Are you quarantined?

[velocityg4]

The emergency hording mentality is contagious. Although logically there is no reason, once people walk in to a store and see shelves cleaned out, they will grab extra when they can so as not to be inconvenienced at sone point in the future.

What I find really annoying is with perishables, because that stuff must be eaten. What I found interesting is that the goods that will last on the shelf, like soup can still be found in the store. It’s the run on dairy and paper products that have annoyed me most.

Interesting, at my local stores the perishables. At least the produce and bakery items were virtually untouched. Stuff which only lasts a few days. Dairy is another matter.

Milk and cheese was nearly wiped out though. Which is a bit annoying and doesn't last that long, well the cheese may last. Oddly though people were avoiding the Lactaid, Organic and plant based milks. Which is ridiculous. Since they are ultra-pasteurized. They last much longer. If you're going to hoard milk then hoard milk which is good for a couple months. Better yet get powdered milk, evaporated milk or some other shelf stable milk.

Pretty much everything canned was gone beans, vegetables, soups, meat and so forth. Also dry goods rice, beans, flour and pasta. Except, I guess, no one here knows what to do with Hispanic and Asian food. As both were fully stocked. People don't seem to realize beans from the Hispanic section are just as good as the beans in soups section. Heck way better as they are already flavored.

 

[D.T.]

People don't seem to realize beans from the Hispanic section are just as good as the beans in soups section. Heck way better as they are already flavored.

Refried black beans, so good, like $1.29 a can, filling protein, you can dress them up with anything: meat, cheese, onions, salsa - we have a few cans, but we always have a few cans

 

[jbachandouris]

I'm not really 'working' from home, but I am on standby waiting for service calls.

I have no idea how this will work with all that's going on as the equipment is found in hospitals.

 

[kazmac]

Working from home and avoiding busy areas.

 

[compwiz1202]

I asked one of the parents about this and he laughed. He said he's lived his life already so when come what may happens just happens. He couldn't give a damn about self-isolating. I kind of agree if I was that age then I wouldn't change my habits either.

This was my thought too, but then they are just as bad any anyone else helping to spread it.

 

[Mousse]

I'm isolating by choice, which happens to be carrying on as normal.

The media has people so paranoid. Good gawd, man. The hording, going out in public with a mask and gloves, the constant hand washing and wiping the counter with alcohol. This ain't Medieval times when maggots spontaneously spawned from meat that got left out. Corona ain't gonna spontaneously spawn because you didn't clean the countertop.
It's good to bit cleaner, but the hysteria is worse than the disease. I ain't gonna push the missus away if she wants a little smooch. Hail, I know she ain't infected, nor is anyone in the house. I hug them, I cuddle with 'em, I kiss 'em. I also keep do extra cleaning before food prep, but that's normal. As is hand washing before eating and cooking. I avoid strangers, which again, is normal.
I didn't horde food though. Worse comes to worse, I'll hunt down stray pets on the streets. I kid. Don't sic the ASPCA or PETA on me.

 

[bunnspecial]

I'm completely serious when I say: That sounds like fun. Assuming you have the maintenance and repair manuals at hand.

Actually, I'm looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, the repair manuals seem impossible to find, although I have resources I can contact for help.

If anyone is interested, it's a Hewlett Packard 5971. I have someone delivering to me today(sometime) a mainboard, power supply, and various other components for the 5972, which is the successor model. The plan is to convert it more or less to a 5972, which uses the same top board/mass analyzer assembly but is much improved in several other respects. It's a big job, but one I've been looking forward to for weeks.

 

[iMi]

I already work from home, but this week we are taking additional steps to isolate ourselves best we can. Our nanny and housekeeper are being asked to stay home. We are not going into public areas, unless absolutely necessary. We can kick this thing pretty quickly if we all practice common sense steps.

We're not hoarding toilet paper... 😆
[automerge]1584379251[/automerge]

I'm isolating by choice, which happens to be carrying on as normal.

The media has people so paranoid. Good gawd, man. The hording, going out in public with a mask and gloves, the constant hand washing and wiping the counter with alcohol. This ain't Medieval times when maggots spontaneously spawned from meat that got left out. Corona ain't gonna spontaneously spawn because you didn't clean the countertop.
It's good to bit cleaner, but the hysteria is worse than the disease. I ain't gonna push the missus away if she wants a little smooch. Hail, I know she ain't infected, nor is anyone in the house. I hug them, I cuddle with 'em, I kiss 'em. I also keep do extra cleaning before food prep, but that's normal. As is hand washing before eating and cooking. I avoid strangers, which again, is normal.
I didn't horde food though. Worse comes to worse, I'll hunt down stray pets on the streets. I kid. Don't sic the ASPCA or PETA on me.

Our contingency plan may or may not include our cat, dog, fish and reptiles. It's possible we'll be in the market for new pets when this is over... haha. Just kidding.

 

[Mousse]

We can kick this thing pretty quickly if we all practice common sense steps.

Exactly. Take simple, but necessary precautions. Just don't go overboard. And more importantly, don't be callous thinking it's just a flu virus. Idiots who underestimate the Corona virus are worse than the hyper paranoid. At least I won't catch the COVID-19 from those hiding under their blankets, behind their wall of toilet paper.

 

[D.T.]

Worse comes to worse, I'll hunt down stray pets on the streets.

If I may suggest one thing .... slow cooker.

 

[JamesMike]

Don't hoard toilet paper, suggest people invest in a bidet.

 

[velocityg4]

Exactly. Take simple, but necessary precautions. Just don't go overboard. And more importantly, don't be callous thinking it's just a flu virus. Idiots who underestimate the Corona virus are worse than the hyper paranoid. At least I won't catch the COVID-19 from those hiding under their blankets, behind their wall of toilet paper.

This really needs illustration.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

I'm self-quarantining as much as possible out of choice. I have cancelled most to all appointments in the forseeable future and only go out when absolutely necessary.

 

[0388631]

Refried black beans, so good, like $1.29 a can, filling protein, you can dress them up with anything: meat, cheese, onions, salsa - we have a few cans, but we always have a few cans

Black beans? What brand? The Rosy brand is what I've always used, at least for 20+ years now. Flavorful, made with lard, good spiciness and cumin profile. Black bean mash is much darker.

 

[rosyapple]

I had been buying supplies for a while now, since January, since I read what had been happening in China. I bought a little bit extra every week. I ramped up my purchases as soon as I read what had been going on in Italy, because with EU open borders, there would be no way for them to contain the infection and it would be just a matter of time before the whole world would experience this.

I bought extra supplies with this in mind — if there's no quarantine, then I'd go to supermarkets less in the future. If there's a quarantine then I'd be fully stocked. So it's a win-win for me. I also tried to avoid the first few days after each major announcement, because I already expected people would panic buy and the supermarkets would become a hotbed for germs (and apparently dangerous with all the stabbings and shootings).

Now I'm all stocked up for a while. Just waiting for a large alien spaceship to land on earth ala Independence Day to complete this real-life movie experience 😃.

Afterwards, I might write an autobiography or a guide about how to survive a pandemic 😃.

 

[0388631]

I had been buying supplies for a while now, since January, since I read what had been happening in China. I bought a little bit extra every week. I ramped up my purchases as soon as I read what had been going on in Italy, because with EU open borders, there would be no way for them to contain the infection and it would be just a matter of time before the whole world would experience this.

I bought extra supplies with this in mind — if there's no quarantine, then I'd go to supermarkets less in the future. If there's a quarantine then I'd be fully stocked. So it's a win-win for me. I also tried to avoid the first few days after each major announcement, because I already expected people would panic buy and the supermarkets would become a hotbed for germs (and apparently dangerous with all the stabbings and shootings).

Now I'm all stocked up for a while. Just waiting for a large alien spaceship to land on earth ala Independence Day to complete this real-life movie experience 😃.

Afterwards, I might write an autobiography or a guide about how to survive a pandemic 😃.

Good thinking. I don't get the rush of people buying. It overloads the shipping system. I went out of my way to buy things I'd normally never buy because I figured it wouldn't be too bad to incorporate into a meal in dire times. That said, I was cleaning out the shelves of the "high end" pasta sauces figuring it'd be hard to make from scratch if fresh produce deliveries to stores slows down or stops. I don't want to drop the brand's name to limit the amount of bots that come here, but it's the same stuff used at three of their world class restaurants. Sounds like "Cows."

I'm fairly sure the cashier though I was a total weirdo when I bought 30+ containers of it back in December. Pasta aside, I'm fairly sure you can use these for other things, too.

 

[bunnspecial]

Some mass spectrometer work from today:

I actually haven't dug into doing the electronics retrofit I'd planned just yet. Rather, I'm actually taking the time to try and get it back to something resembling new performance.

The person who sold/gave me a bunch of parts also gave me his thoughts on how to properly clean a mass spec source-something that I THOUGHT I knew how to do, but according to him I was focusing too much on the wrong parts and not on the things that really matter. His explanations all made sense when I thought in terms of how various parts interact with the ions, and what dirt/crud/other build-up does to them. His explanation of what happens when those various parts DO get dirty also mirrors what I've been seeing on this.

So, consequently, I spent some time today really cleaning up the source with his recommendations. Hopefully I will get a good tune out of this and can then can proceed with bringing a c.1990 5971 up to the standards of a c. 1993 5972 .

Shown here is the mass spec with the top board removed and the source removed and disassembled. Also, the two rods in the foreground are the official Hewlett-Packard issued rods to clean the inside of the ion lenses. Despite the fact that the current Agilent 5977, for which many of the parts in the standard source are directly interchangeable with the parts in this 30 year old 5971(the draw-out plate, draw out cylinder, ion focus lens, ion entrance lens, and lens insulator could be directly replaced with new parts specced for a 5977, or these could be fitted to a 5977), HP/Agilent does not included these cleaning rods and hasn't for a long time. After having it explained to me how important the inside surfaces of these parts are, I'm not sure why they've been left out.

In any case, I cleaned them with "green paper"(Agilent 5061-5896) and followed by a slurry of aluminum oxide(Agilent 8660-0971). I did a lot of scrubbing and polishing, and feel good about how clean they are.

Normally, my next step would be to pump it down, but I realized something. To do it properly, you need a part called a blank ferrule to seal the end of the transfer line where the column would normally be attached. I have a package of them in my office and meant to grab them, but walked off and forgot it. I searched through my tool kits and have every imaginable type of standard ferrule-graphite, vespal, graphitized vespal, and a number of different internal diameters, but don't have the elusive no hole. I can improvise by taking a piece of capillary column, installing it, and jamming a septum on it as a cap, but I don't even have a junk capillary column here. So, I can't pump it down until I get one.

Also, I'll be interested to see how well I can get it pumped down. Normally, the source and quadrupoles are kept at elevated temperatures. The HP/Agilent 5973 and newer have discrete heaters on these parts that are controlled by the mass spec. Somewhere around 200ºC is normal for the source, and 150º or so for the quads. The 5971 and 5972 don't have separate heaters, but instead intend for you to get the transfer line really, really hot(280ºC or hotter, where it's normally 200-250º on other instruments) and have it serve as a heater for everything else. That normally gets the temperature at the source/quad interface(where the only thermocouple is located) to 160-170º. Unfortunately, the transfer line is heated by the gas chromatograph, and I didn't bring that home with me(it's big and I don't have 20A plugs at home to plug it in). So, I'll just have to hope it gets everything pulled off.

That's my rambling for the evening!

 

[planteater]

I'm carrying on as usual. I drive a truck. Somebody's got to deliver the TP to replenish after the horder masses unnecessarily empty shelves.

 

[macmyworld]

I am splitting time at the office as we have mandated working from home with a few executives rotating in for the few folks that have to stay in the office. Our restaurants are closed expect for drive-throughs.

I would still visit them if they were open. I am practicing the same hygiene I normally do during the winter in Minnesota. I also stopped shaking hands two weeks ago.

Personally I am very nervous about our economy and how long we can sustain this. Americans do not save money and many small businesses are already in trouble. As a country we have some very tough decisions to make. Do we destroy the economy and millions of families or do we lockdown to attempt to protect the health of everyone.

For those who say this is not the influenza, they are right. The question that we will look back on is if the right decisions were made to cripple our economy and the futures of many. The lockdown will need to go for months, not weeks.

Personally I am not afraid of the virus. My life is at risk from a host of things every day. It is now we personally mitigate risks that matter.

 

[mw360]

For those who say this is not the influenza, they are right. The question that we will look back on is if the right decisions were made to cripple our economy and the futures of many. The lockdown will need to go for months, not weeks.

Personally I am not afraid of the virus. My life is at risk from a host of things every day. It is now we personally mitigate risks that matter.

Hindsight is going to be a terrible vengeful thing. I don't envy anyone making the decision right now. We won't ever understand what good all this did. Nobody's going to look back at and marvel at all the people who didn't die because of the 'flattened curve'. People already don't understand what's happeneing and they don't believe what the scientists are warning about. The worst case scenario already can't happen, because of what we're all doing, but all we'll see in the end is people complaining about how the death toll didn't meet the predictions, and not people celebrating that.

 

[maflynn]

Hindsight is going to be a terrible vengeful thing.

Hindsight is almost always a terrible vengeful thing

The problem with hindsight is that when we look back, we do so with more knowledge, more experience and more emotional detachment then when we made our decisions during a trying time

There were and still are so many unknowns, it will be relatively easy to look back in 12 months and wag our finger saying this and that should have been done, when in reality things were much to fluid and unknown. In battle its called the fog of war, and to an extent that can fit here imo

 

[xraydoc]

Working from home for the last week. Most stores & restaurants here are closed. My kids start online classes on Monday.

Not sick and hoping it stays that way. I'm not in a high-risk group, but old enough that I don't need to take any chances.

 

[LizKat]

Retired and always comfortable working alone on my quilting-related projects and other more or less solitary activities. The stack of books and ebooks is daunting so I'm never bored.

I feel grateful for living in an area where it's usual for people to have stocked up on a winter's worth of groceries by October thanks to the occasional snowstorm that overwhelms snow plowing resources. Also grateful for an attentive local government and volunteers who are working to compensate for closure of usual public or other congregate services to needy families, the elderly and disabled. One otherwise worries more about friends in the boondocks who rely on some of those services.

And for Instacart, also my personal gratitude to local shopper/drivers plus the clerks stocking shelves and truck drivers hauling stuff from ports and factories to the supermarket loading bays. This is not yet here the time for fresh veggies in season, except for whatever herbs one may have managed to remember to bring in off the deck before the frosts came last fall. So far local markets do seem to have fresh produce in stock; it's more the canned staples and paper goods that they are experiencing a run on, due to some panic buying or relatively recent decisions to start keeping a pantry.

Some concerns about one of my brothers who was visiting friends on the Gulf side of Florida and decided to drive home rather than fly, mostly wishing to avoid crowds in air terminals. He's done the drive in the past and doesn't mind it. He was most recently passing through Maryland, trying to maintain social distance at pit stops and minding handwashing etc. best practices, but of course subject to some exposure during any stays at motels along the way. Another brother is a snowbird and still in Florida, delaying his return for awhile until it's warmer since he lives way up near the Great Lakes. Still another and his wife have of course decided to postpone a trip to SC to visit cousins.

A niece in Philly is helping her closed inner-city school scrounge for grants for iPads for some distance learning and fun activities; the families seem to have WiFi and some phones but not many tablets. Here in rural areas, the kids tend to have the gear but often lack adequate net access from home. American 21st-century "utilities" definition itself needs an upgrade, and then more infrastructure and gear to go with it.

Well the internet has been my family's substitute for get-togethers in winter and early spring anyway so we're all trying to remember it's not all that different to normal routines for us. Counting our blessings.

 

[Attonine]

Flew into Tripoli, Libya on 4th March Via Istanbul. Supposed to fly out to the field on 6th. Company got spooked and a group of us have been holed up in a hotel since arrival. Not really quarantine as we are free to come and go and hotel does have other guests.

Since arrival things have moved on. Libya will close all sea and air ports from tonight. It’s not clear whether military will allow foreigners to travel across the country. should get some info from company today as we are approaching 14 day period. Everyone is fit and healthy and the country is still reporting zero cases of the virus. Fingers crossed.

things have moved on even more.......

from yesterday there is a nationwide curfew, 6pm-6am. All airports are totally closed, including domestic and oil field traffic, until further notice. My office is closed for 7 days. there Are absolute restrictions on expats: we cannot move around the country or enter oil facilities, these restrictions do not apply to locals though. The city is noticeably quiet. Many businesses remaining closed. many people with latex gloves and face masks, and I know they have been told to remain 2m apart.

There are still no cases of the virus in the country. I hope that the measure being taken put the country ahead of the curve, as 9 years of civil war in a country that had no healthcare to begin with means Libya is a particularly weak position. I believe a ceasefire was agree last night, so the bombing has stopped.

I have been instructed to stay in the hotel in Tripoli “until further notice”.

 

[xraydoc]

things have moved on even more.......

from yesterday there is a nationwide curfew, 6pm-6am. All airports are totally closed, including domestic and oil field traffic, until further notice. My office is closed for 7 days. there Are absolute restrictions on expats: we cannot move around the country or enter oil facilities, these restrictions do not apply to locals though. The city is noticeably quiet. Many businesses remaining closed. many people with latex gloves and face masks, and I know they have been told to remain 2m apart.

There are still no cases of the virus in the country. I hope that the measure being taken put the country ahead of the curve, as 9 years of civil war in a country that had no healthcare to begin with means Libya is a particularly weak position. I believe a ceasefire was agree last night, so the bombing has stopped.

I have been instructed to stay in the hotel in Tripoli “until further notice”.

Yikes. Damn, stay safe!