It's virus time, guyz. Welcome to Pandemic.

[coldbrightsunlight]

to be fair that was also around the time I lost interest in going to shows and parties. haha

BOY DO I WISH I COULD DO EITHER OF THOSE RIGHT NOW

[cosmicevan]

That sounds rough. Sadly facebook is pretty useful for me. I find a loads of great gigs through there that would be a struggle to know about otherwise.

But I have a tightly curated group of people on there who I'm actually friends with and I try not to read anything else.

I don't accept friends on facebook, I just use it for things I follow that only advertise on Facebook, but I will say, even those groups get toxic easily. These days you kinda gotta not look at anything.

[Schlatte]

I'm even more passive on Facebook than here, i basically only use it to stay in contact with old friends, ignoring the newsfeeds all together...
Since the government eased up on the restrictions here in Austria, I'm finally able to visit my family again. Drove to my parents house today to help my dad with some construction work and am staying till friday. I'm really glad to see that they all took the restrictions and safety precautions serious, especially because my grandparents are living with them in the house and my cancer survivor grandpa with 86 years of age is in the high risk group. But they all stayed at home, no visits or visitors and had no problems. It was very hard for them, because this is a small village with ~100 people living here and everybody knows everyone and they visit each other and talk or play cards the whole afternoon, especially with the neighbors.
I hope they stay healthy and keep their cool through the next months

[coldbrightsunlight]

Glad your family is ok

That sounds rough. Sadly facebook is pretty useful for me. I find a loads of great gigs through there that would be a struggle to know about otherwise.

But I have a tightly curated group of people on there who I'm actually friends with and I try not to read anything else.

I don't accept friends on facebook, I just use it for things I follow that only advertise on Facebook, but I will say, even those groups get toxic easily. These days you kinda gotta not look at anything.

Yeah. There's only one group I'm in that is like that and full of "the general public" which in normal times is useful but at the moment is a shitshow I'm avoiding entirely. Otherwise it's just my real friends who are chill.

[ck3]

Helpful hints for adapting to the present state of things:

https://catalog.psychotherapynetworker. ... mthrottled

***You can enter any random BS email addresses to avoid them spamming you***

[Jwar]

So, I HAD to go out and do some "landlording" today. One of my properties ended up having some bizarre leak that I couldn't pinpoint. I thought it was a foundation issues, so I had a foundation repair guy out. NOPE! There is a small crack in the slab but that's not why. Then I sent my guy Emmitt out and he cut holes in the walls, tightened all kinds of stuff and we thought it was fixed. NOPE. I ended up going over today knowing there are only a few options for what could be wrong, but not very many. My gut told me wax ring under the toilet. Cut two holes opposite side of the wall and found all kinds of water damage that looked years, and years old. So, I had to follow mold protocol and kill that shit with enzyme cleaner (it's not large enough for remediation and didn't spread beyond where the water travels. Plus, my tenant is a doctor and he educated me on how molds work. LOL Guess what it ended up being? 3 hours later. The wax ring under the toilet had failed. Sigh. So I scrapped all that shit out, put in a rubber one because they are way better and last way longer and I think it's good to go!

The reason I'm writing this here is because I had to go to 2 hardware stores today and this is the most exposed I've felt. Even with my mask, even with sanitizing, Clorox wipes for everything, I am scared. One of the stores was Home Depot. I feel like I spent more time there avoiding people than actual shopping. I only needed one thing and it took me 30 minutes. I kept trying to get around people but...I don't know. This whole thing scares me so bad. I hate it. My point is, fuck this shit. It sucks man. I had to make them wait too because of the whole social distancing thing.

I'm a landlord or a property manager/owner or Satan, you know. So, I have to respond to things still and this has made that so difficult. I can't make people suffer further though but I have to put myself at risk more than I'd like. I'm sure I'm not alone there by any means.

[Achtane]

Man, those wax rings suck. I haven't used the rubber version but what I really hate about the wax ones is that if you mess up the alignment of the toilet, well, too bad. It feels like pulling it back up, you may as well throw away that ring and use a new one. Ugh.
Were the stores busy? The hardware stores here are slammed and half the people in them have zero PPE. There are sometimes lines at the entrances and of course everyone is huddled up together.
I left the hand sanitizer that I usually keep in the car at home, so I didn't even wanna eat lunch today. I feel totally unprotected.
Nobody at work wears a mask except for me, and we sometimes pile in to a work truck together. I'm kinda just waiting to see if I get sick or not and then, if I get really fucked up or not. Lame.

[Jwar]

Man, those wax rings suck. I haven't used the rubber version but what I really hate about the wax ones is that if you mess up the alignment of the toilet, well, too bad. It feels like pulling it back up, you may as well throw away that ring and use a new one. Ugh.
Were the stores busy? The hardware stores here are slammed and half the people in them have zero PPE. There are sometimes lines at the entrances and of course everyone is huddled up together.
I left the hand sanitizer that I usually keep in the car at home, so I didn't even wanna eat lunch today. I feel totally unprotected.
Nobody at work wears a mask except for me, and we sometimes pile in to a work truck together. I'm kinda just waiting to see if I get sick or not and then, if I get really fucked up or not. Lame.

I hate wax rings and am just hoping this works. I'll find out probably tomorrow. They said they'd let me know in a few days. I'm hoping it worked. Otherwise, it's back over.


The stores were PACKED. Like super fucking packed. Home Depot was a regret for me. I feel so exposed now and I've actually been having panic attacks about it. I think I'm starting to become slightly agoraphobic. I'm not kidding either. None of the employees were wear any PPE. None. I don't get it. Hardly any of the elder people were either. I'd say it was about 50/50 on the people wearing anything at all.

[PeteeBee]

The stores were PACKED.... None of the employees were wear any PPE. None. I don't get it. Hardly any of the elder people were either. I'd say it was about 50/50 on the people wearing anything at all.

That's so strange and opposite my experience. Where I'm at, stores, in general, feel pretty good because they all have strict mask, the flow of traffic, and sanitation policies. What doesn't feel safe is going for walks. There was a good week or so where everyone was really careful but just as of the last day or two mask-wearing went from like 80%+ to well under half.

[DrMabuse]

Had to go to Lowes today for hardwarez that couldn't wait. They're requiring masks for all employees, which is at least more than Home Depot is doing. Customers were 50/50 mask vs no mask. So many of the no mask people oblivious to 6 foot personal space. Almost had a Charlton Heston "Don't you realize Solyent Green is people you damn dirty apes?!?!" outburst. Had to go from one end of the store to the other and back and ask three employees where to find the needed thingie, and I was getting some "fight or flight" adrenaline going by the end. Can definitely relate to the panic attack vibe.

People are wearing masks way less around here. Early on virtually everyone was wearing one at Target, last week it was maybe 25%. Safeway has gone down from 80% to maybe 50%. "Scientists and Doctors? What the hell do they know? Muh freedom!" Idiots.

[coldbrightsunlight]

It seems to me that people are following the rules less here too. Seen a lot more people out and about socialising and picnicking and stuff over the last week.

[Schlatte]

It seems to me that people are following the rules less here too. Seen a lot more people out and about socialising and picnicking and stuff over the last week.

Same here, but that has also to do with the government easing up on the restrictions. Bars and Restaurants are allowed to open up again next week under certain conditions (employees must wear masks, tables need to be placed far enough apart, etc.)
We have now had dropping numbers in infections for the last 3-4 weeks nationwide, so it should be ok to slowly try and get things running again. Also school is starting again step by step - between each of the "opening" phases there is a two week pause to see if the numbers continue dropping or spike up again, in wich case the restrictions would come back in full effect again. But by the looks of it now, it seems to work out quite well. Of course everybody is afraid of a second wave in autumn, when school starts again and everybody is back out, but until then I feel quite optimistic.
For me it still feels strange to go shopping because of the mandatory mask rule and everybody being super cautious and somehow mistrusting, but at least I could get some needed supplies from the hardware store.
I think it will take a long while after this is over, until people will "trust" each other normally again in public spaces... the whole keeping distance and "everybody could be infected" mindset somehow created a more "rejecting" mindset in people which is sad, because usually people around here were quite open minded and "welcoming".

[Dowi]

It seems to me that people are following the rules less here too. Seen a lot more people out and about socialising and picnicking and stuff over the last week.

Same here, but that has also to do with the government easing up on the restrictions. Bars and Restaurants are allowed to open up again next week under certain conditions (employees must wear masks, tables need to be placed far enough apart, etc.)
We have now had dropping numbers in infections for the last 3-4 weeks nationwide, so it should be ok to slowly try and get things running again. Also school is starting again step by step - between each of the "opening" phases there is a two week pause to see if the numbers continue dropping or spike up again, in wich case the restrictions would come back in full effect again. But by the looks of it now, it seems to work out quite well. Of course everybody is afraid of a second wave in autumn, when school starts again and everybody is back out, but until then I feel quite optimistic.

Same. People are becoming a lot less careful about social distancing. I hope the situation doesn't get worse next week, as bars and restaurants and other commercial activities should be able to open next monday - under some restrictions.
Schools are closed until september, and as of today, the government has quite bypassed the problem not giving any kind of idea on how are kids going back (step by step or similar solutions) when the time comes.
The only positive thing about lockdown rules being less hard starting past week is that we've been finally able to go out for a hike, which has been a huge relief after 2 months, specially for my daughter, and to see our parents (with masks etc).

[coldbrightsunlight]

Yeah that must be a relief. Our situation is a bit different because we were never quite so locked down.

People were getting less careful even before our restrictions have been changed. And they've been changed in an incredibly unclear way! So the confusion is probably just going to make things worse..

[Dowi]

I totally understand and share your pont of view. Confusion has been a leitmotif since the start of this thing here, both from sanitary and governative sides, and the fact that people are behaving as...people, doesn't help at all.