This thread exists for people to share their personal accounts of how the virus has affected them. Not political statements, scientific speculation, or lamentations of what everyone else in the world is doing wrong. Posts have been deleted. If you think this thread is worth keeping unlocked, don't abuse it. The next step for violators will be suspensions from the Forums.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Seeing some limited progress and optimism last few days...Hopefully, it'll be corrected soon and we can back to our MR hobby!!
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Sorry.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I can't imagine the GF being satisfied with online grocery ordering. Can you imagine the store going through every item to only pick the one with the latest expiration date? Reading the labels to see which one has the lowest sugar content?
I pick my steak by grade, size and thickness. Would they do that?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Hey, went to Costco this morning, long line even at senior time but I got the covited TP so I could restock. Only thing I didn't get that I accually need is french fries, would have settled for tator tots (wifes favorite). Just now getting to the unpinning of yesterdays caulk work so witll have to do that and check the track (doing this after every section is laid).
rrebell I got the covited TP
All the stores I went to yesterday, including Home Depot, had toilet paper in stock. The Walmart Neighborhood Market even had NO LIMIT... they had two trailers of Charmin Ultra-Soft 9 packs and were encouraging people to stock up just to get it out of there.
No Lipton Onion Soup mix anywhere.
I wish I could have tater-tots, but my freezer is full.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Got the GF an air fryer that she wanted at Christmas. Best tator tots I made at home EVER.
If tator tots is an option- I always go for the tator tots.
Something that brightened the day a lot today - local music venue sponsored a live performance on Facebook by one of my favorite local performers for a lunchtime show. Best lunch time I've had in weeks.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
MisterBeasley I can't imagine the GF being satisfied with online grocery ordering.
I can't imagine the GF being satisfied with online grocery ordering.
Before Corona reared it's ugly head, my wife has been doing online grocery ordering for the past six months. She loves it and then goes at the scheduled time and they are brought out to the car - snicker snack.
And that from someone who before I met her was very primative and old fashioned (no credit card, no drivers license, poor etc.)
Can you imagine the store going through every item to only pick the one with the latest expiration date? Reading the labels to see which one has the lowest sugar content? I pick my steak by grade, size and thickness. Would they do that?
The system isn't perfect and my wife does shop certain items in person and online they sometimes do substitutions that she usually rejects. I can't answer for her but she is very savvy.
That said, Corona has up-ended things and I think she isn't doing the online shopping atm.
We used to get tater tots but when my wifes son came over from England, he would eat them and avoid healthy food. He was over $350 lbs and the doctors classified him as a medical emergency a few years earlier. His eating habits were like a 5 years old kid yet here he was 20 when he arrived from England. My wife over a period of a couple years has gotten him down to to about 220 lbs - and has improved his diet significantly. We stopped buying tater tots at that time as part of his diet change. He still won't eat most vegtables that average people eat, like green beans, peas, carrots, etc. Only thing he will eat is corn. He'll eat peppers cut up inside things like burritos or quesadillas.
Diabetic, so no french fries and no tater tots for me.
I'm not sure I could adapt to online grocery shopping. I like to go to the store and decide what's for dinner depending on the selection. Stuff like TP or canned tomatoes, fine, but I like to see what I'm getting before I buy it.
It really depends. If you have a set of common items you regularly purchase, then it isn't a matter of reading labels and making decisions. Many things are repeat and can be routinely re-ordered. My wife doesn't do 100% of the grocery shopping online (that is when we aren't dealing with the current crisis) she does probably 80% of it and picks up other things ad-hoc as needed. She buys a lot of stuff only onsale and because she stocks up on many things, she can wait for them to go onsale again so is usually only paying sale prices for a lot of items, like toilet paper (Charmin), cat litter, and a lot of other things.
So after you've seen the same merchandise many many many times, you don't need to see it before you buy it - it's predictable.
We have not used up the TP we had on hand when this started. But the wife picked one small pack the other day when she was at the grocery.
Sheldon
I can just see the ex-wife calling up and asking them to go to the vitamin aisle and read labels for 30 minutes, then stand in the checkout line to read celebrity magazines.
ATLANTIC CENTRALWe have not used up the TP we had on hand when this started.
Same here. Living with a wife, three daughters, and visiting nieces/friends, I learned that toilet paper is actually a necessity. and you always keep a good stock on hand.
I could make a four pack last six months when I was single and young. Not so when you live with a lot of women. I think we always have 24-36 rolls on hand.
I have three gallons of milk in my freezer. I have never frozen milk before, but the news said this was a good practice for this April-long lockdown.
Does anyone have any exprience freezing/thawing milk?
hon30critter Hi again TF, I don't think that ordering groceries online is any different than ordering anything else online. The first thing you will have to do is identify which grocery stores offer the service (I know that Walmart does). After that it's easy! The service that we use allows us to give specific instructions regarding individual items.
Hi again TF,
I don't think that ordering groceries online is any different than ordering anything else online. The first thing you will have to do is identify which grocery stores offer the service (I know that Walmart does). After that it's easy!
The service that we use allows us to give specific instructions regarding individual items.
Judy and I have been discussing wanting to do this for well over a year now Dave. I do need to work on my procrastination tendencies for sure. I am going to have a barbecue with my daughter's the next nice day. I will have them show me how to do this, It always seems so easy after they guide me along with something.
We just returned from the grocery store not too long ago. There were no lines like I seen on the news, that must have been a different state. I was actually pleasantly surprised. There were less people in the store than there normally is. We went to the newest, nicest Walmart we always go to across the river. It's twice as far as the one next to us but it's worth the drive.
Still in a toilet paper crisis up here. They did have this four-pack bargain brand fluff stuff. Limit one per customer so we each grabbed one. They did have these huge packs of paper towels though. Worse comes to worse I'll cut them in half with the Sawzall and throw it on the dispenser, we may have to become rough riders for a while
The rest of the store was stalked really well. We came out of there looking like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas with our cart heaped up.
I see the tater tot topic here. What is the deal with that? The last time they did not have tater tots, this time they did. We love our tater tot hotdish so I grabbed two. They were all out of Judy's low sodium chips though.
We ended up taking off our masks and going back to the holding your breath when you pass someone thing. I wear those masks for a short time on the construction site but wearing one that long seems to restrict our breathing too much.
Stay safe everyone
TF
SeeYou190Does anyone have any exprience freezing/thawing milk?
Not recently. But when I was a kid I remember that when the milkman delivered in the winter we would sometimes find that the milk had frozen.
And when frozen milk will expand. So either the bottle top would pop off or the bottlle would break.
If your milk is in the typical plastic jug I'd expect the same would occur.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Beer doesn't do well with freezing. We use mostly powered milk. Good enough for coffee and a 1/2 bowl of cereal once a week. It keeps longer than 'real' milk and if the bottle is empty, you just mix up a new batch.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
We have been hitting Costco a lot as well as other stores since this thing started as we have been shopping for many seniors, some of who have inherited their Grandchildren as the parents are working the ERs 24/7. We have not had lines to get in or shortages of anything including TP. We bought three of those huge Costco bundles of the stuff and split it up to the people as we go on our rounds of delivery, they are all happy with that arrangment.
Jim, I am surprised your stepson likes corn as none of our British relatives will touch the stuff as they think corn is something you feed to the hogs, I love corn myself.
My sister keeps whining about how overweight they are and I keep saying the same thing over and over again to her, if you don't bring it into the house you won't eat it.
Pass the toilet paper please and practice your stick handling.
We do it all the time. We get delivery in glass 1/2 gallon jugs, we transver it to plastic jugs, and freeze, when we have too much.
Just don't fill it to the very top.
Mike.
My You Tube
Ya know....It's a good thing we have friends to talk to here and are able to read what others are doing and I have to say I'm thankful for that. Always has been that way here but now more than ever.
I can't believe how much time has gone by already in this isolation so far. It somewhat has its advantages to have more time to do more modeling and spend more time with the wife than I ever have before. One can find plenty to do but things sure are more different than they used to be. The games we have definitely have been played more than once.
There is a positive side to everything if one takes a look around. But getting back to how I started with my opening statement, we are not even very far along in this epidemic yet and who knows how long this will last.
If I didn't have some outside socialization to fall back on, I might darn near go right out of my mind. I miss my day to day friends that I am used to seeing on a regular basis. Talking on the phone or texting isn't quite the same as face to face that has now become no more for a while.
So I guess what I am saying here is I appreciate you guys. I have gotten to somewhat know quite a few of you as much as can be expected through only text.
I just thought I'd throw that out there and have to believe I'm probably not the only one that feels that way all along and during these trying times.
Stay well and be safe
Hello fellow MRers,
Professionally: I work in residential supported living programs for adults working on their mental health recovery. That's been hard, and I'm taking extra steps to stay safe. I have few worries personally about being overly affected by it, but I want to keep others around me as safe as possible. As I work with people who have chronic health problems, and one of them getting sick would be detrimental to them. Plus I have older relatives to consider. I'd finished a Paralegal program at the local community college and work has not been easy to find, I hope I do, but I've had all of two interviews in about 3-months, and I'm concerned things will not pick back up for many weeks, if not a few months. And of course, I have student loans to pay off. Those are in the grace period, but it's still a concern.
Personally: I truly miss being able to spend time with my friends, and not just talk on social media. I never thought I'd yearn for when I could call up 1-2 buddies and be like hey let's go to a local bar, have a few drinks and talk about things. I'll never take being able to do that for granted again. Or go watch movies and eat pizza with my friends and their families; have game nights; go to my train club. As well as do my side work hauling with my truck. My other hobby is hiking local trails and though this is usually a great time of year for that, I'm not out on the trails to encourage staying home, and I've heard there is less maintenance work being done on the trails due to the state of the world. I don't wish to add to the strain if I can avoid it. Anxiety and depression are something I've dealt with for years and though I've taken meds, gone to therapy, and used generally positive ways to help, it's still hard right now. I've been reading more books now, and working on White Fang by Jack London. It's short and I'm enjoying a lot.
Model Railroading front: Recently, I took a few freight car pieces to a friend's place, they are miniature gaming fans, and were painting figures so I brought over freight cars and did weathering with weathering powders and paints. I had so much fun doing that and they were good company. They're not train people but loved seeing the models. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed weathering and how it truly turns a nice model into a miniature of the real thing. Plus, it's not hard! A little practice and skill is needed, but a handful of basic techniques and knowledge can go a long way. As the weather gets warmer, I'll pull my airbrush out of storage and weather models outside. I'll turn to the interwebs for supplies as I need them as though I very much wish to support my local hobby stores, they're closed for t he time being.
Prayers for all in need,
Alvie H
When you freeze milk you need to reduce the amoung in the plastic jug to allow room for expansion or the plastic jug will crack and then you have a mess when it thaws !!
Had a call from an old friend who moved to California 10 years ago. She has a degree in molecular biology, but is no longer teaching. Her theory is that Covid isn't as infectious as thought and wants to study people who think they had it to see if they have antibodies.
Aside from her mayor, who agreed to fund a study, no one else seems interested. We had an interesting discussion about chloroquin receptors, Covid effect on hemoglobin and the incidence of illness on the Diamond Princess.
She is one of the smartest people I ever met, but I don't understand how, if it's a low infectivity disease with a relatively high mortality or a highly widespread disease with low mortality that anything changes - public policy-wise.
BigDaddy Had a call from an old friend who moved to California 10 years ago. She has a degree in molecular biology, but is no longer teaching. Her theory is that Covid isn't as infectious as thought and wants to study people who think they had it to see if they have antibodies. Aside from her mayor, who agreed to fund a study, no one else seems interested. We had an interesting discussion about chloroquin receptors, Covid effect on hemoglobin and the incidence of illness on the Diamond Princess. She is one of the smartest people I ever met, but I don't understand how, if it's a low infectivity disease with a relatively high mortality or a highly widespread disease with low mortality that anything changes - public policy-wise.
Back to the Costco thing, the line was stupid long and I got there early and also during the hour for seniors only which is one hour, then they shut the door for a hour in which first responders only are allowed and then it is opened to the regular Costco people.
rrebellBack to the Costco thing, the line was stupid long
I encountered no lines yesterday at all.
THANK YOU to everyone for the frozen milk comments. It froze and expanded a lot, but the container expanded along with the contents just fine.
The concave strengthening cup in the side became fully convex.
Frozen milk looks neat under light.
Sad news, today we lost singer/songwriter John Prine at age 73 after a 12 day hospital battle with the virus.
Saturday night, Sirius Outlaw Country did a special, with other artist doing covers of his work, and wishing him a speedy recovery It was on the Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale show.
Rest in peace John.
Been temporarily laid off since mid March. Our managers will be in touch and advise when the restaurant will reopen. There are 10-12 packs of toilet paper packs and 5-7 tissue packs in Dad’s closet. We got ours back in mid to late February.
Since I’m idle for the time being, I can only browse Picclick, No work + No money = No buying anything.
Outside of reading Trains and Model Railroader Magazines, I’ll use the time to work on an HO Santa Fe Piggy-Back Train. Era would be 1977+. I’ll start drawing it out tomorrow.