wife's elderly friends.

[eric]

We're in SW Austin (3.5 inches of rain over the weekend). We had just planted some peppers, okra, strawberries and tomatoes.

Lucky bugger - we still have a foot or two of snow on the ground and seeding should start in a couple of weeks. Our last frost free day in the spring is May 22 although I have started some of the stuff inside like peppers and tomatoes.

My household has enough food in the house to last a couple of months and enough meat in the freezer(s) for most of a year but I would probably run out of beer and smokes well before then. Not much for covid out here in the country - we have something like one case in our zone and that is 70 km from me. All in all, about the only thing that I have learned is that there are some self-isolating folks who need to find a hobby or something to get them off facebook. The crazies have come out to play and I have learned such fascinating facts as:
1. Toilet paper sucking zombies from the city are emptying our stores of staples and we should require proper identification before we let them buy anything;
2. This whole covid thing is a vast conspiracy of the NWO and something about pedophiles, adrenochrome, the vatican, and the banks. I'm sorry, but I'm completely unable to wrap my head around their argument and have any sort of discussion with someone who posts something like this:
(redacted) IT'S THE TRUTH

eric: It's not Young Street it's spelled YONGE
(redacted) it doesn't matter
eric: The picture is from 2016 and was part of a street festival in Toronto since a lot of inner city, second generation immigrants have been a pool of recruits for some regiments since the 1960's. Note the skin tone of the soldiers.
(redacted) it doesn't matter because IT'S THE TRUTH.

[Famspear]

[ . . . ] Gasoline prices have dropped to under $1.50 and even $1.23 last night, but with almost nowhere to go it's hard to take advantage of it. [ . . . ]

Wow. Just for excitement a few minutes ago (it's about 5:22 pm central time on Tuesday afternoon), I decided to hop in the car and drive just outside our subdivision to see what's going on (my first time out since last Thursday). The Walmart outside our subdivision is offering regular unleaded gasoline for $1.55 point 9 a gallon. This Walmart always has the lowest gasoline price in this immediate area (a northwest extremity of Houston).

[The Observer]

Obs, beware the Frickentards. They can be worse than coronaviruses, if not as smart.

They are still a minority in this area. Plus, most people are courteous and respectful. Its amazing how much of that develops in a place where concealed weapon permits are easy to get.

Three freezers Observer? That should see you through the next year or two never mind a period of self-isolation. I have one medium sized freezer and the lockdown is actually a benefit for that. In the past it's always been full because I keep buying things on special. Now I'm forced to actually take inventory and use things up.

That was what the wife was doing for the last couple of years. So much so that she lost track of what had been stored. A couple of days ago she was concerned that she had used up all of the ground beef and we would have to visit the store to restock. She got bored and decided to reorganize the freezers and found another 8-10 packages of it, and was relieved. The down side was she realized that we did not have a ham for Easter (tradition) so we made a quick foray at noon to a local meat packing house and picked up a ham there. Fortunately the store only had one other customer so our exposure was minimal.

[Jeffrey]

On the topic of conspiracies, I've been putting up highlights of BZ and the gang further divorcing themselves from reality:

[Randall]

Keeping a low profile south of Boston, working remotely. My wife is a restaurant manager but I am not allowing her to work. The owner is okay with that. I am most concerned with one of my daughters who is also a restaurant manager but does not have the option to not deal with whatever idiot walks in the front door or pull up curbside.

[JohnPCapitalist]

I am up in Westchester, and hunkered down here. I do work in Manhattan, but about mid-February I told my boss I was concerned about commuting on the train, and subways because of what was going on in China.

We're all OK in Westchester, near Gman.

Nice to meet some virtual neighbors. I am in lower Fairfield County, Connecticut, just over the line from Westchester. I certainly understand NYGman's concerns, because I took the train into Midtown Manhattan for 15 years, and have been coughed on sneezed on and squeezed into seats between sick people countless times.

We're actually okay here. Certainly, traffic at a remarkably low level. Because of Ice Age glaciation, there are very few roads in Connecticut running east/west. I – 95 is a perennial parking lot, but traffic is now flowing at the limit pretty much 24 hours a day. The Merritt Parkway, a two lane cars-only freeway that goes through the beautiful trees, is also similarly congested at rush hour. I had to break quarantine and go to Hartford to pick something up urgently last week. I was bopping along at 75 in a 55 zone in the slow lane on the Merritt, and there was so little traffic that people were flying past me as if I were standing still. There was less traffic on the Merritt in the middle of a workday than I would typically expect at 6 AM on Sunday.

The food supply chain is holding up pretty well. There are continued shortages of certain items, like pasta, fresh chicken, frozen entrées and eggs, but those are starting to resolve. There is little toilet paper and few cleaners of various types, but they are starting to reappear. It takes about 3 to 4 weeks for changes in demand to ripple through the domestic supply chain and get on the store shelves. For products coming from China, however, the situation is much different. Normal conditions, it takes about four months from the time that product leaves the loading dock at a factory until it appears on store shelves in the US. As factories reopen in China, there will be a surge in demand for shipping capacity to get product to the US market. This will cause a significant backlog in the small number of US ports that handle virtually all shipping from China once those boats arrive. Frozen and canned food from other countries is likely to be delayed when the surge starts, though they have separate handling for fresh produce at land borders coming in from Canada and Mexico.

Personally, I'm in stunningly good shape. My partner and I are in excellent health generally, and she is able to work at home, as am I. I changed jobs a week ago, moving from a manufacturer that had seen sales of its products at key retail customers dropping substantially with each passing day. Layoffs seemed likely, though I don't know if I would have been affected. I started a new job at a company whose products should be relatively resistant to a recession, and my job is directly related to identifying and executing ways to keep the business running in these conditions, so my team's work is going directly to the top of the company. I should be fine, though I will certainly admit that I was sweating bullets for ten days after giving notice in my old job before they confirmed for certain that they were not going to delay my hiring. They have shut down all new hires, so my timing couldn't have been more perfect.

My partner's child is a manager at a national grocery chain. These days, they're closing early, so the nightly supply trucks arrive after the store is closed. This means the employees get first crack at deliveries, so we have had a steady supply of all the products that are difficult to find elsewhere. Even toilet paper! They are aggressively implementing all the best practices that have emerged, including limiting the number of customers in the store, making aisles one-way, separating cashiers from customers, sanitizing payment terminals, etc.

[Cpt Banjo]

My wife and I are doing fine here in North Texas, and although I work from home I usually go to the office twice a week to look for something in a file or to email a document I can't access remotely. Our building has imposed weekend restrictions where everyone has to sign in at the security desk (they are very sanitation-concious and disinfect each pen after every use) and must use a parking card to access one's designated floor. Based on the sign-in sheet, a lot of people are still coming to the offices in the building.

I was gradually moving toward retirement before the virus came along, and I've just about convinced myself to hang it up after things get back to normal. 50 years of law practice is enough, don'cha think? I haven't shaved in three weeks and was due for a haircut when my barber shut down. I keep telling my wife that I'm going for the Gabby Hayes look, so all I need to do is learn some genuine frontier gibberish.

My best wishes to all the folks on Quatloos and their families. Stay safe, people.