@AllHat well said. I’ve noticed that this whole situation has increased my gratitude so much. Sometimes I’ve had to think hard about my gratitude (we do it every day in my standup meeting) and right now I am just filled with things I’m grateful for. More than ever.
Even the stuff that I’m sad I’m losing out on (figure skating), I’m grateful that I’ve had those things before.
That being said, I still need to lower my stress, which was a problem before this ><
Pics or it didn’t happen.
Cosmetically reminding people to keep distance is totally helpful.
My state is one that has been adamant about NOT mandating shelter-in-place and instead using social media to spread the word about the importance of banding together to stay at home.
Even our buses and trains say #stayhomeMN after the route number instead of the street destinations.
It’s working. We are one of 5 states in the US to get an A rating based on empirical/GPS data regarding social distancing.
My workplace is proactively shutting down all outpatient clinics to convert to ICU facilities. We are still maintaining a 10-25% workforce on our main campus to preserve provider health as long as possible.
I’m vacillating between pride and panic.
Crowdsourcing some advice here. I’m signed up for a Red Cross First Aid/CPR certification class that’s mostly online but has a 2-hour classroom portion next week, April 1. They aren’t cancelling classes where it’s possible to maintain 6-feet distance between students and are reducing class sizes accordingly.
If this were ANY other topic I’d cancel in a heartbeat, but honestly a first aid refresher feels useful. I’ve also scheduled a blood donation following the class that I don’t want to cancel, so I’ll be going into the Red Cross building regardless. I’m feeling healthy and and not immune-compromised.
I should probably cancel, right? I keep going back and forth on this.
Can our needleworkers start making everyone embroidery of this?
I’m about to go into the office for (3) hours to scan shit.
Operation DON’T TOUCH THE FACE. THE FACE IS LAVA. goes back into effect after blissful face-touching days at home.
Your two cents are good shit. I am at a different place in this journey than @allhat, and sometimes that means I need different ways of doing this stuff.
I cannot summon any gratitude some days. There is nothing but blankness. When that is the case, when my garden is overgrown with weeds, I do an even smaller thing.
I write down 1 thing that went well that day. Like, I poured my cereal in my bowl and didn’t spill it and ate some of it. Great, I did a thing, it went well, I wrote it down, that’s one tiny weed pulled. I don’t have to feel grateful before or after, I don’t have to force anything, just: this is a thing that I did, that went how I expected it to. I’m sure there are even smaller steps than this one that can help too.
Whelp my state is going into lockdown. This is great but also I shouldn’t have postponed my pickup of soil.
Some really good posts today!
This sounds like an excellent place to start. <3
Thanks for the welcome. It is really great to see the support and kindness here. I definitely agree that it’s okay to be imperfect and we can’t control all of our risk, as we really can’t with many things in life. The fact that this is “new” and a relentless news item hits our human survival instincts. I’m very grateful to live in this day and age, and not in some previous time before modern conveniences, healthcare, and science.
My little area of the world is so far pretty quiet, as long as you don’t need toilet paper. I am super anxious about food security with my family’s food allergies to manage…was just debating with DH whether we should be trying to find seed so we can grow enough beans to get through next winter for carbs for my kiddos. We usually have pretty good access to gluten free flour and bread and I’ve never seen a store run out of potatoes before. I keep food stocks but have cut back over the last year due to hubby’s teasing. Turns out he was teasing because he liked it (WHY???). Kids are getting a crash course in “we eat perishables first” and keeping things with a longer shelf life for when it’s hard to get fresh stuff. Hope I’m not scarring them for life.
FWIW, I’m not trying to disinfect everything in my world, but we are militantly insisting the kids cannot go to the store with us and that hands are washed as soon as we get home. I’m fortunate to have some hand sanitizer so I use my left hand to handle my card and wallet (all our transactions don’t require the cashier to touch the card) and my right hand does public spaces (that sounds BAD!). Right hand is then disinfected before I touch the car, keys etc.
If anyone is in need of disinfectant, you might check with any distilleries in your area. We have several nearby who are producing hand sanitizer and are testing the concentrations for some distillaries across the country. I’m not sure how distribution works. If they haven’t started this is your area and you do call, you can suggest it too. One of our local businesses started this service at the request of the sheriff’s department.
I think my wife and I might have it?
We’ve both been sick with colds/allergies/etc. since the beginning of March so it’s hard to tell what’s what. But I had a mild fever (like 99.3) at the end of my lingering cough after the cold, and now my wife has had a higher fever (100-102) since Sunday night. And we both are losing our sense of taste - it’s not gone, but things just don’t taste right.
I’m grateful that neither of us is sick enough to need any medical attention. Her fever comes down with Advil and Tylenol (I know there are mixed reviews about using Advil but we couldn’t find Tylenol anywhere and don’t have much of it). However, having mild symptoms also means we can’t get tested to know for sure. I wish we could to know how seriously to quarantine. We’re assuming we have it and acting accordingly, but there are some necessary errands we can’t avoid (taking out the trash, laundry at the laundromat eventually, groceries eventually - delivery services are so overwhelmed here in NYC there is no available delivery slot at all on freshdirect).
It’s kind of strange. If not for the presence of this pandemic, we wouldn’t think much of any of our symptoms. Just seems like normal seasonal illness. But it’s kind of scary thinking about what it could turn into. I’m just hoping we are part of the vast majority who get through it with no major issues. Or that it was never covid at all.
Thanks for listening. I’m not telling my family unless things get worse and I have to because they would freak out (see above post). I’m glad I didn’t listen to them and stayed home. If we do have it, we for sure would have exposed a lot of people in the process of traveling somewhere else.
Hugs! Wishing you guys well. 
Seems like the biggest thing to keep an eye on is shortness of breath. Might be worth calling your doctor’s office too so they at least know?
Do you have a telemedicine option where you are? We have some sort of line to discuss symptoms etc through the local hospital/trauma center. No fees. Really, I think it may be the medical school, who is the major health provider here. But, we’re in a teeny tiny area in comparison to NYC.
In MA agriculture and therefore garden stores are “essential” and open. I’m getting dirt delivered on Friday (at least they haven’t cancelled yet), and I went to a farm store to pick up a bale of straw today (minimal human interaction, did pet the store cat, then sanitized my hands).
I’m definitely on the more lenient side of the spectrum on this forum (I’m not in physical contact, or even the same state as my loved ones who are high risk), and it’s possible I’ll regret that in a few weeks, but also if I’m going to be stuck at home for weeks I’m going to need a hobby dammit. And growing my own food is positive in so many ways, that right now I think it’s still worth it.
Oh no, zygote I hope you and your wife feel better ASAP!!
Your losing sense of taste reminded me that I meant to post this:
