HEB is a grocery chain all over Texas and part of New Mexico. They are a godsend to the communities they operate within, and I would consider the availability of them to be a major benefit of moving to the state. Their meat and seafood department is incredible, their in-house bakery rivals the best mom and pop ones, and a lot of their private label stuff is better quality than the name brand while being cheaper. Oh, they also are Texas' largest wine retailer. Their community work is second to none and they are a major reason why Texas has not seen the type panic over COVID-19 that has occurred elsewhere in the country.
I honestly feel like everyone around me is taking crazy pills. I live in PA, and while there are only 2 confirmed cases in my county, places of business are closed all around my office. One of my bosses is 81 years old. He just met with a lady who had a baby last week, and the baby is in the NICU. He's currently meeting with an elderly lady and her daughter. I'm not sure why people think they know better than the CDC and WHO, but with something as unknown as this virus, I think it would be better to err on the side of caution. The higher-ups sent out an email this morning saying we should try to limit our client contact by holding appointments over the phone as much as possible, except for real estate closings. Most other firms in our area are closed thru the end of the week. The courts are closed. I'm not really sure why I'm still here. I guess I'm that "essential". UGH!!!
Pennsylvania closed all their liquor stores yesterday. Being on the border, it means all those folks will come here to load up on booze. So I hit the store early this morning for a few bottles of wine. Dropped and broke one on the cellar floor when I got home. *Sigh*
One of the (few) perks of no longer drinking, all the non-alcoholic breweries are now offering free shipping and discount codes so I can order online at a substantially reduced cost. I already have several cases worth, including about 6-7 different types. And more on the way. They just drop it off at the gate and I go pick it up. No human contact.
One silver lining is that the grocery stores still sell beer and wine. So as much as PA's liquor laws suck, they don't suck as much as they used to?
And they will be of ZERO value when the new world currency happens. Our next door neighbours just drove home from Florida last night and they wanted to come over and tell us all about it. "Nope... stay the fuck home and we can talk on the phone." The wife (late 60's grandmother) guffawed at the precautions and we basically had to tell her she was a moron and to stay the fuck home. So instead she piled in her car and headed off to her office where she works part time as a receptionist, despite them having a "14 day self isolation when coming back from vacation outside the country". Totally disregarding it as "surely that doesn't apply to me". Hearing of the same shit at my other neighbour's work... automotive plant... guys coming back from 2-3 weeks vacation and trying to go back to work... "WTF are you doing here? Fuck off back home and see you in 2 weeks."
Our health district is about a 1/3 the size of texas and we only have 2 confirmed cases, and that was just a day or two ago. The shop manager just split the lunch times up of the of the mechanics and the electricians, to limit contact. Well the mechanics sat together and the electricians sat together, so splitting them up does absolutely nothing. I had to go out and get 5 pails of bleach, even thou we have a cleaning company that is cleaning for us. And some of the shift manager are giving out the N95 dust masks just to make people feel better.
My mom and dad are older and are a more at risk demographic. No, they don't have health issues or smoke or anything like that, but they are making no distinction between complications that require medical intervention and death. Nor do they seem to observe the fact that as contagious as this virus is, our hospitals WILL be overwhelmed. I think partially they are in denial, and partially they listen to certain "news" sources. My mom takes modest precautions when she goes out to do her usual errands and shopping. My dad sends long emails and texts about how this is totally overblown, which are then ignored by the rest of the family. As for me, I'm sitting my ass at home. I admit, I did go to my neighbor's house a couple days ago to discuss some business, but before that I hadn't left since Thursday and don't intend to go anywhere until I absolutely must, which will probably be next week. Hubs is till required to go on site to work but there are limited bodies there now. He can't get any real work done so he spends a good part of his day disinfecting his workspace.
Speaking from LA- we have been hit tremendously hard out here. Testing isn’t scratching the surface, as there is a feedback loop in place- no testing unless you have been exposed to someone who has tested positive, which means that untested people exposing each other creates a nice ripple effect. I know several people, myself and my wife included, who have symptoms that would suggest we have been infected for over a week. We have all self-quarantined, and we know that there is no treatment available unless we start crashing. We were practicing super diligent hygiene, hand washing, Lysol etc., so my guess is we got it from eating take out food right before the state of emergency was declared. Doctors don’t take your symptoms seriously unless you have a fever, dry cough, and difficulty breathing- any one or two of the thres doesn’t suffice for whatever reason. Bummer, but what you gonna do. What worries me the most about all of this is the possibility of a sizable portion of the population getting scarred lung / possibly heart tissue, let alone the economic consequences of everything. I’m helping out getting some test kits brought in from other countries through a biotech group I work with out here, but honestly from all I’ve seen I’m pretty sure that we are moving towards a herd immunity outcome (virus stops spreading because so many people have caught it that it has nobody to spread through anymore). Quick additional note- the faster we can get a test in place to confirm infection, the better off we are. If we can get people who hopefully have immunity in place, they would ideally be able to make an impact in administering care, delivering supplies, etc., but people shouldn’t act immune if they can’t medically validate it...
Well the person in charge of the whole terminal just ordered a skid of N95 dust masks because you know because they work against the virus, fucking retards.
So my wife will get to stay home, but it looks like tomorrow I’ll be getting a schedule to see what my “rotating shift” hours are. I would’ve rather just stayed home for two weeks and gotten paid. But I’m also kinda bored after one day of sheltering in place, so...
End of day two of self quarantine, wife hasn't killed me yet but I'm pretty sure she's considering the easiest way to do so and get away with it. "Landscaping accident" is high on her list I imagine. In other news, the Darwin Awards are gonna be great this year! "If I get corona I get corona. At the end of the day I'm not gonna let it stop me from partying." Yes, yes it will stop you from partying. And that video will stop you from getting a worthwhile job anytime in the near future. Congrats buddy go fuck yourself.
You don’t even have to describe him for me to know what he looks like. Once I know his name is Brady Sluder and he’s from Ohio, we already know that he looks like this:
Well, the city is basically shutting down now with the exception of essential services. Glad they made the call. Also extremely happy that we are considered an essential service, which will allow us to continue providing students with education and care for those parents who can't work from home, as well as keeping over a thousand people employed. It's beyond relieving to have a bit of good news in an otherwise horrible no good very bad few weeks.
The worst part of all this is that I just had to express my dog's anal glands vs taking him to the vet. Someone kill me.
. Just make him drag his happy little butt across the carpet like the rest of us. In other news, and I'm not sure if this is funny or sad, but Dear Leader claims north korea doesn't have COVID-19. I have a sneaking suspicion otherwise.