[Pops]

Greetings.

This is day 18 of our bug-in. Technically we did make a zombie run 9 days ago, but otherwise we're locked down. I walk around the lake most days but no astrophysics conferences, mosh-pits, pornography conventions, ballroom dancing or trips to HoDepot.

Currently all systems are functional. No shortages to report. Morale is good. Xbox functional.

Made a little income today, hospital COVID symptom posters. Rec'd notification that one event (25% of income) is on hold indefinitely,—oof!

GrandDaughter laid off from the theater. Her dad is deployed but his schedule to return soon is on hold at the moment, I guess he's in quarantine. GD decided to stay with BF for the next bit until college resumes, just half-hour away. His plans are up in the air, sports scholarship is in doubt and pre-med is likely on hold. Has a job at chain supermarket tho so there's that. I gave her a hug that seemed a bit more emotional than it really should have.

Locally no zombies in the hood, no roving reapers observed. One case confirmed - no deaths in this county. GDs BF reports spotty shortages at the super. They were instituting limits on number of shoppers in the store, limits on purchases. Not sure of the particulars.

Tell us how things are going there
.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'G')reetings.

This is day 18 of our bug-in. Technically we did make a zombie run 9 days ago, but otherwise we're locked down. I walk around the lake most days but no astrophysics conferences, mosh-pits, pornography conventions, ballroom dancing or trips to HoDepot.

Currently all systems are functional. No shortages to report. Morale is good. Xbox functional.

Made a little income today, hospital COVID symptom posters. Rec'd notification that one event (25% of income) is on hold indefinitely,—oof!

GrandDaughter laid off from the theater. Her dad is deployed but his schedule to return soon is on hold at the moment, I guess he's in quarantine. GD decided to stay with BF for the next bit until college resumes, just half-hour away. His plans are up in the air, sports scholarship is in doubt and pre-med is likely on hold. Has a job at chain supermarket tho so there's that. I gave her a hug that seemed a bit more emotional than it really should have.

Locally no zombies in the hood, no roving reapers observed. One case confirmed - no deaths in this county. GDs BF reports spotty shortages at the super. They were instituting limits on number of shoppers in the store, limits on purchases. Not sure of the particulars.

Tell us how things are going there
.

[asg70]

The downside is I would think this event will spur on development of further automation/robotics as robots don't get coronavirus.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('asg70', 'T')he downside is I would think this event will spur on development of further automation/robotics as robots don't get coronavirus.

[Pops]

Day 19.

No shortages in the pantry, 'net functional, Xbox up, morale good

As mentioned elsewhere my other big event is on indefinite hold now so easily 50% of my likely income for the year is kaput. Not dead yet, maybe 6 months expenses in the bank and 3 more in receivables at beans and cornbread budget. May need to tap an IRA eventually and postpone IRS and Property tax.

WA state has 1,000 confirmed / 50 dead, still just one case this county.
Portland traffic this morning is sparse.
Gotta wonder the effective unemployment rate?

Beautiful day yesterday. Walked around the lake (4mi) yesterday mid-morning, lots of kids out and about.

No Zombies, No reapers.


Here's a symptoms flier I adapted yesterday fwiw

[Pops]

Day 20

Infrastructure mostly intact, library closed down.
If you read and have a library card check out their website to see if they have electronic lending. I'd stopped going to the library a while back because browsing and choosing online is so easy. Washington online library has books and even audiobooks. I also reopened my subscriptions to NYT and WAPO.

Cable is up, Xbox functional
Opened a new twitter to follow inslee and local news

No shortage in the pantry,
tho we are transitioning the poor old pug from all soft canned food to kibble, he wasn't stocked up very well and I didn't want to empty the dang dog food shelf at the store because it was already mostly bare.

Moral is good,
a little cabin fever with sunny weather. Thank goodness we don't live in an apartment and can get out and putter.

Traffic very light this AM on my walk. I cross a feeder heading to the industrial and port area as well as the interstate commuting to Portland. Also pass the hospital and am trying to note the activity there.

Family all good
Poor CA Granddaughter's in-laws are freaking her out about FEMA "concentration" camps. Gram had to talk her down a bit. She is in the Central Valley N CA, not SF or LA.
WA GrandDaughter is playing house with her BF in deference to her POPs advanced age and frailty (j/k) but she is laid off and out of school while BF is out of school but now working 40+ at Safeway. She reported cleaning the entire house (3 baseball playing roommates) and—gasp—calling BF to see what he wanted her to cook for diner. "What is this, 1950!!?"
Gram had to talk her down a bit too. LOL

Work very slo
Couple of little jobs, mostly COVID related, hospital PR, public transit operating hours reduction announcement, children's grief counseling material... People I talk to, mostly CA, are understandably tense about, well, everything: homeschooling kids, staying safe, keeping their paycheck.

No zombies No reapers No new cases

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('asg70', 'T')he downside is I would think this event will spur on development of further automation/robotics as robots don't get coronavirus.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('asg70', 'T')he downside is I would think this event will spur on development of further automation/robotics as robots don't get coronavirus.

[Ibon]

3 of our guests leave tomorrow, all from the US. They read the headlines on the NYT that americans need to come home now or stay where they are. They are anxious to make it out of Panama. I share none of their anxiety and am happy to be here where we are. That will leave us with 2 guests from Switzerland who leave on Saturday and then it is just my wife and daughter and I on our own with a few of our farm staff. We have 2500 pounds of coffee, 3 floor freezers full of meat and frozen goods, internet, hydro power, a pantry full of dry goods. A green house with agua ponics with 750 pots growing tomatoes, greens, strawberries, snow peas, salads, eggplants, peppers, herbs. We probably have atleast 6 months worth of food not because of planning for bugging out but because we had stocked up for the remainder of the high season and now all the tourists are gone and we have all this food..... so we are fine and about as isolated as you can get. But we had over 300 mainly europeans and north americans here since December. We have another week or so to make sure we have no symptoms and did not catch the corona virus from any of our guests.

I noticed something very very strange and before I detail this you have to know I am not all that esoteric in my beliefs and pretty science oriented when it comes to natural history and taxonomy. What is happening is that the birds and wildlife have suddenly appeared to lose their shyness of humans. I am walking the common area and the birds that would usually be darting away are just continuing to go about their foraging just a couple feet away from me and paying me no attention. I can't get over this and have no explanation.......

The only reason I can come up with is a more esoteric one. I am walking with a much more humbled and palpable sense of the moment than usual. I am not distracted by the normal logistics of running this place. I think there is a sensitivity in the wildlife that can sense this and therefore they are not fleeing when I approach. I noticed this also years ago when deep in the wilderness and you hit this baseline place where once you settle deeper into being in the moment the wildlife pays you less attention.

Another one of those silver linings?

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('asg70', 'T')he downside is I would think this event will spur on development of further automation/robotics as robots don't get coronavirus.

[Pops]

Day 21
Infrastructure good, xbox functional, cable up

Supplies are good but we are considering some limited zombie runs in anticipation of an extended situation. Maybe take advantage of Wally's blue hair special morning hours — easier to spot contagious geriatrics than teenie-boppers I'm thinkin.

Traffic maybe 30% this AM, no unusual activity at the ER, by the steam plumes it appears the mills are still up and running. Haven't heard any freight train whistles or ships horns since I can't remember.

My inbox a little more active as clients settle into the couch. One email was another project postponed.

No Zombies (zombs are folks out on the street without resources and or shelter: tent campers, line standers, car dwellers, cart pushers, FEMA guests, etc.) In fact the cart pushers who had a nightly sleep-in and ho'down at the birthday party pavilion at the lake were relocated to the city hall lawn a few months ago and then disappeared from there weeks back. Did hear from Portland TV some street people there tested positive, guess it pays to live in the city.

No Reapers (Reapers are... you know who they are) No reports of increased violence or crime locally, yet.
(Those of you long time internet doomers may remember the original "Lights Out" by Halfast serialized on Frugal Squirrel back in the '90s, IIRC. In it was a chapter titled "Shootout at the Piggly Wiggly Corral" - basically what happens when you wait a little too long to make your zombie run and bump into the Reapers)

No new cases (officially 1 total in this county)
.

[Ibon]

Our last two guests from Switzerland cannot leave the country to return home because Panama closes the airport tonight and also because KLM cancelled all their flights this week between Panama - Amsterdam for tourists returning to Europe. It is now up to the Swiss Embassy in Panama and other embassies to facilitate charter flights to get stranded European tourists back home. In the meantime these two guests will stay with us here at Mount Totumas.

Food supplies in the local town remain available, social stability still holding on. Panama established now sanitary blockade. You can enter Panama City but you cannot get back out.

[Plantagenet]

We're up to six China virus cases here in central Alaska and things are really closing down now. The governor ordered a halt to all meetings of more then 10 people.

That means....

Bars and restaurants....closed.
Stores....closed.
Schools.....closed.
The University......closed
Theatres and shows.......closed.

And just today they closed the last ski area. We have two very funky local ski areas. The one that uses school buses to run people up to the top of the runs closed down about two weeks ago. No more skiing there.

But we had another even funkier ski area....located even farther north. It may be the northernmost ski area in the world. Most ski areas you park at the bottom and take the chair up the mountain, but at this one you drive to the top and park and ski down from there. There is an ancient chair lift that is powered by a diesel motor from an old tractor. The tractor is still there, just above the ski lift and the diesel motor roars when they fire up chair lift. Still it does the job...that ancient chair lift slowly takes you back up to the top. They closed the little cabin that doubled as a lodge a week ago, but the ski area was continuing to operate. I skied there last weekend and maintained my social isolation the whole time. There were only about 30 people at the whole ski area so I could ski down and get on a chair and ride back up and maybe see only a couple people out of the runs skiing.

It was G R E A T !

The ski area operates into late April, so I thought I could get through this virus isolation thing OK by going skiing every weekend.

But no.

They closed it today.

And now I'm stuck.....no more skiing. I'm stuck in the cabin at home. I shoveled out a path through the snow on the deck and I sat out there on a deck chair with the the snow all around.

Its goddamn boring now.

I worked a bit on my latest novel, but that got boring too.

Its all just really really boring.

Cheers!

[yeahbut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'I') noticed something very very strange and before I detail this you have to know I am not all that esoteric in my beliefs and pretty science oriented when it comes to natural history and taxonomy. What is happening is that the birds and wildlife have suddenly appeared to lose their shyness of humans. I am walking the common area and the birds that would usually be darting away are just continuing to go about their foraging just a couple feet away from me and paying me no attention. I can't get over this and have no explanation.......

The only reason I can come up with is a more esoteric one. I am walking with a much more humbled and palpable sense of the moment than usual. I am not distracted by the normal logistics of running this place. I think there is a sensitivity in the wildlife that can sense this and therefore they are not fleeing when I approach. I noticed this also years ago when deep in the wilderness and you hit this baseline place where once you settle deeper into being in the moment the wildlife pays you less attention.

Another one of those silver linings?

[Pops]

Day 22

Infrastructure:
FEMA Welcomes You: Cali, Oregon & Washington State are building surge capacity hospital beds. Plans are for 1,000 beds in Oregon, WA is building facilities for 3,000 beds. CA is buying/building 10k bed capacity, laws in place to commandeer facilities.
National guard onsite.
I think this is good, too much alex jones and coast to coast and umpteen armageddon movies in my younger days makes me nervous anyway.

Cable up: This is a huge stress test for the electric internet machine
Xbox functional: tho I read xbox live is having outages LOL
Supplies good
Morale good

Income:
I design and layout a couple of magazines, local interest, basically glossy Big Nickles—they're cancelled indefinitely. These are my last steady work. They may or may not return. Unless this peaks and "washes thru" in a couple of months, my big events will be canceled for the year.
I mentioned we have some cash, if this had happened in the fall or winter we'd be toast.

We're actually thinking of floating the house for sale at the first opening,
The wife is anyway, I think WA is freaking her out. Would make for a lot of adventure ... Not sure of our reception in the Ozarks flying Washington plates. lol

No Zombies,
No Reapers,
One new case, 2 total

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'D')ay 22

Infrastructure:
FEMA Welcomes You: Cali, Oregon & Washington State are building surge capacity hospital beds. Plans are for 1,000 beds in Oregon, WA is building facilities for 3,000 beds. CA is buying/building 10k bed capacity, laws in place to commandeer facilities.
National guard onsite.
I think this is good, too much alex jones and coast to coast and umpteen armageddon movies in my younger days makes me nervous anyway.

Cable up: This is a huge stress test for the electric internet machine
Xbox functional: tho I read xbox live is having outages LOL
Supplies good
Morale good

Income:
I design and layout a couple of magazines, local interest, basically glossy Big Nickles—they're cancelled indefinitely. These are my last steady work. They may or may not return. Unless this peaks and "washes thru" in a couple of months, my big events will be canceled for the year.
I mentioned we have some cash, if this had happened in the fall or winter we'd be toast.

We're actually thinking of floating the house for sale at the first opening,
The wife is anyway, I think WA is freaking her out. Would make for a lot of adventure ... Not sure of our reception in the Ozarks flying Washington plates. lol

No Zombies,
No Reapers,
One new case, 2 total

[jedrider]

Looking at the live Coronavirus stats https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/:

I notice that France is doing the best of the Western Democracies.

Don't need or want to go to work. Shelter in place. This, evidently, comes very natural to them.

The U.S., not so.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', '
')We're actually thinking of floating the house for sale at the first opening,
The wife is anyway, I think WA is freaking her out. Would make for a lot of adventure ... Not sure of our reception in the Ozarks flying Washington plates. lol

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jedrider', 'L')ooking at the live Coronavirus stats https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/:

I notice that France is doing the best of the Western Democracies.

Don't need or want to go to work. Shelter in place. This, evidently, comes very natural to them.

The U.S., not so.

[dolanbaker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('asg70', 'T')he downside is I would think this event will spur on development of further automation/robotics as robots don't get coronavirus.