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Coronavirus 2020


Marc1

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Debi has been down in Hialeah FL since Feb 26th for her mothers 91st birthday. They had a big surprise party for her mom on Sunday last. She said everyone down there is buying up everything in sight, like Armageddon is upon them. She is flying back home on this coming Thursday and can't wait to get back to sane folks.

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You can't spell pandemic without panic.  Crazy people who are being irrational and trying to feel like they have some control of a situation.  When people feel that they are out of control of something in their lives they will compensate by doing something that they feel gives them some control, even if it is only slightly related to what is really going on.  I wish people would realize that Covid 19 is not the Black Death or Ebola.  Yes, if you get it the probability of death is somewhat higher than seasonal flu but it is still a very small percentage.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

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Well ... it happened to us this time. A patient came into my wife's surgery stating he had returned from Kuwait and needed a medical clearance to go back to work. My wife, who has been using mask and gloves for the last month among the sneers of her colleagues, detected a fever and supplied the patient with a mask and sent him for testing with no clearance. On Sunday the health department tracked my wife down at our weekend house and told her the patient tested positive and to get tested herself.   

Thanks to her precautions adding to the brief exposure ( under 10 minutes) and keeping distance, the results will most likely be negative, but we are still waiting. Most likely today (48 hs)

During her self imposed absence from  the surgery, staff and doctors are all wearing masks and gloves now.

Meantime ... I will be stocking up on toilet paper and yeast and dog food as an added precaution ... Ok may be not dog food ... a case or two of top red wine perhaps?  :)

PS

Seriously now, if you get this wretched virus, it seems you will be immune for life ... if you survive that is. Let's see how we do. 

One thing that seems to be the go is to buy devalued blue chip stock. Nothing like panic to make some money. 

Question ... is this coincidence? Do they know something we do not? Or is this all too convenient? 

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/09/20/the-world-knows-an-apocalyptic-pandemic-is-coming/

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Marc, my thoughts exactly---time to buy!  Unfortunately it's real close to time to retire and so those investments are not up. I told my wife we would have to coast on our savings until the market picks back up---never sell in a down market!

 I am not so sure of the immune for life scenario yet---not a long enough baseline and unfortunately my wife and I are both in the high risk bracket.

Good for your wife!  I chewed out the local Dr's office, part of a large health organization, as they were requiring every patient to sign in on a computerized screen reader with the SAME stylus and no disinfectant to use between patients!  (And their website said they were doing everything they could to protect the health of their patients!   I told them that their published information was obviously "unreliable" and they shouldn't post stuff like that in public!)

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Well, the yeast supply was replenished and there was plenty of toilet paper at the store today. And a big crowd shopping. The nursing home my mom is in did implement using a code to get in because of the virus. Those are about the only things I found kind of different. 

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17 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Marc, my thoughts exactly---time to buy!  I told my wife we would have to coast on our savings until the market picks back up---never sell in a down market!

Buy blue chips that pay fully franked dividends. I don't care for the value of the stock but to purchase more units that will pay more dividends. Trading stock is a total bore and guaranteed to stress me out. Use to trade in the future market but my results where too close to flipping a coin. :)

Still no results. i get the impression that everyone is overworked, and fumbling in the dark, making it up as they go. 

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Things are still pretty calm here but we haven't had a positive test yet. I went shopping today and the staff were restocking frantically. No antiseptic wipes, lotion, or soaps, alcohol or peroxide on the shelves though there was plenty of chlorine still. Nobody was crowding and nobody coughed. I hit the men's room and there was a line at the sinks while guys were WASHING THEIR HANDS!! That is rare in a men's room, I was shocked, maybe the covid-19 scare isn't such a bad thing if men are washing their hands after going to the bathroom!

I'm in a higher risk group than Deb but we both need to be more careful than the average folk. 

Oh, MPC: About disagreeing with me tsk tsk tsk. Sufficiently admonished? :P You're absolutely right about rotating stock in the pantry, I was off on a tangent thinking of survival rations like you'd keep in a plane, boat, car, etc. where you don't want folk snacking on them. In that sort of survival situation a few day is a long time to be out of touch, longer happens but it's really rare. 

I keep a few different kinds of beans: pinto, navy and red are always in their bucket though right now I have a bucket of mixed beans. Falki our Icelandic Sheepdog had issues with store bought dog food even premium brands started making him sick in about 2 weeks so I started cooking food for him. Boiled: chicken, rice and beans with a handful of barley. 

We rehomed Falki and still have all those dry beans lentils, barley, etc. I like to throw some barley or lentils in things like stew for a tasty thickener. I'm thinking we can go a couple months without opening a fresh bag of anything. It's all good winter comfort food, when I lived remote I used to keep a large pot of hot stuff on the stove all the time. When it got lower than about 3/4 I'd add something. People used to drop in and occasionally bring something for the pot but always a cup and spoon. 

Of course if covid-19 does turn into an epidemic or worse there won't be people stopping in to visit, a bowl of hot stuff and sourdough biscuits. Nope, email and phone calls will be close enough. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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I just think the best thing we can do in this situation is not panic ourselves and definitely don't say things that will make others panic. If we are all to busy preping for a pandemic than none of us will discover a cure. And if you are going to go get emergency supplies, buy things like canned food, bottled water, and a generator. Not particle masks and toilet paper. Most of those things wont really help in the long run and will deprive others of necessities. Stay healthy, dont eat extra suger, take your vitamin c, and if it gets bad go to a friend or family who lives out in the country and don't let others in the property.  

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19 hours ago, mpc said:

Did they come with the heater packs? Those are fun. 

Make sure you're in a well ventilated area. I've seen about eight at one time heating up MRE's in an enclosed vehicle but it's not a good idea. 

Pnut

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Well, it's official: no more business travel for the college to be scheduled at least for the rest of the month. Students are going home early for spring break, and faculty are preparing for remote learning through videoconferencing. The opera production will proceed, but to an empty hall and will be livestreamed. Worst of all from a blacksmithing perspective, my client for the papermaking knives will not be attending the now-cancelled Haptic Learning Symposium that our library was going to host.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting in my office trying not to touch my face:

Image may contain: one or more people and people sitting

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I find that just handcuffing each hand to a different anvil helps me to not touch my face; and folks said I only needed one anvil!

Interesting, the university here is asking students to stay on campus for spring break.

John; may I forward that picture to some of my SCA friends?  Classic oldschool barrel helm!

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