Did they suspend construction in the Los Angeles?

My county/employer is practically mandating everyone who can to work from home.

My deputy chief basically told me to get the hell out of the office and stay home (in the nicest way possible, seriously). Thank god for telecommuting...

It's probably the closest I'll ever get to that cliche'd "You're off the case, Buckeye. Turn in your badge and gun."

Meanwhile, our governor just now decided that bars/restaurants/gyms/movie theaters, et cetera should be closed in the six counties where there've been positive cases of the virus (Arizona only has 15 counties). Flagstaff was the first city in the state to implement this on Tuesday, followed by the cities of Phoenix and Tucson on Wednesday. Phoenix is in the (somewhat?) precarious position of having 1.7 million of Maricopa County's approximately 5 million residents. Senator Sinema has been riding the governor's ass online to get people to stay home.

Oh WOW, now Governor Newsom says ALL of California is under a "Stay At Home" order.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/19/cali...IhFg44iCZAHMaU

I can't really gauge how serious Portland is taking it? Most of the workforce that could work from home probably is at this point. I work in operations at a power company so were right in the digital trenches tho. My building is a fffkn scooby doo ghost town. Its 65 and sunny though so people are also out walking, chilling in the park, cooking hamburgers out back. All the service spots are shut down tho. Will it be worth it??? I dont know. It's going to be a philosophical debate for sometime. If you got to keep your job or lost a loved one, maybe. If you got shitcanned and now our leaders have brought us to a recession? Maybe not. It's been stressful as shit tho. Heard about that little earthquake? That knocked out our Utah ops center. It's been crazy. Excuse me if its Miller time. Were keeping the lights on tho!!

NYC is now the new Wuhan. They need to lock the place down.

Likewise. We all had to take our computers home with us today. The lucky ones got to take laptops. I had to take my desktop computer home.

California has tested 12,600 people so far
NY did 8000 last night alone

These positive cases are from people that have been tested

supposed to be going out there in a couple weeks. guess i better cancel everything. :(






:haha:
https://assets.change.org/photos/8/g...jpg?1522272526

I can't express the depths of my gratitude for my employer finally letting me switch from a desktop to a laptop last August. Truly was one of the happiest days in my decade of service to the taxpayers of Coconino County, AZ ;) :D

I'm doing remote now too thank goodness

I'm not trying to rain on everything but what happens if our work computers break? That thought has entered my mind tonight and it's stuck there

The tedious process of using MS Office on a cell phone. :shrug:

Oh... the horror! IDK how folks use office on a cell phone.

I mean if you look at my set up, I have a giant screen, a $3k desktop PC, and a laptop set up. Use the laptop to access the work VPN/remote desktop, and my PC to do other things that the slow company PC and network can't do. Plus I trade stock during working hours, so somehow I gotta combine my work, with my other hobbies.

I can't for the life of me do massive excel sheets on a laptop without a mouse. I need a mouse. Without one, its just frustrating.

Don't feel bad. I canceled my May Euro trip. Which sucks. Was so looking forward to Spain, France, and Amsterdam.

Ughgh oh well. 2020 is a shitty year. The NYC New Years Ball lied to us... it lied!

I suppose we should of forcasted this. The ball does look like a virus in a way, but who would of knew.

I have to log into a VPN that neither my phone or any computer other than work's will work.

I have to log into a VPN that neither my phone or any computer other than work's will work. No Teams, no email, no logging into their systems. All access to work is gone no matter my personal setup. I'm not worried about this, it was a passing thought that is somehow stuck in my head now.

This shit has singlehandedly set the stage for the 2020s

I’ve found that if you’re using Teams, you can use the same token your work computer generates in the Teams mobile app ONCE and it stays logged on. Which means you can leave your home and people at work still think you’re at your desk. You’re welcome.

A better way to get a relative idea is deaths. As of 4 days ago, New York state had had 1 death per 1.6 million people. California had had 1 per 2.2 million people. So I think it's a fact that New York has a worse problem and it's probably even more stark if you look just at New York City.

Much of that increase is because Illinois got its new batch of test kits on Mon/Tue and ramped up testing. It's the backlog from the previous 2 weeks. For instance, they knew there was coronavirus in that nursing home last Friday but weren't able to officially test for it at the time.

1/24 thru 3/17 --160+ out of ~1500 tests
3/18 -- 128+ out of ~500 tests
3/19 -- 134+ out of 1099 tests

Interestingly when you look at temperature data nationwide, coronavirus is really struggling to get a foothold in Cook County. You can clearly see the stepped increases of fever in New York every couple days, and Miami (and Florida in general) is terrifying.
https://healthweather.us

It's terrible to be locked up at home as we are over here. It feels like weird dictatorship.
It's been only a couple of days, and some experts and advisors of the government say it should last for at least 6 weeks.

Many of us are having a hard time to submit to such a radical measure, especially when spring is coming up.
But medics are begging us all to do it. They're scared to death to be flooded with sick and dying people as in Italy.

Over there in Italy, docs have to choose between those likely to survive the disease and others, those who're more likely to die. Of course they're upset. That's not what medics are supposed to do. They'd rather cure and save everybody.

That's how dreary and sad it can be when you don't take action soon enough.
Quelle poisse, ce putain de virus. It's just unbelievable.

I can't imagine being forced to work on a laptop, personally... only because at work, I use a desktop with 2 large monitors. I need the 2 monitors side by side, with a bunch of windows I need open.

Speaking of work, I came in to work today, on the first morning of the Governor's Stay At Home order. Total ghost town driving in to work (slight exaggeration of course). I work for what's considered an "essential business" since we do work for telecommunication companies and utility companies, so we are considered part of "infrastructure," and wont' be shutting down... for now, anyway.

agreed.

if your job involves any kind of visual/technical work (design, architecture, engineering, etc.), once you get accustomed to a multi-screen set-up, it's quite annoying to go back to a single small lap-top screen.

i'm WFH now and i brought my desk-top/2 large monitor set-up home from the office.

doing my job on a daily basis on a lap top would suck.

Atlanta's mayor just OK'd alcohol take out for restaurants for the next 60 days...that could save some of the small businesses in my little neighborhood commercial node, which is mostly mom and pop restaurants and pubs.

In other news, the US Treasury just pushed back to 2019 tax filing deadline 3 months to July 15.

chicago has done the same thing.

the other night we got carry-out from our neighborhood bar and grill and i ordered a 6-pack of beer (at a greatly inflated price) to help them out because i'm sure they are loosing a HUGE part of their profit margin from the bar being closed.

do you not have a nice monitor of your own? just plug in an hdmi cable

exactly...I could easily carry the food home and drink my own beer but I'll happily pay their inflated pub prices to help keep them afloat....

I've been working from home on a laptop for 15 years, no problemo. I have two oversized monitors hooked up to it.

I have an iMac at home, and my company uses PCs. I wasn't given the option to work from home; I'm in HR and spend a lot of time with hard copy files/file cabinets, which need to be locked up because there's a lot of sensitive information/HIPAA stuff.

And my company's owner/CEO is a stingy asshole; most of us weren't given the option to work from home. FUCK our health. :P

https://abc7.com/health/panic-buying...-club/6027883/

In California people were panic buying marijuana over the last week. Now that everything is shut down I hope you all are stocked up.

Things have completely shut down here, which is encouraging because we've not had a single presumed or confirmed case of the coronavirus on the island (Labrador, the mainland portion of our province, has one confirmed and two presumed cases). Even if it does arrive here, there is no chance it could spread throughout the community.

Colleges and the university have switched to distance learning, as have high schools. Students from Kindergarten to Grade 9 have been given an automatic pass and their school is now closed for the year.

Everyone who is able to do so is expected to work from home. Employers face a fine of up to $50,000 for every single violation, and directors are held personally liable for additional fines. Individuals who are expected to self-isolate for 14 days (for example, if they have just returned from elsewhere in Canada or abroad) and fail to do so face a fine of up to $5,000 and 6 months in prison.

Bars, cinemas, gyms, theatres, etc. are all completely closed. Groceries have installed plastic shields between shoppers and cashiers, and security is on guard at the entrances to ensure low numbers inside. They've all also given their first hour of operation every day for seniors and people with compromised immune systems.

Restaurants have mostly switched to take-out or delivery only. Those that still allow seating have them spaced 2 metres apart. Some restaurants will only deliver via laying it on your front step, ringing the doorbell, and bolting lol

You can still buy beer everywhere - gas stations, superettes, general stores - but wine and other liquor can only be purchased by calling or emailing your order to the Liquor Commission. Then you can pick it up outside the nearest outlet. Most cannabis retailers have closed, though mom-and-pop shops selling weed are still open.

Everything that can be done virtually - from government business to funerals - is taking that route.

All levels of government, especially federal, have announced compensation for workers and employers totaling billions, from expanded Employment Insurance, higher child benefits, and even mortgage deferrals for up to six months.

It's insane to me that this is only a month or so after we were completely shut down for two weeks as a result of a blizzard. I've spent a full month of this year at home, and most of that not even working virtually - and it's still March.

Congress Avenue Bridge at 7 pm yesterday.

https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net...e1&oe=5E9C0058
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

So, is "the great toilet paper freakout of 2020" finally over?

We were down to our last rolls (i admit to feeling a touch nervous), but my wife just walked over to our Walgreens and came back with a 12-pack.

She said they had plenty of toilet paper. And because she's not insane, she just bought one pack, leaving the rest for others to purchase, instead of buying all 5,000 rolls and filling our basement storage room with them like some kind of lunatic.

The crackdown on the resale markets and the fact that the most aggressive hoarders now have enough non-perishables to last them 6 months means hopefully the shelves will stay full a little longer.

The grocery demand curve is flattening...

I would think most people have enough food and toilet paper to last them the rest of the year.

How to Help Chicago Bar and Restaurant Workers During the COVID-19 Outbreak

https://chicago.eater.com/2020/3/17/...-links-chicago

In this link there are tons of fund me links by the whole city to individual local bars and restaurants.

I have used Parallels to emulate a PC with Windows on my Mac for years. I need Quicken and for years they discontinued the Mac version. Now it's back but still not as good as the PC version. Anyway, Parallels/Windows emulation works pretty well if you can install the business software you need on your own computer.

Of course, you can also install Windows in a "boot camp" partition directly on you Mac but then you have to reboot to go back and forth between a Mac desktop and the Windows desktop whereas with Parallels emulation you don't. If you have 2 monitors, you could even set up one as your "Mac" and one as your "PC" and run them simultaneously.

Why? In San Francisco plenty of marijuana dealers deliver.

Maybe until there is a spike of deaths or something in your neighborhood or if there is another round of infections later in the year.

All of those will induce local panic buying

But I think the global panic buying of mid-March 2020 is behind us for now.

I have a question or two for Californians especially.

I am still in Arizona but had been planning to return to SF at the end of April and still really want to do that trip. I use a rental car from Hertz which I pick up at the airport in Tucson. Arizona is not really shut down so hopefully even if the airport Hertz shuts for lack of business (no flights), they'll keep at least one Tucson location open where I can pick up my car.

But I am worried about whether I'll be able to turn it in in SF and also about gas. Are gas stations "essential businesses" and staying open in CA?

My husband is in healthcare and attended a briefing at one of the facilities where he works in which they stated, at least in this state where the hard stuff is sold through state-run liquor stores, that keeping those stores fully stocked is a high priority of the state. Why? Because alcohol withdrawal would kill people by the hundreds if they weren't.

But a room-sized toilet paper igloo is so cozy!

People haven't been this obsessed with toilet paper since Mr. Whipple made the scene back in the 80's. Remember those commercials? The ones where everyone lived in some kind of alternate universe of perverts obsessed with squeezing Charmin toilet paper? This whole thing has been like that to the nth degree.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...5TMnp6eEM3NSJ9

So if the guys camped in the alley I can see from my condo score rooms at the Four Seasons, Ritz Carleton or St. Regis, I'm going to be a little jealous.

Hang around outside in your rattiest clothes to score a room at the Four Seasons...

Yes gas stations will stay open. A lot of businesses are still open, and wouldn't you know it, "Cannabis dispensaries, or any related and/or ancillary healthcare services" are on the list of essential businesses staying open in LA: https://corona-virus.la/faq so there was no need for panic buying after all.

Yes, definitely gas stations. And gas prices are so low now. I saw $3.22/gallon for 89 octane at the 76 station I often go to. That's low for California! And I've been driving less and my car is so fuel efficient, I have yet to take advantage of the new low prices. :P

Laundromats are still open too; that is definitely an essential business, for people who use/need them.

I'm wondering about the Total Wine & Spirits. Maybe I'll stop there on my way home to see if it's open; I wanna buy some mead.

Maybe they need to deliver Valium instead then. That would solve two problems at once. For those who need it, treat alcohol withdrawal syndrome and for others help with anxiety.

I said the owner/CEO of the company I work for is a stingy asshole. He wouldn't pay for the extra laptops/hardware/software that many of us would need to work from home, let alone letting me take personnel and medical files home with very sensitive information. I don't even think that's legal (but I could be wrong).

Once upon a time, I took my cat to work (because my nurse wanted to see her) where she promptly got fleas from the grass outside the office. So I had to fumigate the apartment which meant the cat and I had to leave for several hours so we hung around outside, me holding her in her carrier. And people kept offering me "spare change". So I think I can pull off the role.

I didn't even know those existed until fairly recently; someone I know who lives in Utah mentioned that his state has those. I was like "Whaaaaaat? You mean you can't go to the supermarket and buy a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of hooch?"

Gees that's expensive.

Gas is $ 1.55 by me.

https://www.gasbuddy.com/GasPrices/Wisconsin/Kenosha