So we've been home a while...What have you found lacking in your planning?

[Chucktshoes]

3 minutes ago, Ronald_55 said:

I saw a news story that said Wal-Mart has been tracking sales trends and hair dye and trimmers are spiking. lol

[Trekbike]

9 minutes ago, Ronald_55 said:

I saw a news story that said Wal-Mart has been tracking sales trends and hair dye and trimmers are spiking. lol

Hope they didn't spend a lot of time on that study because that's one of those, duh, what did you think was going to happen when you shut down the salon industry.   

[Ronald_55]

21 minutes ago, Trekbike said:

Hope they didn't spend a lot of time on that study because that's one of those, duh, what did you think was going to happen when you shut down the salon industry.   

I am sure Wal-Mart studies its numbers everyday

[Trekbike]

6 hours ago, Ronald_55 said:

I am sure Wal-Mart studies its numbers everyday

No doubt as does most every business.   Especially the ones that have the "customer" cards like Kroger that are required to get the lower price.   The fact that it was a news story just hit me funny.   

[peejman]

10 hours ago, Sidecarist said:

I've learned to cut my own hair. Other than that we've been pretty good. 

 

10 hours ago, Chucktshoes said:

Ugh. I need a haircut. 

 

10 hours ago, Raoul said:

Me too...

 

Another benefit of having talked my wife into learning how to cut our hair a few years ago. It was initially motivated purely by cost as those $50 trips to the barber add up fast.

But now lots of my coworkers are looking pretty shaggy.  So far the bosses haven't fussed about guys wearing ball caps. We'll see how long that lasts.  

[Capbyrd]

buzz cuts since 85!

[Ronald_55]

40 minutes ago, peejman said:

 

 

 

Another benefit of having talked my wife into learning how to cut our hair a few years ago. It was initially motivated purely by cost as those $50 trips to the barber add up fast.

But now lots of my coworkers are looking pretty shaggy.  So far the bosses haven't fussed about guys wearing ball caps. We'll see how long that lasts.  

I see mullets making a come back. Easy to see how to cut your own hair in the front, not so easy in the back. 

[Erik88]

On 4/11/2020 at 9:55 PM, Garufa said:

What have I found lacking in planning?  A lot. No one expected the government to shut down society and the economy.  This situation has gotten 100% out of hand.

What’s going to happen the next time a new strain of flu or some other unknown virus comes along?  The only sure thing is it will happen again.

I agree. I saw yesterday there are only ~48 active cases in Knox county, out of 500K people. There has to be a better way to handle this next time. 

[Capbyrd]

5 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

I agree. I saw yesterday there are only ~48 active cases in Knox county, out of 500K people. There has to be a better way to handle this next time. 

Next time?  We haven't even finished this time.  When they lift restrictions and everyone goes back out, that second wave is gonna hit HARD!

[TomInMN]

15 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

I agree. I saw yesterday there are only ~48 active cases in Knox county, out of 500K people. There has to be a better way to handle this next time. 

I think (usual disclaimer about uninformed opinion...) that the low number of cases might be partly a result of the measures taken to reduce the spread of the virus.

Or, if we had just gone about business as usual we might have seen many more cases than we've had so far.

[Erik88]

14 minutes ago, Capbyrd said:

Next time?  We haven't even finished this time.  When they lift restrictions and everyone goes back out, that second wave is gonna hit HARD!

Agreed. We already know it will come back in the fall. What's the alternative though? Do we just stay indoors until August? I guess my fear is that there won't be an economy to return to and we can't keep passing $2T bailouts every month. 

2 minutes ago, TomInMN said:

I think (usual disclaimer about uninformed opinion...) that the low number of cases might be partly a result of the measures taken to reduce the spread of the virus.

Or, if we had just gone about business as usual we might have seen many more cases than we've had so far.

I understand the measures are working. I'm hoping that once we get through round 1 we can take some lessons from Singapore who handled this remarkably better than the US without having to impose any lock downs. The only measures they took that I don't agree with are the harsh penalties but we're seeing that happen here in the US as well. 

 

https://theconversation.com/why-singapores-coronavirus-response-worked-and-what-we-can-all-learn-134024

[Capbyrd]

Education was probably the most important thing that could have happened.   The problem there is that no one seemed to know the truth.  Or at least those that did weren't sharing.  

I think what we know now is that we were probably better off not shutting down but instead asking high risk individuals and those in contact with them to take extra precautions and everyone else carry on as usual.   

[RED333]

600 cases aboard the Roosevelt Aircraft Carrier. 600 out of what 5000 to 6000 crew. A good case that being apart does work.

[RED333]

57 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

Agreed. We already know it will come back in the fall. What's the alternative though? Do we just stay indoors until August? I guess my fear is that there won't be an economy to return to and we can't keep passing $2T bailouts every month. 

I understand the measures are working. I'm hoping that once we get through round 1 we can take some lessons from Singapore who handled this remarkably better than the US without having to impose any lock downs. The only measures they took that I don't agree with are the harsh penalties but we're seeing that happen here in the US as well. 

 

https://theconversation.com/why-singapores-coronavirus-response-worked-and-what-we-can-all-learn-134024

I read the pagel and found this interesting,

 

If you’re going to look after people at home, how do you know they are complying with self-isolation rules? Are you doing phone tracking? Are you doing random checks regularly enough? Are there harsh enough penalties to frighten people from disobeying?

Singapore has contact tracing teams, who identify all the contacts of an infected person and ring them up. Often these people have early symptoms and we’ll arrange for them to be picked up and tested.

Singapore is very liberal with our testing. Less than 1% of our tests are positive, so that reflects just how many tests we are doing.

If people don’t have symptoms, they’re put in home quarantine. And home quarantine is very strict. A couple times a day, you’ll get an SMS and you have to click on a link that will show where your phone is.

In case you cheat and leave your phone at home with someone else, the government has people knocking on doors now and then. The penalties are pretty harsh.

 

Never did find what the penalties are.

[Chucktshoes]

14 minutes ago, RED333 said:

I read the pagel and found this interesting,

 

If you’re going to look after people at home, how do you know they are complying with self-isolation rules? Are you doing phone tracking? Are you doing random checks regularly enough? Are there harsh enough penalties to frighten people from disobeying?

Singapore has contact tracing teams, who identify all the contacts of an infected person and ring them up. Often these people have early symptoms and we’ll arrange for them to be picked up and tested.

Singapore is very liberal with our testing. Less than 1% of our tests are positive, so that reflects just how many tests we are doing.

If people don’t have symptoms, they’re put in home quarantine. And home quarantine is very strict. A couple times a day, you’ll get an SMS and you have to click on a link that will show where your phone is.

In case you cheat and leave your phone at home with someone else, the government has people knocking on doors now and then. The penalties are pretty harsh.

 

Never did find what the penalties are.

Well, remember when they caned that punk kid for vandalism back in the 90s? They don’t screw around in Singapore. 

[RED333]

Just now, Chucktshoes said:

Well, remember when they caned that punk kid for vandalism back in the 90s? They don’t screw around in Singapore. 

That is what I remember, caned him in public.

[Dirtshooter]

On 4/13/2020 at 10:17 AM, RED333 said:

That is what I remember, caned him in public.

And I will guarantee he remembers that day very well also. I still say caning and hanging can solve a goodly bit of our prison overcrowding problem!!

[monkeylizard]

On 4/9/2020 at 10:07 AM, Ronald_55 said:

 I would have it plumbed to the gas grill on the deck.

Do it. I have a natural gas grill plumbed directly to the house supply lines. I'll never deal with tanks again.

[monkeylizard]

On 4/9/2020 at 10:52 AM, peejman said:

Id like to have a small inverter generator, but its low on the list because we live 1/2 mile from the city limits.  In 13 years, I think the power has been out less than 10 cumulative hours.

I have a 6.5Kw set now. If I was careful about what was on I think I could run the whole house except the stove, clothes dryer, and A/C. I've had it almost 10 years now and it has never not once no never not ever been started except for regular maintenance checks. I'm in Nashville. When the power occasionally drops, it's for a short period of time. Sometimes long enough to be inconvenient, but never long enough to think the food in the fridge/freezer will be going bad or to be worth the hassle of getting it out of the garage, wheeling it to the back yard, chaining it to the deck, running extension cords (I know, a transfer box is what I need), and plugging crap inside the house into the cords. It came close once and after several hours I said "30 more minutes and I'm getting the genny". It came back on a few minutes later. It takes up space in my garage and it's way too freakin' heavy to really be truly portable. It has wheels for moving around the garage/yard, but if I ever need it to travel with me like with a storm clean-up crew or to take to a friend/family member in need it's not happening. I like having a generator but this one's too big for my needs if I'm honest about what I really need. I'll probably sell it once all this mayhem passes and buy a much smaller one like a Honda EU2000i or EU2200i or the Yamaha equivalent. Then it can sit on a shelf up high and out of the way and will be enough to power a TV, the PC, some lights, the fridge, and recharge batteries as needed. If that's not enough power, I think I'd rather have two EU2000/2200's chained together instead of one larger system. The portability is often underappreciated. I'd be losing the 240v outlet, but I don't think I'd really miss that.

Edited April 14, 2020 by monkeylizard

[superduty]

I'm pretty darned pleased with how my preps have gone so far.  Two important things I've realized though... 1)  other family members in the house use food, dry goods, etc. like we can just run down to the store and replace it easily, and 2) having all 4 of us in the house all the time really points out to me just how quickly things that I've put back get depleted.

Good learning experience for all of us.

If we took this situation a step further...like no power or water...  or no trucks running...I think all of us (society) would be in a very different place right now.

Edited April 15, 2020 by superduty

[peejman]

4 hours ago, monkeylizard said:

I have a 6.5Kw set now. If I was careful about what was on I think I could run the whole house except the stove, clothes dryer, and A/C. I've had it almost 10 years now and it has never not once no never not ever been started except for regular maintenance checks. I'm in Nashville. When the power occasionally drops, it's for a short period of time. Sometimes long enough to be inconvenient, but never long enough to think the food in the fridge/freezer will be going bad or to be worth the hassle of getting it out of the garage, wheeling it to the back yard, chaining it to the deck, running extension cords (I know, a transfer box is what I need), and plugging crap inside the house into the cords. It came close once and after several hours I said "30 more minutes and I'm getting the genny". It came back on a few minutes later. It takes up space in my garage and it's way too freakin' heavy to really be truly portable. It has wheels for moving around the garage/yard, but if I ever need it to travel with me like with a storm clean-up crew or to take to a friend/family member in need it's not happening. I like having a generator but this one's too big for my needs if I'm honest about what I really need. I'll probably sell it once all this mayhem passes and buy a much smaller one like a Honda EU2000i or EU2200i or the Yamaha equivalent. Then it can sit on a shelf up high and out of the way and will be enough to power a TV, the PC, some lights, the fridge, and recharge batteries as needed. If that's not enough power, I think I'd rather have two EU2000/2200's chained together instead of one larger system. The portability is often underappreciated. I'd be losing the 240v outlet, but I don't think I'd really miss that.

My Dad had a built-in 8kW propane generator when he built his house. He did it right with a transfer switch and separate breaker box for isolating various circuits, the whole bit. Except he never used it and found it useless 10 years later when the power finally went out for 3-4 days. 

I agree completely that one of the chain-able 2kW units is the best option. The 3.5kW versions aren't overly large.