I have never owned smart phone, at least not for my own use......
Actually, in the technical sense, I own three of the darn things, that other family members use........
I have a flip phone, if fact just got a new flip phone a few months ago when the eight year old one quit working.
About five years ago I decided I needed to be more "pluged in" for work, so I skipped right over the smart phone and got a Samsung Tablet.
I can't type on a cell phone, no way, I need bigger........
I can't read what on those tiny screens either........
And I would still rather be on my desktop than on the tablet.......
Sheldon
I thought this thread was supposed to be about how the virus was affecting our lives. We now have a full page about smart phones, record collections, TV shows, and other non-related stuff. I enjoyed reading the virus related things. I don't enjoy reading all the other junk.
Why don't you take it over to the Diner thread where it belongs so that I can ignore it?
Thanks
ATLANTIC CENTRALActually, in the technical sense, I own three of the darn things, that other family members use........
I pay for two of them, and I never touch either one!
maxmanWe now have a full page about smart phones, record collections, TV shows, and other non-related stuff.
Not quite a full page. I snuck in a thankful post to the folks at Kalmbach Media for keeping the presses rolling and getting the May copy of Model Railroader out on time. That was great work, and very appreciated.
I think we are all settled into our hermit life, so there are less effects right now.
How are you doing? Is everything OK?
Back on topic... it looks like the windows and sliding glass door for the house will be delayed because of the virus. Remodel work is not considered essential.
What happens if these companies go out of business? I have written checks for $4,000.00 in deposits.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL I have never owned smart phone, at least not for my own use...... Actually, in the technical sense, I own three of the darn things, that other family members use........ I have a flip phone, if fact just got a new flip phone a few months ago when the eight year old one quit working. About five years ago I decided I needed to be more "pluged in" for work, so I skipped right over the smart phone and got a Samsung Tablet. I can't type on a cell phone, no way, I need bigger........ I can't read what on those tiny screens either........ And I would still rather be on my desktop than on the tablet....... Sheldon
I'm with you on the smart phones. I had one for less than a year and in that time I downloaded one ap. It was a Scrabble game that I played while I was on an airplane. The reason I got it was I had a dog tracking service that required a mobile device. I have a pair of beagles who are escape artists and when they get out, they will go for miles. It proved less than effective because there are so many dead zones around where I live and if the dogs were in one, I couldn't find them. I replaced it with a Garmin device that communicates directly with the dog collars and tells me instantly where the dogs are. It's been a life saver for the dogs. As for the smart phone, it conked out in less than a year, typical for Samsung products I have bought. I replaced it with a flip phone and haven't missed it. I don't need to carry a computer in my pocket and if I want to take pictures, I'll use my camera.
They made the social distancing at grocery stores worst. The amount of people that go to the grocery store at a given time will have its waves. But the waves disperse inside and has a better result than what thier doing now.
It's just like road traffic has its peaks of volume. Putting up a roadblock in heavier traffic would not help the situation. As I have seen on the news, the heavy crowded line outside. Limiting the amount of people that can be in the store at one time is just bunching them up close together in line. I was here first is just human nature.
It's a no brainer. Flow can't be restricted or you end up cramming a beach ball through a golf ball sized hole. How is that helping?
Going to the grocery store will have its exposure risks no matter what you do. These risks were less the last time I went grocery shopping. I'm dreading my second trip now that they have started complicating things.
TF
The neighbors behind us had a huge fight last night. This is a pool home, and two families live there. I do not know if they are related, but my wife believes the two wives are sisters.
I was taking pictures of the layout segment in my garage last night at 2:00 AM, and they were screaming at one another over there. It all sounded vocal, so I assumed they were just blowing off steam.
Today when I woke up and opened the back cutains, their screen enclosure for the pool is all torn up, and one of the panels of their sliding glass wall was been replaced with plywood. I guess it was worse than I thought.
The news recently had a report from a psychologist that stated since we do not have a Winter down here, families have never had to be indoors with one another for a period of time before. It is not something we are accustom to. Even after a hurricane you can seperate from one another and keep some social routines.
Big family fights are becoming a real thing in Florida now that we are all cooped up together, and the police are not responding unless it is an emergency.
I think I saw this first-hand last night.
SeeYou190Today when I woke up and opened the back cutains, their screen enclosure for the pool is all torn up, and one of the panels of their sliding glass wall was been replaced with plywood.
You may want to sit in your backyard tonight. That sounds like better entertainment than what's on TV.
York1 John
SeeYou190 The neighbors behind us had a huge fight last night. This is a pool home, and two families live there. I do not know if they are related, but my wife believes the two wives are sisters. I was taking pictures of the layout segment in my garage last night at 2:00 AM, and they were screaming at one another over there. It all sounded vocal, so I assumed they were just blowing off steam. Today when I woke up and opened the back cutains, their screen enclosure for the pool is all torn up, and one of the panels of their sliding glass wall was been replaced with plywood. I guess it was worse than I thought. The news recently had a report from a psychologist that stated since we do not have a Winter down here, families have never had to be indoors with one another for a period of time before. It is not something we are accustom to. Even after a hurricane you can seperate from one another and keep some social routines. Big family fights are becoming a real thing in Florida now that we are all cooped up together, and the police are not responding unless it is an emergency. I think I saw this first-hand last night. -Kevin
my wife is a family therapist who has studied crises. She says it will get worse, people are going to get quite irrational (to put it mildly).
Well, Covid-19 got a little closer to us last week. We have house cleaners come in every week. They do a great job and they are very nice people so we had decided to keep using them throughout the crisis. We planned to simply retreat to the deck when they are here, and we have bottles of hand sanitizer around the house so we weren't worried.
All that changed last week. The cleaning company's owner's husband works in construction and his supervisor showed up at work sicker than a dog. Everyone implored him to go home but he refused. Two days later he was diagnosed with Covid-19. Unfortunately we will have to cancel the cleaning service but the thing that really ticks me off is that the cleaners showed up last week despite the fact that they had potentially been directly exposed to the virus.
I guess we are too nice (stupid comes to mind too). We wanted to continue to support them through the crisis. Most of their clients have already cancelled. Obviously we won't continue to have them come to the house, at least not for a few weeks. So far we both feel fine. We dodged a bullet!
Dianne hasn't quite caught on still. I have a parcel waiting at the Post Office for me to pick up. She keeps asking me when am I going to get it? The Post Office has said that they will hold all parcels until it is safe to go out in public. She keeps reminding me that we need to get a new tank of propane for our outdoor fireplace. Why??? We have had a couple of people at the house for various reasons and she still doesn't know what six feet is! She still thinks it is okay to make a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up a couple of items. I will survive without lettuce for quite some time. I'm trying to be patient.
Thank you for letting me vent! The next two weeks are going to be nasty. Please, everyone, err on the side of caution! Stay safe!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Track fiddlerGoing to the grocery store will have its exposure risks no matter what you do. These risks were less the last time I went grocery shopping. I'm dreading my second trip now that they have started complicating things.
Hi TF,
Do you not have the option of ordering your groceries online and either having then delivered or just picking them up outside the store? We have been ordering our groceries onling ever since Dianne suffered her concussion last October. All we do is place the order and arrange a pickup time. When we get to the parking lot we phone the store to tell them that we are here, and in a few minutes they have loaded the groceries into the trunk. The only current challenge is that we have had to place our orders over a week in advance because of the increased volume of online orders, but that simply requires a bit of planning. Some areas have delivery right to your house.
Track fiddler I as well needed a smartphone for work. At first I was like an ancient dinosaur in the modern world with the thing. I had my daughters come over and help me......" No you do this Dad "......" No it's like this silly ". Finally I got the hang of the thing after a while, I probably know about 20% of what it does now. I don't have a computer anymore. The third one I seriously threw out the window. I got sick of mutiple problems, viruses, bringing it in for a factory restore and then buying a new one eventually anyway. I finally learned to do everything I used to do on my computer on my smartphone. If my phone goes wanky or catches a virus. I just shut it off, my service provider reboots the system connection automatically in minutes. I turn it back on and it's like new again. I can stream it to anything else I need to do. The main thing is no more problems, I'm sticking with this thing. You guys may have seen the second Oddball in the diner last night. Rio did the original one here. I don't know if that's called a direct link but I just learned how to do that last night TF
I as well needed a smartphone for work. At first I was like an ancient dinosaur in the modern world with the thing. I had my daughters come over and help me......" No you do this Dad "......" No it's like this silly ".
Finally I got the hang of the thing after a while, I probably know about 20% of what it does now.
I don't have a computer anymore. The third one I seriously threw out the window. I got sick of mutiple problems, viruses, bringing it in for a factory restore and then buying a new one eventually anyway.
I finally learned to do everything I used to do on my computer on my smartphone. If my phone goes wanky or catches a virus. I just shut it off, my service provider reboots the system connection automatically in minutes. I turn it back on and it's like new again. I can stream it to anything else I need to do. The main thing is no more problems, I'm sticking with this thing.
You guys may have seen the second Oddball in the diner last night. Rio did the original one here. I don't know if that's called a direct link but I just learned how to do that last night
maxman I thought this thread was supposed to be about how the virus was affecting our lives. We now have a full page about smart phones, record collections, TV shows, and other non-related stuff. I enjoyed reading the virus related things. I don't enjoy reading all the other junk. Why don't you take it over to the Diner thread where it belongs so that I can ignore it? Thanks
rrebellSorry but you didn't just factory restart the computer yourself ?
The "Tablet" they gave to the Pointy Haired Boss in Dilbert could be rebooted by turning it upside down and shaking it.
Cheers, Ed
Now for my life. Went to sere my 98 year old mom today, she fime. Did a littlr railroad work but not much. Have three flex szections to put in and I can do loops on the main layout, guess that is progress.
gmpullmanThe "Tablet" they gave to the Pointy Haired Boss in Dilbert could be rebooted by turning it upside down and shaking it.
The only thing that I read in our weekend subscription to the Toronto Star are the comics! The rest is too depressing.
Kevin I read an article about your neighbors and there's a term for it - "Covidivorce". An upswing in divorce filings is apparant and experts say it's going to get worse. There are also predictions of a boom of "Coronababies".
Dave We told our housecleaners who come every two weeks to just stay home. We're paying them anyway since they've been with us for quite a while and are like family.
Rrebel I visited my 91 year old dad this morning. We cleaned out one wall of his garage in order to get started on building a shelf railroad that we will be working on together.
Tim
Late to the model railroad party but playing catch-up.....
CapnCrunchDave We told our housecleaners who come every two weeks to just stay home. We're paying them anyway since they've been with us for quite a while and are like family.
Hi Tim,
That is certainly something that we should consider. It's not like we can't afford it. We certainly believe that the big companies should be doing it. Why not us?
Thanks for the 'push'.
CapnCrunchThere are also predictions of a boom of "Coronababies".
I am keeping my fingers crossed for a "Coronagrandbaby".
CapnCrunchWe told our housecleaners who come every two weeks to just stay home. We're paying them anyway since they've been with us for quite a while and are like family.
I am also going to continue to pay my house cleaning service. I pay the lawn service through the winter months when the grass does not grow, so this is kind of similar.
hon30critter Hi TF, Do you not have the option of ordering your groceries online and either having then delivered or just picking them up outside the store?
Do you not have the option of ordering your groceries online and either having then delivered or just picking them up outside the store?
Yes
I plead the ancient dinosaur clause again. I don't know how to do stuff like that online because I've never done it.
I would love to do that even before the corona thing hit. I hate grocery shopping. I probably need to have my daughter show me how to do that too. I've gotten better over the years but I'm still rather computer illiterate.
Post Hog
rrebell Sorry but you didn't just factory restart the computer yourself ?
Sorry but you didn't just factory restart the computer yourself ?
I know. That's exactly what my daughter said to me after I paid for it the first time and chucked my third computer out the window. It sat next to the house for a better part of a week before I properly disposed of it with an old TV.
I don't miss those things though.
gmpullman rrebell Sorry but you didn't just factory restart the computer yourself ? The "Tablet" they gave to the Pointy Haired Boss in Dilbert could be rebooted by turning it upside down and shaking it. Cheers, Ed
Well another glich in the layout. It seems the new Shinohara flex track I got from Wathers clearance is different than the old. The old was very stiff so if you made a curve, it would hold close, new stuff is very loose. Luckily most of the remaining track are fairly straight as in yards and sidings. Another thing that changed was they always had a cut off tie on each end that had undercuts to the tie so you could fill in ties, new ones don't, great for straight but not so much for curves. They have always sold the undercut ties sepratly.
I was an early smartphone adopter, long before Apple got in the game. I had a cell phone, and I also played around with a PDA, the early Palm models. So when Koycera came out with their phone that was also a Palm device - I HATE carrying multiple things around. I avoided the first iPhone - it couldn't even do Exchange mail server connections which rendered it completely useless.
All these factory resets on computers - I wonder what some people are doing? I've never reininstalled or reset my systems, but I haven't used a factory built PC for close to 30 years, I build my own. The one I am typing this on was built 8 years ago and had Windows 7, which was automatically upgraded to Windows 10 during the free period a few years ago, but I have never had to revert to the recovery setup or otherwise wipe it. Viruses? What viruses? I've never had one. Adblock really helps there.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
And more hobby impact, on their web site, my supplier of the good plywood lists having hardboard available. So i gave them a call - good news, still open, still making deliveries. I was going to order some hardboard plus a couple more pieces of plywood. Bad news, they no longer stock the hardboard. So I guess it's off to Lowes to get hardboard if I want to get the backdrop up.
13 days ago I went out and bought enough supplies to last us 2 or 3 weeks.
Yesterday it was officially announced that April will be terrible, and everyone should lock down for the entire month as much as possible.
Today I went out and bought supplies for a 4-5 week lockdown. I went to a Walmart Super Center, a Walmart Neighborhood Market, two Publix Super Markets, the Post Office, and Home Depot.
I wore my overly cautious kit of PPE.
1) The outside world has not changed much in the two weeks since I left my house. There are not armed gangs of teenage mutants or anything like that. It all looks very normal out there. Too normal. Other than the occasional empty parking lot, it was all the same. Nearly all businesses are open, the drive-throughs are packed. Traffic seemed about the same for a non-rush-hour weekday..
2) No one seems to be taking this all that seriously. The six foot rule (one alligator rule in Florida) was being ignored. People were all jammed together on public busses.
3) Human decency is intact. No one is short tempered or rude. All store employees were polite and friendly. I saw no signs of social decay.
4) I guess nearly all businesses are essential. The only store I saw closed was the game/comic hobby shop in Cape Coral, but then I remembered they are closed Monday anyway. Video casinos were open, clothing stores were open, and even the tropical fish store was open.
5) The Post Office was packed. It was holiday season busy. No social distancing inside of there for anyone.
That is about all. I never thought I would write a forum post about a trip for groceries and what not.
I had to go get bloodwork today. I made an appointment - was empty when I got there, but two others came in while I was waiting. They only had 4 chairs, one in each corner of the waiting area - they used to have about 15.
Since it was 14 hours since I last ate anything, i figured while I was out i would pick up something. Very few cars on the road. Couple of cars in a few business parking lots, which are normally parked full. Wawa in the morning is usually so packed you have to wait for a parking spot, not today. Besides me, there were 2 other customers but about 8 employees. I had to wait because I ordered a bunch of stuff to take some back to the others stuck at home, and in the 15 minutes or so it took, the other 2 people made their purchases and left and maybe 3 others came and went. I just waitied in an out of the way place where no one should need to walk through - there is no longer any self-service coffe, you have to go ask for what you want and they will pour it for you, so there in no reason for anyone to be around the coffee service area - there aren't even any cups there any more. Soda, tea, etc is also all closes - bottles and cans from the cooler or a prepared to order shake or smoothie are your only options. I couldn't see outside so I have no idea how busy the gas islands were.
Then home and back to work, I'm quite busy, all my work can be done remotely. So I am as busy as every, actually more busy than a few weeks ago, go figure.
Track fiddlerDo you not have the option of ordering your groceries online and either having then delivered or just picking them up outside the store?
Track fiddlerYes I plead the ancient dinosaur clause again. I don't know how to do stuff like that online because I've never done it.
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. For example, if you want three green bananas you can tell them that. You don't have to accept whatever quantities are easy for them. You can also allow them to substitute similar items if your particular item is out of stock, or you can say 'no substitutions'.
I would offer a word of caution when ordering online. The selection is huge so there is a tendancy to order more than what you really need, at least for me anyhow. I always go back to review the order before placing it just to get rid of the frivolous items. Most companies will allow you to adjust the order up until a day or two before pickup, so if you have forgotten something you can add it in as well.
A little more on track (sorry) - since I'm retired, not too much has changed for me other than not going to the club (I said that in an earlier post). I'm working on the basement, but running low on materials. I'll have to make a trip to Menards soon.
Wyoming still hasn't been hit too hard yet. A total of about 200 cases, and to date no deaths (knock on wood). Still, I'm leery of going out because I'm in the high-risk group.
Our April club business meeting was cancelled (was supposed to be this past Saturday) as was our May operating session (darn!). The North Platte Nebraska train show scheduled for April 17 has been postponed until September at the earliest. I'm expecting the NMRA national to be canceled too.
I think this will be impacting us (hopefully to a lesser extent) until a vaccine is out. So everyone be cautious when going out, ok? I don't think any of us want to start seeing forum members being eulogized here.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
We know four people that have died from the virus, three of them have been to our home on more than one occasion. Two were from Washington State, one was my wifes Godmothers son who was the same age as my wife and lived in England, the fourth was living in France and had a home in Alberta and we have stayed with her there.
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Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."