Coronavirus, Covid 19 Discussion and How It Has Affected Your Daily Life Chat Thread

[ChickenCanoe]

Don't forget fish too...those are often shipped via USPS too. Live fish I mean..in addition to boxed filets and steak deliveries.

Whenever there are changes made at the USPS a review board is supposed to review the proposed changes first. Which would have caught the kinds of losses of animals, spoilage of foods, lateness of life saving medications...
Guess who bypassed the review board and made the changes without letting anyone know....

I heard a report that a sorting facility is swarming with boxes full of dead and spoiling things. I can only imagine how lovely it smells and how not fun it will be to catalog all that.

I once had a shipment of chicks that was lost in the mail. With the help of the person in charge of the express mail system, I didn't find them but learned a lot about the shipment of live animals.
My chicks all arrived alive the next day luckily.
During the course of the frantic day, I spoke to someone who worked one of the major distribution centers and he told me about the variety of animals on the dock. I was astounded. I've received both 5 lb. packages of bees and queen bees in the mail. I've also gotten chicks several times. I no longer buy chickens. I'm now a producer of primary breeding stock and ship birds around the country including to US territories.
I had no idea how many reptiles, amphibians, fish, mammals, birds, insects and invertebrates could be on a dock at the same time.

In reference to your statement about the USPS board of governors who review and approve changes. Guess who appoints them?
Surprise!
The Board is made up of nine Governors appointed by the President of the United States

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I'm mostly familiar with how many animals move through USPS because that's how the pet store I used to work at got their fish and crickets and mealworms, etc. Just HUGE boxes filled with bags and bags of fish. Even if they were on time not every fish made it through the shipping process, but most of them did. But that doesn't work at all if they're not moved fast enough, because they're just in bags with water getting shipped.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I just called Josh Hawley's office (the Missouri Senator who participated in the Postmaster hearing today). Senator Hawley beat indumbent Claire McCaskill in 2018.
During the hearing, the bulk of his questioning and commentary didn't match my experience and I told them as much - in the message I left due to a high call volume.

 

[Beer can]

Our p.o. calls us up immediately when I have chicks. I kinda suspect they play with them before I get there though. I have heard some horror stories on shipped chicks getting shipped to the wrong state. One instance the BYC member tracked them, they were fed and watered by a very good p.o. person in the wrong state and sent on their way the right address and did end up where they were supposed to go.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

The intense heat has let up just a little here so I was finally able to section off a quick grow out pen for some teenagers. It's inside the main chicken yard so the flock can get used to being near the pullets that will eventually join the laying flock.
Once fall hits I'll work on a real bachelor pad/grow out pen as a stand alone permanent addition.

Fingers crossed I'll be able to grab, change leg bands, and get bodies moved over the next few days depending on which direction these incoming gulf storms go. Between all the hatches, a separate chicken tractor, and the brooder, I have 38 youngsters ready to move into bigger quarters. No more hatching until next year! I'm done.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Almost forgot, picked the first of the winter squashes this morning too.
2 Buttercup (kabocha)
2 Butternuts
2 small sugar pumpkins. All are curing on the front porch ATM.
There are plenty more and the vines are starting to yellow and wither, but the stems were still too green. Another week or two and I'll have cute little pumpkins and squash curing everywhere.

 

[sourland]

Grand daughter from Maryland quarantined here for two weeks - got a negative result on her Covid test - left for Syracuse on Thursday. Thursday night local news show Syracuse students, maskless at a several hundred person gathering. It ain't gonna work, folks. I told her when she left not to unpack her suitcases.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

We harvested some veggies this week.

D&D tonight. I get to show off that swamp dino I drew.

 

[MROO]

@MROO ...
Hey friend, haven't heard from you in a while...y'all ok? Recovering from the flood? How did the testing go?

Thanks, Snappy. I'm okay. It's been a real roller coaster here for the last two weeks. Testing was fine - everyone's negative & still healthy. Our troubles came from another front. DD had issues with a suicidal boyfriend - and having dealt with his mother, I now know why! I "talked him down," and called child protection, but "Mom" lied and he just nodded numbly along, so HE got a lecture on crying wolf and a rap on the knuckles for "causing all this trouble." Except now, for some reason, it's all MY fault? I not only "blew it all out of proportion" but apparently I am now responsible for ruining his dreams of the military. This is he same military that she canceled his testing for because she didn't feel like driving him there, that particular day and the same military that generally frowns upon suicidal people handling heavy firearms. I've done all I can for the poor kid. If he's going to lie to the authorities for her, I can't keep pushing. I have the text he wrote about joining his father in the afterlife, so I know I'm not over-reacting - but apparently I "made that up," too. This is breaking my heart!

 

[MROO]

The testimony by the new (with zero postal service experience) postmaster testimony before the senate that just began (9:00 AM ET) should be interesting.
If he tries to say decommissioning the sorting machines was a cost saving measure - well, it costs taxpayers money to do so.
It is only being carried on MSNBC right now but a senate hearing is supposed to be on CSPAN1 later.
CNN and FOX aren't currently carrying it.

I know this has been brought up but this is striking if anyone missed it.
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/08/20/united-states-postal-service-maine-dead-chicks/amp/

ETA
It is now on CSPAN1, FOX, CNN and MSMBC now.

My best friend is a carrier - and her whole office is up in arms about this mess. They can't do a thing about it, though, because the decisions and most of the actions are made/done well before they get to her level. She just has to deal with the repercussions. Luckily, she hasn't had boxes of dead chicks. I think that would do in most of her coworkers. We're a mostly rural area and they're all animal-people!