Oh, I wish I could snuggle them. ❤️

I thought of something else that will change. I want a job, preferably one at the grocery store, where I can help fill curbside and delivery orders, or maybe working at an Amazon fulfillment center. I've been milling around for almost a year without any purpose, and both of these jobs are really speaking to me right now. I think the demand for delivery/curbside pick up will remain higher than pre-COVID-19 levels.

I am. It is a stress response. If I did not have a kid and animals to care for, I would probably sleep 12 hours a day for the next month.

I have already told everyone I know that when our small town says "Let's go ahead with a Memorial Day/4th of July parade!" that they should 100% not go, because of Philadelphia.

I go out because DH doesn't really know the layout of stores or what we need. He would take too long and buy a lot of weird stuff if I sent him. Also, I have a little training on wearing/removing ppe and staying "clean" from vet med, so I am super aware of where my hands are, how far I am from someone else, how to carefully decontaminate myself when I get home. DH isn't as aware and has a more scatter shot approach, so it is better if I go and not him.

You aren't going to catch COVID-19 from swimming in a body of water. You can potentially catch it if you are too close for too long with an infected person. The reason that beaches were closed down is because there were too many infected people getting too close to other people on the beach. The virus cannot travel across the ocean all by itself. It traveled around the world because infected people got on planes and boats and spent time in close proximity to other people on the plane and boat, who then got off the planes and boats and mingled with people in new locations.

Texas, San Antonio area. Everything was pretty well stocked at 4pm today, with a few exceptions: tp, paper towels, hand sanitizer. Those were still out. Eggs, flour, Mr. Clean, and hand soap were available but there was only a little left of each. Canned goods, pasta, and dairy have "recovered" from the initial panic buying. They even had ramen noodles on the shelf. Meat, fish, and bakery departments were fully stocked. Lots of fresh produce available. No limit on milk or other dairy products that I saw. The only limits I saw were 8 for canned items, 1 for tp/paper towels, 2 for hand soap, 4 pasta. Laundry soap seemed low. I guess everyone is finally catching up on laundry, lol. I've been spending a lot more at the grocery lately, but we've also been buying some fancy-pants stuff since food is all we spend money on now. We've been eating salmon, ribeyes, and sirloin roasts. It feels weird. We're eating really well and there's all this really heavy, bad stuff going on in the world. It's a little bit of cognitive dissonance right now. I actually felt a lot better after seeing the store today. Several people were wearing masks and gloves. I wore a mask and cotton gloves, (allergic to nitrile), and the store had masks available for any staff member that wanted to wear them. They had hand sanitizer and wipes stations at the door, and employees were wiping down carts. There are plastic dividers up between the cashier and customer. They were not limiting people in the store at that time, but it wasn't very crowded, either.

Nooooope. No play dates. COVID-19 doesn't really care how many technical loopholes someone squints at so they can say "See! I'm complying with recommendations!" This isn't forever. Don't cave to peer pressure.

Thinking of you. Please keep us updated with how your family is doing, as best as you able to!

It makes me extremely worried for veterinary medicine in general. I really, really, really hope that this is not a virus that can get passed back and forth between cats and humans.

We always kept about a month of supplies on-hand before this. We will expand that out to 4 months of supplies. I'm trying to get the family on board with the bidet idea. They are not quite ready to make the transition. 😐 I'm also going to either get into gardening and/or get into some sort of long-term food preservation, like freeze-drying or dehydrating. I'm not super excited about canning because we don't really like canned foods. 😛 But freeze-drying or dehydrating could work for us. DH and I will also be moving out of this area. I have no idea when that will happen or even exactly where we will go, but I'm 100% DONE with Texas.

My step-father's family had a huge, elaborate candle that was the "birthday candle". It only came out for birthdays so it lasted for decades, which made it that much more special. The birthday person got to blow out the large, multi-wick candle and the cake wasn't brought out until after the birthday song was sung and the candle blown out. I have no idea how they came up with that tradition, but we'll probably do something like that from now on. Oooh, future business idea: make large, birthday cake shaped candles.

I don't want any zoom meetings. I would rather people call me or text, but no zoom meetings for me. I am grudgingly doing one each week for kiddo. He likes it, but I hate it because I have to help him with a lot of the class, help set up zoom, register each week, etc. I just don't want to deal with it.

I have no idea when I will travel again. My dad is wanting me to visit in September, and also wants to make some plans to visit Germany next year. I can't commit to any of that. Maaaaaybe, we can drive to see him in September, but that's 5 months from now and I can't promise anything. I'm not making any plans to visit Germany next year, but I'm letting my dad day-dream, because I think he needs something to look forward to.

I am feeling the same way. There are certain people I cannot talk to right now. I have debated deactivating my fb account for the next 3 months, as an act of self-preservation.

Our local homeschool group is trying to put together a parents-night-out with "social distancing". There's a lot of mental gymnastics going on to show how it's totally fine! One of the people that wants to go is currently waiting test results to see if they have COVID. Like...so you are sick with something? And you know you've been exposed to a known COVID case? And you're being tested for COVID? And you want to go have freaking tacos with other people? Even if it's not COVID, you are sick with something why are you trying to go out and spread your germs?!?!?!?!?! And everyone is like la la la, all I need is a little bit of cbd oil and a whole lot of Jesus and I'll be fine! Another friend is posting pics from various state parks with their elderly parents. We now have 4 positive cases and community spread in my shitty little town. I suspect our Mayor is holding off on issuing any kind of SIP order until after Easter because the churches will pitch a fit if they can't get butts in pews on Easter Sunday. I've also heard the Bill-Gates-Wants-to-Be-Our-Vaccine-Overlord conspiracy theory from people, being promoted by a local graduate of Liberty University. This would be funny if it wasn't actually happening around me. On the plus side, the grocery store was pretty empty of people today at 4pm. Still no paper goods and limited cleaners, but food was plentiful, including eggs. No flour or yeast, though, but plenty of bread. I'm wearing gloves and a mask at the store, and people gave me the hairy eye. I don't care. My job is to stay alive and out of the hospital over the next 3 months, and gloves and a mask are my new "work uniform".

Yeah, you definitely have to read each product instruction for the dilution ratio. I hope your stores can get some Lysol concentrate in stock soon.

The wipes are just a convenience. They are basically pre-moistened paper towels. There is no super special magic about how they work; they will not provide more disinfecting power over any other cleaner you have to mix yourself. You can buy a gallon of bleach or a bottle of Lysol concentrate, follow the dilution instructions, and clean with a rag. A bottle of concentrated Lysol cleaner will make 24 GALLONS once mixed. This is a way better deal than those canisters of wipes and works just as well! It's the same disinfectant! Just add water! Technically, you are supposed to rinse your counters/food prep areas off after using the Lysol products, because the disinfectant in it is not meant to be ingested. You don't have to rinse if you use diluted bleach.

Yes, if you go to usps.com, click the top link that says "Mail and Ship", then "schedule a pick up". They will come to you and grab it from your porch, front step, etc.

I am someone that has a frivolous, non-essential goods eBay store. I am deeply grateful for everyone that has bought from me at this time. My mail lady and I do contact-less pickup to minimize her exposure. If volume decreases at my local p.o., they are in jeopardy of being closed down in the future. There are a lot of contract and part time workers there, too. If volume is down, they don't work. There is no easy answer here. When I feel like it is no longer safe to run my store, I will shut it down.

I pruned some trees in the back yard today and hung up the hummingbird feeders. I also started working on a needlepoint project. Made a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread. I"m tired of the zillions of dishes I'm doing these days.

Half in savings, half put towards debt. I would love to blow it in something frivolous, but that seems unwise. Dh's job is fine for now ,but nothing is guaranteed.

DH has been out twice since the 13th: once to get gas for the lawn mower (didn't see any people), and once because he had to pick up license plates for the new car. The dealership wouldn't mail them to us. Husband was pretty ticked about it. He is working from home until at least May 3. Kiddo has been home since the 13th. I have been out once every 5-7 days for groceries or prescription pick up. I am trying to get all my errands done at once. It is hard to plan it out, because grocery pick up times are erratic right now. No socializing other than chatting with neighbors over the fence from several feet away. Uncle-in-law stopped by to pick up eggs from us, but he stayed in the car and we stayed a few feet away to chat.

In the past, yes, I was happy with it. We stopped only because of price. It is more expensive than the grocery store, but the quality is a little better than the grocery. I can get some meats and dairy products delivered, too.

A Curiosity Stream subscription and Sambucol. We were pretty well stocked up before SHTF, so we've only needed to do small runs to replaced what we've used. I did reactivate my Imperfect Produce delivery, to reduce the need to go to the store. I'll have to get milk and prescription refills periodically, but I'm hoping we can have most of what we need delivered.