How many times have ya'll seen a surveyor with his shirt sleeves cut off? I can say it wasn't to show off his guns.
I walked to the nearby Target store yesterday (Sunday) in the fresh air and sunshine, and found it busy but not frantic.?ÿ I didn't look myself, but the checkout clerk said he had seen one package of TP go through right after the store opened and no more, so they must be out.?ÿ
But nothing I was looking for seemed in short supply.?ÿ Got 5 lbs of big sweet potatoes among other things, so my arm was getting long by the time I walked home.?ÿ One of those taters sliced, spiced, and baked, plus a chicken breast, and apples for dessert will make great suppers for two on several evenings. Mmm.
Things haven't been too crazy here so far, just canceling everything and a few items sold out.
But today they announced the first confirmed case exposing people in our small city.?ÿ A DJ at a restaurant bar on Friday started getting a headache and cough. By Sunday he was in bad shape and a confirmed case of COVID-19.?ÿ They are telling anyone who was there Friday to isolate themselves.
I hadn't heard about it until tonight, as it hadn't shown up when I searched for Iowa news earlier today. But it could have been on TV, which I rarely watch.
That's going to put the fear into this town.
I went to Publix yesterday morning at 6:45am. I’m thinking at 7:00am noooobody would be there that early. Jumpin Jesus the parking lot was full, not a grocery cart in sight and people that looked like they were going to bite the tires on a garbage truck at any second. I thought the hell with this, I’ll just cold turkey off Fruity Pebbles. Dammit. ????
No they don't Bill, and they certainly aren't paying much heed to the warnings regarding public behavior. Anyone going to a big box store this week is either clueless or lacks any sense whatsoever of social responsibility. If people remain this selfish we are screwed...
Got a call at 4am asking if I would come to the jail and take some prisoners home, not likely as none of them live here. Guess they are trying to empty the jails of as many non-violent offenders as possible.
Every school taking an early spring break and most all public meetings canceled and work from home announced for all city and county officials.
Been raining sometime for the last few days and forecast calling for more and I am so far behind with work and yard and shed cleaning because of it.
I do have to go into town for dog food and deliver hard copies to title companies.
Been raining here for days also. Doesn't do my mood any good. We've got a 7 or 8 hour window of dry here so I'm fixin' to leave and knock out a few fires that have been festering. Hope I don't get stuck in the mud. I stocked up on dog food a few days ago so the general population here is pretty happy..and asleep.
I'm surprised that CA isn't doing this already (Maybe they are and not telling anyone). I forsee this as a MAJOR issue in the coming weeks...
Here in NC, governor has closed bars and restaurants except for curb-side takeout. Schools are closed with free lunches being delivered to regular school bus stops. He worked with fast food places and allowed them to keep drive throughs open, but no sit-down inside. Gatherings of some maximum number of people (it keeps changing) are banned; it may be 25 but I'm not sure.
Had our first case in Guilford County, my home, yesterday. Syngenta employee who went to Orlando healthy for a meeting and developed symptoms after returning home. Don't know if employee took virus to Orlando or brought it back fresh from Orlando. Syngenta employs about 1000 people here, its the crop protection division.
Local hospitals have set up drive-through tents for testing to keep infected people who are not seriously ill out of the emergency rooms.?ÿ
Raleigh newspaper published a rough preliminary projection for April 2 (the 30 day mark since our first case) by a UNC-Chapel Hill epidemiologist. (No tournament, so they can do work down there.) Her number is 4,000; we have 63 or 65 today, depending on who's counting. Here's the link: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article241228151.html
If you download the data from the link in the article, you'll see that the compound growth rate of cases increases at each data point through April 2; an accelerating growth.
At my son's place of business, a young lady returned to work yesterday after a trip to Florida. Her colleagues basically ran her out. She left work crying and convinced that she was infected with the virus.
It's nuts here and getting nuttier every hour. I'm not as cavalier as I was a week ago. This is serious stuff.
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Sunny and in high ‘80’s. Spring breakers everywhere. All told to go home. All bars, schools, attractions etc. closed. I feel bad for 2 income families with children in school. And most of all the people that are being laid off. Beginning to think this chapter in history will make 1929 look like a cakewalk.
I'm not as cavalier as I was a week ago. This is serious stuff.
Yup.?ÿ I read the Imperial College report that changed the government response in the UK and US the other night when I could't sleep.?ÿ Then I REALLY couldn't sleep?ÿ?ÿ
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https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2020/03/17/1584439125000/That-Imperial-coronavirus-report--in-detail-/
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Edit: that might be behind a paywall
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/196234/covid19-imperial-researchers-model-likely-impact/
Here's an interactive Bing map. Its number for NC matches the most recent one from our department of health and human services, updated some time this morning.
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Made it to the Wally center for some OJ and saw there was no paper products, no fresh meat (chicken, pork, beef, lamb, goat, etc), no frozen pizzas, no water in bottles, no potato, a small assortment of frozen veggies and no cold or flu medicines.
Did find an ample supply and in a variety of fresh smoked KOUNTRY BOYS SAUSAGE.?ÿ
Went to the package store and there was plenty of beer and whiskey so all was not lost.
I can last a few months by rationing unless kids and grandkids start showing up from northern Arkansas and I've requested that they wait until summer to visit and stay home during spring break this year.
I dared another grocery trip today, despite there having been the DJ on Friday who was later diagnosed with the virus.?ÿ I would expect there to be a few people exposed by him and not isolating themselves either through not getting the word or "I feel okay".
The paper aisle is down and no TP.?ÿ There is no pasta or Ragu sauce. Canned soup down but not a lot. Didn't check all the items mentioned by Harris. There were potatoes but we have a bag already and they don't keep forever. Meat was down but not cleaned out. Bread running low.?ÿ I was able to get milk, cheese, turkey sandwich meat, flour, apples, rice, dry beans, some veggies, and vitamin C tablets.
Surprisingly, the beer and liquor aisle didn't seem to be much affected.?ÿ I'd think with everybody banned from the bars, home consumption would be up big time.
I see on the Babylon Bee that the Duggar??s have been cited for having gatherings exceeding the size limit....
No TP? No Problem.....
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Wendell and I decided to venture out yesterday for cat litter and ammo. Since I volunteer at the hospital and have friends that work there, I get updates before the general public. After I was sent the latest update about a 2nd temporary hospital being set up, I knew we needed to go out before mass panic set in again once it hit the local news stations. So I told Wendell, let's go!!
Almost everyone was out of the big tubs and boxes of cat litter, but fortunately Walmart had some. We grabbed a box and watched as people ran to the back, loaded carts full of cat litter, and split. Weird. We also grabbed some "normal" stuff that we needed. I helped an elderly lady find her face soap since no one else wanted to help/had time to help. I was thrilled to find my nail food for my brittle nails, and my rock painting spray. I also grabbed some daffodils to plant in my flower boxes.
Then we went to Petco to get my babies some cat food. Same issue. The cat litter aisles were clearing out. While we were there, they made an announcement over the speaker that Petco would be closing at 6 PM. Oh boy...People were trying to sneak in after 6 PM, and they got turned away. Well, they didn't like this so they were fighting and arguing with the Petco workers through the sliding glass doors. "THOSE people are IN there, with cat food in THEIR hands! Why aren't THEY KICKED OUT?!" (I had arrived at Petco at 5:40, before their announcement.) Sheesh!!
Then we went to our local gun shop to get our ammo. We had some, but with everything going on, a friend of ours "advised" us to go get more.
WOW. What a sight it was, walking into our gun shop! The place was PACKED. Most of the ammo was gone, including our gun types. People were lined up, submitting applications for the background checks to purchase guns. The worker there said they put over 1100 applications through just yesterday! People were getting angry because they'd have to "wait a day or so for approval, due to the back load." My first thought was why are you getting angry IN A GUN SHOP??? ?????ÿ
My "friend" told me to go try Big 5 or Sportsman Warehouse. Well, since Big 5 was closer, we went there. They had our ammo, but only two boxes left. The gun/ammo guy there said that the gun shop I was previously at, is sending everyone over to Big 5, and we got in just in time. He said never in his life had he ever seen anything like this. The Big 5 rifles and guns were getting sold out as well as the ammo. ???ý
My mother in law decided to paint a rock to put some humor back into things...Here's what she painted: ????ÿ
Guns & ammo???
Wow, I guess I should have seen that coming. That's the scariest thing that I've heard so far.
Loyal 🙁
@loyal
Indeed. It's flashbacks to the L.A. riots. My dad worked for LAPD. I remember him calling Wendell and I and telling us to "Keep your ASS INSIDE!!" Then all hell broke lose. ???? He also told me if something like that even seems to start to happen again, to be prepared ahead of time. I miss splitting MRE's with him. ??
