Self Isolation

[ken hatch]

I know some of us are in self isolation. That is to be expected and I would think necessary with the age of woodworkers tending towards the end of the roll instead of the beginning.

My question is how many are at a minimum social distancing, how much support do you have, those of us still working, do you have support of your company/job? My next thought is many of us live close to other woodworkers, it might be good to know who is close and what their circumstances are.

I'll start. I live on the West side of Tucson and I'm still working but my employer at this time is still paying me while both my wife and I are self quarantining and will for the duration.

We will help anyone in need if able.

ken

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Minimizing connections. Entire state of Ohio is in a stay at home order (except to get things like drugs and groceries). I am working a project that gives me the ability to go in to work, but I am trying hard to NOT go into work even though it would be easier if I brought my work laptop home rather than using a VDI (connecting to a remote virtual machine) for everything.

No play dates for the kids (even though we were asked to do so), just avoiding people in general.

[Patrick McCarthy]

Central coast of California; stay at home order.
For past 42 years wife has questioned (I’m being polite) my sense of humor - no change there, much to her disappointment.
Viewing this as a dry run to see what retirement would be like; she thinks i should go back to work soon . . . .
Concerned because one daughter and 2 sons-in-law work in essential services, but they all have kids at home and concerned about bringing something home.
Stay safe guys, we will come thru this together.
I find Gov. Cuomo’s morning briefings to be informative, thoughtful, candid and helpful in keeping everything in perspective.
Watching the situation in Italy scares the hell out of me, especially as we model the Italian curve . . .

[Jim Koepke]

Mentioned to Candy the other day about going on an "eat yourself out of house and home diet." She didn't like the idea. We will likely not change things a whole lot since we only go off the property a few times a week. Now likely to change that to once a week. May even try to stretch that some.

Our state and local officials are shutting down common gathering places to help stop the spread of covid-19. It might also be good idea to shut down all the lotteries to keep people who feel a need to go out and buy their 'winning tickets' home.

jtk

[Mike Henderson]

Southern California, below LA. We're only going out to the grocery store or some other required trip. Otherwise we're home. I do walk the dog a couple of times each day.

I'm doing some simple woodworking things. Built some lazy susans for us and a couple of friends from scrap wood I had in the shop. Here's one of avocado wood. We had to take an old tree down and it cut and dried some of the wood.
428620

Then, one of olive wood. Same thing - had to take an olive tree down and saved some of the wood.
428619

And one of walnut - just scrap from the shop.
428621

Mike

[Paul F Franklin]

Richfield OH. I'm retired so no issue with job, although I have been teaching one class at CWRU each year. For scheduling reasons I did not teach this semester, and as it turns out that was lucky. No idea what will happen in the fall. My class is heavily lab based so not practical to do it online. My wife teaches at CWRU also, and they are essentially shut down with all teaching/meetings, etc, online. Fortunately, she has experience doing that so it has not been a big burden. But she teaches midwifery and advanced practice nurses and all internships have been cancelled for immediate future. Her students can't graduate without quite a few hours of internship, so students are obviously stressed out by the whole situation. The university (and all of them I'm sure) is scrambling to meet the huge challenge.

We are self isolating and were even before the governor's order. We go out to walk the dog twice a day but avoid any contact with other folks or dogs while doing so, and I make one trip to grocery store per week. So far what shortages there are have not been a problem for us. We always mostly cooked at home and continue to do so. We will try to order one take out meal a week or so to try to keep the local restaurants going as well as we can. I can't tell how much I am looking forward to slightly warmer weather and being able to grill outside again.

I have family in the area and I am assuming our usual family get together at Easter will be put off as sad as that will be. Several family members are front line medical folks and I don't think it's wise for us or them to gather together.

My wife has organized a weekly video conference via Zoom with many of her family members, which are spread out across the country, and that's working out very well for them; may do it with my family as well.

We had a trip to Ireland planned for July. While we haven't officially cancelled it at this time, I can't imagine it will happen. We have some time yet to cancel and still get our deposit back, so will let the plans ride for a bit yet.

Neither of us is too worried about going stir crazy. Both of us have always had more interests than we have time for, and there is always something that needs cleaned or fixed if we get really desperate. And of course, the outside chores will be starting soon.

I too offer help to any local creekers in need as long as it can be done safely.

[Rob Luter]

Northern Indiana. The Governor just issued a stay at home order. My bride and I are working from home for a couple weeks at least. Thank goodness we have jobs and the connectivity that make that possible.

Grocery shopping has been a bit of an adventure but we're good. We could both miss a meal and be OK :o

[Jim Becker]

Professor Dr. SWMBO will be teaching her spring class remotely. The Princess (AKA younger daughter) has her entire semester classes either online using video conferencing or "regular online", depending on the class. She still has work hours back-of-house at the restaurant she works at in an isolated office (accounting work) which is important because it's also her internship for school. They tried to figure out how she might do this at home, but having the data at hand is the issue as is security for things like payroll...small company that doesn't have big-company infrastructure. Her front-of-house hours are obviously gone because the restaurant is now takeout/delivery only. She still sees her boyfriend (serious relationship) but they are not mingling with others. Older daughter is working in a food market and still has her hours, but got a $1.50 an hour raise as of yesterday plus 30% purchases plus free hot meals. I'm at home full time anyway, but only doing minimal client work to support ETSY customers (permitted by PA) and for one CNC client for whom I have inventory of material and am shipping to him on his nickel. We are not going out anywhere other than the pharmacy and for food. For the latter, we are now only having one of us go on a trip, too, in support of "concurrent customer limitations" within the stores. So there's normal meals...some extra house cleaning...and being a total slave to a cockatiel who has demands and opinions. :)

I'm not going to get all stressed here...it's counterproductive. If one or more of us comes down with the virus, we'll deal with it in whatever way is appropriate.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

3 weeks ago today, my wife and I returned from 3 weeks of traveling by air. In the last 9 of those days we were in the following airports in this order : Phoenix, LAX, Long Beach, PHX, PHX, FAT, FAT, LAX, SLC, LWS. Hearing the news the morning after we returned, I did self quarantine for 2 weeks. I didn't attend the local WW clubs monthly meeting for their sake, not mine

Our youngest son and his wife are in the middle of divorcing. The DIL, a pharmacist at 2 hospitals, has sole custody of their 3 kids (twin 10 yo, 7 yo). 2 weeks ago when I saw schools in CA starting to close I suggested to the wife she might want to consider returning to CA to watch those 3 kids. She volunteered and the DIL accepted her offer. Sunday a week ago my wife flew to PHX spending the night with our daughter and SIL. Monday she flew to Fresno and took a shuttle to Visalia. The school district closed the schools that Monday morning. So, my wife is in CA for the duration. My wife traveled wearing one of the paper masks I had bought for those 3 grandkids to wear when they come to spend the summer with us. They like to woodwork. I bought a children's face shield and a masks to wear under the face shield when they are sanding.

In fact, 10 days ago I created another "Pawpaw's vacation" for those 3 grandkids. Last summer my vacation involved taking the 3 along with my wife to a tour of Yellowstone. I tried to pull one off in Glacier this year but couldn't get the Red Bus Tour. So, I created a trip where we'd meet in Vegas, the 3 grandkids, my wife and I would travel to Moab, UT where we have guided tours scheduled of Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. This last tour is a 4x4 tour. My wife is a little nervous about that one. I have all the motels in the entire route reserved.

Last Friday, I drove to our favorite restaurant. I ordered a takeout order and consumed a 20 oz. Dos Equis Amber while I waited. I talked with one of the owners about the slowdown in business. In this town, if a restaurant isn't swamped on Friday nights, it's not going to be in business long. For the first time ever, in the 20 years they have been in the area, the parking lot was vacant. I asked Alfonso was business down, he said "Significantly!" I asked if takeout was up he answered "Significantly!". He then said "I don't blame people and we are just trying to hang on." This family owns 2 Mexican restaurants in town and I would bet they employ 20-30 people between those 2 establishments.

I am at our home in Idaho. This morning I attended an optometrist appointment I made 5 weeks ago. Tomorrow, I will go shopping at several stores during "Senior Hours" including a Winco and Costco.

I am not afraid or scared but am being cautious.

I will be paying attention to the 6-8 feet rule. But, it's a new idea and will take some practice to become proficient at it. I have some Clorox wipes and plan to put a couple in a freezer bag to use to wipe down cart handles before and after I use a shopping cart.

[Patrick Walsh]

I’m working from home now for a full week.

Reacted about two weeks ago now. I first stopped even stopping to get my morning coffee and instead started making And taking it to work. I’d work my 8 hrs then go straight home.

I also immediately started ordering all my groceries.

I have them left on my front porch. I then put on rubber gloves and wipe everything with Clorox wipes. I put everything into a plastic container and then wash everything I can in the sink with soap and water. After I clean any door knobs faucets whatever wearing fresh clean gloves at every step. I then strip at the washer machine and wash on hot water. I then slather down head to toe with rubbing alcohol. I then make my way to the shower. I then wash those towels.

I’m getting kinda annoyed watching my neighbors “many teachers” and home for weeks now congregate outside with their kids socializing.

I haven’t left my 5600 sq ft of property in over a week now. I’m not cut out to handle this financially more than anyone else expect the poor. but I see it as the bare minimum I can do. I have been through hard times in my life and know sometimes it feels like everything will be taken away and your going to loose it all. The facts are you gotta really screw up bad and burn a poop ton of bridges to be left out in the cold for real.

I see it this way, all that matters is don’t get sick and your can’t get another sick. That pretty much seems obveous and the least we all could do.

I’ll keep doing this till this is really over.

Doing anything less is totally irresponsible but do as you will and I’ll do I need to sleep at night.

I understand some just can not do this. But the facts are most all of us can. The people checking out the cherry blossoms in our capital or walking battery park shoulder to shoulder well you clearly get how I feel about that.

The question was asked what am I doing. I’m doing everything I possibly can within my control and that pretty much means don’t leave the dam house unless it’s on fire.

[Patrick Walsh]

It’s a part time job but yes.

Gots play a stupid game of what they deliver and then hunt for what you need.

Never ordered any of the crap I see neighbors order, diapers, groceries you name it. I have looked out my window for years asking my head thinking “you lazy pampered sob’s” but as of last week I’m a Amazon prime member. Whole Foods delivers free. stop and shop pee pod not free but less expensive than gas my time and yours and my health.

Ordered a pile of crap from Amazon today I need for work. Contrary to the other thread my stuff is all one to two days out. One item is a month out.

Sure I’ll eat my worlds and non of it will show for weeks and the next time I go to order groceries I’ll be screwed!


You can order groceries? We can't. I mean, it's an option... but delivery dates are never available.

[roger wiegand]

Boston suburbs. Retired so work is not an issue, our son just got laid off as the HVAC/electrical/alarm company he works for shut down and laid off all the employees. Our daughter is working 80 hours a week on the air desk at a large travel/tour company. We expect her to be laid off as soon as the cancellation/rescheduling rush is over. We're going out maybe once a week for food, there are multiple cases in our little town.

As a long time infectious disease researcher I take it very seriously. I'm frustrated beyond belief at the incredible failure to implement sensible testing measures, leaving us pretty well in the dark about what's really happening and the utter incompetence that has lead us to squander months of potential lead time such that we have hundreds of folks now making makeshift masks for doctors and nurses out of old bedsheets.

My son flew home from Asia last week. No one took his temperature getting onto or off of the airplane, no one asked if he had been in contact with people who were sick, no one suggested he should self-quarantine (though he is of his own volition). How do we hope to contain this if we aren't doing even the most rudimentary things?

[Patrick Walsh]

Roger I live the next town over in Natick.

How are you keeping track of your confirmed cases in your home town.

Ill probably be laid off by the end of this myself. And being a guy in the Boston area that makes north of $30 an hour but far south of $40 it will hurt and hurt bad. All I can count on is this organ has to be built and the next on the books so maybe I’m safe.

This organ is to be installed in a church in Shoreline Washington state literally right around the corner from Kirkland. I’ll be dammed if I go anywhere near that place or travel anywhere until this is proven to be completely behind us.

Pretty sure that will guarantee I ultimately don’t have a job. But you never know. Hopefully the boss co workers and the recipient of the organ take this as serious as I do.

[Graham Haydon]

The UK has just gone into a severe lockdown. As a family we have been self isolating because a week ago our Daughter came out with a fever and cough. No way of knowing if it's Covid-19 as no testing is provided unless you end up in hospital.

Thankfully she is recovering well but we were concered. I've been working from home but we're looking to put the family business on hold after the Prime Ministers address tonight.

I would like to think I get some woodworking done during this unusual time, however I think it likely there will be a ton of others jobs that need my attention.

Hope you all stay safe, well and we all come out the other side. Ken, thanks for starting the thread.

[David E. Hutchins]

I'm in Gloucester Massachusetts. I work in residential construction. I worked today, was told to come in tomorrow and tie up as many loose ends as possible, take down all staging and bring the equipment back to the shop. We'll be shut down for at last two weeks. The job I'm on is an age in place job for an elderly man so I really can't complain.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I've been very lucky so far, I live and have a 'day job' at a small farm/homestead/nonprofit organization, so I am able to keep working during the day as normal, though our outreach in the local community has had to be put on hold as we are not able to visit people other than to leave things for them on their porches, nor to be visited by them. My paid work is as a self-employed banjo and other stringed instrument builder in the evenings, and my workshop is here on the premises, so I am able to carry on as usual so far. Whether people will continue buying instruments in a time like this remains to be seen, and if the mail is shut down or reserved for only essential services I will have a problem. I've made sure I have enough parts from my suppliers to last for 6 months or so of normal workload, and I have lots of lumber. If I am no longer able to keep making instruments or selling them at some point I will be okay for a while as I have been saving money over the past few years to buy a house, so while I would hate to use those savings for something else at least they are there if needed. We have all been mildly sick in an odd way for a couple of weeks now, not enough to have to stop working except a couple of days, but I'm not getting back to being really healthy either.

[Tom M King]

We started isolation a bit before it was even suggested. I've been working on a lake house that we were hoping to be renting out to vacation renters this season, but it looks like there will be no income from that, like we were expecting. We have no close neighbors anyway, and a pretty sizeable spread, so we have plenty of ways to occupy our time anyway.

We are giving our helpers paid leave, starting before it was ever mentioned to have any kind of government help for that sort of thing, and will just continue it on our own.

My Wife teaches exercise classes, but stopped that about a week, and a half ago. She is also a dog breeder, and we had a litter of puppies last Monday, and the second one for this Spring last night, so we have plenty of entertainment from that. Not one person on the puppy waiting list has decided to put off getting one, so that was a little surprising. I'm not sure how the pickups are going to work, especially since one family is from NYC.

We only had the first case in our County discovered today, but I doubt it will be the last.

My 103 year old Mother is in Assisted Living, and we've been visiting her through her first floor window. She'll be 104 in a couple of weeks. She's mainly occupied her time doing puzzles, but they have spread them out for meals, and needed the space she was using for puzzles for meals. We're going to try to get them to take out one of the chairs in her room, and put in a table that she can do puzzles on tomorrow. She's seen many changes over her century plus of life, and is taking it all just fine.

In short, we're making out with no real problems. I have more work to do than I can ever get done anyway. It's just a slower go by myself. We are putting in a much larger garden this year.

All take care, and stay healthy.

[Andrew Joiner]

After learning that you can have no symptoms and still spread the virus we got even more conservative in our family.

Sadly today we isolated even more. Me and my wife live in one house. 9 other extended family members live in 3 other houses. Our house was always the daily gathering place.

Today we decided to not allow extended family in the house for awhile. I will only leave to get supplies weekly. We're both over 65 so I guess more at risk, but my wife will leave daily to visit extended family. She still wants to work to be of service to the community.

I will miss my daily visits with my great grandson:(.

I'm grateful that my wife and I don't have to work. We have enough to get by easily and house is paid for. My prayers go out to those with work and financial stress.

[Stew Denton]

I was sent home from work last Wednesday before noon with a very mild cough. It is hay fever time of year for me which was the cause. The plant nurse checked me and I was fine except for the mild cough, but corporate is wisely taking no chances. Everyone with a hint of a cough, etc., was sent home. The plant nurse had no flexibility at all per corporate.

Everyone else, but "have to be there" folks, was sent home by the end of that same day. We who can, were given instructions from the company to work at home. I worked on our lap top at home, but could not get on the company web site, so will have to email the work to my plant email.

That changed today, and I got on the company web site. The Security Chief made special arrangements for me to pick up a loaner lap top in the parking lot at the plant. IT also had a Special Security permit to be thereto set me up, I could not leave the parking lot and final log in and set up was in the parking lot. The IT guy and I had to stay 6' apart and when done leave right away. Getting on the company web site made work from home much better and more productive too.

My wife and I are also staying in the house except for necessities, but I do go outside into the yard. I left once for cough medicine and groceries, but used hand sanitizer liberally entering and leaving the store. Church was on line Sunday, and we watched from home on the web, as we had been advised.

We are praying that this situation will be over soon.

Regards,

Stew

[Kev Williams]

Salt Lake area... Our house is/was my parents house, we moved here when I was 14 in 1969 from our first house (ironically, relatives too close). The engraving 'hobby' my dad started 3 years earlier started to blossom, became the main source of my income 1974 and my ONLY source since 1976. I pretty much took over the biz in '02, and the wife & I had to move in to take care of my aging parents in '09, been our home ever since. Lost mom & dad 7 and 9 years ago, and soon after business started coming in like gangbusters, and hasn't let up. The past 2 years I've been working on average 17 hours a day, usually 7 days a week. The past couple of months I rarely shut down before 2am...

SO, we got the self-quarantine thing covered! We've hardly left the house for years. Shopping and post office runs, and maybe twice a month we go out to eat. We're both notorious over-buyers so we're stocked up and good for at least 6 weeks without ever leaving. As to my job, I build and/or laser engrave ski lift operator panels for the 2 largest ski lift mfr's in the country, and they have steady work for me lined up till past August. Another customer builds mining trucks that mix ANFO to pour down little holes that make much BIGGER holes; I supply all the controls labeling and etc for their trucks, and they're booked for at least 4 months. And at least half of my other regulars are able to work during a shutdown. So I'm one of the lucky ones who'll be working steady regardless. We've had 'social distance' outside pickup for years, should be easy to expand on that-

This is all getting to be too 'real', especially after last Wednesday morning, when, as if we needed anything more to worry about, we were shook out of bed by a 5.7 earthquake. Still getting aftershocks, our nerves rattle more than the house!

I would like to be able to believe we're going to be missed until a vaccine (hopefully) shows up, but not holding my breath. The vast amounts of people just plain not giving a crap about this situation, that's REALLY scary. Full on proof you really CAN'T fix stupid. And sadly about 4 in 10 of us is likely to pay extra for that... :(

[Darcy Warner]

I never actually have to go outside from home to my shop and it's a 4 mile drive.

150 gallons of diesel in the truck, two cases of redbull, smokes and food to feed 5 plus 4 animals for 6 months or so.

I wish I had more than 4 rolls of TP. Lol.

[Bob Jones 5443]

NoCal. I’m a one-on-one SAT-ACT test-prep tutor, and all the tests are cancelled until at least June. A few students have begun prep about once every two weeks, and will eventually ramp up to weekly sessions if the June tests don’t get cancelled too. We’ll see. I take every opportunity to slip into the shop, and for that I don’t mind staying in the house, except for the daily walk with our dog. I have three projects lined up. Never bored!

[Rick Potter]

East end of the greater Los Angeles area. Wife and I are both 77, and our 50's daughter and her two 20's daughters live with us. We built a 'granny flat' addition on the house 10 years ago, and the daughter lives in it, while the two granddaughters live in the main house with us. We are almost done building a 'spare' bedroom suite in a separate building for one of the granddaughters to live and teach in.

She and her mom teach dyslexic kids full time, one in a patio room, the other in the granny flat. They come in every hour one at a time for lessons. The new room will enable teaching out there, and free the patio room to be for the other granddaughter, who has asperger's syndrome.

We started staying home two weeks ago, and one week ago the daughter switched all the students to on line instruction to be safe.

We still have workmen working on the building, but they all try to stay away from each other, and we try to stay away from them. Another two weeks and it's done. Hopefully we will all be OK. About every other day we take the car out and get lunch at a drive through then take it home to eat. The daughter shops when needed for food.

Lots of hand washing, and I spend a lot of time in the shop alone. Lord willing we will be ok, and we hope the same for all of you. Which reminds me, our church also started having services on YouTube two weeks ago.

[Rod Sheridan]

I'm on week 2 of working from home, Diann is retired.

In general we're pretty isolated from the entire issue, I'm getting paid, finances are of no concern.

We're not socializing at all, we've made one trip out for groceries, that's it.

Gasoline is down into the 60 cent range, normally twice that amount as demand has fallen off the graph. I live in the largest city in Canada and the traffic cameras are showing empty highways at rush hour, hopefully it means that we're being responsible.

Tonight the province brings in mandatory closures except for essential services, we already closed restaurants and bars, theatres etc a week ago.

At this point our per capita infections and deaths are low, hopefully it stays that way for everyone in the world..........Rod.

[Lee Schierer]

My wife and I started staying away from other people 2 weeks ago. So far so good. We have taken advantage of curbside pickup for groceries at our two regular supermarkets. One does it all themselves with no surcharge, the other uses a third party app and adds a small surcharge for the labor to do the actual shopping. Both work pretty well. We've ordered take out once from a local restaurant. Our kids live several hours away form us so we communicate often by phone. Our niece called yesterday and offered to do some shopping for us, we accepted. She is a Dr of public health. I've been walking outside several miles as often as the weather permits for exercise and to get out of the house for a while. We live in a rural area so meeting someone along the road is rare and everyone seems to be exercising expanded personal spacing. I've noticed far less traffic on our road so people seem to be staying at home more. We are mentally prepared to continue this for several months. We've been trying to stay in touch with our friends via emails and phone calls and try to encourage each other to stay the course.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I'm retired and on SS though the wife is still working. Though she works in MA and they have shut down all but essential businesses, her company does over 50% military work and quite a bit of medical so she is very busy. Fortunately her office layout allows wide distances between employees and they have plenty of cleaning supplies. We have limited our shopping and the only other trip was last Saturday to the local Chinese take out place. All volunteering at the VA Medical Center has been terminated until further notice and my next 2 appointments scheduled for early April were yesterday changed by the VA to telephone appointments. 4 weeks ago I suspended our American Legion 10 meter air rifle Junior Shooting Sports Program until further notice for the kids safety. In our town the March town meeting has been rescheduled until May 16th, the library is closed, the senior center is closed, and the transfer station has suspended recycling and accepts only trash until further notice. We don't have any issues about neighbors being close since we have 2 acre minimum zoning and most of the town of 5200 is pretty rural anyway. I've kept busy with odd jobs round the house and yard, reading, and a small bit of woodworking. Financially we are in fine shape with no mortgage or credit card debt. Once the weather warms up I have a big list of yard projects to keep me busy. Overall Sothern NH is in relatively decent shape compared to more densely populated states.

[Bill Carey]

Alive and well in NW Indiana. Several weeks ago I was at a meeting with someone who - unknowingly until he got to the meeting - had been in contact with someone who had the virus. So I have been on quarantine since then, but feel fine so I'm back in the main house again. When the addition was put on we had 2 new HVAC systems installed, with electronic air cleaners, and we can shut the house into 2 separate living spaces. So I was in one wing, SWMBO was in the other. But that has ended and we both feel fine. Old, but fine. I retired after 40 years of construction estimating, but got an offer I couldn't refuse from the software vendor whose product I used, to handle support for them in the US. So I work from the second floor of my shop, and drop down to make sawdust when the mood hits me and the calls are slow. All in all a pretty cool arrangement.

I read somewhere that the theory is that small towns like the one I live in - 900 souls - will be the last hit by the virus, and I hope that's true because the med world better know what they are doing by then, or the whole place has burned down. We don't go out at all, except to pick up groceries from my daughters garage after they are delivered to her. (delivery is not available here, so we give her a list and she orders it for delivery) Since her immune system is challenged at the moment, we don't have any contact with her - hence the delivery to the garage. I have a zoom account so we have been spending a lot of time online with family and friends, grand kids and great grand kids. I take a walk in the morning and have had some great conversations, using BT headsets, with a couple of friends in Denmark who walk after dinner.

I've been down the rabbit hole of shop improvements for a week: dust collection, chisel rack, bench horses, moxon tweaks, etc. Currently starting a Stickley bookcase. And my lumber guy in Lafayette is closed, but has hand picked about 80 bf of QSWO for me and left in a stack in his barn for me to pick up. And I'll leave him a stack of greenbacks. Social distancing at work.

Stay safe and healthy, kids.

PS: all 4 humidors are full, so I'm good.

[Andrew Joiner]

After learning that you can have no symptoms and still spread the virus we got even more conservative in our family.

Sadly today we isolated even more. Me and my wife live in one house. 9 other extended family members live in 3 other houses. Our house was always the daily gathering place.

Today we decided to not allow extended family in the house for awhile. I will only leave to get supplies weekly. We're both over 65 so I guess more at risk, but my wife will leave daily to visit extended family. She still wants to work to be of service to the community.

I will miss my daily visits with my great grandson:(.

I'm grateful that my wife and I don't have to work. We have enough to get by easily and house is paid for. My prayers go out to those with work and financial stress.
I'm quoting myself to give an update. Everyone in my family is healthy right now:)
I've visited my great grandson and grandkids only a few times. Gone for walks outside only. I've started wearing a cloth mask to do weekly food shopping.
Will keep my rubber paint respirator ready in case my wife gets the virus. She still visits extended family in their homes daily. She does social distancing at work, but not with extended family. Some of extended family are young and don't know what 6' looks like:mad:

My wife just told me we WILL be letting all extended family in the house by April 30th. She is scared and emotional. Tough time right now. I may have to rent a place for her to live and have the family over. Science tells me to preserve my health for now the best I can.
Hope you all are healthy.

[Bill Dufour]

Easy way to stay safe is to bag the purchases into cold stuff that needs to come in and go into the fridge. Wash your hands and take a break. Everything else can sit in the car for 3 days then be brought in safely.
I was surprised to learn that freezing does nothing to stop the virus since it is not alive it can not be killed. It is not clear if freezing contaminated goods allows them to be self sterilized in the same three days or not. Or does the three days start only after they are thawed.
Bil lD

[Osvaldo Cristo]

We completed three weeks in isolation at home.

I worked mainly from home office, now for almost ten years,
except when visiting a few customers locally and abroad - all customer´s visits are not allowed by company since quarantine started. Actually my job volume increased significantly in this last three weeks but I maintain my job.

We miss the visits to our favorite restaurants but fortunately we are lucky (yet) to have a good delivery system to home for multiple stores so we can have some culinary adventures also at home.

We live in a spacious home with an almost 3,000 books library and a woodwork shop. A reasonably sized backyard with more than 20 trees, mostly fruitiful, five cats living outside home and a external gourmet area.

Finally we are connect with a 100Mbps fiber internet connection as well a backup 8Mbps from another provider (just in case), besides of our mobiles (using two different providers).

My parents live some blocks from home and since the begining of this mess we did not visited them but call them to check if everything is OK. One of my brothers is in charge to provide groceries and medicines to them. My father is more impatient and decided to go out to look for a barber shop - fortunately all of them are closed.

Our church offers virtual services. Our friends are in touch with electronic channels.

Probably our biggest stress is on the Economy: how we will pay the bill for that paralises? I forecast significant worse years ahead if compare with current quarantine.

[Jim Becker]

Andrew, please tell your wife that over the past week, I thought I was going to die. It was THAT bad and I didn't have the pneumonia portion that really is killing folks. (because I could breath on my own, I also didn't get the privilege of a test so I'm not going to know for sure that I had Covid-19, but there's no question in my mind anyway) If she really loves her family....she'll let them be apart. It's hard. But we are fortunate to live in a time where we have so many different ways to be together without being in the same place. It will only take one person in the group to get exposed and infected somehow to cause a major family disaster if "being physically with" isn't avoided. That one person may not even know they are spreading it, too. There has been clear evidence for almost a month now that Covid-19 is quickly and easily spread by folks who are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic. A lot of the big group exposures seen on the news are a result of that.

[Andrew Joiner]

Andrew, please tell your wife that over the past week, I thought I was going to die. It was THAT bad and I didn't have the pneumonia portion that really is killing folks. (because I could breath on my own, I also didn't get the privilege of a test so I'm not going to know for sure that I had Covid-19, but there's no question in my mind anyway) If she really loves her family....she'll let them be apart. It's hard. But we are fortunate to live in a time where we have so many different ways to be together without being in the same place. It will only take one person in the group to get exposed and infected somehow to cause a major family disaster if "being physically with" isn't avoided. That one person may not even know they are spreading it, too. There has been clear evidence for almost a month now that Covid-19 is quickly and easily spread by folks who are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic. A lot of the big group exposures seen on the news are a result of that.
Thanks Jim. I believe you 100%. I'm sorry you got so sick. I'm grateful your feeling better. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Some people, my wife included, put emotions over science. I can't say she's wrong because I love her. If I tell her your story she may want to go hug the kids more! We have family overseas that she face times daily so that's great. We have 2 grandkids in Singapore that stay with us every summer, now that's cancelled. She's really scared right now. In some ways this is bringing us closer, but very hard on our relationship.

[Ronald Blue]

Glad you are doing better Jim. Any idea where you were exposed?

To what you said Jim about spreading it without knowing you have it until many have been exposed. While thus far no one in my county has it (as far as we currently know) the adjacent county now has 3 cases. The last one community spread of the 3. A 20 year old male who attended a party on the 21st with 50-100 other attendees. Then another party on the 27th of March. I don't know when they showed symptoms or were actually tested. It was announced on April 3rd that he was a positive case. Without a doubt he exposed potentially many others. A co-worker lives really close to where the initial party was held. He said the parents allowed the party to happen so they share blame as well. This sort of behavior is reckless and shows blatant disregard for others.

[George Bokros]

Glad you are better Jim. So far no one I know has been sick but it is scary for us folks in your 70's.

[Jim Becker]

Glad you are doing better Jim. Any idea where you were exposed?
It's pretty impossible to know that, Ronald. Even with minimal outside contact, there are still opportunities for anyone to get exposed. We are careful because Professor Dr. SWMBO has asthma, but our older daughter works in a food market (not right now because of my sickness...she can't go back until the 20th) and our younger daughter is an essential employee for the restaurant she is employed by...back-of-house doing the accounting, but fortunately in isolation. It's also her internship so thankfully, those hours have continued despite front-of-house being closed. We don't go out other than to pick up food or pharma.

[Rob Luter]

Glad to hear you're still with us Jim. My bride and I have been self isolated and working from home for a couple weeks now. I suspect that will continue for another two at least. Other than a weekly trip to the grocery store and one she makes to pick up the mail for her office we're hermits. The scary part for me is the fact that if you catch it, you caught it two weeks ago.

We're stocked up on the essentials (Groceries, TP, Bourbon) and plan on following Dr. Birx suggestion to just stay home for a couple weeks. The weather has been getting better and we have plenty of yard work to do. Our neighborhood has pretty good sized lots so social distancing is no problem.

[Jim Koepke]

Glad to here you are doing well now Jim.

jtk

[Aaron Rosenthal]

Vancouver, Canada. I'm semi retired, meaning I only work from 6 am to 11 pm.
Saturday night, for the first time in many weeks, my 21 year old son went to a friend's place; ended up needing to be picked up 75 Km away. I made him put on a mask and gloves before he got into the car. He doesn't get it, he fought with me all the way home. Thinks my careful forays for shopping is the same as him house-hopping visiting.
I won't let my wife go out at all, she gets Pneumonia at least 3 times a year.
I go shopping, but wash my hands, wear gloves, and spray with bleach compounds. It's hard to isolate (in my case) because of the impending holiday season, but we're trying.
Most of my kids live either in California or Israel, so Zoom, WhatsApp are the standard to visiting, and my local daughter had a serious workplace injury about 3 weeks ago and is confined to the hospital for the near term. Naturally, we can't visit her.
Jim, I'm glad you're feeling better.
Regards to all, and stay safe.

[Jim Becker]

Thanks, Aaron.

You can celebrate the holiday together but separately. You're family. Yea, the food side is a bit different, but the ritual can still be followed. It may even make for some interesting conversation.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Aaron, time to stop being in contact with your son, he could be a symptomatic and infect you and your wife.

Be safe, I love Vancouver....
Rod

[Aaron Rosenthal]

Ron, you're right. I stay away from him, but sometimes it's because I need to distance myself from excessive youth LOL!!

[Doug Dawson]

Ron, you're right. I stay away from him, but sometimes it's because I need to distance myself from excessive youth LOL!!

Any son of mine who did that would not only get thrown out of the car then and there, he would be banned from the ranch. You have my deepest sympathies.

[Thomas McCurnin]

23 days.

California was the first state to enact the stay at home orders, and Los Angeles was the first City to to do so. I am hopeful that we were ahead of the curve on this and will come out better and faster than other locations.

Our Governor officially gave up on the Federal Government, and California arranged to have local manufacturers supervise the manufacture of PPEs. It was announced that we will have 200 million N95 Masks within a few weeks, some of which will be arriving this week. We have also arranged for Ventilators on our own. We have the 5th largest economy in the World, so we can afford this. The Governor would like a surplus to export and help neighboring states.

I have cleaned out closets, organized music, cleaned up the shop, and sharpened chisels. I may have to make a run to the hardwood supplier to get some Oak to make something. Is that essential? Mentally I think so.

This is like Prison without Soul Train and dominoes and with better television.