Week Five of Quarantine and Ugh, I Have Nothing Useful to Say About It, So Here’s a Picture of a Puppy Instead
Posted on April 19, 2020 Posted by John Scalzi 40 Comments
This labradoodle showed up in the yard yesterday and I got to play with it a little bit while its human loitered a socially responsible distance away. It was adorable. And yes, before you ask, we’re thinking about getting another dog sometime soonish. Not this one, cute as it is.
Anyway, uhhhh, another week of quarantine, then? I mean, unless you’re one of those people astroturfed into believing that this virus can be rushed or intimidated into getting out of your way so you can go eat in a restaurant or get your hair done, or whatever. Pro tip: It can’t. Stay home. Keep your neighbors safe. Wash your hands. Especially when you’re done playing with adorable puppies.
I have family roots in 2 massachusetts and 2 florida towns, and all of their facebook groups have “what happened to our freedom?” people wanting everybody get back to work yesterday. sigh.
Every time a photo of Daisy pops up, I wonder if you’re thinking of a new pup.
And I understand that people are ready for this to be over, but I have serious concerns that, in addition to the loss of life, that many of the AT risk businesses that survive bending the curve wouldn’t be able to survive another round. Those who do not learn from history…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/08/save-lives-social-distancing-must-continue-longer-than-we-expect/?fbclid=IwAR0a4unCCfAt1lGUpGv5E1we6U-9EEuyyw-S8wJVnQko9pwHm2Bl7vruLfE
I think the boredom of being home all the time is getting to some people. Especially those ass-clown Nazis protesting. We’re not being asked to sacrifice ourselves in battle. Just not infect our fellow humans. I think we can endure.
Australian Labradoodles are the best. Strategic interbreeding to eliminate genetic conditions (eyes, ears, hip displasia, etc.) and personality to boot! Look up a breeder on ALAA.com. My Linus is a gift.
I’m following the guidelines of our Health Officer and doing a little bit beyond that. We are sheltering in place and doing our part. The haircut, though. Man. I really MISS getting my hair cut.
Everyday more people are losing their fear of the virus and demand that restrictions end. By late April, political pressure on state and local governments to relent will be excruciating.
On a bright note, looks like Ohio has passed peak Covid-19 fatalities: https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america/ohio
As of April 16: 407 total deaths. (State population: 11.7 million.) Percent of ICU Beds available: 85.3.
Nothing but blues skies do I see. . .
Hi, was playing with my puppy today too. In and around which I was being socially responsible AND mowing & weed whacking my lawn. Whew, full day. So, Yay?
[Deleted for complete bullshit. Go be a useful idiot elsewhere, my dude — JS]
I’m in this (meaning my house) for the long haul. I have multiple pre-existing conditions that put me on the endangered list.
My parents survived the Great Depression and World War II. I can handle isolation and wearing a mask at the grocery store.
Luckily for me, I’m retired, with a steady pittance. Many of my friends are out of work, and having to deal with unemployment, food stamps, etc. I just hope this gets people to vote overwhelmingly for Trump’s opponent.
My daughter, a consultant physician working in an Acute Medical Unit, has an even more adorable small dog; a cross between a Havanese and a toy poodle, which has the unfortunate handicap of being described as a Havapoo which doesn’t exactly resonate with dignity.
She is doing her best to stop people dying, doing her best to minimise long term conditions as a result of the corona virus which is so very, very good at destroying people’s lungs, as well as other organs. Mostly she fails, but she keeps trying anyway: that’s what she swore her oath to do when she graduated from medical school, and she keeps her oaths, even when keeping them without the necessary personal protective equipment to protect her in the most high risk place of them all, the resuscitation room which drastically increases her chances of being hit by a massive viral load that no immune system can fight off.
Her dog is there to bring her some joy as she finishes yet another shift: there to assist her with her workout- one lick per stomach crunch- sitting alongside her exercise bike to urge her on. Who knew dogs can be personal trainers?
[This bit deleted because it’s responding to a deleted post. No worries, Stevie, you didn’t do anything wrong — JS]
I want a puppy! Not enough to carry an epi pen, so I’ll just keep looking at pictures.
What we want to do though is make sure that this is a lone peak of the corona virus, not part of a mountain range, so patience and distance; wear the mask. I have to keep telling myself that.
My longtime employer is aggregating all of its COVID-19 reporting, peer-reviewed research, etc. at the following site, updated frequently:
https://www.sciencemag.org/collections/coronavirus?intcmp=ghd_cov
I’m really happy that many of my neighbors are thinking to use longer leashes to take their dogs out on walks. I like my neighbors, but petting their dogs still looks to be a lot less risky than getting with a couple of arms’ lengths of the humans.
In general, I like the dogs a lot too, but nobody’s suggesting they should join the book club.
Can’t WAIT to see what your cats will have to day about this (getting a dog). Let the ensuing chaos begin!
At the rate we are going there will be more statistical knowledge of the Spanish Flu than Covid, at the end of the day. Though the government says that testing is running smoothly, there is no comprehensive data base for it.
We are supposed to be at the edge of the enlightenment era, but we haven’t enough nasal swabs to test more than 1% of our population.
Other than that the same old same old, my business will not get rolling again for a long time, it is in leisure and racing things and that will take a long time returning. The yard has turned into a lawn though.
Cute puppy.
I recommend reading The Diary of a Young Girl, in which Anne Frank documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. No walks outside, no pets to play with. The same constant fear we have today.
There’s an outlet mall about 20-30 miles outside of town that’s decided they’re going to be the first mall in America to reopen. Management is claiming they want to be the test case for “how to keep shoppers and staff safe”, everyone I know thinks they’re just greedy. I’d boycott them if I ever shopped there (why drive 20-30 miles to pay more than I’d pay at an in-town store?).
While I wish I could come up with a mask pattern that would fit better, I’ll take a poorly-fitting mask over a respirator in the ICU any day.
Covidiots need to remember that THEIR freedom ends at my breathing zone.
Don’t shed on me, jackasses.
I think the politics of this are really going to hit the fan on May 8th. That is when the next unemployment rate will be announced. 22 million people lost their jobs. That is 6.7% of the US population. The unemployment rate from February was 3.4%. That means we will be back to 2008 levels or higher.
Talked with a friend yesterday who runs a decently large hospital in New England (I shan’t get more specific than that). He said, in effect, “Make sure your mask is one you like because you’ll be wearing it a while.” He doesn’t expect a vaccine before 2021 and not necessarily early in 2021, and until we have that vaccine wearing a mask in public is both prudent (for ourselves) and polite (for others). He also had some unkind things to say about the “Time to get back to normality!” people before we decided to move on to happier topics.
28 Years Later – An entire generation has passed since the release of the Rage Virus. Teams of cleaners from Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica go forth to the rest of the world to sweep and mop up. ^_^
My DiL has a labardoodle, only because she has allergies to pet dander and those dogs are somewhat hypo-allergenic.
Wearing a mask will be an adventure, since I cannot legitimately breathe through one (kind of an asthma trigger for me), but I will give it the old college try.
I’d say you can’t fix ignorance, you just let it kill itself, but the reality is that this particular brand of ignorance is quite literally contagious.
I have zero patience for these protesters, especially because I’d bet my last can of beans that these same people will likely infect and kill first responders and medical professionals should they contract covid 19 and be hospitalized.
Also, I really hate the thought of some essential worker having to compete for medical treatment with someone who did not, especially if their competitor caught it during a protest.
If the anti-distancing folks or their friends or relatives fall ill, they’ll expect front-liners to bend over backwards to save their lives.
Personally, I think anti-distancing folks and every member of their households should be legally prohibited from leaving their homes until each and every person (don’t care if they’re children, elderly, or immunocompromised) living under that roof has had time to go through the infection cycle. Maybe then they’d think twice before putting their own needs ahead of their communities’.
I’ll bet my stimulus check that these “open up the country and let covid flow” brigades are going to contract it, bring it home to their families who, invariably, will go out and spread it to other people, whether or not they’ve killed themselves.
See, this is how pandemics work.
This virus doesn’t care if you’re two months behind on your rent, bills, or other expenses.
The virus doesn’t care if your kids go to bed with empty, roaring and aching bellies.
You can’t shoot it or intimidate it with swastikas.
The virus won’t spare you, your elderly relatives, or your immunocompromised children.
It won’t even spare your healthy children.
Just because you don’t fear it doesn’t mean it won’t kill you or the people you love.
You’re not going to pray it away; God gave you free will, but he also gave you a brain. If you or someone for whom you are responsible should kill someone because you were too selfish to use said God given brain, you’re as guilty of murder as you would have been had you looked that person in his/her eyes and shot him/her at close range.
As jungle as this is going to sound, your livelihood is never, ever going to be more important than my and my family’s lives.
I don’t want you or your unmasked children coughing, sniffling, and sneezing all over our community.
I don’t want you breathing down my neck at the grocery store or pharmacy.
I don’t want to have to worry any more than I already do about whether or not it’s safe to even go to the grocery store or pharmacy.
I don’t want to have to attend a funeral on Facetime or Skype because some right wing, anti-distancing zealot with cabin fever is tired of putting their community’s needs ahead of their own.
You need to provide for your family, I need to keep mine safe from this virus.
At the moment, most people are on my side of the line and, more importantly, seeing these callous tantrum throwers for who they are. 😤 ✊ 👍 😂 😷
ViHart, who does entertaining math videos on YouTube, has a report from a bipartisan group of experts in multiple fields explaining the four-part steps needed for recovery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhRQxk9QA-o&feature=em-uploademail
It does mention that their planned long term recovery, while costing plenty, will still cost less than the too soon reopen and then have to reclose again unplanned “recovery”.
If you just want the report, but without the entertaining video:
https://ethics.harvard.edu/covid-roadmap
But the video makes it easy to understand for non-mathematicians.
Given the number of pets you’ve had over the years, a post about how you have dealt with potty training challenges and other pet issues, like destroying furniture might be very insightful.
Off topic: Last night, I got oh …. 75% of the way through The Last Emperox.
I believe I loudly went “WHAAAAAAT” at that point.
If you are really serious about a new dog .. look up “stillwater acres anatolians” on Facebook. They are my nephew and his wife and live on a small farm and do farming for a living.. They have raised a couple of litters of Anatolians in the past couple of years. Not any sort of puppy mill operation. They are about three miles from you. Last I heard, they had one ‘pup’ from their last litter .. may well be at a new home by now. There may be a new litter in the works! The Anatolian is a large breed dog .. but really attractive.
“Week 5”. Sir, I reject your embrace of linear time. It has always been Lemsday, March 43rd.
@sarah marie, I agree 100% and QFT. I went to the grocery store to do shopping for 3 households (1 person self-quarantined because of an idiot who didn’t tell him until the end of their f2f meeting that they had just come back from NYC, 1 family who doesn’t want unnecessary exposure, and ours). People not bothering with social distancing (although granted it is hard in a 6′ wide grocery aisle, even with 1 way labels). One cheerful couple meandering along and chatting with no mask or gloves, and fondling everything in the produce section. Workers with gloves and masks trying to keep up with duties while still practicing safe interactions. Chances are good I will survive, even if I catch the bug, but I don’t want to share that particular form of love.
At the worst point, the US fatalities from cv19 was doubling every 2.5 days. We are now doubling every 9 days. Social distancing has slowed it down, but not stopped it. Lifting restrictions would likely return the doubling rate to every 6 days.
Also, i love how the republican party will say “life is sacred” during an abortion debate, and pass laws forcing a pregnant woman to give birth and forcing her to take on the financial burden of raising a child for 18 years. But in cv19 times, republicans dont think life is so sacred. They say grandma should sacrifice herself for Wall Street and they say life-saving stay-home orders are too much a financial burden after two months?
There was even someone protesting the stay home orders with a “my body. My choice. Trump 2020” sign.
Weirdly, all these folks who thought life was sacred when someone else shouldered the burden, have done a total about face when saving lives puts even a short burden on them.
Well said!
@GARY – Anatolian Shepherds are definitely attractive. I’m not sure “large breed” quite covers the effect. My college roommate and her wife have an Anatolian Shepherd, who one day got out and was quite happily running down the street when he was hit by a car. The car required several hundred dollars of repair. The dog had a slightly tender shoulder. They are tanks.
@The Mad Librarian:
I’m with you on the “aisles too marrow to properly social distance” thing. I also blame stores for failing to enforce proper social distancing. My local Food4Less has wide aisles but has nothing in place to ensure our safety. They don’t require masks and are holiday packed every time we go; we’ve stop shopping there.
Also, I really feel for those working in stores right now.
All the freak-outs and other antics I’ve heard about or seen lately make me more grateful every day for and to those who put up with what they put up with so that the majority of us can stay “safer at home.”
In the last few weeks, I’ve seen a guy barking at a grocery store worker who wouldn’t let him enter the store with his tree branch, a “Karen” (not sure how I feel about this particular label but it’s more accurate and succinct than anything else) who resented having to stand in line(many stores are letting folks in in groups) to protect herself and others from an “imaginary libtard boogeyman bug,” a sniffling, bare-handed, bare faced girl running into a closing Walmart after she’d been told she couldn’t, and a tweaker threatening to murder a woman because she wouldn’t let him come barefaced into the gas station.
My personal favorite, and this is one of many stories I’ve heard, is the flat-earther of an anti-distancer spitting on cash and throwing it at the Target checker who won’t let him purchase an entire cart full of toilet paper. He doesn’t believe the virus is real but he’ll by God make sure that he and his are protected in the event that it is.
*********
@stoptheworldiwanttogetoff:
“Also, I love how the republican party will say “life is sacred” during an abortion debate, and pass laws forcing a pregnant woman to give birth and forcing her to take on the financial burden of raising a child for 18 years. But in cv19 times, republicans don’t think life is so sacred. They say grandma should sacrifice herself for Wall Street and they say life-saving stay-home orders are too much a financial burden after two months?”
Funny, isn’t it?
The difficulty settings are really on display.
I especially love how eager those middle-class rural dwellers are willing to endanger those living in more densely populated areas so that they can put food on their own, more expensive tables.
They aren’t worried about contracting the virus because they’re fortunate enough to have access to healthcare and other advantages.
They think a rural environment will protect them against the spread of covid 19 and are going to use all of the resources at their fingertips to ensure that *their* loved ones are protected, no matter what happens.
Oh, and there’s the added bonus of watching this virus continue to kill poor and brown people at higher rates, especially if said poor and brown people would have voted their dear leader and his henchmen out of power in November.
This is nothing more or less than the same ole brand of conservative ruthlessness and hypocrisy at work; they’re pro-life alright, only the lives they’re protecting are their own and their families’.
And it wouldn’t surprise me at all if some of them were perfectly alright financially but were protesting “on principle.” After all, their dear leader wants the economy open no matter who dies, and the stay at home orders are coming primarily from political opponents.
If and when things get bad as a result of a premature re-opening, they’ve got years’ worth of food and other supplies to get them and theirs through SHTF. If that runs out, they’ll use their arsenals to go “shopping” at their neighbors’ houses.
TL; DR: the virus is going to eradicate people of color and the rest of the 47 percent and keep the people they like in control. They won’t have to worry about becoming the minority in this country, and the disabled, elderly, and poor will be in the ground, leaving behind a younger and healthier population of worker bees and Caucasian female reproducers.
@The Mad Librarian:
I’m with you on the “aisles too marrow to properly social distance” thing. I also blame stores for failing to enforce proper social distancing. My local Food4Less has wide aisles but has nothing in place to ensure our safety. They don’t require masks and are holiday packed every time we go; we’ve stop shopping there.
Also, I really feel for those working in stores right now.
All the freak-outs and other antics I’ve heard about or seen lately make me more grateful every day for and to those who put up with what they put up with so that the majority of us can stay “safer at home.”
In the last few weeks, I’ve seen a guy barking at a grocery store worker who wouldn’t let him enter the store with his tree branch, a “Karen” (not sure how I feel about this particular label but it’s more accurate and succinct than anything else) who resented having to stand in line(many stores are letting folks in in groups) to protect herself and others from an “imaginary libtard boogeyman bug,” a sniffling, bare-handed, bare faced girl running into a closing Walmart after she’d been told she couldn’t, and a tweaker threatening to murder a woman because she wouldn’t let him come barefaced into the gas station.
My personal favorite, and this is one of many stories I’ve heard, is the flat-earther of an anti-distancer spitting on cash and throwing it at the Target checker who won’t let him purchase an entire cart full of toilet paper. He doesn’t believe the virus is real but he’ll by God make sure that he and his are protected in the event that it is.
@stoptheworld:
Funny, isn’t it?
The difficulty settings are really on display.
I especially love how eager those middle-class rural dwellers are willing to endanger those living in more densely populated areas so that they can put food on their own, more expensive tables.
They aren’t worried about contracting the virus because they’re fortunate enough to have access to healthcare and other advantages.
They think a rural environment will protect them against the spread of covid 19 and are going to use all of the resources at their fingertips to ensure that *their* loved ones are protected, no matter what happens.
Oh, and there’s the added bonus of watching this virus continue to kill poor and brown people at higher rates, especially if said poor and brown people would have voted their dear leader and his henchmen out of power in November.
This is nothing more or less than the same ole brand of conservative ruthlessness and hypocrisy at work; they’re pro-life alright, only the lives they’re protecting are their own and their families’.
And it wouldn’t surprise me at all if some of them were perfectly alright financially but were protesting “on principle.” After all, their dear leader wants the economy open no matter who dies, and the stay at home orders are coming primarily from political opponents.
If and when things get bad as a result of a premature re-opening, they’ve got years’ worth of food and other supplies to get them and theirs through SHTF. If that runs out, they’ll use their arsenals to go “shopping” at their neighbors’ houses.
TL; DR: the virus is going to eradicate people of color and the rest of the 47 percent and keep the people they like in control. They won’t have to worry about becoming the minority in this country, and the disabled, elderly, and poor will be in the ground, leaving behind a younger and healthier population of worker bees and Caucasian female reproducers.
Can’t imagine why they want this particular member of the taskforce fired.
@Leah:
This mask, when you add a nose wire to the top binding, fits both myself and my husband without gaps, which is better than any other I’ve tried so far.
https://www.instructables.com/id/AB-Mask-for-a-Nurse-by-a-Nurse/
(our local hospital asked for hand-sewn masks; I wanted to give them masks that would actually, you know, work pretty well, so we tried out a bunch – side gaps! chin gaps! more air going around the mask than through the mask! painful ear straps! – before I settled on a modification to the listed A/B pattern that I can bulk-sew and that fits very nicely. Straps means that it’s easier to fit; fabric extensions for the nose and chin means you have less bulk at the side pleats; and the darts [which I’ve replaced with box pleats] at the top and bottom mean that it’s snugger under the chin and a decent fit over the nose even without the nose wire [but do add a nose wire and a way to replace it])
So, I’ve been reading A Journal of the Plague Year and I’ve been fascinated to see how much hasn’t changed. The wealthy have cut out to their country estates or ship on the Thames? Check. It’s way out in the West End, so it won’t come here to the east side or south of the river? Check. People believe in quack cures? Check. Large attendance at churches (at least initially, I’m only halfway through)? Check. Social avoidance? Check? Deliberate social closeness (in the pubs)? Check. Poorer people still have to go out to get groceries? Check. Grocery delivery (water taximen have work supplying the ships on the Thames and towards the coast)? Check. Is the plague worse for the poor? Check.
Was the plague worse if you were pregnant? Yes. Did it get to the countryside? Eventually.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/18/nyregion/coronavirus-jjbubbles-joe-joyce.html
I will offer my condolences to his family but, I wonder how many people this man infected and took with him.
@Kore:
Interesting chain of events. It’s too bad that there are scores of people who won’t believe those facts until it’s too late.
@KC:
Thank you for all you’re doing to ensure the safety of those front lineworkers. Thank you for trying to protect the other people with whom they will come in contact.
I think folks can open up if they sign the waiver for zero medical treatment until the pandemic is over, and wear some kind of indicator in public so anyone they encounter knows they’re ignoring social distancing.
Maybe a hat that says “covidiot”?
I go out once a week with a mask to get prescriptions and groceries and whatever else. When i get home, i launder all my clothes and take a shower. While doing the run to the store, if i see some covidiot walking around without a mask, i steer clear.
You wanna spread the plague, fine. But everyone around you needs to know, and you dont get to create trouble for hospital workers. So no hospital/doctor visits for you until this is over.
Figure two months of that and the most rural state will have higher per capita deaths than new york.