Hello fellow quarantiners - I've been reading along and figured I'd chime in. I work in IT so I am able to WFH without any disruption to my normal job duties. My dog is really loving it and I am not minding working from home either, but would much rather this all be over with. We don't have many confirmed cases down in the more rural SEMN area so far, but I'm sure it's coming. Luckily driving around aimlessly hasn't been outlawed yet or I'd definitely be going stir crazy. My company had a conference call with a few infectious disease experts from Mayo Clinic for a Q&A type session last week, moderated by our CEO, just to give our employees a bit of medical professional insight into the Corona/COVID situation. The main question was regarding a vaccine and they said they project a vaccine (that has been tested, proven and ready for the masses) wouldn't be ready, realistically, for 1 - 1.5 years, if ever at all (see: HIV/AIDS, malaria, etc). Hopefully they are wrong and it comes much quicker. There was also a question posed to them regarding whether they think we will get a second wave of the virus in the fall and they didn't think there would be a "second wave", because the first one will still be ongoing and had not ended by then. Sorry for the somewhat depressing info, but thought I'd share. Of course all of this is of the opinion of those 3 doctors and not the views of Mayo Clinic (disclaimer they gave). This whole thing seems to evolve fairly rapidly day by day so their prognosis may not even be accurate even a week later. Stay safe everyone
Possible I had it in early March. 10 day long body aches/fatigue like I've never had before (felt like lyme flare ups but worse), congestion, brain fog. No cough and only a low grade fever. I'm moderately convinced I had it but I'm still wearing a face covering, hand sanitizing, and keeping distance when I do leave the house for groceries (once every 10ish days), hikes/walks/runs, and to volunteer at a local church and food bank on the weekends. At the time when I think I had it, the only way you could get a test in my state was if you had advanced stages of all the symptoms and tested negative for both influenza a and b... or if you're an NBA player I suppose. It was also around $1200 out of pocket if your insurance didn't cover it. Antibody test would give me some peace of mind re: knowing I've had it and recovered from it. That said, it doesn't eliminate me from being a vector to spread it to others via objects I come in contact with. It also doesn't account for the possibility of re-contracting it, or the possibility of there being different (or future, mutated) strains. We just don't know enough about it and although there are thousands of clinical studies going on worldwide, sound scientific methodology takes time, repeatable data, and peer review (i.e. the underlying factors Joe mentioned). TL/DR I wish our country scienced more betterer.
Well I was convinced that I had it in late December/January. Worst I’ve ever been. Whole family had temps of 103 and it went through us all. Mine was the worst of everyone. Whether I’ve had it or not, I am just limiting my time with elderly and sick. Aside from that, I fear not.
We might have a better idea of some of these things if China was a little more forthcoming with data that could be trusted.
And these are the things that bother me. I am pretty sure I had it. I had everything but the fever, but I mad massive head aches, and I am not a head ache person. Otherwise, I checked off every box. Down for the count for over a week. I couldn't get tested then and can't get tested now. MN is only (currently) testing police/fire/first responders/medical staff, otherwise you have to be sick enough to get admitted to the hospital. Hell, I couldn't even get a real doctors appointment, all I could do was a virtuwell visit and a couple of phone calls. So "TODAY" out numbers look good, but I know 5 other people who also probably had it and were not tested. If people are not being tested of course our numbers will look good but we don't have the first idea on what the real infection rate even is. And really, we are just kicking the "sickness" can farther down the road. We are going to have another spike, there is no way around it. As soon as things open up again, the people who have been holed up in their houses for the past 2 months finally go out, then they are bound to get sick. My girlfriend has been WFH since Feb. A co-workers room mates friend was MN Covid patient #2. So they just shut down show and had everyone work from home. Russ
How does unemployment pay better? I thought it was a percentage of what you were being paid...and I don't mean over 100%.
Because they added $600.00 per week on top of the percentage. Essentially, doubling the amount so that it paid me $200 more per week than when I worked 40 hours.
Thanks. I didn't really pay much attention to that part of the stimulus since I am now retired. Do you know if that was to everyone that filed a successful unemployment claim or were there other qualifying factors?
I never saw details Mark. I just filed and then saw it in my direct deposit. Was a bit taken back by it.
My wife is making more while on unemployment, i'm making under by a few hundred. But interview went well today so hopefully i can return to work soon.
Well I'm way late to the party here now that things are starting to kind of... even out?... Anyway, things have been pretty normal for us. My wife stays home with the kids, so other than social events they used to go to it's basically what she's been doing. I work at the Air Guard base up here in Duluth so it's business as usual other than wearing masks all the time and sanitizing our workstations and common areas all the time. We're usually homebodies as well but now even more so. We just adopted this little boy (2) in Feb who we've been fostering since he was 8mo and now we've got his little brother (3 weeks old), so getting out all together isn't the easiest thing in the world. I think it's starting to get to my wife a little bit with the kids being so rambunctious since they can't go play with friends and she can't really socialize either. We'll see what happens I guess. It's all crazy but hopefully we can all figure out the flow of things once it all opens back up.
Okay, for sure! It's been kind of wild but rewarding. We had no plans to adopt when we got into it but you know, things change.
Haha, I was looking into if I could make it but my wife wants to take the kids to her parents lake lot so I'm staying home with the baby since we can't take him out of the county currently.
Huh...interesting. That does indeed seem to be the case. Boats I can kind of understand, but seems odd they wouldn't deem motorcycles as an essential transportation mode - maybe because they are not used year round in this climate? I would like to hear the reasoning. Are they usually available online? Still available by mail, so I guess you need to wait for your renewal notice to come.
If you've got the mailer thingy (whatever the hell you call it that comes to you in the mail) you can fill that out (the entire thing), include a check or money order, and take it to one of the DMV's that has a drop box. The two options that were closest to me were the one in Blaine off 109th (east of 65 like a block) or the Ham Lake one at 65 and Crosstown (in that weird strip mall like thing). Anywho, needed tabs for my trailer this weekend. Wife took the tab slip in for me one day last week (I think Wednesday) and they showed up in the mail Saturday. Even beat the tabs for the truck that I had paid for online the day before (they actually just came today).
https://www.facebook.com/149009581800780/posts/2890715430963501/ If you don't do the Facepages. Basically 148th Fighter Wing fly-overs of healthcare and veteran facilities as a salute to mission essential workers throughout MN. I think they're going all the way down to Rochester Look up Edit: That'll be tomorrow. March, 6
Well, it's been *looks back* like 6 months. Wait, it's been longer? My work has had us come back 3 days a week since late August. But ... Well we are wfh now again through mid January. Fun never stops! How is everyone else faring?
I'm supposed to head back 1 day a week starting February. Been using the $5-6k a year i've been saving not driving to work on home improvements.
I suck at being present and accounted for. I even got called out in the original post I've been remote only since March of last year. And since my company (a local bank) got acquired by another bank headquartered in another state, I will likely not see a cubicle again till I leave the company. And I have no complaints about this arrangement.
We've been steady at work since the whole thing started (minus the very first week or two when everyone panicked) and I don't think I've missed any days of work because of it, even while having it myself (benefits of being in a truck or backhoe by yourself everyday, I guess). The only real hiccups in our daily lives was daycare being closed for two weeks while it got passed around all of the families (that's when we got it). Had a couple days of being tired and some decent headaches but nothing wild. The wife missed two days of work I think and had a decent cough for a week or so. Kid never showed any symptoms but he must've had it because I'm pretty positive we got it from him in the first place.
As a contractor I have had no time off. Busier than ever in fact because now people are at home and realizing how far they have “let the house” go whilst commuting to the office everyday. lol I had my second go round of Covid in September right after a surgery a week before. Worked out conveniently, since I had already acquired the time off for the surgery and recovery. Lost taste and smell for a week. Which I am grateful for because many have lost it for longer! Aside from that, life as usual.
I lost my taste and smell for a week ish as well. It was kinda hilarious, honestly. Caught myself putting my nose entirely into the gas tank on my air compressor trying to see if the gas smelled bad... Haha. Also laughed out loud at myself putting sour cream and taco sauce, black olives and tomatoes on my tacos one night in the kitchen. Like, I'm not gonna taste any of this anyways, but I'm totally doing it out of habit...
I never did try the crazy stuff that I saw people doing. habenero peppers. Lemon juice. Drinking hot sauce, etc. #regret?
I laughed because one of the first symptoms they announced was lack of taste. I haven't been able to taste since i worked with industrial solvents for 60 hours a week for 4 years. And frankly the Pontiac Aztec is awesome
The only thing abnormal I did was take a pull of whiskey straight from the bottle. (I know that's not out of the ordinary in the slightest for a lot of people, but I can't drink anything straight. I can't even drink beer because of the taste.) Anywho, I couldn't taste it at all but I could definitely feel it burning on the way down. And definitely didn't sit right in the gut afterwards. Haha.
Literally nothing ever changed at work, added partial clear barriers over our stupid quarter walls and mandated masks when the state mandated them. Covid has gone around the office and warehouse a few times, I'm now 1 of... ugh... 5 people left in the company that hasn't had it.
