|
Post by The Hegemon on Mar 20, 2020 14:39:06 GMT
I'm in western PA, where cases have so far been relatively few in number, but tensions are high.
I have a dear friend in San Francisco who's understandably freaked out at a number of cases nearby.
How are our members faring in this? I'd especially like to hear from our friends outside of the US.
And let's keep this non-political, if possible. There are plenty for forums for having that kind of discussion. This is simply a check-in for our community.
Good health and good luck to us all!
|
|
|
Post by rodsboys on Mar 20, 2020 15:29:46 GMT
No cases yet in my area. Groceries cost my twice my usually budget lately due to usual brand/sizes not available, but otherwise so far so good.
Where I moved from in Canada seems to have a few cases. Two of the kids are still there.
|
|
|
Post by Russell844 on Mar 20, 2020 15:45:24 GMT
I am considered "essential staff" so I have still been working with barely anything to do. With the new California-wide stay at home order, we have a meeting sometime today to see what is going to happen next.
|
|
|
Post by Deinonychus on Mar 21, 2020 1:19:14 GMT
All good here. I’ve personally got more immediate and personal things to worry about than a virus...especially one that's not living up to the whole “We’re looking at total worldwide exposure in 72 hours” rapidly-reddening global map type deal so many movies and TV shows have threatened me with over the years. I do understand how serious this is and I believe that the world and the country are doing a lot of things right at the moment, but I also feel like we’re doing so much unnecessary stuff that it’s obscuring the good practices and setting ourselves up for some serious economic and societal pain in the near future. All that being said...just keep your heads, stay smart, stay clean, and we’ll all come out of the other end of this and be back to brickness as usual eventually.
|
|
|
Post by munchie37 on Mar 22, 2020 1:41:33 GMT
I work for one of the major supermarket chains in Australia and work has been crazy. Everyday we have had to introduce further restrictions on the amounts of foods/supplies people can buy in one transaction to counter the panic buyers. We have had to only open our stores for the first hour for pensioners and disabled customers so they can actually try and get the groceries they need as well as close our stores earlier so we can clean and stock the shelves (if deliveries arrive on time) Social distancing is now recommended at 2m between people. I don't know how that will affect work yet as this weekend is the most time off I've had in awhile. Every day the government is recommending further measures to stop the rise in infection rates. I'm trying to hold onto as much normalcy as possible but it's getting harder every day.
|
|
|
Post by hellfiresamurai on Mar 22, 2020 15:12:09 GMT
My area hasn't been as bad as others yet but more restrictions are coming. When the colleges sent the students home my work lost a lot of business & just recently the company decided to shift over its various locations to a reduced schedule 2 months earlier than they normally due for summer. When closures of bars, resturants, etc. started happening; I had some employees hoping we would close to not understanding what that would actually mean moneywise to them personally. Now that it has happened & they have less hrs; it has dawned on them why it is a bad thing. Currently trying to make sure their hours stay up as much as possible by scheduling myself less & using my PTO to keep my paycheck up so I can give the hrs I would have been in to my employees who don't have PTO as an option to keep their paycheck amount higher due to not being with the company long enough. In addition to that; just trying to make sure they are good on other stuff like groceries & OTC meds. Been buying extra stuff when I go to the store & then taking it in to my employees so I know they at least have some stuff & to try to alleviate some pressure & worries for them if they can't find stuff due to all the panic buyers.
|
|
|
Post by The Hegemon on Mar 23, 2020 15:16:48 GMT
I work in security & fire detection, so my work is at present deemed "essential and life-sustaining." As such, I'm still required to go into homes and businesses to service burglary and fire systems.
I'm not thrilled, honestly, because far too many people are flippantly dismissive of reality, and they are stupidly stubborn about maintaining safe distance.
No idea how this will play out, to be honest.
|
|
|
Post by Russell844 on Mar 24, 2020 17:49:28 GMT
Geez Dave. Stay safe. At least at my job I am contained with the same handful of people.
|
|
|
Post by munchie37 on Mar 24, 2020 21:52:19 GMT
Looks like this week is the last week for comic shops and similar stores. Diamond distribution is stopping orders so no new stock til this blows over. I go to my local comic shop every week it's one last bit of normality I have to look forward to in these crazy times. I hope their business can survive all this as I know many are already doing it tough and alot of people have lost their jobs and we haven't reached the peak yet. We're in stage 1 restrictions now so cafes, pubs, casinos, cinemas and restaurants must close unless they only do take away but alot are staying closed. At work we've closed every second assisted checkout and checkout to spread people out and are sanitizing all registers at least every hour. We're meant to be getting gloves and masks for staff soon. There are already alot less people walking around doing their shopping but we also still haven't been able to catch up with supplies yet either. Some states here have already started to close borders. We're at the start of Autumn but it feels like we're being forced to hibernate for the winter. Stay safe everyone!
|
|
|
Post by munchie37 on May 8, 2020 23:17:47 GMT
Hey it's been awhile since the last post so I thought I'd see how everyone is doing. I hope you're managing to stay safe.
Here we are in stage 3 restrictions but the government announced yesterday it's plan to start lifting restrictions and getting the economy going again. Each state/territory will decide when it wants to implement the changes and a few have already started as their infection rates have been close to zero. I know over the last few weekends I've seen a change in customer behaviour where they'll pack the shops not caring about social distancing. It's been overwhelming. Take care everyone!
|
|
|
Post by Gramps on May 9, 2020 17:04:20 GMT
Doing well in eastern New Mexico. Very few cases in my county, no fatalities. The times I have gone out for groceries there has been very little traffic and it kind of reminds me of a ghost town. A few temporary shortages on the shelves. I think most of that is people panic buying in the beginning and logistics problems. Take care of yourselves folks!
|
|
|
Post by The Hegemon on May 10, 2020 2:39:43 GMT
Still safe here, I'm happy to say. My county has had around 70 cases with few fatalities, and the governor has upgraded our danger status from red to yellow, which is good, I guess?
I do a lot of work in Ohio, where attitudes seem to remain disturbingly casual, with masks something of a rarity and people apparently growing more casual about social distancing.
|
|
|
Post by hellfiresamurai on May 12, 2020 20:37:07 GMT
I live in Ohio & will definitely back the attitude that The Hegemon mentioned. Other than the employees at stores that are mandated to wear masks; I rarely see anyone wearing one or social distancing. I work by a university & the students were sent home months ago but a bunch snuck back to stay with friends in off campus housing to party since they said their parents wouldn't let them sleep/lounge all day & drink non-stop. The adults in the area aren't much better since they keep trying to encourage the behavior then complaining about it later. I even had someone who works in a nursing home try to tell me that COVID is just a hoax anyway so why follow the steps. Not what you want to hear from someone in a job that has to do with health maintenance of other people.
|
|
|
Post by arnenielsen on Jun 29, 2020 9:06:29 GMT
In Denmark, restrictions have now been lifted, apart from large gatherings like concerts, festivals, sports events. As I am working in administration, my work has not been essential, so I have been working from home for 3 months, but are now back at my physical workplace. Being in the risc-group myself, I am astonished at how fast people have forgotten all about the Corona-rules, like distancing. I have bought a vest with "Keep distance - I am in the risc group" printed in big letters, but it dont help.
|
|
|
Post by The Hegemon on Jun 29, 2020 23:58:19 GMT
I'm saddened to see how many people still refuse to take the pandemic seriously, at least here in the US. I spend a lot of time in Ohio, where I can tell you that the majority of people have more or less dismissed it from the beginning, barely wearing their masks and acting like the trivial inconvenience of a cloth on one's face is equivalent to genocide.
As soon as restrictions were lifted, infection rates have started to increase, exactly as predicted by everyone who actually gave the matter any serious thought (rather than parroting talking points). The US has about 4.5% of the world's population, but it has between 20% and 25% of the world's cases of COVID-19. How could an entire society be so collectively and aggressively stupid?
How does the civilized world view us?
Since the inception of the original Bloks Forum, I've gone to some lengths to keep things apolitical. I get enough of that in other social media, so I like this place to be an oasis from the bitterness of those discussions. But come on! We as a nation are obviously doing something very, very wrong, and the hugely accelerating spread isn't the result of increased testing.
I'd love to hear the opinions of more of our members from outside the US. How do things look where you are?
|
|