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Daily coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - April 18
This thread is posted daily, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the situation is like where you live!
hopefully the snow will stop people from mass protesting here in colorado. trump is just beating his drum. i cant stand this shit.
Partner has a family member with a mild case of know-it-all. Said they were rather laid back about the whole thing, people panicked too much. Has "other sources" that do "not quite align" with the federal govt.
Said family member lives with other elderly, at risk family members.
I hate people. I've tried once to convince them of something much less important and given how that went I don't think I should even try this time.
There was this kiwi here the other day who posted a relevant image on twitter. Yeah, sending that is about how much I wanna invest into this. Let me go look.
E: @emdash it was, this is what I meant: https://twitter.com/gdinwiddie/status/1250130371242582016
I have the absolute opposite experience from people here (Sweden). People try their best to follow the suggested methods for combating the virus, shopping in the local tiny store is like a really complex game of twister as people try to manoeuvre themselves to be 2 meters apart between the cramped shelves.
People stay at home if they can, try to support their neighbours (seriously, unless you're Swedish you have no idea how unique that is, I have lived in the same apartment 10 years almost and just now learned a few of my neighbours names as one of them need help shopping since she's in a risk group).
Sure people mess up, sure people slip up and since spring is coming here (which is a big thing, going from darkness all the time to the lighter summer) some perhaps get too gung-ho about going places, but again most really do work hard to follow the recommendations.
Yesterday as I was in above mentioned tiny shop I had a dude with a rather obvious drug habit behind me in the queue who missed the markings on the floor (to indicate where you need to stand to be 2 meters apart) leaning in, at first I got kinda grumpy but the cashier saved the day telling him smiling and after some confusion it was actually a pretty happy, healthy exchange between me, the Somali-Swedish cashier, and a drug addict about our shared worry about the virus (again, if you need info about Sweden do a search for "Waiting for the bus like a Swede").
There will ALWAYS be morons, or people so full of themselves that they either go totally insane and start hating on other humans for being humans OR those who read "other sources" and think that they are invincible and so shouldn't care - but they are a comparatively tiny minority. We just see them more (the rest of us are staying in doors or on our own outside) - the key is to not become the first group, not lose grasp of why humans are humans.
(recently read about a kid in South Germany who had been almost fined twice for breaking curfew - the boy had just started dating this girl and ... humans are humans. Now on the one hand one might look at that kid and go "what a moron!" and get angry OR go "Humanity will be alright, young kids still fall in love, young people are still a bit careless (and lets be honest, between us older people - a tad thick like they've always been :) ) and driven by other blood-heavy body parts than their brains")
Don't get me wrong, I can see people breaking curfew within reasonable bounds - one person, easily traced, sure whatever. I don't get offended if people continue having social interactions. A neighbor here regularly rides a bike with someone who I can only presume to be their date. Sure, whatever. Even if we had a stricter curfew here, I'd not fault them. I'd assume their date lives alone too, but even if not... that'd be no different than if neighbor lived with their date. I totally get it; I'm privileged to live with my partner.
And I also get that most people support the measures and are being reasonably safe. No twister in the grocery stores, but still.
What I am concerned about is families mingling. I often see young kids from different families playing outside together. I don't have a very strong opinion of it, but I'm certain I would make different parenting choices.
But what really got me yesterday is that family member. I think they're part of the tiny minority and I think they're basing their decisions on "alternative facts". I'm not informed enough to know what exactly they're doing, but I'm angry - and concerned for the at-risk family members.
I know humanity will be alright in spite of them. That doesn't mean they can't do harm.
California Has Surpassed Its Goal Of 15,000 Hotel Rooms For The Homeless - "Motel 6 agreed to set aside 47 of its motels in 19 counties for an additional 5,025 rooms, bringing the total to nearly 16,000 rooms."
However: Gov. Newsom says less than 40 percent of rooms are occupied - whether that's slow or fast seems to depend on who you ask.
It is basically impossible to buy flaky sea salt (what Americans, I presume, would call kosher salt) here at the moment and it's driving me up the wall. I hate the sickening flavour iodised table salt includes.
I also can't buy anything off Amazon since they've stopped delivering to New Zealand. Understandably, this is kind of the point of lockdown, to limit movement and reduce the amount of work taking place, but I'm also allowed to rant :P.
If you can find non-iodised salt perhaps this is not just a way to get sea salt, but also a fun project for quarantine times? https://cooking-ez.com/trucs_astuces/recipe-how-make-fleur-sel-salt-flakes.php
EDIT: or this even more DIY method https://lifehacker.com/make-your-own-sea-salt-5856688
Depending on the meal, you can replace table salt by soy sauce.
Of course that doesn't help me, I haven't been able to find soy sauce in the past week.
Elon Musk’s ‘Ventilators’ Arrived at Hospitals — With Some Assembly Required