Shit is getting real

[captain queeg]

I’ve been watching the Trump Virus fiasco since the beginning. Even people I know who are reasonable seemed to get tired of me talking about it. Even up to this weekend. Local stores sold out of hand sanitizer a week or two ago but other than that I hadn’t noticed much. Each day I’d see the latest gaslighting by Trump & Company and they seemed to be getting away with it. The stock market tanking last week seemed to get a few people’s attention. I stayed home this weekend except for a quick trip to the library to prepare for isolation. I’ve been watching the numbers worldwide and it’s pretty obvious we are in trouble. Still haven’t seen many indicators locally though.

Seemed today that things are changing. I stopped at the store to grab a couple quick items; went to a more expensive store than usual because it’s usually not very crowded and wide aisles. It was jammed today, people filing up shopping carts with all sorts of stuff. Many rushing their carts down the aisle almost running. More and more things are closing up. In a weird scene out of a movie there was an SUV blocking the intersection with smoke or steam pouring out, abandoned. So I can se things happening locally.

Then I check the news and internet tonight. The orange abomination is subdued and even speaking a bit of truth. Pence is saying scary stuff. News of the spread is everywhere. If you were paying attention none of this is the least bit surprising but I guess not many have been. I just sense panic in the air. I’ve got everything I need to hunker down a couple weeks which is my plan. I’m trying not to get overly worried, I’m doing everything in my power for myself. But tonight I starting feeling short of breath and couldn’t doze off. I found myself wondering if it were symptomatic. I don’t get sick very often. But I think I’m probably stressing more than I want to admit. Things are going to get very different very fast.

[BigmanPigman]

1. I noticed the same thing.

I went out last week to the supermarket and a doctor appointment and both places were as normal as could be. I went to the same places today and there was a huge difference. I have been trying to self quarantine so I only have been out once a week for over a month.

[Flaleftist]

2. A Trumper I know blames Trump for all of this.

She was an avid supporter a month ago and now she hates him. Future polling might be interesting.

[captain queeg]

3. I guess every cloud has a silver lining!

[luvallpeeps]

11. For all the chaos and uncertainty foisted upon us by this administration,

the cloud should be lined in gold with sapphire sprinkles.

[Flaleftist]

13. She in danger of losing her job because of this.

So now that it personally affects her, she is questioning everything she thought she knew about him. All of those lies.

[Kablooie]

22. I just hope enough of his cult turn on him so ...

He won't be able to use this chaos to disrupt the election to his own advantage.

[Flaleftist]

24. A lot of Trumpers will be economically disrupted because of this.

Not all of them will buy the "It's the Democrats' fault" BS.

[Chainfire]

32. They will say

That because of Trump's swift and decisive actions the effects were lessened. They will say it was just a natural disaster and no one could have helped it. The reason Trump is on TV every day is to reinforce the message on what a wonderful job he and his team are doing. Tell the lie over and over and it will be accepted as the truth.

[RhodeIslandOne]

26. He told them it was a hoax

And now, they’re finding out it isn’t.

There are a few true believers left. But every day he loses more.

[Bluepinky]

4. My son and I ate lunch at a local diner today.

Hardly anyone there, just one cook, one waitress and a dishwasher. Supposedly, all the restaurants in the area are closing up tonight or tomorrow. Some places will only have takeout or delivery available.
We went to the grocery store and half the shelves are empty. Hardly any meat, water aisle wiped out, much of the frozen food shelves empty, even had trouble finding laundry detergent.

[Laffy Kat]

5. Don't give the prez. too much credit.

He's really back into a corner now.

[safeinOhio]

6. Same here and I'm in a county with

no cases. Less than a week ago I was reading about places with cases of the flu
having runs on products needed to stay home. Yesterday all of the stores were out of items. Bread racks were empty and the meat coolers had very little stocked.
This weekend it got real.

[ekelly]

28. I'm in Auglaize county...no cases here

that I know of. The Walmart in Wapakoneta was out of several things on Friday.
I just went to get a couple things we want to have, like ice cream and a few snacks. We are set with essentials for a long time.

[Warpy]

7. Shit's been real since a bunch of jackasses on Farcebook

or some other dumb internet place they all congregate decided the thing to do was hoard toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Now the latter I can see, but the former makes no sense, at all.

You can feel the edge of nervousness in the air. It's weird, kind of like a big thunderstorm is about to break. After I go out in the next 2 days for a very necessary prescription, I'm not going out for a month or so, when I have a doctor appointment.

My real problem is that I've had to stop driving, so I'm relying on cabs. Some drivers aren't showing up to work, so the wait is getting very long.

[Totally Tunsie]

15. I was speaking by phone today with my d-in-law, and

we were discussing the strange aura and electricity we were feeling. You can sense a crackling, and there's no atmospheric reason for it. There's a strange excitement in the air.

But, last night I had a dream that I was standing on some railroad tracks, on a curve. I could hear the train whistle and see the smoke, but the train still wasn't in sight. It was that sense that something big was coming, with no way to stop it, and no way to get out of the way. Oddly, I wasn't frightened, but was what I'd call anticipatory.

I, too, am in for the duration other than an important doctor appointment on Wednesday, as well as perhaps an hour/week when I might slip out to replenish perishables.

Luck to you...

[Warpy]

19. Store shelves were bare is some areas last week

and not just the TP/hand sanitizer. Some OTC medications are going, also.

If people don't stop acting like a fucking swarm of locusts and buying up a year's supply of things that make no sense and/or won't last that long, we're going to be in real trouble.

There are still fewer than 50 cases in state, including "presumptive" meaning not enough tests.

Not being able to drive is the big one for me. This burg is not blind friendly.

[Totally Tunsie]

21. I don't know your age, Warpy, but would you be eligible to use

the services of a Town or Senior Center bus or similar? Do you have anything like that in your area?

It's difficult not to be able to just hop into a car and go. I empathize with you.

[RockRaven]

8. We go on lockdown at midnight tonight, for three weeks. They announced it at 1PM (11 hrs notice).

The rules are basically: Stay home, except for 1) grocery shopping 2) health care needs 3) assisting family members 4) if you work in essential services. You can go out to walk or exercise if you maintain distance from other.

Of course, from what I've seen, people around here have been taking this seriously for a couple of weeks. Which makes sense since there have been community acquired cases for about that long (when they repatriated the cruise ship passengers from Japan to an Air Force base for quarantine, the virus slipped the leash almost immediately).

[captain queeg]

10. Sounds like N CA somewhere? I have a sister in Yreka

[Totally Tunsie]

18. Her name isn't Jodi, by any chance...

[RockRaven]

20. Yeah, I'm Bay Area. It's going to be a strange few weeks. I've never isolated like this before.

A lot of the schools in my county started shutting down last week, and lots of companies instituted work-from-home early on, so people were already adapting to the pandemic response ramping up in the general sense. But the announcement of 6 coordinated county-wide shut-downs, about half the Bay Area, was a surprise (to me anyway). Especially the short warning, just half a day.

But I stocked up yesterday, intending to switch my routine from weekly to biweekly grocery shopping trips just to cut my exposure opportunities down, so I should be good for the first 2 weeks at least before I need to venture out into a public place. Well, who knows how things will look by then?

[Journeyman]

9. I go to a weekly meeting, maybe 20 to 40 guys crowded tight into a closed room . . .

Three or four weeks ago, I stopped shaking hands, stood at the doorway when I first arrived, removed from the crowd. Left before the meeting started. Quite a few guys made fun of me, told me it was "no different from the flu." I told them I hoped they were right but I didn't believe time would be kind to their opinions.

I do work for a couple of medical laboratories that specialize in esoteric diseases. I'd seen the look on the epidemiologists' faces as we discussed the new tests. I'd only gone to that last meeting to say adios for the foreseeable future.

This evening, I received a call from a good friend at the meeting, like me, a long-time participant. He said the steering committee (of which I'm a member) wanted to know if I agreed the meeting should be shut down for an indefinite period. I told him it was the only reasonable thing to do.

[Windy City Charlie]

12. I agree

Trump knows he's screwed up, but he's never going to admit it (in the long run, it's going to catch up to him). I've noticed there's been a lot of people, who 2 weeks ago were like Trump and thought this was all a made-up concoction. However, with what's happening in Italy have come to realize that they've been duped by Trump and that this is a serious situation. Don't get me wrong, there's still some deniers, but not like there was. It's sad it took something of this magnitude though for it to happen.

[Igel]

14. Yes, no, and maybe.

You see shortages in stores not because there's any real gap in the supply chain but because of panic buying.

Stores around here were stripped on Friday. On Sunday they were restocked, stripped again, and restocked today. They want to buy 200 rolls of toilet paper, fine. The stores will continue to sell them all the toilet paper they can use.

The things they didn't restock they really didn't think they'd need a huge amount of, so it'll take a few days for the stuff to come in. Then they'll be ready for it.

Some less common products will run out. I'm hoping that bulk nopales aren't among them, but that kind of thing relies on a small number of distributors and if one of them's hit by the plague then it'll create a problem.

Keep in mind that about 90% of toilet paper sold in the US is domestically produced, and unless the workers and their supply chain is adversely affected they can just keep on churning out the stuff.

Panic is serious, but it's a separate kind of disease.

[Windy City Charlie]

16. Exactly

And panic buying is showing exactly why "flattening the curve" is so important. If we don't flatten the curve, what we've seen with panic-buying is just a drop in the bucket to how the health care system would become inundated. The health care system has nowhere near the amount of resources (number of stores vs hospitals, number of items in a store vs ventilators in a hospital, etc.) that the retail system does, and look what's happened to that.

[Solomon]

33. Excellent point.

[Rorey]

17. I went to Walmart this evening

I usually do most of my shopping at King Soopers (Kroger), but they closed at 8, so I figured I'd check out Walmart. It was an experience I've never had before. The only shelves that really weren't gutted were the "junk food" ones, and the coffee aisle wasn't too bad. Meat was gone. Milk was gone. Bread was gone. Seafood products seemed to be pretty stocked. Hardly any canned foods. Absolutely no pasta or beans.

I only saw one person with a mask. I didn't wear one, so hopefully I'm okay. I was very careful about not touching my face, and people were giving each other lots of room, mostly.

If I get up early enough, I may go in the morning just to see how much overnight stocking is done. If it's too busy, I probably won't go in. King Soopers doesn't open until 7, and I'm hoping to be able to go there.

Captain queeg, I hope you're okay. I've been trying to find things to do to help myself relax. Things are, indeed, very different.

[captain queeg]

23. I got a few books before they closed the library. I've been mostly staying home for over a week

When I read some of these lock down orders it almost sounds like you can’t just go out for a walk. I hope that’s not the case. Haven’t gotten anything like that yet, just lots of closures. But I’d sure hate it if they literally didn’t want you to leave the house. I’ve been getting out every day for a walk at least once. Don’t run into many people doing so. The weather has been nice the last couple days, thinking of driving somewhere for a hike.

[intrepidity]

27. It's made clear that walking for exercise, or for pets, is ok

But to maintain distance from others.

[Pluvious]

34. JFYI many library systems now offer audiobooks - no visit necessary

They're free, instant via Internet, and fairly wide selection.

Cheers

[jeffreyi]

35. I use those, they are great!

I have an Android tablet, the apps are Overdrive and Libby (different versions of the same thing).

[RhodeIslandOne]

25. I hear you

When I read about this stuff I start to feel the heaviness in my chest from my occasional bronchitis that flared up a week or so. I’m sure it’s psychosomatic, but reading the horror stories about healthy people dying from this is freaking me out. I don’t want to go outside, but my elderly parents depend on me and I still have a job I need to go to.

[vlyons]

29. Yes it has finally hit home for lots of folks

This is not a drill. It's for real. I'm 73 and live in Dallas. I'm a retired senior living on social security, a very limiting tight budget. So staying home, well I'm used to it. My cousin, who is 78 and has no immunity thought she could go to church yesterday. I told her not to go, but she had all these good reasons about why it would be OK. Forturnately, her church has cancelled services for a while.

Our dear GOP gov Abbott, who is a complete idiot, was spewing the Trump party line a few weeks ago, has recommended that folks avoid large crowds. Meanwhile CDC says less than 10. Abbott has yet to call out the state Natl Guard to build temporary hospitals for overflow patients in the large cities.

I just want to tell everyone to calm down and don't panic. We are much more able to deal with whatever, when we remain calm. Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. I have survived an earthquake, 3 hurricanes, 1 tornado, a car crash that totaled my car, heart disease, and breast cancer. We can get thru this. Our parents and grandparents were called to deal with 2 world wars. We are being asked to sit on the sofa and watch TV or read a book.

Love your family. Pick up the phone and call a friend.

[MFM008]

30. its like scenes from

World War Z
Walking Dead
im afraid to go out to the stores
BUT we need pet food before they settle on us...........

[Maeve]

31. It feels a bit like right after 9/11

Fewer planes overhead, kids out of school but being kept close to home, businesses closed, people scared and not sure what is coming next. Add the panic buying of a threatened snowmaggedon and that's where we are.