That makes sense. We're a family of introverts, so being home for a few weeks together doesn't bother us. My dad and sister are extroverts, and the idea of being quarantined with them is overwhelming. (They.Never.Stop.Singing.All.Day.Long!)

I guess I should have asked, what is meant by "long term"? I'm introverted, so staying home for 2 weeks doesn't bother me much. We did that at Christmas voluntarily! I'd probably get a bit tired of being home after 3 or 4 weeks, but 🤷‍♂️. I'm a little surprised to hear people say they'd find it so difficult to be home for a few weeks. You'd still be able to call friends and family to talk. You'd have the other members of your household to talk to. If you have a yard, you could go outside and get some fresh air. I don't feel like that is isolation exactly? You've got contact, just not in-person contact outside of your house. I wonder if this is an introvert/extrovert thing? Apologies if that seems snarky; it isn't my intent. I'm just curious what people are envisioning.

Yes, it does. Thank you!

Do you have a link so I could read more? I'm curious about why fatality rates go up and not down at the end of an epidemic. Is it because the only patients left contracting it are those that are already weakened?

For years, I was only about 25% grey. I dyed my hair on a lark and then felt trapped into the cycle of always having to dye it. I stopped colouring my hair a few years ago because it felt so fried and damaged from the chemicals. My hair is a lot healthier than a few years back and I am happy to not have to bother with colouring it. I do think I will start dying my hair again, though. I am probably 75% grey now and I just don't like it! The colour ages me a bit, but mostly I just don't think I look that good with grey hair. My natural colour is dark blonde, so the grey kinda sorta blends in, but every so often I look in the mirror and think "Holy cats, that's not a good look".

I wish there was a "horrified" emoji. Tuberculosis is making a comeback?! I'm starting to get a little pushback from family because I am not traveling 1800 miles to my cousin's baby shower in May. Maybe I'd get sick or maybe I wouldn't, but a) ALLLLLL of my elderly aunts and uncles will be there. I am not willing to risk giving my aunt with Parkinson's even "just a cold". b) I don't want to risk getting my cousin sick with my out-of-state, fresh-outta-the-airport germs, and c) if the $hit hits the fan, I do not want to be stuck 1800 miles from my husband and house.

I'm not worried about the "social distancing" part. This isn't forever. Spending a quiet spring and summer at home is not the end of the world. We have board games, jigsaw puzzles, art supplies. We have books, we have school work to do. We have about a zillion home improvement projects and organizing projects that are in a state of half-done-ness that can be worked on. We have video game consoles, computer games, internet, hulu, netflix, Amazon Prime. We have 2 cats and a dog to play with. We have exercise equipment. I still plan to take kiddo to his weekly art class until The Powers That Be say we should not. The art instructor has a meticulously clean home. I'll still go to the art museum, because it's a no-touch area and people aren't likely to scrunch up together there. Children's museum? I'm waiting a couple of weeks. If schools are closed here, then we won't go there at all. We also have a drive in movie theater not far from here. Chess club and the library: I don't know. Chess club is small, usually just a handful of people there at a time. But it's run by dudes that don't clean the place well, and it's not far from Lackland AFB. The library is off limits for a few weeks, too. Maybe indefinitely. Every time we've been over the last few months, we end up sick. I've never seen them wipe down a table after an activity, now that I think about it. The last time I bought a book from the friends of the library store, the volunteer licked her fingers and then counted back my change. And then coughed on the bottle of hand sanitizer and my book, for crying out loud. The library currently has a picture from today's kid's activity, featuring a kid with two fingers up his nose, and subsequent pictures show him with his hands all over tables and materials. I have no idea what to do with this place, other than avoid it.

It's just liquid soap, often with moisturizer in it. I prefer body wash over bar soap, because the ingredients in bar soap that make it stick together leave a weird residue on my skin. Bar soap makes my skin feel tight and itchy, but body wash doesn't.

No liquid hand soap at any of the stores around me, but plenty of bar soap. I can't help but shake my head when I see the empty liquid soap shelves but fully stocked bar soap. Also, there are suddenly a lot of wanna-be bakers near me, because big bags of flour were sold out. The things you'd need to mix with the flour to make anything? Like oil, shortening, yeast, sugar? Fully stocked. For some odd reason, we already have a bottle of aloe vera gel in the cabinet (why do I own this product??). I don't think I'll try making my own hand sanitizer, though. The aloe gel is kind of sticky. 😛 I feel like I hit a mini jackpot because our Walmart clearanced out several bottles of Sambucol gummies. I had coupons and got a few bottles for $2 each.

Sounds like the windup to a nonsense justification of why a cold is "no big deal!" and it's actually ok to let sick people hang out with healthy people ("It builds your immune system! Germs are good for you!").

I'd risk my health for kiddo and DH. I'm not sure how much risk I'd take on for the older generation.

The ship is moving closer to the shore to facilitate an airlift, not moving further out.

We usually skip the formal "events" and do self-guided tours. So far, they plan to be open (yay!). I might change my mind about the children's museum and try to hit it before spring break. They posted a memo that they've upped the frequency of cleaning, (although their memo said "We've been using this sweet new anti-bacterial cleaner!" Cool story. Won't work on influenza or COVID-19. It does make me feel better about staph, though.

I would probably stick to no-touch/low-touch activities and not eat at the zoo. Unless we hear otherwise, we'll be visiting our art museum next week because the art museum is a no-touching allowed place. I'm skipping the children's museum until after spring break (they usually close for a deep clean after spring break crowds have come through).

I'm a couponer, so I already have a "stockpile" of cleaning supplies and various things. I bought a bottle of rubbing alcohol and peroxide, because I thought we only had a splash left in the bottle for each, and then found 2 bottles shoved way in the back of the closet. (Oops). I'll hold on to them in case a neighbor or Gr. Grandpa and his wife need them. I did go through the medicine supply and pick up some small bottles of cold meds. We don't use a lot of that sort of stuff, so what we had was expired. Bought an extra bottle of Zicam and a can of Lysol because kiddo has a cold this week, and DH also started a new job this week. Starting a new job while sick during a possible pandemic is...less than ideal. We've both been popping Zicam and Lysoling everything, and knock wood! DH has not caught the cold. I have to admit, I felt kind of paranoid buying cold meds, Kleenex, Zicam, and Lysol at the store. I also have not brought kiddo out in public at all because a) knowingly blasting others with germs is rude and b) I'm half expecting a panicky mob to chase us with pitchforks.

There is a local church that wanted to do some favors for our homeschool group. I went by there a few times and chatted with the pastor's wife. She kept finding weird ways to bring up race issues, in a "Not that I'm racist...but you know how XYZ people are..." kind of way. It felt like she was testing me, to see what she could get away with. She couldn't have been more than 55-ish. I was so shocked. I kind of thought maybe this sort of talk and thinking was dying out, but I guess not. 😕

Maybe they'd get called into service in less at-risk ways? Like they'd handle the routine medical problems and the rest of the staff handle the COVID cases?

I have an uncle who is a mouthy racist. I've put a lot of distance between him and I. My other uncle sometimes mimics what his brother says, but Uncle #2 had a traumatic brain injury years ago and has never been 100%. So I shush and redirect Uncle #2 if he says anything weird and avoid Uncle #1 like the plague. My stepfather is a racist, sexist, and a homophobe, but doesn't think he is one. He still tells the sort of off-color jokes you'd hear in the 70's and thinks it's hilarious when people are uncomfortable about it. It got him fired from more than one job because he would say all kinds of not-ok things at work. Ugh. He makes my skin crawl.

Aw man, I can't believe I missed a picture of @Scarlett! Guess you'll always stay Vivien Leigh in my mind!

Do not put your mail in the stove or microwave! You will start a fire!

Oooooh, I missed that post. I interpreted it that someone either didn't have a dishwasher with sanitizing capabilities OR they didn't trust the dishwasher to fully sanitize the dishes. And I was like "Now hold on a minute..."

You have to be careful with bleach. It can pit metal. I don't think dishwasher manufacturer's recommend using bleach because it can wreck the washer. I'm not really sure that taking extra steps to sanitize one's household dishes to avoid a virus is a good use of time or bleach? If someone in your house has a virus, you're more likely to pick it up because you live in the same house, touch sufaces they've touched, you sleep next to them, breathing the same air, etc. The dishes are the least of your problems.

The people that keep arguing the virus is "no big deal" seem to have this idea that they can just speak their own truth into existence. If they say "No big deal!" often and loudly, that makes it true. It's like a magic spell to recite.

My cohort of elder folks has declared the virus is "fake news".

Which is great, except for all the people that were near the patient at the mall. They've all been exposed and are all potentially dragging it through the community now.