laid off?

Governments lie. Water is wet. Now that we've pointed out the obvious..

Ours does. China does. Russia does, they all do. They all have various levels of corruption.


Oh an I still have a job. Unless I fire myself. Nice thing about being self-employed.

Some of you all need to just relax. If the corona don't get you the high blood pressure an stress will. :) Yea I made a joke...about Corona. /Gasp!

You deal with this **** your way, an I'll deal with it in my way. Which includes humor.

I'd tell you all a joke about Ebola but you wouldn't get it. ;)

https://vid.alarabiya.net/images/202...x9_600x338.jpg

https://www.shutupandtakemymoney.com...orona-meme.jpg;

https://thefunnybeaver.com/wp-conten...me-467x500.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...xW_6H&usqp=CAU

https://www.shutupandtakemymoney.com...ntine-meme.jpg

Have a nice day!

Sirscrapalot - Be safe folks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by t00nces2

... and the places where the disease has taken the strongest hold are the places that were the most vocally and obstinately resistant and reluctant to enforce the protections from incoming travelers.

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Been on the job for the last few days. I'm working with the public serving the community. I'll tell ya man ... it isn't much fun anymore. There's a terrible weight of responsibility. Just one screw up on my part ... and the whole community could come down sick. It's a constant process of asking myself how to reinvent the way i do things so that we don't become a vector of disease transmission. I have to change and adapt by the day.

For the most part ... the customers have been pretty good. There ARE a few obnoxious bone heads out there though. They fuss, fume, and throw temper tantrums like selfish little children.

A few of my co-workers are borderline mentally challenged. They're wonderfully consistent and always show up for work but they're unable to adjust their work habits. They've always done things a certain way and don't cope well with even small changes. They try to put it back the way it was before. That's how they fix their broken world.

Customers and co-workers alike .... it's mostly a matter of being unable to comprehend what's going on. They're really slow to catch on.

More to your point though:

There's this troublesome thing called the constitution and the rule of law here in the states. We can't just chuck it out the window when things get tough. People have the right to move freely about. The main issue we have here is that some of the summer people from New York have fled the city and brought the covid-19 thing with em' here to the island. You have to be super careful about small town gossip but it's more likely than not that we have at least two confirmed cases from "away". The natives are getting restless ... especially the more ignorant ones. They haven't gotten out the torches and pitchforks yet ..... :l

There's this troublesome thing called the constitution and the rule of law here in the states. We can't just chuck it out the window when things get tough. People have the right to move freely about. The main issue we have here is that some of the summer people from New York have fled the city and brought the covid-19 thing with em' here to the island. You have to be super careful about small town gossip but it's more likely than not that we have at least two confirmed cases from "away". The natives are getting restless ... especially the more ignorant ones. They haven't gotten out the torches and pitchforks yet ..... (Bold is my doing) source - Hills


First off...why are you being rational when you should be freaking out an demanding we give up rights, become xenophobes an wall ourselves off from the rest of the dirty peasants that live outside our Kingdom? I demand you stop this. It offends me your not screaming the world is going to end, an hoarding TP so you can be safe once the monkey flung poo hits the fan! FOR SHAME ON YOU! SHAME I SAY! SHAME! ;)

Wait...you mean to tell me the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the like aren't a choose your own adventure? Where we can just pick an choose the things we agree with an ban everything we don't? This is blasphemous. I'm going to start a petition to have you tarred an feather for trying to treat people as equals! I only agree with speech I agree with. Same with Religion. An Politics. An if don't agree to think like me, I shall go cry, an then I'm going to tell the cops I saw you walking your dog in the backyard during this earth destroying plague. HOW DARE YOU SIR!

Joking aside...well said Hills. I'd say more but I used all my energy being sarcastic. :(

An remember folks, while the world won't end just yet, an your more then likely going to live through all this...Be cautious, an think of those around you who may not be as good as you health wise. Or the folks without work, who may need a hand up. No shame in looking out for one another in good or bad times.

Stay safe and more importantly, don't be stupid. ;)

Sirscrapalot - Sarcasm is my way of hugging. - The internet

Edit and a PS - Gold is up! See, bright side in every earth destroying plague..

I got a chuckle from this....
Talked to the mail man the other day he said...

There is 5 types of customers since the “rona”:

1) Steve: He has been waiting for this moment his whole life. He has been drinking boilermakers since 10:00 am in his recliner and his AR is within arms reach. He has 6 months provisions in the basement and a bug out bag due west buried in the woods. Steve demands a handshake as I give him his package. He’s sizing me up as I deliver his ammo.

Steve will survive this, and he will kill you if he needs to.

2) Brad: He is standing at his window wearing skinny jeans and a Patagonia t-shirt. He is mad because there were no organic tomatoes at Whole Foods today. He points at the ground where he has taped a 6 ft no go zone line from his porch. I leave his case of Fuji water, organic granola bites, and his new “Bernie Bro” hat at the tape.

Brad will not survive. Steve will probably eat him.

3) Nancy: She has sprayed everything with Thieves oil. Bought all the Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, meat, and bread from the local grocery chain. She has quarantined her kids and sprays them with a mixture of thieves, lavender, & mint essential oils daily. She has posted every link known to man about “The Rona” on her social media. She will spray you if you break the 6 ft rule. I will leave her yet another case of toilet paper.

She will last longer than Brad, but not Steve.

4) Karen: She has called everybody and read them the latest news on “The Rona”. She asked for the manager at Food Lion, Walmart, Publix, McDonalds, Chi-Fil-A, and Vons all before noon demanding more toilet paper. Karen’s kids are currently faking “The Rona” to avoid her. I’m delivering “Hello kitchen” to her.

Karen will not survive longer than Brad.

5) Mary: Is sitting in the swing watching her kids have a water balloon fight in the front yard as she is on her fourth glass of wine. She went to the store and bought 2 cases of pop tarts, 6 boxes of cereal, 8 bags of pizza rolls, And a 6 roll pack of toilet paper. There is a playlist of Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, and Post Malone playing in the background. I’m bringing her second shipment of 15 bottles of wine in 3 days.

Mary will survive and marry Steve. Together they will repopulate the earth. May God have mercy on us all.

I will say this, We went to Publix yesterday and the store was packed. Parking lot packed, tons of people in the store. I'm looking at it and thinking, how come this is okay, and everybody working is not? Why can't quarantine be optional and voluntary? Why can't people who want to sequester, sequester, and the people who want/need to get out, get out? If you want no contact with anyone, fine, make your arrangements, and everyone else can carry on.

Not laid off but my furlough begins tomorrow.....of course when the furlough ends, I could be terminated but I'm preparing for the worst and praying for the best. I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer because there are millions of people in worse shape than we are.

We are like Steve and Mary from the post above an we have invited Brad, Nancy and Karen over tomorrow for a big BBQ.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jimicrk

We are like Steve and Mary from the post above an we have invited Brad, Nancy and Karen over tomorrow for a big BBQ.

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Lol .... gives a whole new meaning to having the neighbors over for dinner. >:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by t00nces2

I will say this, We went to Publix yesterday and the store was packed. Parking lot packed, tons of people in the store. I'm looking at it and thinking, how come this is okay, and everybody working is not? Why can't quarantine be optional and voluntary? Why can't people who want to sequester, sequester, and the people who want/need to get out, get out? If you want no contact with anyone, fine, make your arrangements, and everyone else can carry on.

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It's similar here. We're technically on lockdown but people are free to move about and do their thing as they see fit. I made a 40 mile run into the nearest city yesterday. The only sign of a law enforcement officer that i saw was the fish & game warden. My guess would be that the rest are keeping a pretty low profile these days.

We do have social distancing orders from the Governor on how many people we can allow into our grocery store at one time. The limit for our larger store is fifteen. The limit on our smaller store is five. It doesn't seem to be a problem. The system is working just fine. We're still doing a banner business every week.

I was of the opinion that we should close our bottle redemption center down as being non-essential and an unnecessary risk to myself & the community. The higher ups in the company wanted to keep it open because it provides money to poor folks during the bad times. In all fairness ... you could argue the legalities of it both ways. There's nobody coming in from the state and forcing us to shut down. The company is free to do as it sees fit.

Maybe i'm talking through my hat on this one. ( If so ... please call me out for being an idiot. ) There are a couple of ideas i would throw out there as food for thought.

1: Don't be a pain in the a$$. Don't make problems. This isn't the time. Be a good citizen and govern yourself accordingly. That's what a free people do. Along with the freedom comes the personal responsibility to do the right thing when times are tough.

2: The imposition of order = the escalation of dis-order. The more you lock things down ... the more inherently un-stable your society becomes. It's like a pressure cooker with a broken pressure relief valve. The heat builds. The pressure builds. Eventually .... the whole thing goes KABOOM and you end up with a state of anarchy.

That's where guys like Steve come in. It's law of the jungle. The biggest, meanest, SOB in the valley moves in and takes over. That lasts until another Steve that's just a little bit younger and a little bit faster moves in and takes him out. It's like playing king of the hill back when we were kids. Who would know that a child's game would teach you so much of what you need to understand as an adult ?

Anyway .... i tend to rattle on sometimes. :o

Quote:

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Originally Posted by t00nces2

I will say this, We went to Publix yesterday and the store was packed. Parking lot packed, tons of people in the store. I'm looking at it and thinking, how come this is okay, and everybody working is not? Why can't quarantine be optional and voluntary? Why can't people who want to sequester, sequester, and the people who want/need to get out, get out? If you want no contact with anyone, fine, make your arrangements, and everyone else can carry on.

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More to your point though. This sounds like what Sweden is doing. Personally, i don't have an opinion on the right or wrong of it. It's just a different way of doing things.

Here's a link to a news story about it:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/10/europ...ntl/index.html

While the cats away, the mice will play. No reference to this forum and politics, well maybe, so in regards to the constitution and how some of our elected leaders have reacted: First some of us were not laid off, we are just on vacation. I would like to explain:

Our founding fathers created the constitution under the belief that the will of the people will also be in the best interest of the people. In regards to the coronavirus I believe the federal government supported this belief, the governors in several states enforced this philosophy, and local communities took pride in voluntarily following the national guidelines.

Many criticize our federal government for not ordering a nation wide shut down. What they did do was issue guidelines and left it up to the governors. I live in two states (WY and SD) and both of these governors have been criticized because they did not issue statewide shutdowns of businesses or sheltering in place orders. They are viewed as reactive instead of proactive by some. Most citizens in these states believe the governors are constructivist constitutionalist. Both issued guidelines for local governments to follow and left it up to the individual communities to enact the policies deemed important. One exception was the Secretary of Education in both states issued orders for all public schools and universities to close and private schools followed suit, supported by both governors.

A key concept in both states is an understanding that what one person does affects their neighbors, what one community does affects other communities, and what one county does affects other counties. Both states have communities requiring sheltering in place, a choice of the local governments in the best interest of the citizens. In essence we are following the guidelines established around the nation by choice, not mandate. We do have our mavericks, but public scorn is a powerful tool in small communities. The citizens of both states have proven democracy can work when our chosen leaders allow us to help design and implement a given strategy.

I also understand that it is in the best interest of several states to set specific guidelines in the interest of the general public. In this case individuals were laid off and cannot go on vacation. One size does not fit all and I believe both strategies are within the framer's beliefs. We are just as scared as any other citizen in the country. As a result, we are doing the same things the rest of the world is doing. Different strategies, same results. Please understand I am not advocating for others to join us in what should have been the state of Absaroka. The history of this movement (early 1930's) might explain the perspectives we have in this part of the country. It is nice to be on vacation and have the time to share.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by t00nces2

I will say this, We went to Publix yesterday and the store was packed. Parking lot packed, tons of people in the store. I'm looking at it and thinking, how come this is okay, and everybody working is not? Why can't quarantine be optional and voluntary? Why can't people who want to sequester, sequester, and the people who want/need to get out, get out? If you want no contact with anyone, fine, make your arrangements, and everyone else can carry on.

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Everyone needs food, to live. Not everyone needs new video games from Gamestop (at least not this second)


"if you want no contact with anyone, fine, make your arrangements, and everyone else can carry on." - The problem with this is when Jeff who works at the grocery store goes to a phish concert and contracts the corona, then goes back to work. Jeff didnt have to go to a phish concert, but would if he were able to.... he didnt have to do that, but the old frail lady that needs groceries HAS to come into the grocery store to interact with Jeff. This is a crappy example but you get the point. Yes perhaps the old lady could get groceries delivered or have family drop them off etc, but there are plenty of old people with no family and who would have to just go to the store.

I think the lockdown was a good idea, and don't think it went far enough, quick enough. If we would have really enforced the lockdown we could have been through this whole thing in like a month, but now because of the delay and half assed effort of a lot of places and people, it is going to drag on for many months instead.

China was welding infected peoples front doors shut.... THAT is excessive, but our response could have been stronger.


Also I am 90% sure I already had and recovered from the corona, wont know until the antibody tests are available. it wasn't that bad (for me), but there are plenty of people that it is a death sentence for. There is no way to know who will be able to get over it and who wont. There have been healthy young people that got it and died, and fat old people with the 'beetus that got it and lived. So its not even like we can just say "all the old people stay home, everyone else carry on" because it can effect everyone, and you wont know til you get it if youll be one of the ones who will be fine or die from it.



HOWEVER..... I am ready for this to all be over so we can all get back out there and make some money and get back to work.... it funny though, a lot of people are going to be making way more on unemployment now, than they were at their actual job, so going back to work in low-moderate paying jobs is going to drag even after the quarantine is lifted, until the CARES act unemployment addition runs out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kss

Everyone needs food, to live. Not everyone needs new video games from Gamestop (at least not this second)


"if you want no contact with anyone, fine, make your arrangements, and everyone else can carry on." - The problem with this is when Jeff who works at the grocery store goes to a phish concert and contracts the corona, then goes back to work. Jeff didnt have to go to a phish concert, but would if he were able to.... he didnt have to do that, but the old frail lady that needs groceries HAS to come into the grocery store to interact with Jeff. This is a crappy example but you get the point. Yes perhaps the old lady could get groceries delivered or have family drop them off etc, but there are plenty of old people with no family and who would have to just go to the store.

I think the lockdown was a good idea, and don't think it went far enough, quick enough. If we would have really enforced the lockdown we could have been through this whole thing in like a month, but now because of the delay and half assed effort of a lot of places and people, it is going to drag on for many months instead.

China was welding infected peoples front doors shut.... THAT is excessive, but our response could have been stronger.


Also I am 90% sure I already had and recovered from the corona, wont know until the antibody tests are available. it wasn't that bad (for me), but there are plenty of people that it is a death sentence for. There is no way to know who will be able to get over it and who wont. There have been healthy young people that got it and died, and fat old people with the 'beetus that got it and lived. So its not even like we can just say "all the old people stay home, everyone else carry on" because it can effect everyone, and you wont know til you get it if youll be one of the ones who will be fine or die from it.



HOWEVER..... I am ready for this to all be over so we can all get back out there and make some money and get back to work.... it funny though, a lot of people are going to be making way more on unemployment now, than they were at their actual job, so going back to work in low-moderate paying jobs is going to drag even after the quarantine is lifted, until the CARES act unemployment addition runs out.

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The frail little old lady can stay in her house quarantined and have her groceries delivered.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by t00nces2

The frail little old lady can stay in her house quarantined and have her groceries delivered.

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Can she? Does she have money to pay for delivery? Did the delivery guy go to the phish concert, since it wasn't shut down, and contract corona that he's now delivering to these old folk?


Everything will probably open up soon, hearing talks about it already

I heard the little old lady had 2 tickets to the phish concert and she invited Jeff to go with her.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kss

Can she? Does she have money to pay for delivery? Did the delivery guy go to the phish concert, since it wasn't shut down, and contract corona that he's now delivering to these old folk?


Everything will probably open up soon, hearing talks about it already

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< sigh > Enter politics stage left .... and right.

Just an opinion, but this thing started out as a pandemic that everybody all along the political spectrum could see was a problem. There were probably any one of a dozen different approaches that they could have taken to address it. I doubt there's any wrong direction or particular time to spring into action.

When i watch the news now ... it's heavy with politics. Everyone's got their eye on the upcoming elections in November. This one points the finger at that one and so on. Our dear POTUS seems to be more concerned about his precious little economy than anything else. He did a pretty good job with it but the covid thing came along and ruined it all. Now he's thinking his chances for re-election are diminished because it really is all "about the economy stupid."

Just my viewpoint but i don't think we're keeping it real here. The strategy so far has been to slow the spread. It's a delaying tactic.

We're going to have to come up with a vaccine to finally put this thing down and be done with it.

They're saying 12 - 18 months to develop the vaccine. That seems like a more realistic timeframe for things to return back to some semblance of normal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kss

Can she? Does she have money to pay for delivery? Did the delivery guy go to the phish concert, since it wasn't shut down, and contract corona that he's now delivering to these old folk?


Everything will probably open up soon, hearing talks about it already

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The little old lady has the right to run her life as she sees fit, she does not have the right to run my life. If quarantining was that important to her, she would have made arrangements ahead of time, just like I have. She does not have the right to tell everyone to stay inside their homes because she doesn't want you freely associating.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by t00nces2

The little old lady has the right to run her life as she sees fit, she does not have the right to run my life. If quarantining was that important to her, she would have made arrangements ahead of time, just like I have. She does not have the right to tell everyone to stay inside their homes because she doesn't want you freely associating.

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She doesn't have the right, but the government does have the right, when it is in the publics best interests. Which is what government at federal,state and local levels have determined is the case here.

You and the lady can both live as you like for sure, but the government can also use it's rights to restrict your rights. Like stay at home orders, curfews, etc.

It is an interesting debate though on how much they can restrict our rights and in which ways. I don't know that I know where the line is, but it definitely interesting to think about. Like.... If they started tracking all people's cell phones to make maps of where they've been to track Corona, I'd say that crosses a line for privacy and rights.... If they make us stay home does that cross a line? If they just ask us to stay home if we can does that cross a line? Who knows....

Todays 'Week 3' of the NZ lockdown.
Our Goverment didnt get off its rrrs fast enough & sort out the people arriving here and as soon a one case reared its head, the Goverment relised it was 2 weeks behind the game and started acting.
In the time it started to act, we went to 3, then 5 then 9 cases.

Include a couple of hot spots where they know theres going to be more cases & the Goverment got its act together & we got 3 days notice of a 4 week lockdown.
We knew most of what was comming quite quickly, no schools, essential services only, etc etc.

People did get caught out where we thought that certain hardware stores would be open, so some didn't get enough supplys to do the home handy work they had planned on doing in this time.
The hardware stores are open for Trade accounts only & on a 'one 8n, one out' basis.

Supermarkets open for less hrs per day, set amounts of people allowed instore only, so theres queues sometimes. I have been out 3 times ( i messed up with my $ & had to go a 3rd time )
But that was after the 2 weeks had ended, now im set for the next 2 weeks... But only 1 week to go.

Now, theres 1,300 people in NZ ( population nearly 5 million ) with Covid-19 & 9 or 10 deaths, mainly older folk & mostly thru connections with groups who got directly infected by somebody arriving in NZ with it.
Where theres been 'group outbreaks', its been weddings, birthdays, work ( employment groups ) and, a stag party ( not hunting..) and a old folks home where they are not sure of the source.

'Community transmissions' amount for about 10%, & most of the sources are known.

I do expect we will have another lockdown, probably 2-3-4 weeks after this one, where theres localised outbreaks. Im not sure of what the school situation is, but i think they have decided to shift the school holidays forwards into this lockdown period.
There's normally 2 weeks holidays in May & 2-3 weeks in August & 3 in Dec-Jan for our summer Christmas holidays.
We have had absolutely no shortages in our supermarkets of anything. ( Except denatured ethanol (Methylated spirits))
Fresh fruit is cheaper than normal, so is petrol.

Law & order has been kept & theres only been a few exceptions to that. Theres hardly any cars on the road.
We cannot drive far from home, supermarket, work for those that do work, or nessesitys or emergancys.
Can't drive to the beach or a walking biking track, you can walk or bike around your suburb though.
Can't go boating, fishing or shooting, it ties up emergency responders time.

Theres always people who do 'buck the trend', but its not common, Police are hardly seen, but are checking people & have issued notices to people breaking the lockdown ( thats what its been called commonly, its not a 'Lockdown in Law' )
& some people have been fined for it after getting a couple of notices.
Theres no night curfue, but as its definately getting colder now, theres not many people out anyway.
We had/ are having 3-4 days of rain hail & sleet at the moment. Tree leaves are falling now.

Burglaries are down a lot, probably because most houses are occupied all of the time.
I did think that petty crime would rise as people fell short of $$, but we do have Goverment assistance, if you are out of work, between the company's & the Goverment, your wages will get topped up to at least 80% of your normal weekly wage.
If the companys gone bust ( Burger King just declared preliminary bankruptcy ) theres no stand down to the unemployment benefit.
The unemployment benefit(s) also had its yearly rise advanced onto 1st April, NZ$25 a week.
We have a 'Winter payment' extra of $20 to help with winter heating too, thats been doubled to $40 per single ( $30 each per couple) a week from May 1st.
The unemployment benefit is about $190 a week, 'living allowance' ( unable to work ) is about $285 a week, plus allowances for rent over a certain amount & certain other expenses.
Like the most you pay for medicines is ( i dunno ) $80-$100 per year, or $5 per script per 3 months, after the 80_100, its free, Doctors visit is $60 per quarter & subsidised after that.

After the lockdown, unemployment is expected to jump to 10% from ~4+ %.
Some say it might get to 25%, mostly job losses from lack of Tourisim.
NZ exports something like 80% of its food.

Scrapmetal has dropped a lot, im not sure about Copper prices, but Aluminium is 2/3rds of what it was & it was the lowest its been for years.

It's interesting how our response to the Covid-19 is so similar to what our neighbors in the world are doing. We aren't quite as socialized as N.Z. but we're not terribly different. My wife took a voluntary furlough from her job because she is at high risk. She should get about 305.00$/week. Additionally, there's a one time 600.00$ payout which should arrive sometime next week. We each received 1,200.00$ from the IRS this morning. Just landed in our bank accounts.

Our state Governor extended the stay at home order from April 15th. to May 15th. yesterday. We're now up to 734 confirmed cases with the number rising daily. I was talking with someone who works in the healthcare field a couple of weeks ago. The number of cases on our county is fewer than a handful. She explained that the numbers are probably off simply because testing isn't being done. Same/same with deaths because testing kits aren't being provided to the coroners.

It's springtime here and the average daytime temps are about 45 deg. F. The weather has been a bit rough. We had two storms that came through this past week with high winds. Each knocked out power for about a day. Used about 1/2 of the gasoline/petrol in storage to keep the generator running.

I always get a bit melancholy in the fall eesakiwi. It's like the glory days of summer have passed and now we're heading into the hard time of the year. The winter's here are hard enough without piling a pandemic on top of it. It's definitely time for me to get busy prepping for next winter. Gotta get out there and get my butt in gear. My thoughts will be with you guys in the southern hemisphere.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hills

It's interesting how our response to the Covid-19 is so similar to what our neighbors in the world are doing. We aren't quite as socialized as N.Z. but we're not terribly different. My wife took a voluntary furlough from her job because she is at high risk. She should get about 305.00$/week. Additionally, there's a one time 600.00$ payout which should arrive sometime next week. We each received 1,200.00$ from the IRS this morning. Just landed in our bank accounts.

Our state Governor extended the stay at home order from May 1st. to May 15th. yesterday. We're now up to 734 confirmed cases with the number rising daily. I was talking with someone who works in the healthcare field a couple of weeks ago. The number of cases on our county is fewer than a handful. She explained that the numbers are probably off simply because testing isn't being done. Same/same with deaths because testing kits aren't being provided to the coroners.

It's springtime here and the average daytime temps are about 45 deg. F. I always get a bit melancholy in the fall eesakiwi. It's like the glory days of summer have passed and now we're heading into the hard time of the year. The winter's here are hard enough without piling a pandemic on top of it. It's definitely time for me to get busy prepping for next winter. Gotta get out there and get my butt in gear.

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Your wife should get that $600 weekly while on unemployment.... at least thats what I heard. so $305/wk from state, $600/wk from the fed, $905/wk