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

[IamRainey]

They have had the most severe lockdowns but yet the highest infection, death and hospitalization rates. That just doesn't make sense. Anybody from those states on here have any insight into whats happening there?

It's a very spotty map but it seems to follow congestion and poverty.

One story I heard recently is that in poor neighborhoods they don't go to a grocery store and buy a weeks worth of groceries making their exposure count. They tend to buy according to their immediate needs and available income and they tend to do it in small congested spots like convenience stores, bodegas and even gas stations. In those tight confines people aren't staying 6' apart and owners/clerks aren't nesssarily doing the same wiping down between customers or as frequently. Meanwhile, they're back in that environment again on a reasonably daily basis.

These are also people who are more dependent on public transportation where keeping social distance is difficult if not impossible. And, depending on occupation, they are likely to be in contact with many households/locations in a day rather than working in the same workplace bubble where co-workers depends on one another and practice habits that protect one another.

As for childcare, they are more likely to share childcare increasing the contact between households.

 

[IamRainey]

I hear people are fleeing California in droves. My sister just moved to Arizona from NC and she said houses were being bought up so fast she had a hard time getting one. Its crazy

I hear that too but I don't see it in my area. Real estate here is expensive but there aren't many houses on the market and those that are are getting more expensive by the week. My own neighborhood has become very densely populated with condo developments that spring up constantly.

My daughter and her family are trying to get into their first home just now and they've seen the price of a single house go up $150K from the start of the lockdown to the current day.

My neighbor's house just went for twice what we paid for ours 20 years ago even though we paid top price at a time when the real estate market was robust. And this after the collapse of the real estate market here 5 or so years ago.

 

[feather13]

They have had the most severe lockdowns but yet the highest infection, death and hospitalization rates. That just doesn't make sense. Anybody from those states on here have any insight into whats happening there?

We live in a very diverse low income neighborhood in southern California where infection rates are really high (we're told there are no beds available at most hospitals), so we were also puzzled by the sudden lifting of restrictions. I'm guessing there's been a lot of pressure by restaurants, who invested a lot in outdoor seating (?). I'm not sure eating outdoors causes more infections or not. The reports are pretty inconsistent.

Although most people wear masks here, some people refuse to; most stores are crowded and most don't maintain 6ft social distancing; public transportation is crowded; BIPOC people are at higher risk of infection for all sorts of reasons; and people in my neighborhood continue to throw parties/host get togethers in multigenerational homes, where I imagine masks aren't worn. I totally understand feeling isolated from friends and family and worn down by the pandemic, but these maskless get togethers have caused massive infections in every state.

Oddly enough, a lot of the businesses here (even the non-essential ones) didn't close at any time during the pandemic and our local paper would report that some business owners preferred to get a fine (although it seems no one was fined) than close. Our local brewery has offered take out drinks and never closed, for example. They also walled off a part of their business with kegs, set up huge party tents outside, and have continued to serve customers throughout the pandemic with no one wearing masks. At one point they brought in food trucks and it was so crowded with maskless people we turned around and left. I suspect that local anecdote might be true for other places and be one of the causes of continued high infection rates.

Sorry for the long post! Just my 2 cents from SoCal.

 

[feather13]

I hear that too but I don't see it in my area. Real estate here is expensive but there aren't many houses on the market and those that are are getting more expensive by the week. My own neighborhood has become very densely populated with condo developments that spring up constantly.

My daughter and her family are trying to get into their first home just now and they've seen the price of a single house go up $150K from the start of the lockdown to the current day.

My neighbor's house just went for twice what we paid for ours 20 years ago even though we paid top price at a time when the real estate market was robust. And this after the collapse of the real estate market here 5 or so years ago.

Same here. I don't see many for sale signs in my neighborhood and densely populated subdivisions spring up and sell out almost every day it seems. We bought our house seven years ago and it was relatively inexpensive because the neighborhood is "undesirable." Now I couldn't afford to buy a home pretty much anywhere in SoCal and even the extremely high crime and environmentally toxic parts of our city aren't affordable to the average person.

I'm not contesting reports that people are leaving the state in droves, I just don't see it here.

 

[RebeccaRN]

Thanks for all of the real time info, I feel like that is much more reliable than any news stories

 

[IamRainey]

I'm guessing there's been a lot of pressure by restaurants, who invested a lot in outdoor seating (?). I'm not sure eating outdoors causes more infections or not.

First of all, feather, welcome! Glad you decided to join us!

The above confounds me. We have the restaurants out here in the Valley that have put up huge tents and are operating as "outside" dining rooms. And they have customers! Meanwhile, it seems to me that the minute you enclose the space you've eliminated the air flow that provides whatever protection from virus transmission there was in a gathering spot.

My own family has only eaten out 3 or 4 times since the lockdowns started. ...and we used to eat out once or twice a week in our past life! When we do we drive a bit to a Mexican restaurant that has 3 different patios that are not enclosed. AND we only go during the week at an earlier time when the number of other patrons will be as low as possible.

Beyond that, we get take out in an effort to support our favorite places. Naturally, we'd like to see them survive until this is over. One of them, a Mediterranean spot, only opened in the 6 months before Covid hit. It's small and though their food and service are VERY good, they hadn't had the time to develop a client base they could rely on. We are constantly worried that they'll have to throw in the towel but, thank god, they haven't yet.

And my e-mail is full of offers from local spots every day. It must be very very tough for them.

As for the partiers, there are 2 houses here where there's always a party going on. One directly behind me. One directly on my side. The guy behind me does hair and he's been operating out of his house since the lockdown started. He's turned it into a social affair with at least half a dozen people hanging out every weekend. The other folks have 4 pre-school and elementary school age children and a big extended family. They just seem to have birthdays and holiday celebrations all the time.

We have half acre lots. Enough space that I don't worry about it but it does seem to violate the spirit of what we should be doing to protect one another. In more congested neighborhoods I can see that it would be a real problem.

Thanks for all of the real time info, I feel like that is much more reliable than any news stories

It's a conundrum. We hear things we can't understand. We have our anecdotal stories of our own experiences, of course, but we don't necessarily have the big picture. We need to rely on news services for that. Sometimes they offer insight. Sometimes they don't and just leave us with data that may or may not be explicable without context.

I think one of the things that accounts for the migration out of CA is young people who can't afford to buy homes in the areas where they grew up. My daughter's family is a case in point. They're trying very hard to find something affordable within commuting distance to my grandson's school. He's 10yo and he's been in 3 schools since pre-school. The one he's at now is a really good fit and they want that for him. But "starter" homes in the area fo the school begin around $700-$800K and that's just beyond them.

As a result, many people their age in their circumstances look for more affordable out of state opportunities. My s-i-l, however, is in TV production and, consequently, he's tied to LA. Plus, they'd be leaving behind ALL the people in both their families of origin for some place where they have no connections and no support.

It was a tough situation before Covid. Like many other things, it's worse now.

 

[IamRainey]

EDIT: I can't recommend that babka recipe. I'm removing the link. It turned out to be an expensive mistake. It's a freakin' candy bar with some dough swirled through it and that streusel topping made from powdered sugar gets so brittle teeth aren't safe around it. I used to have an excellent recipe with balanced flavors and good texture but I can't find it. This is NOT one I'll use again! ...although it looks pretty....

So what stuff keeps you occupied and happy in lockdown?

I'm baking some chocolate babka at the moment. It's for a friend who's bringing me chicken tikka masala for dinner tonight. I love this woman and I love Indian food. Every time I ask for a recipe or for tips on Indian cooking she brings me actual food. I have to be VERY careful how I make my inquiries but she's the only person I know who knows the authentic stuff. Happily, we've agreed when the Covid lockdown is over we're going to cook together so I can really learn.

And I've found some good stuff on TV to pass the time. At the moment it's the BBC War & Peace from 2016. It's truly excellent! I've also discovered this gem from the BBC, Emma from 2009. Romola Garai is, I think, the Emma that Austen had in mind, intelligent, independent, fiercely feminist and kind even if she is in everyone's business. It takes very little liberty with Austen's text and it's a visual treat with terrific performances.

Austin has been my best companion. Not only have I got a ton of movies and mini-series in the VCR, I've got this compendium from Audible for listening and I'm working my way through this Austen-themed novel. I always love her and I watch and read Austen things over and over. She never gets old but she's been a real calming and diverting presence just now.

Babkas are done. It's a new recipe so I hope they're good. They certainly smell like it!

 

[feather13]

First of all, feather, welcome! Glad you decided to join us!

The above confounds me. We have the restaurants out here in the Valley that have put up huge tents and are operating as "outside" dining rooms. And they have customers! Meanwhile, it seems to me that the minute you enclose the space you've eliminated the air flow that provides whatever protection from virus transmission there was in a gathering spot.

Thanks for the welcome and happy to connect with other SoCal chicken enthusiasts

I don't understand the idea of completely enclosing a patio and declaring it safer either. While we haven't eaten at restaurants since last March, we've been getting a lot more take out than we ever did before, primarily to support struggling local business and because (unlike everyone else it seems) I've become less excited and inventive about cooking since the pandemic. Good for you for supporting your local and new restaurants! I can't imagine how hard it is for all of them.

Sorry to hear that your neighborhood has partiers, too. I loved going to neighborhood parties before, especially ones with live bands, but now they just make me think about how much longer we'll experiencing the pandemic.

I totally agree about home prices and sympathize with your daughter and her family. I don't imagine my kids will be able to live in SoCal after either high school or college graduation because home prices are prohibitively expensive, even for small condos. I'm a single parent and feel very fortunate to have been able to find a small, affordable house seven years ago, but even so what I paid would have bought me a large luxury home in another part of the country. I'm hoping things will improve for all the young people in CA looking to buy homes, but it looks pretty grim right now.

 

[feather13]

So what stuff keeps you occupied and happy in lockdown?

Thanks for sharing--the chocolate babka and Indian food sound incredible!

Getting to spend time with my teenagers has been really amazing. With what used to be their busy sports and social schedules, I don't think we would have seen much of each other between now and when the eldest once goes to college next year. So I'm grateful for that and for the scores of tv shows, movies, and media they've turned me on to (Bridgerton, Community, TikTok, loads of science fiction...)

Participating in what I've been calling a "new economy" (which is actually an ancient one) has also kept me occupied and happy. I exchange masks, quilts, citrus, and eggs for whatever friends, colleagues and neighbors are willing to give (so far, sourdough starter and homemade date vodka have been my faves). And, of course, thirteen chickens makes working from home way less depressing.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Babka! I made a chocolate babka with my sister once, it took FOREVER. Dang I miss that but also it was awful.

Keeping me occupied; I'm redesigning my rabbit barn right now. The farm always keeps me busy but this needs doing and it's been a long time coming. I'm probably dropping my $600 stimulus check on the upgrades, which I have priced out to about $600. Seems fortuitous. The $1200 is stashed for a rainy day, or us moving to a larger property so I can own a cow, whichever comes first. If the $1400 goes through, I'll probably split it between changes to my farm and savings.
I've got this Terrible Thought to upsize my garden. For reference I have a good 400+sqft of garden. I'm wondering how much of my lot I can put into production. Potentially including two mini dairy goats. I've been researching pen-and-pasture models for goats. If I fence off this L shaped portion of my lot I could attach it to the awning posts with very few sqft of fencing... It's largely so bad for growing shady but lush with woody weeds like thistly and english ivy... I wonder how my neighbors would feel seeing me walking a pair of goats on a leash down the road...!

When I'm not farm focused I'm usually digging into D&D for a social activity and video games for a most-non-social activity. I run a server for a video game called ARK where you run around on this map in nothing but your skivvies learning to make clothing and houses and catch dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures and tame them to your purpose. There's a few of my more impressive screenshots under this spoiler tag.
(In order, giganotosaurus at night, giganotosaurus unconscious during the day with a giant eagle in the background, a T-rex, raptor, and giant eagle together, a brightly colored dilophosaurus, close up of the eyeball of a giant squid called tusoteuthis reflecting the sky and character model.)

Spoiler

My household has also been doing several family activities. Right now we've picked up watching M*A*S*H* because D hasn't seen it. In fact we plan on making Korean Army Stew tonight and watching more of it. But mostly we've been playing things called Legacy Board Games. These are games that are meant to be played by the same group for weeks on end and every session the missions are different and they tell a narrative over time.

The most famous of these is, amusingly, Pandemic. A game about, you guessed it, a pandemic. And trying to stop it. >_> It's first publishing date was ages ago and the legacy version came out in like 2017. But they released a new version of it last year called "pandemic season 0" where you're doctors that are also spies in the cold war trying to stop soviet russia from taking over the world or something. It's been good fun. You get to make a group of false IDs, one for allied forces, one for soviet forces and one for neutral forces. You make them from stickers, kinda like a paper doll. I'm pretty happy with all of mine but especially my soviet persona. XD

All around we're trying to stay upbeat. But it's really, really hard. We're talking a lot about the future but it really can't get here fast enough. We're doing things both productive and fun to occupy ourselves, but it's not great without the people we love to share it with. Still, we'd never risk their wellbeing. All we can do it keep trucking.