Sheltering in Place

[Drunk Monk]

For DOOMers who never escaped the Bay Area, whacha doin?

I've been scrambling to sort work remotely.  It's weird because I telecommute at least once a week, but not having the office poses a ton of new obstacles.  Stacy went for a hike - thank goodness that the Shelter in Place declared hiking, running & biking as exempt as long as we maintain social distancing.  

I'll head over to my mom's later today (caretaking is also exempt) and try to get her set up.  She's not getting it - the magnitude.  She called us frantically about taxes and has been obsessing over her TV pick up.  I've been trying to explain to her that everything is shut down, but it's really hard to talk to her on the phone because she lost her hearing aids and it's been yet another trial to replace them. She'll probably lose them soon after we get new ones anyway.

Last night I had a horrid nightmare that I caught covid and was freaking out because I couldn't meet my responsibilities with my family.  I only remember one bit where there was a red skull bead mala that snapped, sending tiny skulls all over the place. I woke up pumped with adrenaline and super cold, and for a moment, I thought I was sick.  But then I realized that it was genuinely cold plus one of my blankets slipped off, and I was shaky from the adrenaline.

[thatguy]

I was working from my mom's on and off last week. It was pretty terrible as there's no desk. I finally got the go ahead to WFH and got things set up in the office to accommodate. Then I packed up for Marina and am working remote at my desk at my GF's place.

--tg

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I went for a stroll in GG Park (next door to me) and then strolled up to Balboa St. The restaurants are open for take out. Not bad as far as apocalypses go.

THe real weird thing will be that I have never had 3 weeks off in my life. I’ve never had more than 10 days off and the last 2 times that happened it was cuz I was in the hospital. Having almost no urgent matters is just...weird.

[Drunk Monk]

Just made my first Safeway run for my mom.  wow.  The grocery run is no joke.  So many empty shelves, such an odd assortment of what remains.  There was caution tape blocking off an empty tp aisle and signs for an abandoned queue.  Everyone had their heads down, making eye contact from a much further distance than usual.  People were polite and gave each other plenty of space.  The workers were busily restocking...cat litter.

[Drunk Monk]

I just filed for unemployment.  First time in my life.  I'm not sure how I feel about that right now.

[Drunk Monk]

Yesterday was weird, my last day of work for a while.  I'm trying to put it down, to accept the break.  It's unlikely that we will be able to make deadline, even though we were ahead of schedule for this issue now. Losing three weeks, assuming of course that it's only three weeks, is devastating.  And our distribution contract is up for renegotiation because our distributor, Curtis, was recently usurped by CMG.  Hopefully we'll get some sort of pass due to the situation, but frankly, if our TN office can't stay open, we won't have the money to pay for the next issue printing.  But I got to let that go for now because there's not a damn thing I can do about it for the next three weeks at least.  

I fell asleep early tonight but popped awake after midnight.  I'm at my mom's and she's been testing my patience. I think she has some idea of what is going on, but it hasn't really sunk in.  How could it? She has no point of reference.  It was weirdly quiet because the nearby elementary is closed.  Usually my telecommute days are filled with the sounds of children under the TV at max volume.  There were some people in the park just now - it's after 2am - chatting about something, hanging out, something that I've heard occassionally from my old bedroom window since childhood.  I can't quite make out what they are saying in the dark but it sounds calm and conversational.  

Not sure what I will do with the next three weeks. Stacy wants to go backpacking but I'm uncomfortable with leaving my mom during the apocalypse.  Maybe I'll write King Lear or something.  I do have some scattered notes on some book ideas.  Maybe I'll just stare at the walls and binge a lot of TV. The libraries are closed however.  They won't even allow returns, waiving all late fees, because they're closed.  

Those people are still in the park chatting.  I should sleep.

[King Bob]

They sent us home yesterday afternoon. I'm technically working from home but not really much for me to do. I'm checking my email often, but hours have gone by and no one has replied to my messages (I sent two and one was to the department head), so I guess no one is really working hard at telecommuting, except maybe the faculty who are supposed to be teaching online.

Christina is of course not working, and losing her income will hurt a bit but we should be okay.

[Drunk Monk]

Tiger Claw turned off its remote access service.  Probably a money saving move but Jonny should've warned us.  No word on if the TN office closed yet.

[cranefly]

I'm delving deeper into figure drawing with online classes.  I've done figure drawing before and thought I was getting halfway competent.
But now that I'm actually looking at the curriculum and growth, it's painfully evident I've never even practiced the basics.  I've just used a helter-skelter approach to all previous endeavors.

Now I'm practicing gesture drawings, soon to move onto bean shapes, then blocks, eventually mannequinization.  After that, anatomy.

I'm learning from Stan Prokopenko, who is extending his free trial to 30 days because of the coronavirus situation, and offering 20 percent off on his premium courses.

Anyway, yeah.  Just like with martial arts.  The fundamentals are so essential, and bear revisiting often.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Shipments are still coming in, but tomorrow (Thursday) should be the last of them until this blows over. I’ll do a little repair work while I’m there. I rode the bike around today to do some errands. Nice getting out. I’ll still keep some appointments with lawyers/accountants because some shit does not stop for viruses.

[El Dingo]

I too, have been confined to my domicile.

There is little I can do from home. My job is configuration, maintenance and deployment of hardware.

I'm basically the mechanic who fixes or replaces your broken hardware. This means I have to touch your stuff.

Restricted to home all I can do is monitor the environment and wait for issues to be escalated to me.

I get to go in tomorrow though to configure and ship some hardware (claps excitedly)

Bingewatched "Beastars" on NetFlix which was a hoot.

[Drunk Monk]

I got a nice 10+ miles of hiking in - some in the redwoods, some down to the beach.  Glad I did that with the new statewide order issued.  The previous one for Cruz county said hiking, running & biking were exemptions.  I've yet to see the exemptions for the new one.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

It is basically the NorCal model, but for the whole state.

[Greg]

Now, I'm in a funk. I could feel all superior when you lot in your crowded cities, were forced to stay indoors. But now that the governor has said we all have to do it, I feel a bit sad. I had errands to do today, including a run to Kaiser to get my blood checked. (Kaiser has been calling me every day to get that done)

Well, I'm still going to get my blood checked. I'm sure there won't be any stray germs at the clinic.

[cranefly]

I'm surprised Kaiser has been pushing you.  I'd think they'd want all to stay away.  Our vet had a new policy.  When we arrive, stay in our cars in the parking lot.  Call the office and they'll put us in the queue.  Eventually someone will come out to the car to take the pet in for the vet.  Who knows what they do with it in there?  I presume the bill is brought out at the end.  And the pet.