Many of you want to talk about it, air your frustrations or just enjoy a little camaraderie. So lets do it here and not let it “infect” (pun intended) our tech threads.

The tech threads will matter a little more right now, as it will be getting difficult in the near future to get things fixed or get the parts to DIY.

So bring all you comments, concerns, frustrations etc here. All of the mods will allow more leeway in this thread than others. So feel free to shoot the breeze and discuss this. Personal attacks will not be tolerated nor will outright political bashing, flag waiving and finger pointing. Some posts are bound to wander i to politics and governmental policy, but that’s okay. We’re all in this together, no matter what side of some line you stand on.

 

No need to stress about everything that’s happening.

Just roll with it and take it one day at a time.

 

It's introduced me to ordering my groceries online and picking them up curbside. And I like it.

 

If the people don't start acting like they have a little sense and stay home as much as possible, this stuff is going to drag on and infect who knows how many millions needlessly.

My BIL works at Home Depot. He sent me pictures yesterday of their parking lot overrun with cars. He said inside was packed all day long, much more than usual.

It appears people that are out of work are acting like they are on vacation. Please people, stay at home and away from other people until you have to get out.

 

I went to Pet Supermarket fo get dog food on Saturday. The door was locked but they were open for business. They're letting one customer in at a time and you have to stay near the front of the store while they fetch what you want. They wipe down a cart and put your stuff in and then let you come to the register to pay. Then they open the door to let you out and next person in. I know this wouldn't work at Home Depot but I appreciate the process at the pet store.

 

Here in CT, today is the first day Gov. Lamont ordered non-essential businesses to close. I am very fortunate to be able to work from home, at least for the time being. Wife is home on maturity leave with our 3 month old. She works in a non-essential support capacity at a local hospital and there has already been discussion of increasing her maturity leave as an outcome of this. The daycare we had enrolled our son is temporarily closed as well.

We are those people who shop the sales and buy in bulk. Luckily, we had just done a restocking trip before all this hit state-side.

Overall, we are in good shape for the time being and I am very thankful. I know there are many less fortunate - we are exploring ways to help others.

I have setup my home server to run calculations to aid researchers fight Covid-19 called "Folding@Home". If you at all have capacity on your personal computer or have an underutilized server, this is something you can do to help while maintaining "social distancing". Additional info: on Folding@Home if interested.

It is very easy to setup even for the non-tech savvy. Disclaimer: this will use your systems CPU and/or GPU so expect an increase in power consumption.

 

We have been under "house arrest" here in the SF Bay Area for a little over a week now. Things are a little different for us, as we live in the country. We have a local market where we can pick up essentials, and they also happen to be our postal service. So we need to make one or two trips to that little market anyway. The people who run the market tell me their business is up, so there is that.

We are also doing a little refresh on our two extra bedrooms. They were carpeted when we first moved in, and we decided to update the floors to vinyl plank. We picked out the design we wanted on the Home Depot web site. We ordered it for store pickup, and that was an amazing experience. They had the flooring loaded onto a pallet; I came in and had to sign for receipt, but that was about it. They had 5 guys haul the pallet out to our truck and load it all into the back; I didn't have to touch anyone or anything. At that point, I sanitized my hands and took it all home. When I got home, I unloaded the cartons of flooring into one of the bedrooms, and washed my hands again (soap this time). We left the cartons of flooring in the room for a couple of days, and I started putting it down in the 2nd bedroom yesterday. The project will keep me busy for a few days.

 

Big fan of vinyl plank - amazing how quickly the stuff goes down. Over the last couple years I did our laundry room and 2 bathrooms with it. Still have the master bathroom left to renovate. I'm no carpenter but happy with the outcome.

Good luck with your projects

To share:


Laundry Room

Half Bath

Guest bath

 

Looks good great job.

It’s amazing how a little work with not very much expense can make just about any room look awesome because years ago, this was definitely not the case and was totally a job for a pro.

We the consumers win.

 

Nice job. Did you tear out the old tile in the bath first? And did you pull up the old flooring in the laundry room as well? Just wondering how you made the floors flat. Ah.... Just watched a video. Didn't realize it's basically the same as laminate flooring.

 

Thank you. Yes I agree materials have come a long way for the DIYer's

Thanks - yes similar to laminate. Went right over the old stuff, install instructions said you could as long as existing was solid and level. Wouldn't work going over carpet but that's easy to remove. Only things I took out was the quarter round molding and existing threshold. Used a dremel oscillating tool to undercut the door jams.

The vinyl plank is easy to work with, straight cuts you just score with a utility knife and bend to snap. Jigsaw worked great for anything else. Larger rooms are even easier because you have more full boards - my half bath is something like 9 planks total and every one needed to be measured / cut.

 

One day at a time.

Use wisdom in your daily choices and routines.

 

GABAR; those floors look great. I'm about half way through the first bedroom now. A little bit of a dilemma as the first wall I started on was out of true by about 1/4". It is bowed such that the first and last plank have a 1/4" of spacing, but there is a 1/2" gap in the middle (16' wall). I had to decide whether I was going to do a tapered 1/4" trim, or just switch to a 5/8" baseboard. I decided on the latter. I suppose I could have done the tapered trim on the table saw, but it's raining and I didn't want to drag the saw out into the rain. Doing that long tapered trim with a jigsaw did not seem appealing to me. It's kind of a big room; roughly 24' by 12' at the widest. There is a narrow entry at one end that's roughly 3.5' x 8' and the larger part of the room is 16' x 12'. That made a little over 11 boxes of the particular floor we picked (we got 12 boxes to allow for trim/mistakes).

 

Well we have finally got our first positive test back here in Abilene. Yesterday the report was 172 test 62 negative 110 pending 0 positive. Towns and counties around us already have 2-3 positives.
I work part time for a first responder supply company, So I will continue to work till we run out of supplies. We had just got a several large shipments but won't take long to run out at the present rate we are shipping. for John or Jane Doe just walking in off the streets or ordering are limited to 2 oz per week of hand sanitizer. Law Enforcement, Fire Dept or Ambulance can order more depending on the size of the company. All of out First Aid or Medical kits have some type of sanitizer in them. Right now we are shipping all over the US.
TJ

 

Here in NYC things have settled down somewhat. The supermarkets are actually less crowded now than they usually are during the week. I figure this can be attributed to two facts. All the schools are closed and the kids have to do distance learning so mommy is home in the morning with them and people are now starting to eat some of the 300 cans of tuna fish they bought 2 weeks ago so they don't really need to buy more. The paper goods and cleaning supplies aisles in the stores are still empty, though. Most people seem to be observing the edict to stay home unless absolutely necessary and the a-holes that think this doesn't apply to them have no place to go anyway.

Of course the scammers are out in force. Phone calls from people claiming to be from the CDC looking for "donations" to purchase medical supplies. Quack virus cures & preventatives. Threats to turn off your utilities if you don't pay up right now. The usual bunch of pond scum.

Actually, my biggest concern has to do with what will happen when this whole thing winds down, the stores are restocked and businesses are allowed to reopen. A LOT of small businesses will not survive the shutdown. A LOT of employees will be without a job to return to and income to pay their bills. The city is allowing tenants to skip 3 months rent payments without fear of eviction but has told the property owners that their property tax payments are due April 1. Unlike the government, the property owners can't just print more money.

For the time being, I'm doing fine. My expenses are fairly low and I have a federal pension to live on. Virtually all of my investments are in things that are not tied to the stock market. Also, I'm finally finding the time to work on all sorts of interesting projects that I just never had the time for previously.

Everyone - stay healthy and stay home!