Corona Virus Update: I'm Sick and Tired! (Ulog No. 54)
No. I'm not sick and tired with or from COVID-19, I'm just sick and tired of the sideshow circus surrounding it.
I'm tired of a world that seems incapable of distinguishing between taking reasonable precautions and freaking the fuck out.
Some random posts...
In other news, the guy up the street is fully convinced that the black SUV parked across the street is — in fact — "The CIA watching him."
Newsflash: There's nothing you're doing, or have done that would cause the CIA to care whether or not you're even breathing, so to think you're actually important enough to warrant using resources and manpower to watch can only be classified as a severe case of egocentricity and paranoia.
Today, the state of Washington Emergency Management Office issued an edict against gatherings in excess of 250 people, in the interest of "Public Safety."
To be honest, I don't give a shit, because I avoid crowds, regardless of whether or not there are contagions on the loose.
I also use those little courtesy disinfectant wipes at the supermarket to wipe the handle of the grocery cart, not because of the Corona virus, but because I don't want to catch whatever your barking and snotty-nosed 10-year old is hacking up all over the place. Oh, and I've been doing that for years.
Meanwhile, yes we have toilet paper.
We don't have a 10-year supply of Twinkies, nor 500 cans of tuna, nor enough powdered milk to rais a family of 30 for an eternity.
We do have a couple of 20-lb bags of rice, about 50lbs of potatoes in a box in the garage, a substantial supply of coffee, sugar, salt, flour and cooking oil. But we pretty much always have that.
Joking aside, I'm grateful that both Mrs. Denmarkguy and I work from home. I've been grateful for that, for going on 20 years. It substantially contributes to the fact that we haven't had the flu — or even "common" colds in a very long time.
Yes, there are now three confirmed cases of "The Thing" here in our small town. Of concern is the fact that we have an aging population because this is a popular retirement area. That said, I expect things here seem likely to be pretty contained. As long as people don't get stupid.
More random posts...
Our local Unity Spiritual Center sent out an email today that Sunday meetings are suspended for the time being, but Rev. Pam and Rev. Simon will be doing live updates on Sunday via Skype or some other online gig. Long live technology!
My guess is that this thing will disappear as suddenly as it appeared. It'll do the rounds for a while, and yes some people will perish... and then it'll fade away because someone discovers it doesn't thrive when exposed to some combination of sulfites, iron and vitamin D. People will drink wine and eat kale, while sitting in the sun... and they'll be fine.
Or something like that. In the meantime, I'm glad we have toilet paper...
Thanks for reading!
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Created at 20200312 01:20 PDT
1222
"Having stuff on hand just in case" is part of living in the boonies. When a grocery run requires a 45-minute drive, one stocks up. When winter can block roads, one stocks up. There is no need for me to go panic shopping at the last minute. And let me tell you, it has saved my bacon a few times to be able to dip into my reserves.
Agreed! We used to live in Big Sur and the whole idea of "running to Costco" meant a 75 minute drive each way. Even the grocery stores were near an hour away... so you just learn to always have a handy stock in the house. And since the roads would often be taken out by landslides in the winter, you just learned to always have basic provisions on hand.
Especially now they're all out of toilet paper it's even more important to clean the handle of the grocery cart.
Yep, it's very important to use those little wipey things... and the cart area at the grocery store is one of the very few places you'll actually find a stash of disinfectant wipes!
We always have a well stocked larder. Always have done. This is because while we go to the shops almost every day, we walk to the shops. So when we do go for a "big shop" with the car we stock up. I don't get the panic buying mentality. People are idiots
The panic buying — at least for the moment — seems to be happening more in the cities. You can still get most things at the supermarkets here, except for toilet paper and disinfectant wipes.
I reckon a couple of weeks from now people will STILL have a two months supply of basics, and the stores will be largely restocked.
It looks like now in France we will have to have a form with us when we leave the house for basic shopping stating that is what we are doing. No meeting in parks or street. No socialising in each others houses (not even family gatherings). The stores will have plenty of time to restock I think
Don’t know what you’re talking bout I slammed my car through the front glass of store and stole a 50 pack of super soft charmin cause the end is nigh!
Get that toilet paper cause $#!+ is gonna hit the fan :)
Well, when you're trying to build that toilet paper fortress, you just have to do what you have to do!
I 100% agree! Schools closing down or going online only?! I have a friend who lives thirty miles away across state lines and teaches art in a college. Her ART CLASS has to go online (how on earth does one teach that?!) with two days notice, and she has been told that if she crosses state lines she must quarantine herself for 14 days! This is absurd.
Go out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. You will be the only people there. Parking will be a breeze.
Very funny sign!
Thank you for remaining sane. We need more of you.
Well, as a followup, the governor of Washington has now dialed it up one more notch and banned any and all gatherings involving 50 or more people, and all non-grocery or non-pharmacy stores have to close... indefinitely. Eating establishments can only be open for to go food... no more eat-in option.
That said, the underlying idea of "flattening the curve" of the spread of the illness does make a lot of sense... if the emergency rooms at hospitals are not flooded with new cases, it's more likely that everyone will actually get the care they need.
NYS has limited us to gatherings of TEN, all restaurants can only do take out but CAN provide you with a cocktail etc to go with that. This is all insane. It's a bad cold. Are we going to do this every time a bad cold is going around? How about some of the 800 BILLION that was just earmarked for this go to looking for correlations between the deadliness of this cold and 5G?
I'm only staying home because there is nowhere to go.
As much as anything, I think all the fear we're seeing is a result of (individuals within) broader society having lost its own belief in its ability to deal with adversity.
I will not for a moment deny that COVID-19 is a serious illness, but the responses are ridiculous. It's like when I was a little kid, we'd play outside in the dirt, ride our bikes without helmets or pads, eat snails and leaves off the trees... and we're still alive. Now we have to take so many precautions it's INSANE, just to get from our house to the mailbox to check the mail.
We knew how to fight a virus back then. We expected to feel very sick, would probably have quite a fever, got in bed and suffered for three days, then started to feel better. We did not go to doctors, we did not worry. We knew we would be fine. We have forgotten even this simple understanding of healing ourselves of a natural virus.
If it IS a bio terror organism, we ought to stop freaking out about the virus and identify who or what has released this thing, because the true danger lies there.
In either case, regarding our very bodies as poisonous, our clothing, our hands, all surfaces in our homes is really just all part of the hypnotic content we have been fed. We are not the poison. I refuse to accept that lie.
Thanks for listening. Since NYS is under extreme social isolating measures, I have a lot of time to think.
@denmarkguy,
I'm with you. There are numbers between 1 and 100 for a reason. It's so we can calibrate scale. Getting 19% on your math test, for example, is qualitatively different than getting 91%. The consequences of the former is a world apart from the consequences of the latter.
Given the current reactions to the Coronavirus, one might think we were dealing with the Bubonic Plague ... with an expected mortality rate of 1/3 to 1/2 the population.
We're not.
I have never seen such an over-reaction to anything in my life. And as the plummeting stock markets attest, if we don't soon get a grip we're going to create the very disaster we're trying to avoid.
Quill
Greetings beloved and totally agreed with your logic here!
One needs to get to the root of the panic!
Who and why somebody wrote the initial spark that lit the fire?
Blessings!
I guess the main thing people are scared about with this thing is that it's unknown, and we don't really know enough about it to have any kind of effective treatment or cure, and vaccines are likely 12-18 months off.
A friend of my wife's — who's an ex MIT biochemist — says she and a group of friends have been trying to isolate some wisdom about COVID-19 and what it doesn't "like" and so far there seems to be a correlation between people taking substantial Vitamin C and Melatonin supplements, and resistance to becoming infected. Not a "fix," by any means, but certainly an ounce of prevention.
It's definitely not like the bubonic plague, or even like the Spanish flu of 1918-19, which isn't to say we shouldn't take it seriously, but the overreaction is crazy.
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I knew a month ago people would be going crazy in the US once cases started popping up. I can't even watch the news anymore because the fear mongering is so horrible. The news is trying to make people panic. I think it's an election year thing but whatever it is it is nuts. We got our first case 15 minutes from here (the person never even got home from the airport to infect people) but there was an immediate run on cleaning supplies and toilet paper. What I find crazy is people aren't stocking up on food! If you've got to go in isolation have some sense and buy some food. But yeah...I'm sick of the craziness of how people are reacting to this whole thing. I'm sitting at home cool as a cucumber. I prepared a month ago for the crazy panic buying more than I did the coronavirus so my pantry is stocked. I work from home too so I'm just going to enjoy being out in the country on our homestead away from the craziness of society for a while til this all passes and life resumes as normal.
The media definitely makes it way worse than it needs to be...
My wife and I both work from home, and we're introverts anyway, so this "social distancing" is really not an issue for us... it's pretty much how we live our lives, anyway. I see on eBay, so the extent of my going out revolves around dropping prepaid packages at the post office, and occasionally picking up a few perishables (which isn't what people are selling out of) from the grocery. Observing basic "voluntary quarantine" protocol is really not a stretch.
Probably the most "dangerous" thing I need to do in the next couple of weeks is make a trip to the courthouse to pay our property taxes...
We have to ask ourselves who benefits from the panic my friend.
About a year ago we packed our TV away as it was filled with rubbish.
When the unfortunate circumstances arise that we have to engage in crowd, such as a ride on the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain, we simply steel ourselves, as we also avoid crowds. Fortunately it's a rare occurrence.
Sadly nowadays I think it's a fashion for the masses to flaunt their panic.
Blessings to you guys!
Yeah, "follow the money" is usually a pretty good strategy.
We gave up having cable TV about six years ago.. we still have a TV, but it's only to stream movies from the web, along with occasional series we really like.
We live in Washington state which, granted, was pretty much "ground zero" for the first cases of COVID-19, as well as where the first 10 USA deaths happened, so I suppose I really can't blame people for being a little more skittish here. Still, there's a long way from taking reasonable precautions to living in a state of complete panic.
Agreed and you sound very stable my friend, but in saying that, please continue to take care, which I know you will.
I so wish that a vaccine will appear soon.
Blessings!