Scarlet Pimpernel

Just now, mappy said:

Yeah we’ve managed as well. Hard to believe it’s another month of this though 

I know man, all good fun! Agreed!

Same here...I fully expect at least a month if not more.  You do what you can...it's working out OK, I've got my work laptop and access to whatever for the most part that I need.  But I won't lie that my attention and amount of stuff I get done isn't at the same level.  Mostly just from being concerned and all that of course, plus just being at home.

And yeah, everything is all in good fun!  Right now, humor and my photography keep me going for the most part.  Though at least now it's getting warmer so I can get back to riding my bike too to get out.  We can all use some good laughter through all this, at least!!

Just now, nw baltimore wx said:

 

Ha! Nah. You know I’m having fun. You, your hubby, little Mappy, my gf, and I need to meet at Falling Branch or something else when this is all over. Anyone else too!

I would gladly partake of one of those Stouts!!

2 minutes ago, mappy said:

I’m not gonna lie, I have pretty much let all upkeep go to waste the last two weeks

havent worn makeup since my last day at work. Haven’t done my hair more than shower and a pony tail, no bra, haven’t even put on clothes with buttons in two weeks. I’m loving that part of stay at home life 

I've settled into the whole telework thing over the past couple of weeks.  By now, it's all I can do to NOT crack open a beer or grab a glass of wine while supposedly working!  But I do have a Keurig to keep me going in the morning, hahaha!

1 minute ago, mappy said:

Good to know! AZ thought you were hitting on me lol

Actually, I was mostly concerned he might be in need of a bra!! LOL!!!

(ETA:  Or, from another Seinfeld episode...a Manzier!!)

Just now, mappy said:

Wine? 

His request was rather ambiguous, I have to say...!! 

Just now, nw baltimore wx said:

 

I’m available for deliveries.

You require a bra?

1 minute ago, mappy said:

I haven’t worn a bra since Monday when I left the house for an hour to do some grocery shopping. 

Heh!!  You go, girl!! 

(ETA:  I'm reminded of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer says "That's right...I'm out there Jerry, and I'm lovin' every minute of it!!")

1 minute ago, losetoa6 said:

First rule of Pandemic etiquette is ... wait for it ...

 

 

 

 

 

Stock up on booze !!! 

You should have had cases of wine in your basement already ..shame on u.

TP...booze...TP...booze...hmmmmmm, well, I can always use leaves out in the yard if necessary!  So f*ck it, I'm hording the booze!

3 minutes ago, mappy said:

Had wine delivered. 2 hours but I didn’t have to put a bra on, so win win. Cheers! Stay well friends 

Wait...the bra was off *before* you had any wine?  Whaaaat?  Oh, no, I did not just go there, but alas I did! (all in fun, joking of course!!) 

You stay well, too...and enjoy the wine!  I currently have a glass with me right now!

25 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Is this two or three years old?  Irregardless (yeah, I said it just to annoy those in the know), it's damn tasty.

I see your "irregardless" and raise you with a..."NEVERTHELESS, that looks damn tasty!!"

Indubitably, sir!

1 hour ago, showmethesnow said:

I hear you can get a room at just about any hotel/casino in the region for rock bottom prices. You should give it a shot for your big day. Of course most of the casinos at these resorts are closed ... 

Happy B-Day!!!!

Ha!  Many thanks, my friend!  I'll settle for "Casablanca" for now...

(ETA:  Is that Claude Rains playing the Reaper in the Panic Room casino???)

2 hours ago, Maestrobjwa said:

Happy birthday, good sir! And for your b-day...a variation cake! 

Have a blessed one!

That's really cool, appreciate it!!

2 hours ago, mappy said:

happy birthday old man!

Thanks, young lady! 

25 minutes ago, wxdude64 said:

Happy B-day! Enjoy it the best you can!

I will do so!  One way or another..

21 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

Happy birthday!

Appreciate the fine wishes!

Thanks everyone, for making the day a little brighter!!  Hope everyone is staying well...

Yeah, makes sense for MD to close into the 3rd week of April for right now, rather than the entire year.  At least for now.  I fully expected that the original March 27 date would be extended.  About all you can do is push the date back some...then reassess at that time.  I wonder how many schools will extend classes through the summer to make up the time, assuming we're OK to have kids go back en masse at that time.

So on a different note, today is my birthday!  It's an anniversary of my 29th, but I'm not saying which one (but for a hint...get off my damn lawn! )!!  Odd times to be celebrating that, but one makes of it what they can.  I remember getting snow on this day in consecutive years here...2013 (4") and 2014 (3")!!  That was nice.

Stay well and stay safe everyone.

Remember that despite the dire times we're in currently, there are still some pretty things in this world!  If all I can have is my Canon 80D and lenses to feel somewhat normal, then so be it.  Couple of photos from today:

4 hours ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Hopefully it won’t be long before someone in the tv sports industry with some pull decides to play an old ncaa tournament in its entirety as if in real time.

If they decide to show "famous" baseball highlights, with my luck (as a Cleveland native), they'll show Game 7 of both the 1997 and 2016 World Series in their entirety.  Just so I can experience the pain again.  Both times, the Indians lost in extra innings!!  I think there were like 5 Game 7s in history that went into extra innings, and Cleveland was on the short end of two of those within my lifetime!!

I'd prefer to see Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals again...in all its nail-biting entirety!! 

1 hour ago, Baltimorewx said:

We may as well just create a Corona Virus thread lol...someone with better luck than me, create it and bring it home

Hell, just put it in the Medium Range discussion thread!  After the disaster that thread turned into this winter, might as well discuss Corona virus there at this point!!

10 hours ago, WxWatcher007 said:

To add context to this, my mom lives in a county where there’s been multiple coronavirus cases and a death. 

Today she needed to go to the emergency room. This was at 4pm today, ambulance and all, under a physician’s order.

The local hospital is a madhouse. It’s 11pm and she still doesn’t have a room. Now imagine dozens of coronavirus patients needing care at the same time in rural areas. Imagine hundreds or thousands in urban understaffed hospitals.

Us young and healthy folks have to stop looking at it from our narrow personalized perspective.

Hey, a little late seeing this, but will echo what some others have said...hope your mom is OK and stays safe!  And you take care as well!

And you're absolutely correct about not looking at things from a narrow perspective or that "most" people will likely just have minor effects.  Have you seen the graphic of COVID-19 deaths by age group?  It's quite eye-opening, and reveals a lot more than the single average value that's typically reported.  The numbers increase dramatically from age ~60+, even more so than what the normal flu does.  That is primarily why many of these preventive measures are necessary.

On 3/11/2020 at 2:43 PM, StantonParkHoya said:

Met winter is over. In 8 days, astro winter will be too. Thank god. 

Wait, didn't the Astros get all kinds of sanctions for cheating?? 

1 minute ago, Scraff said:

Did you ring!? Corona can go to hell!!  If you need some “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”, I’ll take care of you.

Oh man...you're like ready to be holed up for awhile with all that stuff!  Even the top shelf is bulging under the weight!  I'd be glad to help you lighten the load there...

3 minutes ago, jaydreb said:

If you are 20 this will be a blip in the chart by the time you retire.  Stay the course and buy more if you can.  

Pretty much...if you've got many years before retiring, you can withstand even some big market drops and swings.  I'm a fed. employee myself, actually put everything into one of their "L" funds which sort of "automatically" adjusts the investments as your projected retirement year approaches.  I'm not exactly the most knowledgeable on these things other than basic stuff, so I don't tinker much...and yeah, kinda lazy (I've heard some refer to the "L" fund as the "lazy fund", haha!).

34 minutes ago, supernovasky said:

Thankfully my work can be done online. I haven’t completely isolated myself but for the most part I have. 

Hey supernova...I hope you get better, and take good care of yourself OK!!  Stay safe...

2 hours ago, jaydreb said:

I don’t want this to sound at all political, but around 60,000,000 people got the swine flu in the US alone.  I don’t think excellent leadership had much to do with it.  We were just fortunate that it was not as severe an illness as coronavirus and, as you say, vaccines provided some limited protections.  I think our government and society in general is a mess with these things, no matter who is in charge.  

Oh, I agree...and I wasn't trying to get overly political, sorry.  This country has done much better before with other crises for sure.  But it doesn't help to have mixed messages from the top (or at least near the top), people defying what experts are saying, or flat out stating things that aren't true.  That doesn't help anyone.  It is true that sometimes, we manage in spite of poor leadership, so maybe you're right in some ways that it might not matter so much who's in charge (up to a point!).  There's an element of "catch up" with anything...hell, just look at major weather events for one thing.  But we'd hope to refine that over the years.  As for the Swine Flu thing...from what I've heard that was more like an actual flu virus, so there was some more "familiarity" (for lack of a better word), and perhaps easier to gin up a vaccine.  I remember getting the vaccine at some point shortly after they came out with it.

I guess my main point (or one of them) in my other post is that I don't have much of a problem with these cancellations and postponements, advice to avoid big crowds, etc...even though on the surface it seems like "overkill" perhaps.  Better to be inconvenienced by that rather than have something worse happen.  Now, as I write this, I found out that Gov. Hogan just ordered all MD schools to close for two weeks starting this upcoming Monday.  My daughter is in MoCo, and this has been a possibility for a little while now...so not overly surprising.  I know many schools have been planning some online stuff, at least to mitigate some of the lost time.  A friend of mine in the Atlanta area just told me they closed Cobb County schools for the rest of the school year!  I'm sure many, many locations will be having summer classes to make up at least some time. 

23 hours ago, nw baltimore wx said:

NCAA tourneys would be weird with no fans.  Sounds like the direction many are supporting.

Meh...I've been to Cleveland Indians games in the late 70s and 80s.  That was essentially like playing with no fans!! 

17 hours ago, losetoa6 said:

As long as the liquor stores and strip clubs  stay open 

Ha!  So many people stocking up on water and TP...I say stock up on booze!

20 hours ago, MN Transplant said:

The argument on the other side is that while you can't contain the spread, you can slow it down so that hospitals do not become overwhelmed.  That is the scary scenario for the rest of us that aren't really at a high risk. 

Totally agree with this.  The main reason for all the "social distancing", postponements, cancellations...is perhaps not so much to try and stop the spread at this point (though it may help with that, as well), but to keep emergency facilities from being overwhelmed all at once.  Anyone who's seen that "flatten the curve" graphic should immediately get that.  And even if one isn't necessarily in a high risk group, you cannot be certain that you won't require some form of professional medical care.  This isn't about panic, this is about common sense.

18 hours ago, WxWatcher007 said:

I'm pulling my hair out man. We have to look at this from the lenses of individual risk vs. systemic risk, but I'll set that aside to get straight to the point.  

Folks on Capitol Hill recently received a briefing that said current projections are that between 70-150 million Americans will get this eventually. For comparison, an estimated 60.8 million Americans got Swine Flu in one year, with approximately 12,000 deaths.

With this virus, we know that approximately 80% of folks will not need medical attention. That's good. But there's still 20% that will, and even if we're generous with a mortality rate of .5% overall, that's still 5x higher than the flu. All you have to do is run the numbers. 

Using the lower range of both transmission and mortality, that would leave 375,000 Americans at risk of dying from this. Not to mention millions of hospitalizations. 

I'm a young healthy guy. So while my individual risk is of getting really sick is low, there's a good chance I get it and become a carrier. That's where social distancing and all the cancellations that are going to annoy people matters. It's not about me. I'll more than likely be fine. It's about me and millions of others being used as hosts to infect vulnerable populations.

 

The less people that can be infected, especially in a short period of time, the less people in vulnerable populations are at risk. 

We're not just looking at people 80+ dying from this virus. At all. While it is true that the mortality rate jumps dramatically for those 80+, it is very high relative to other viruses for people 60+. This isn't even taking into account those that have underlying health conditions, of which there are tens of millions of Americans. 

 

So once again, run the numbers. Do the math. 

There are some that are going to be fooled by the number of global cases and national cases, because those numbers are low relative to the total population. Only 1,000 cases? This isn't close to the flu! But exponential growth during pandemics tells us why we should be concerned now and take action now. 

Italy might have had 100 cases two weeks ago. Today there are over 10,000 cases. For every one person infected, they can infect 2-3 others. That's how you get one attorney in New Rochelle with coronavirus turning into over 100 in a few days. That's how you get one person at a Biogen conference in Boston turning into 70 in Boston in a few days.

Now replicate that...in just a hand full of towns in every state...and double it every week or two. That's what we're up against. Now is the time to slow the spread. 

 

And that's why taking drastic action now matters. Exponential growth, it occurs to me, can be used in the opposite direction as well. For every one person that doesn't get infected because they don't go to work or a social gathering, that's 2-3 people they can't infect, and so on. 

You can't just isolate one demographic in this instance. VP Pence is 100% right here. It's not just a whole of government approach, it is a whole of America approach. 

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Edited to fix the overall transmission projection from 75 million to 70 million.

Thanks for this.  While for a large majority it may be relatively mild (not sure the exact definition of what "mild" constitutes, but I'll take that to mean not needing to be hospitalized), a significant number of people have and will be really adversely affected.  Out of 100+M, that would be a lot of people, and I'm sure we all know someone who might be in the higher risk group (family member, friend, co-worker, etc.).  Like I said above, there's a difference between panic and common sense...this is common sense what the experts are saying and warning about.  I'll take a few weeks or couple of months of "inconvenience"...like not going to some event or travelling...over things getting potentially very dire.  And in the end, if we get lucky and it ends up being not as bad as thought...then great!  I still think hedging on the side of caution is far better.

As for the Swine Flu a decade ago, yeah, I remember that.  Not to get overly political here, but in that case, we actually had some competent leadership listening to experts, etc., which quite possibly kept it from being even worse (plus a vaccine was developed...though I think it was maybe "easier" in that case because it actually was a somewhat familiar flu.  Coronavirus isn't really a flu and is quite different in many ways).

And the exponential growth is something people should pay more attention to (as you mention), rather than saying "oh, there's only a couple thousand, and it's not all that bad".  I'd also wager that the current number of cases is far more than being reported, simply because probably a lot of people may already have it, or had minor symptoms and didn't need to go in for treatment, etc.  Add to that the fact that one could be walking around with no symptoms for nearly 2 weeks, but still be contagious.  That's one of the more sinister things about this virus, as opposed to the "normal" flu or a cold.