Well it's pretty obvious to me that the virus had a direct effect on a brake line on my 2002 Ranger... along with the new tires I'm getting!
When will this end!
Mike.
My You Tube
SeeYou190 I have not been eating much, and I have been working vary hard on the house. Plenty of physical activity for hours on end.
I have not been eating much, and I have been working vary hard on the house. Plenty of physical activity for hours on end.
Rich
Alton Junction
Being retired, the home isolation is not a huge change.
What is a change is shopping.
While working, I got used to stopping at the grocery store on the way home. Because of this, we did not keep a lot of food at the house. In retirement, I still visited the grocery store almost daily.
Now we have bought weeks' worth of some foods.
I don't know why (there could be a psychological study here), but with all the food in the house, we are eating more. Not snack foods, but complete dinners.
For the first time in a long time, I am having to consciously eat less.
We also ate out at least once a week, and usually two or three times a week. That's out.
Outside of food, the biggest change in our lives has to do with travel. We had several trips planned to see grandchildren, but those trips were canceled. That hurts.
York1 John
York1While working, I got used to stopping at the grocery store on the way home. Because of this, we did not keep a lot of food at the house.
Same here. When I had my kitchen remodeled, we did away with the pantry because we never had any food in it. Our refrigerator was always at least half empty, and the freezer was just for frozen foods, not cold storage.
I had to buy a shelf unit at Home Depot to hold all my Coronavirus Food Supply.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
And that was a nice kitchen remodel Kevin, I remember it. I was both impressed with it and liked the end results of the pictures you provided.
Who would have ever known that thunk it That we would have to pre think our grocery shopping now
TF
Kevin and TF,
I've resolved not to be caught flat-footed again. I'm going to try to build up a supply of home essentials, including certain foods, that I can rotate to keep the supply fresh. If this ever happens again, I want my wife and I to be better prepared than we were this time.
I don't know anyone's religious background here, so if I am wrong, I hope someone will correct me. I have heard that certain members of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints try to keep a years' supply of food and essentials in their house all the time.
That sounds like a good idea.
I do not think I will ever stock up on food like that. We always have a ton of toilet paper and paper towels in this house.
My big concern is Hurricanes, and they give us a few days notice.
I cannot wait to go back to my trips to the market every day or two and eating Chinese food whenever I want to.
I hope this is a once in a lifetime thing for the world to go through.
SeeYou190 I hope this is a once in a lifetime thing for the world to go through. -Kevin
I may be the saddest person on earth to inform you that I don't think this is Kevin.
I think we will all have to ride this one out and see where it brings us, it don't look good but lets all hope for the best!
I'm with you and everyone else here!
I guess I'm not the only one depressed by this today. I'm one of those "at risk" individuals, and I feel more persecuted than protected every day.
I went out for takeout this evening, and asked if I should make a quick stop for butter and sour cream, two items we ran out of. To my surprise, the GF, who is really upset at having to grocery shop, told me I shouldn't. She would get them tomorrow.
When I got to the takeout only restaurant, I had to wonder if I would ever get to actually have dinner in a restaurant again.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Living rural it is easier to avoid the masses and their germs. Earthquakes are the thing they tell us to be prepared for in this part of the world and I am ready. I always have 200ltrs of water stored and plenty of food including freeze dried as the last resort. We could go for months with what we have. I always have plenty of gas for the generator so I don't miss any hockey games and if it really hit the fan we have a 1000lbs of dog food in the garage.
Just ask your self if there was no water coming out of the tap, what would you do, could you get some easily. That alone speaks volumes about how well you could survive. I have always been proactive in all aspects of my life and the dividend has been very few speedbumps in life.
Both my wife and I paid for good disability insurance hoping we would not need it. My wife started her policy in her third year of Vet school, she had her priorities right as she had to pack it in due to neurological issues. I was forced to retire early and had to go on disability for about 20 months until my full pension kicked in, we never missed a beat as far as income goes.
If you plan for the worst and never need it or or plan for the worst and do need it you win either way.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Talking heads up here in the Milwaukee area are saying 50% of restaurants will not be able to reopen, if this goes as long as the Governor of WI., has said.
We are not restaurant people any more, we used to be, but not on a weekly basis. We have a local pizza place that delivers, so we do use them a couple times a month. After all, a 10" pizza gives the wife and I, 2 meals.
Mike
Early Saturday morning, the Ann Arbor-area model railroading community lost one of its well-loved members to C-19. I haven't been able to reach his wife to convey my condolences yet, so I don't know whether she'd appreciate my posting his name. I'll have to leave that out here, at least for now.
He was an acquaintance of mine for about 30 years. He had retired from the University of Michigan (the Engineering School, I think), and was one of those guys who was welcome anywhere he went. He was knowledgeable, humble, friendly, helpful and funny. Ever frugal, he drove a late-1980s Ford Tempo for at least a dozen years past the point when most of us would have had it scrapped.
An NMRA Life member, he had been a long-time member of our area's longest-established model railroad club, and a frequent crew member at my group's operating sessions. He had been active in the area live steam community as well, and a regular at the late Harold Allen's annual live steam logging parties. If I remember correctly, he was one of the few who were permtted to run Harold's wood-fired Shays.
In recent years, he and one of his buddies would buy a table at the two local train shows just to have a place to sit, put out one or two items that might nearly pay for the table if they sold, and just have a place to sit and talk with friends as they came by.
I'm always saddened when we lose a kind and thoughtful person, but this hits especially hard now, when we need kind and thoughful people more than ever.
We're going to miss him terribly.
-Fritz Milhaupt, Publications Editor, Pere Marquette Historical Society, Inc.http://www.pmhistsoc.org
York1I don't know anyone's religious background here, so if I am wrong, I hope someone will correct me. I have heard that certain members of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints try to keep a years' supply of food and essentials in their house all the time. That sounds like a good idea.
Also not a member, but my understanding is that this is an asperation, to be done if possible. Apartment dwellers and newly on their own people would have difficulties.
BATMANJust ask your self if there was no water coming out of the tap, what would you do
That is not a concern.
We have lost water for days after hurricanes. Publix and WalMart always get drinking water to where it is needed. If they don't, we can drive to where the water is not off.
In a metropolitan area with a population well in excess of 500,000 people, we have never had a death due to lack of food or water following a disaster.
The longest we went without water from the tap was eight days. We went without power for 16 days after Irma, but I was only here for the last three days of that one.
If you have a 4WD truck, 50 gallons of gasoline, and cash... you do not need anything else.
mbinsewiTalking heads up here in the Milwaukee area are saying 50% of restaurants will not be able to reopen, if this goes as long as the Governor of WI., has said.
By my house (within 1/2 mile) the following local restaurants are closed:
Brooks Family Restaurant
Chinatown
Restauranti Fabio
Steve's Original Pizza
Victory Lane Cafe
Phensri Thai
Rican Cubano
Supertacos
Englund's Deli
Big League Pizza
Japan Hibachi
Wooley's Diner
The following local restaurants are open:
NONE
I seriously doubt they will all re-open when this is over.
I have purposely limited my posts to this thread for a number of personal reasons.
Two years ago my wife and I searched for and found our current home, our retirement spot, moving from the large 1901 Queen Anne house we had restored and lived in for 25 years.
The new house is perfect, or at least it will be after just a few small remodeling projects. Projects we will do promptly after the 1901 house is sold. I have actually admired this neighborhood since before I moved to this county.
The process of down sizing, moving, getting the old house ready to sell, and beginning the liquidation of our rental properties as part of our retirement plan, has all taken longer, and been slightly more expensive than planned.
We had a good plan, with plenty of room for possible bumps in the road.
I think we hit all the bumps.
Our daughter and her three children had a family crisis a year and a half ago the details of which I will not go into here. But we have had to help out, mainly with childcare.
Weather and other delays prevented repair work on the 1901 house to proceed as fast as hoped, it took longer than planned to get it on the market.
The rental properties have proven more problematic than planned. We lost two good tenants sooner than expected, so we accelerated our plan to sell them off.
And my wife has needed both a knee replacement and a shoulder replacement in these last 18 months.
And now we have the virus lock down, and my wife is seriously high risk, 10 weeks out of shoulder surgery, rehumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disorder, making here very subject to infections of any kind.
The good thing, my work remains steady. In fact I got a text from a good customer today letting me know to expect a call from someone else who needs my services.
I am still very optimistic about the future.
As of this week we have a contract on the Queen Anne house despite the virus, a little less than we hoped to get, but enough. We have sold one rental property and are getting the next one ready to sell. That market seems pretty hot still.
The daughter and her family are doing well despite their tragedy 18 months ago.
The virus has been a major inconvenience to say the least, and has added its share of anxiety to all these issues.
We have yet to use all the toilet paper we had on hand when the lock down started.........
A number of our monthly bills are much lower. Gasoline costs in the 8000 lb, 12 mpg truck are down by a third despite a fairly normal travel schedule for me.
But we did have to buy tires for both vehicles around Christmas.........
Do I miss going out to eat?, yes. Is it a real big deal?, no.
Where we live is on the boarder between "suburban" and "rural". There are only 250,000 people in our 400 sq mile county, and that is up 50,000 since we moved here 25 years ago.
I don't think there are a dozen buildings in the whole county over three stories, we are surounded by dairy cows, corn fields, horse farms, vegetable farms, and to a point, suburban housing developements.
Our virus stats are pretty low, maybe 6 deaths?
Anyway, it my belief this will end. And it may not be over night, but life will return to something very close to the old normal.
Yes it might take a year or two.
It does trouble me that so many business people I know, and their employees, are shut down or business is very slow. I am thankful to still have work, and are allowed to work.
We did not recover from the depression, or two world wars, or a horriffic civil war in ten minutes, but we recovered.
Hope I did not bore you all silly.
Sheldon
ATLANTIC CENTRALWe did not recover from the depression, or two world wars, or a horriffic civil war in ten minutes, but we recovered.
Hi Sheldon,
I think that is a very important point to make right now. The recovery from Covid-19 will not be quick and we need to recognize that. In fact the experts have clearly said that pushing the recovery too fast is highly likely to bring on a second wave of infections and deaths. We need to stay resolute in our determination to beat the virus, just like we stayed resolute in our determination to win WWl and WWll. WWll took six years. Hopefully this won't.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critterWWll took six years.
Yep my Uncle left the farm outside of Winnipeg in 1939 when Canada declared war on Germany and lived through some horrific stuff including a D-Day landing on Juno beach. He did not see Canada again for seven years. I have a warm house, a full tummy and access to great health care and my kids are being educated. I have had it pretty easy compared to the previous generation, you won't hear me whining about having to stay home for a few months playing my guitars and running trains.
Reminder: Keep the unsupported theories and victim-shaming out of this thread, please. Restrict your posts to personal accounts only. Posts that do not meet this criterion are being deleted. Thank you.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
Steven Otte Reminder: Keep the unsupported theories and victim-shaming out of this thread, please. Restrict your posts to personal accounts only. Posts that do not meet this criterion are being deleted. Thank you.
Thank you Steven, it was not my intent to send anyone in that direction, but rather I was trying to show a positive note dispite the hardships.
I can sympahize with them but lets not forget the other 350 million people in the US that are affected by this virus. How come the other 50% are not saying their closing? Sounds like they are trying to strong arm your governor to make a buck in lieu of saving lives. It's tough for everyone right now. We are all in this together. There are a lot of people worse off than these so called "50%" bar/restaurant owners.People are dying, some familes with several family members dying. Isn't a life more inportant than making a buck? Almost all creditors are deferring payments owed right now. Plus the Gov't is giving them money as well.
Still haven't received my order I placed with MBKlein nearly two weeks ago, but it says that it has been shipped. Not worried, I placed another order today.
If I read by newclips correctly, GA, TN, and SC are cutting their lockdowns short and opening up (mainly) this Friday. I know GAs was previously extended to May 1st. Hair salons, knick-knack retail, I think even restaurants can open.
Inescapable close-quarters places like bars, nightclubs, and amusement parks will remain closed indefinitely (they all can close forever as far as I'm concerned).
Went to a new yogurt place that openend this past weekend. The self serve, add toppings, and pay at the counter kind. Seems like an inherently unsanitary place but they built it with common sense cleanliness in mind.
Gave you plastic gloves at the door, and had to keep them on as long as you were in the place, even eating. Lids on all of the toppings, held up by a magnet, not just open containers covered by a spit screen. Checkout is accomplished by card, no signature or button pushing, don't have to touch anything other than your own CC.
They had curbside service, or both indoor and outdoor seating with proper spacing in between tables. Workers were wiping down all surfaces frequently, eventhough customers (edit: and employees) were required to wear the plastic gloves.
Seems like a lot of places can open with common sense procedures. A business could even require the customers to wear masks if they wanted to.
Just add a word to their traditional signage. No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service. And wear those plastic gloves we give you at the door.
I'm hoping that Bob at Riverdale Station can/will open for business soon.
- Douglas
Douglas, were the employees wearing masks and gloves as well?
richhotrain Douglas, were the employees wearing masks and gloves as well? Rich
Rich. Nobody was wearing a mask. I didn't see any customers wear them either. I was just thinking that a business could certainly make that part of a dress code if they wanted to....just like no shirt, no shoes, no service.
Everybody was wearing gloves. The checkout counter had a clear screen separating them from the customer. I think the greatest risk was that employees or customers could spread the virus by simply breathing or talking, but everybody kept their distance so the risk seemed pretty low.
Couldn't find rubbing alcohol this morning for cleaning track in any of the 3 stores I visited.....Oh well..
jjo Couldn't find rubbing alcohol this morning for cleaning track in any of the 3 stores I visited.....Oh well..
DoughlessJust add a word to their traditional signage. No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service. And wear those plastic gloves we give you at the door.
My local grocery stores does not require masks, but they give a 5% discount at the register for anyone wearing a mask.
Of course, the discount doesn't apply to alcohol purchases.
richhotrain Yep, people are stocking up on it, in some cases hoarding it, as a surface disinfectant and hand sanitizer.
Yep, people are stocking up on it, in some cases hoarding it, as a surface disinfectant and hand sanitizer.
So, sanitize and disinfect your track...
Evidently I violated the rules of this thread and I apologize, but in for a penny in for a pound. More stats from the Internet
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I spent all day trying to fit mask on all my tiny people and finally just gave up and said the heck with it.