Coronavirus

Minnesota has been doing a pretty good job so far, as one of the early states to shut down schools and practice social distancing. We started a statewide lockdown a few days ago, but there might be too many businesses getting treated as essential businesses. Everything was very quiet over the weekend, partly due to heavy rain and cold winds. But this traffic this morning was a little heavier than what I have seen for the last two weeks.

A joke that a friend used to repeat - Minnesota : where the introverts look at their shoes and the extroverts look at your shoes. Probably serving them well right now.

Well we have our health and our jobs (for the most part...for now) so I know that I'm lucky in that regard, but I'll be damned if the first day of school didn't just about kill me. My wife and I set up a daily plan for my son in kindergarden and our 3rd grade daughter a week ago, and we figure the 2 year old will be fine just picking up things from normal play for now. It has been going better than expected, but today we starting diving into the remote teaching stuff in Houston. I'll be damned if the music teacher, both grade teachers, and the elective teachers are not all wanting to be on a unique platform. I'm having a crash course in Teams, Zoom, Clever, and some Google thing. Some crap is in "Portal", other in the HUB. I still haven't found my daughters assignments and have no idea what non-sexual thing is a HMH. I've fallen a long way from my Catholic roots, but I realized that God is merciful when the 2 hours of music classes ended. I'm constantly refreshing my inbox for a fresh Zoom invite since the free one only lasts 40 minutes, holding the iPad at one angle, aiming the iPhone at the keyboard, and constantly pushing mute unmute mute unmute mute. We try to limit video game time in the house, but giving the others free reign over that was the only way I could prevent them from jumping into frame annoying whoever was "in class". I am so grateful that my wife and I are in this together, and I have no idea how single parents can pull off normal life, not to say anything about whatever this experience is.

Yeah, there seems to be this assumption across every job and school that since we aren't really doing anything besides hanging around our houses that we can be just as productive using Zoom and fifty other online platforms. Our kids started back with online learning, and after a couple days of that I don't see how anyone's regular job will get done. There also seems to be this belief that Zoom meetings will accomplish everything that regular meetings do. My wife is on our school board and she sat through an 8 hour online meeting yesterday. That's like, a wild disrespect for people's personal lives I think.

Yesterday I made the mistake of glancing at the numbers in the Philippines, and I'm starting to get a little anxious now. Of cases that have run their course here (which isn't that many) about 65% have ended in death. I'm sure a huge part of that is lack of medical resources, which really worries me a lot. So last night the actual mortal stakes really settled into my brain for the first time, and I had a bit of a panicky moment as I tried to go to sleep. It took some time getting up to read and pray, which is how I stay centered as a rule. Haven't had a lot of time for myself since this started, so I've definitely been missing the moments of quiet.

It occurred to me yesterday that while the scale of this thing is unprecedented, that there have been a lot of times of disease throughout human history. It's really only been in the last century that we've felt like we have any say in what happens there. But this whole experience has been a reminder that we really aren't that different from people in 1918-1919, or during the black death, or during the cholera epidemic. This is just another wave of that, more of a natural disaster than a genuine human failure. Not that there hasn't been a lot of human failure through this whole situation, but on another level this is something beyond humans. I find that a little...I guess comforting? It makes this whole thing seem more like an expected part of the human experience. It helps me a little anyway.

I agree with what you said, San. The thing that constantly has me kind of shaking my head is that there a places in the world that have handled the crisis with public policy and, while it isn't business as usual, see something like cell phone surveillance in South Korea, they're just going about their business going to work, maybe catching a movie, etc.

Oh, absolutely. I don't want to minimize the ability of public policy to deal with this kind of thing. Just more reflecting that this situation is, on some level, a natural disaster. That's a context my brain can deal with a little better.

No, no, I was just trying to "yes and" you about the thing that was kind of blowing my mind.

BillyBobThwarton wrote: Well we have our health and our jobs (for the most part...for now) so I know that I'm lucky in that regard, but I'll be damned if the first day of school didn't just about kill me. My wife and I set up a daily plan for my son in kindergarden and our 3rd grade daughter a week ago, and we figure the 2 year old will be fine just picking up things from normal play for now. It has been going better than expected, but today we starting diving into the remote teaching stuff in Houston. I'll be damned if the music teacher, both grade teachers, and the elective teachers are not all wanting to be on a unique platform. I'm having a crash course in Teams, Zoom, Clever, and some Google thing. Some crap is in "Portal", other in the HUB. I still haven't found my daughters assignments and have no idea what non-sexual thing is a HMH. I've fallen a long way from my Catholic roots, but I realized that God is merciful when the 2 hours of music classes ended. I'm constantly refreshing my inbox for a fresh Zoom invite since the free one only lasts 40 minutes, holding the iPad at one angle, aiming the iPhone at the keyboard, and constantly pushing mute unmute mute unmute mute. We try to limit video game time in the house, but giving the others free reign over that was the only way I could prevent them from jumping into frame annoying whoever was "in class". I am so grateful that my wife and I are in this together, and I have no idea how single parents can pull off normal life, not to say anything about whatever this experience is.

1st day of homeschooling:

Suspended two kids for fighting and one teacher fired for drinking on the job.

ubarose wrote: The "actual mortal stakes" are registering with me as well. I'm starting to get reports from friends that they have friends, work colleagues or relatives that are sick or have passed away. Last night it felt like the wolves were circling, getting closer and closer. How long before it is someone I know? This morning I am thinking, "Is it socially acceptable to send e-sympathy cards as I have no stamps?"

A good friend of mine from college works as a nurse in NYC. I've checked in on her a couple of times, she's fine for the time being. I've been really worried for her in particular, just because the situation in New York seems so grave.

Over 500 cases were added to the Philippines today, which does tell me that testing has probably picked up a lot. Still a big jump though.

I hope you all are holding up okay. Reach out to friends and family, check in with them. There is a lot of anxiety, and just acknowledging that can help. Try to educate them too, if they are in the rightwing media universe of this country (USA). Not surprising, but not everything coming out of there is helpful. I'm not so worried about folks getting lied to, they like what they like; but that they might act on those lies and endanger a lot of other people to "own the libs."

The CDC really wnats everyone to wear masks in any public setting to prevent airborne asymptomatic transmission. They can't come out and say that, because they need to buy up masks to provide healthcare workers who desperately need PPE. So consider making your own mask in the time being, while supplies are short.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3373043//

On the one hand, it's great that my stepdaughter has found something to do; having obtained some sourdough starter from a friend of mine and spending a fair amount of time every day using it to bake all kinds of things and derivatives (any bread that gets old goes into bread puddings, complete with brandy(!))

OTOH, I don't normally eat a ton of carbs and now there's a constant flow of stuff: bread, cookies, pancakes, puddings, on and on. I don't want to turn down everything because it's easier to eat minimally from that stuff than to run out to the store again and incur all the associated risk. I'm exercising every day not just to keep up a routine, but to keep from ballooning.

Just had a good snigger - on the UK news it was announced Brit scientists/doctors are testing certain drugs for Corvid-19 treatment including anti-malarials. I was only a few weeks ago that Trump was being laughed at for mentioning this, everyone just forgets Trump is a bit of an idiot so he would only have said something like that if medical advisors (and probably pretty smart ones) had mentioned that in a briefing (but not expecting him to splash it across crisis prime time TV).
Problem with having a bit of idiot has a leader, whatever intelligent advisors tell him usually sounds utterly ridiculous when he puts it out to the people .

southernman wrote: Trump is a bit of an idiot

In other news, the sun is a bit hot

hotseatgames wrote:

southernman wrote: Trump is a bit of an idiot

In other news, the sun is a bit hot

Point was things he says have probably been told to him by bright people and he turns it into the latest worldwide joke.