Oh, ok. I never knew what they were for.

According to the Japan Times article Arcadia posted, the crew were entering to clean the cabins, which is so crazy.

It's got me gobsmacked. I didn't know the crew was still working and interacting with the passengers. I had assumed the virus was traveling through the ventilation system. Maybe it did or maybe it didn't. Doesn't matter if there are people schlepping in and out of the cabins to drop off towels! It seems more like the plan was "Just keep them on the boat, and maybe we can keep this virus out of Japan and everywhere else".

That's crazy. Quarantining the passengers but then allowing the crew to interact with the passengers and return to the crew quarters and mess hall means the illness will spread around the ship, (which it did). My training with quarantine protocols is only in veterinary medicine and on a much, much smaller scale, but if this is nuts.

How do you down-vote a thread? Not that I want to down-vote, lol. Does down-voting keep people from seeing threads?

Who was in charge of the quarantine protocols on the ship? Were they implemented under the direction of Japan's health ministry? The World Health Organization? Was the ship captain/cruise line left to figure it out themselves? It seems like no one was really supervising the process. The ship's crew would not necessarily be trained on how to manage a quarantined ship. That seems like an unreasonable expectation. It doesn't surprise me at all that it failed.

You really can't say to patient in respiratory distress "Sorry, but it's my break time. I need to sleep now".

I feel like the offers go in spurts. They'll have lots of things we use on offer for a month or two, then nothing I want for 2 or 3 months. I have a bunch of rebate/cash back apps I use, so I've gotten in the habit of scanning the receipt as soon as I unpack the groceries. If I don't, I lose track of the receipts and then can't remember if I've scanned them or not. Yes, ma'am, all free! I normally don't get any good coupons at HEB (Texas grocery store), but all of a sudden there are a lot of good ones on my account. I think it might be due to the recent fire at the store; I'm not sure what happened, but I'm happy to take the free food! Today I picked up a free pint of ice cream at HEB. Got more stuff free after Ibotta and Checkout51 rebates: a pack of emery boards, can of olives, 2 bars of soap, a can of enchilada sauce, 6 containers of yogurt, a bag of egg noodles, and a box of tampons. I spent about $30 and got about $21 back in rebates. I am setting all the rebate money aside for Christmas.

My goal for this month was to cut down on food waste. This is the first month I'm making a conscious effort to make sure things get used. So far, all I've had to throw away was half a jar of spaghetti sauce that no one could remember how old it was (better safe than sorry), a bottle of mustard past it's date, a can of coconut milk past date (why did I even buy this?), and some leftover soup that was kind of meh. I'd already eaten 2 days of it for lunch and once for dinner, and could not face another day of it! I spent $124 at the stores this weekend. $26 of that was dog food for the month. I received $19 back in rebates on Ibotta, plus I got lots of freebies with store coupons at HEB, Walgreens, and Dollar General: 6 boxes of freezer and sandwich bags, 1/2 gallon of milk, a package of cheese, a pack of pepperoni, 3 bell peppers, 2 boxes of mac and cheese, 2 cauliflower pizza crusts, 2 boxes of dryer sheets, a bottle of fabric softener, a box of dishwasher tabs, and plug in air freshener. The freebies were in addition to the $19 in rebates. I have a few more freebies to pick up tomorrow at Walmart.

Those vitamins are all found in regular multivitamins, so they are safe to take together. I can't comment on whether large quantities are safe to take, however. Too much zinc can upset the stomach, and very superficial googling says that zinc toxicity can occur if you take more than 50mg of it. I'd probably just stick to a good diet and supplement with a multivitamin. I take extra vitamin D because I was tested to be low on it. We take some Zicam if we feel a cold coming on. Other than that, we wash hands frequently and avoid germy places at peak cold and flu season.

I specifically mentioned "natural disaster or job loss" in my reasons for why I try to keep 1 month of supplies in my house. I didn't think everyone wanted to read all of the area-specific weather and life events that could cause my family to need supplies for that long. I don't think it's worth the money and loss of storage space to stock MREs or other "prepper foods" if everyone hates to eat them. I know some hard core preppers that have a year+ of supplies in their home, generators, water collection systems, etc. It's a lot of work to maintain all that, a lot of money to buy it, and it is unlikely to ever be needed. Most emergency preparedness lists say you should have at least 3 days of supplies for your home. I think a 3 day supply is frighteningly insufficient. I think people should have 2 weeks of non-perishable supplies at a minimum. Most people have no idea what to stock up on, and either buy a whole bunch of nonsense that will go bad quickly (milk and fresh meat won't last if the power goes out!) or lead to bad decisions (beer and wine). Or they buy things that no one wants to eat and just adds to everyone's discomfort, like MREs and powdered milk (*shudder*). You probably aren't going to face a zombie apocalypse, so forget the MREs! But you very well could be without electricity for 2 weeks, so plan for that. Even if you don't lose power to a natural disaster, you still have to consider the impact severe weather can have on businesses and services around you. Just because the power and water are running at my home doesn't mean they'll be running at the grocery store or at the warehouse that supplies the grocery store. After hurricane Harvey, gasoline delivery was inconsistent for about a week. The grocery store was open, but if you don't have gas to drive there, you're still SOL. I"m 10 miles from the grocery store, so walking isn't realistic. Our grocery store was closed for *one day* due to fire this week, and people here were freaking out and picked over the grocery section of Walmart like it was end-of-times. I've been without power for as long as 11 days thanks to hurricanes. It isn't much fun, but we had plenty to eat and drink. We were all happy to have a hot shower again after 11 days.

Oh man, I loved Douglas Adams and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! I have a "Don't Panic" t-shirt, (written in large, friendly letters, of course). I read it for the first time when I was 12-ish. I probably will wait a year or two before my almost-12-ish kiddo reads it, because he's a little innocent and the reference to "the biggest bang in the universe" would make him blush. The books are a bit irreverent and absurd. What Lori D said is really about as "naughty" as the books get.

Yep, and stories like that are why I expect the virus to show up in the population here. That story and the stories of people popping Tylenol before their flight so they won't show a fever. I get that people are frightened and just want to go home, where it's "safe", but home won't be safe if people don't take the quarantine seriously.

WASH YOUR HANDS! 😁 Seriously, wash your hands after you've been out. Avoid touching your face. Make your kids wash their hands regularly. Soap and water will do wonders to cut down on the germ load and decrease your odds of catching something. I do not prepare for an end-of-days scenario, but I try to keep enough stuff on hand to keep my household running decently for a month. I"m not a "prepper", but I live in an area with limited grocery options, so if a store is shut down for any reason, people freak out. Our local store was shut down for a day due to a small fire, and people flipped their lids. Stock up on shelf stable/dry goods things that your family uses and eats regularly. I don't buy things my family would only eat if they were starving to death, because it's unlikely we'll be in a starving-to-death scenario. It is far more likely we'll one day be in a "This really stinks; this is really difficult and inconvenient" type scenario due to natural disaster or job loss. It's better to stock up on things before you need them, rather than waiting until a crisis occurs. I'm expecting coronavirus to show up in San Antonio, (where my husband works), because people are being quarantined at Lackland AFB in SA. One of the quarantined people is positive for coronavirus and was moved to a local hospital. Quarantines can fail; all it takes it for one person to make a mistake or get lax in maintaining standards. The general public is pretty flippin' cavalier about exposing others to germs and illness, (I'm looking at you, lady who coughed in the freezer case at the grocery! And you, librarian who coughed on my books before handing them to me! Gah!!!) What can present as a mild illness in one person can be devastating and require hospitalization for another person. I don't want to be on the giving or receiving end when it comes to illness.

Hot cocoa mix is good to keep on hand. The Nestle brand has a decent amount of calcium per serving, (35% RDA per cup). It's cheaper than keeping a lot of shelf-stable milk cartons on hand, and tastier than powdered milk *shudder* It also helps you feel a little bit better about life to have some hot cocoa when you're stuck without electricity. There are a lot of websites you can google to get lists of shelf-stable foods that can be prepared easily in an emergency. What you should keep on hand will vary depending on the sort of emergency and how long you could potentially be without services. The longest we had to go was 11 days without electricity, so I keep a minimum of 2 weeks of shelf-stable supplies and water on hand. I feel better with a month's worth, but space starts to become an issue with the water.

No formal "meal" ideas. When we've been without power for extended periods of time, we've done a lot of canned tuna, Beef-a-roni (so help me, I hope I never have to eat that stuff again), various canned meats, ramen noodle cups, peanut butter sandwiches, canned veggies, pepperoni. We had a gas grill, so we were able to cook, but it's better to keep meals simple if you are in a situation where gas, electric, water need to be conserved. You won't want to waste water on washing dishes.

I'm glad you posted this, because I had not seen it on local news yet. We are not far from Lackland AFB.

Our local grocery store had a small fire last night and will be closed for several days while it's cleaned and restocked. People are freaking out because the store will be closed for 72 hours! I guess the restaurants will do a booming business for the next few days. 😯 Between the grocery fire and following the news about quarantine, I did an inventory to see how well we are set on all-of-the-things. We'd be ok for about a month.

I unfollowed everyone during the last election, except for one friend who only ever posts funny cat videos. It was bliss.

I love my robot vac, too! I run it once a day until the battery runs out, for about 1300 sq ft of tile. 1 dog, 2 cats, 1 kid, 2 adults.

Not really. Go Fund Me isn't meant to be used for one time, person-to-person transactions like that. It's a fundraising platform. The idea is to use gfm and social media to get your message out to as many potential donors as possible. There's a 2.9% + 30 cents fee per transaction, and it takes a week to get your money once you withdraw it. Most of the people that are using gfm are fundraising for things like funeral expenses, medical expenses, memorial funds to take care of the kids after a parent dies, help rebuilding a home after a natural disaster...really Big Life Stuff, which is why it strikes a lot of people as very...bold...to start one for homeschool curriculum or fancy extras. Sending money via Paypal is faster for personal transactions. Putting an old fashioned check in the mail is faster. I've done both for my relatives that are 1000+ miles away.

Pardon my ignorance, but how is a local business sponsoring the snow day? How does that even work?

$2000 isn't that much to outfit a big house, especially for the things you've gotten. Furniture, rugs, window treatments are all expensive, even if you get "cheap" stuff. I mean, you aren't running around town buying darling new hats, like in "I Love Lucy". It's towels and blackout curtains, for Pete's sake. These are not fun, frivolous purchases. They are utilitarian, household items that benefit multiple people. Did you ask him how much he thought these things should have cost? Is he just out of touch with how much things cost these days? Or does he think none of it was needed in the first place?

Generally, the people wanting this type of program cite bullying as the reason for leaving public school. It's either that or the kids are special needs and the parents are opposed to the solutions/resources offered by the school to address the need. (Edited to add: I'm speaking very broadly about the special needs families, and do not mean to imply they are being deliberately oppositional in rejecting what the school offers. It's simply too case-specific to get into why one family may stay in school vs another leaving). I mean, *I* think the schools are not good, but my kid was an outlier in a school setting and we bailed on school early on. I don't have enough experience with today's public schools to be objective on their quality, to be honest. Mostly, I'm just feeling crabby, lol. It's February.

I pointed the people in my local group toward a mom that runs a "how to homeschool" class for parents. It's a good quality class and the mom that runs it has many years of experience. I debated throwing my 2 cents in about WTM, but it started feeling pointless. The parent asking about "cheap homeschool programs" was very excited about the idea of handing her kid a tablet and not having to do anything else.