Coronavirus

we had our first confirmed case in the County this weekend. 28 in the state. of course, that number isn't real, but at least we're sparse on the ground, and it feels like our local/state government is taking it seriously. We're not on official "shelter in place" yet, but everything is pretty much shut down. When that happens here.....we've pretty much been doing it already. I figure my work will be essential, kids/wife/MIL don't go out at all at the moment, other than for exercise. And I do the grocery shopping on Mondays.

Good things, I finally shamed work into letting us run the morning production meeting virtually. We are implementing a schedule for office folk to cover production/reporting requirements, and allowing everyone else to WFH.

Bad thing, my boss is now in quarantine. Results should be back tomorrow. I'm frantically thinking back to the last week and trying to think if I spent any significant time near him. I don't think so. I've been good about avoiding people, other than that stupid production meeting. Wednesday (3/18) was the last time I spoke with him. So if I'm infected, definitely everyone in the house is too. IT guy in the office near mine is in quarantine. He helped a girl move last week over in South Dakota, and she's tested positive. 3 people last night were sent home with symptoms. what's next for them? do they get tested? do they come back to work? who the heck knows. I'm lucky to have a large amount of PTO built up..but I know of people here on site who already are out of PTO time.

I worry about my mother in law, she's 67 and lives with us. I don't go near her, but the kids hug me, then hug her.

Corporate HR out of St. Louis sent out a COVID-19 Update, which was full of tons of corporate speak and nothing. the only thing they added to the status quo was the option to take leave w/o pay (yay...) and "Some paid benefits may be available outside of our normal STD/PTO policy (remember that HR must make these decisions)". that's reassuring. That definitely sounds like, additional benefits for....certain people.

Groceries are limiting perishables to 1 ea. which unfortunately means I have to hit multiple groceries up for milk. 1 gallon isn't going to cover an 8 person household for a week. But other than TP/Hand sanitizer/Chicken shelves are stocked, and groceries are moving well. Pasta is back.

With the warmer weather, my daily dog-walk is actually getting kind tough, as there are a ton of people outside and I've had to wave a couple people off who want to come pet my puppy.

We had a virtual townhall, which was surprisingly honest about everything. We are the reddest Red State you ever saw....and they were pretty frank about not knowing how long everything would be shut down, estimating that months is definitely possible, schools, worry about our local hospital.

The kids overall are doing ok. they miss playdates and seeing other people, but they stay busy. probably more video games than are really good, but we're working lessons in. and we're lucky to have a decent sized backyard, so running out and jumping on the trampoline or wrestling with the dog has been good for them. I've started teaching them Tae Kwon Do in the evenings. It's been years since I've done any, but I found a decent youtube video series, and I remember enough to go through some white belt/yellow belt level stuff. weekends are definitely, pick a game to play with dad. they all get their choice, then they ask me what I want to play. "Duel of Ages" I say. Somehow it always gets forgotten.

Oh, and just FYI: A colleague had a friend who became the 9th death in Michigan today. The deceased was mid-40s with no underlying health problems, other than maybe being a bit overweight. For all those thinking that "the old folks will be fine sacrificing themselves for the economy!", they should keep in mind that the virus don't know from "old folks".

Jackwraith wrote: Oh, and just FYI: A colleague had a friend who became the 9th death in Michigan today. The deceased was mid-40s with no underlying health problems, other than maybe being a bit overweight. For all those thinking that "the old folks will be fine sacrificing themselves for the economy!", they should keep in mind that the virus don't know from "old folks".

That is the one thing the mainstream media are hiding, that young and healthy people are catching this bad. A 36 year old healthy nurse over here is critical on a ventilator, other medical staff are similar, saw on the news today that at least four five doctors have died in France … but when deaths are announced on our radio/TV they keep getting suffixed with "and they had an underlying medical condition", this is just not scaring the population into sensibility and are making young and healthy people think they bulletproof.

The underlying medical condition thing is deceptive, my mother in her 70s was confused by this. Underlying medical condition can be high blood pressure! She seemed to think it was always like "already on a oxygen from some terminal disease" and I'm like, no mom, if *you* died they'd say you had several underlying medical conditions.

It seems that unless someone is rampaging through the streets with an AK, there are always people in this town who will not be told what to do... and will find a way to have some "protest" gathering. I'm really kinda tired of this aspect of Santa Cruz:

chiefmills.com/2020/03/24/covid-19-santa-cruz-responds

22 cases in the county today, up from 15 on Friday

Gary Sax wrote: my other in her 70s was confused by this.

Dude, fix that typo. Painted quite a picture when I first read it.

lol, indeed!

Really excellent piece on why you can't find toilet paper: novaramedia.com/2020/03/23/when-logistics-run-out-of-time/

(Hint: It's not really because of hoarders.)

but rather the great majority of us who have, however moderately, visited the shop twice in a week rather than once, grabbed a small trolley instead of a basket, picked up two soaps instead of one, or picked up an extra pack of bog roll before you’re down to your last one.

yeah, I'm guilty.

I get the TP at Target, in the ginormous 1 x 10^6-roll pack, pandemic or not. Luckily I restocked right before everybody got serious about their TP stash.

For us, staying at home has definitely upped our dish usage, especially coffee cups. We've gone from 0-1 to 7-8 a day. The struggle is real.

Jackwraith wrote: Really excellent piece on why you can't find toilet paper: novaramedia.com/2020/03/23/when-logistics-run-out-of-time/

(Hint: It's not really because of hoarders.)

I think the author is a little harsh on placing blame at the supply chain for the shortages - what we are seeing is unprecedented. The grocery store business is notorious for being very low margin - even before the virus hit and the economy was good, grocery chains were not that profitable. What kept them where they were was making inventory lean/just in time . Inventory turn is crucial when margins are tight.

Specific to toilet paper, I used to work with a guy who planned paper product inventory for BJ's Wholesale club several years ago. He said it was very tricky - he'd get reprimanded if the stores had more than 4-6 days worth of stock on hand, since it too up so much space but on a $$ per cubic foot metric, weren't that high on their priority scale vs say a tray of steaks or a case of canned products. Same for their warehouses.

Shelly also brings up a valid point - people used to get some of this stuff at work , whether it be K cups or toilet paper. Now a LOT more is at home. Add in that I used to work with people that would eat out for lunch 3-5 days per week as well some dinners and it really adds up. We're not eating more food so much as eating it at home as well as in different places - the worker who used to drive an hour to work is now shopping for more food in a different place , relatively speaking.

^going off what you're talking about, this is a harrowing read from the patient perspective.

www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/magazine/coro...Py8QmDUIK6fcDHlQ3VFs