I rocked a shaved head back in the 90’s when Ani Difranco and Riot Grrrl bands were my main cultural influences, so I figured I’d return to that aesthetic. Went full cueball for now and then figure I’ll keep it trimmed up with guards for a while. The money I save on hair products now should pay for the rehabilitation job my hairdresser will have to do in a few months…
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My wife bought clippers yesterday, I’ll try to do some before and after once they arrive in 3 weeks.
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https://store.iww.org/shop/fellow-workers/
You don’t even have to ask 
Ani !!!1! Man, I wish I would have seen Phillips & DiFranco together
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My MIL inevitably ended up testing positive at the end of April, and so far only has lassitude as a symptom. We don’t get as many Skype calls now, but we know that no news is good news, because they would call right away if she had a fever or other symptoms.
Uncle and aunt both seem to be doing well – the uncle had some kind of bacterial tick-borne illness - goddamned ticks! We had one in our bed the other day.
The Texas baby arrived with a gigantic (almost 12 lbs.) splash, and has been hospitalized ever since with underdeveloped lungs – welcome to the world, baby.
Son was not paying rent, so he will now be moving home from western MA. That will present some major issues for us, as we try to minimize our shared air. I’ll ask in the main thread about that. Daughter in Boulder, CO said that a lot of the CU grads were having parties last week – not good as they start to open things up.
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Well, we are about to break our quarantine in a massive way. MIL has an estimated 2 weeks to 2 months to live and my wife feels like she has to go see her. We are in New Hampshire and MIL is in North Carolina. My wife will be exposed to her sister (who is still forced to work in the office - so by extension all of her co-workers contacts) and sister’s family, as well as half a dozen or so health care providers (and by extension all of their contacts).
Trying to figure out now if she should drive, which I think is pretty dangerous all by herself as it will take about 14 hours, or fly, which of course also seems insane right now. We do have good masks (some N95 and N95 equivalents) but I’m not sure if that’s enough protection for about a 2 hour flight.
I would prefer she didn’t go but she’s made up her mind. Of course, she will get back and immediately her mother will start asking for her again and we’ll be doing it again in another month.
I think I’ll order some delicious take-out tonight and lick the container when it arrives.
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Good luck. I would probably drive, you’ll have more control over your environment that way. Just plan ahead with disposable gloves for gas stops, etc, and at least in transit you should be ok.
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My parents, 76 and 65, live in a massive retirement community in Palm Desert, California. I assume it’s basically the Cali equivalent of The Villages although a fair portion of their friends are more liberal than expected; parents are typical Fox News zombies. In early March they both got pretty sick, my mom basically didn’t get out of bed or eat much for a couple of weeks whereas my dad had typical cold/flu symptoms and tested positive for the flu. We actually thought my mom was just depressed from the stock market crashing and things just generally falling apart as she didn’t have any fevers or other symptoms of COVID. They both eventually recovered and are now back to normal. Last week they got blood tests for COVID antibodies and both came back positive, although we got mixed messages to the significance of these tests. It doesn’t seem like COVID has savaged their community fortunately, and I think they’re ready to be OPEN FOR BUSINESS although they are currently requesting our desire to remain socially distanced for the time being.
Father in law is close to 70, heavy smoker his whole life, had a stroke a couple years ago, job is forklift operator in a warehouse where it was just announced they’ve had 10+ positives last week. He makes ~$12/hour. I want to give him $5k to stay home for 6+ weeks and my wife is like no way will he accept that. Fuck.
Well my wife went to see her mom. She flew and has been back for over 14 days without any symptoms. Now her mom has passed away and despite my best efforts to postpone or do an immediate family only outside service, they have decided to do a full church funeral. Just got in an emotional argument because I told her we need to make sure that everybody knows we are not doing the usual family get together pre or post funeral. Fuck this shit I’m so fucking pissed off that everybody is so fucking stupid that I either have to be the asshole bad guy, or I just have to suck it up and roll the dice with my family’s health because nobody else is in her family is willing to be an adult.
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Ugh man I am sorry Jbro. Sorry for the loss and sorry for the stressful and shitty situation it has put you in. There’s no good answer when it comes to this I’m afraid.
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Thanks for the thoughts.
We are headed to the airport shortly. We will take every possible precaution we can from the moment we leave our car at the airport until we clear the airport in Charlotte. There will be no way around exposing my immediate family to my SILs immediate family, so I’m not going to try.
I’ve got 100 surgical masks I’m bringing with us, and I am going to try to convince people that any other family meet ups should be done outside if possible. But at a minimum a surgical mask is required with no exceptions.
I feel like it will be a minor miracle if we can pull this off and return home safely.
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Not impressed with mask usage at the airport. Half the people are wearing them on their chins.
Just heard from our daughter that she has COVID symptoms – fever, dry cough, tired. She reported that her good friend from down the street just tested positive. I’m in favor of her getting testing and whatever treatment the university health center can offer. We shipped a thermometer and pulse oximeter, and are keeping in touch.
She is scheduled to fly home for a few weeks at the end of July, because she has a gap in her leases, but who knows now.
Picking up my son went fine, and we got him tested, with a negative result. He applied for and qualified for unemployment benefits, and I’m trying to get him to get the extra 600/week. I guess that ends soon, though.
My MIL seems to have recovered, and had an outdoor visit with my BIL. Pretty amazing, considering over 50 people in her nursing home have died.
My wife was able to change jobs (she’s a school nurse, and has an auto-immune disorder) for the fall, to an environment that should be easier to distance from people and isolate patients. Who knows if she will be back at work; if they cancel the school year, she would get furloughed.
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Best wishes for your daughter. Hope she has an easy road ahead.
Definitely keep pushing your son to apply for the extra $600. It may get backdated to April. Even if it only gets backdated to today he’d still get $3600 before it runs out.
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2020, and well really the last 6-8 months, can go fuck off. We’ve buried my FIL, MIL and now my mom has at most a day or two left. I had to spend yesterday in a small apartment with between 6 and 10 family/extended family at various times. Most not wearing masks, and actually laughing at me for wearing two. (I was using a surgical mask over an RZ mask to provide some protection over the exhaust ports for the benefit of others. It hasn’t been 14 days since returning from NC where we did our best to be safe but still had contact with dozens of people plus travel through airports, etc.)
Off shortly to go do it again today - I see no other real choices.
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Jesus Christ dude that is awful, sorry you are going through that. Were these COVID related? It wasn’t clear from your previous posts although I just skimmed them.
I just popped in here to see if anyone in the US has actually been able to get tested? We were hoping to see my in-laws this weekend so I wanted to get tested. First I went through my doctor which is a large community health center in the area. I was only able to get a telehealth appointment through a friend and was then scheduled for a test. The medical assistant told me NOT to go inside but to call a number when I got there. However the number they gave me was the main line which has interminable holds and I said as much but she said it would be fine. I held for 40 minutes in the parking lot before giving up and leaving my number for a callback, which I got another 40 minutes later, at which point she told me to go inside masked up and check in (I was already long gone because I had other errands to do). Currently have an appointment scheduled with an urgent care which I’ll have to pay $75 for and my wife is currently on phone with insurance to make sure it’s covered bu this looks like it will work out. USA #1 baby!
Los Angeles has free testing, though the process is a bit confusing. I went last Friday to a testing site I was told allowed drive-up testing. They had signs saying ‘by appointment only’ but there were no cars so I went in. I was told to register on the spot and reserve a time at any facility for any day, then they tested me right away. Other people at my job said they got results the next day, but I haven’t received them yet. It was a self-administered mouth swab test.
My job has had two confirmed cases. They shut down the building for a “deep clean,” then had the manufacturing people come in, with small groups coming in as needed. We all have to get tested before we can re-enter the building.
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Glad to hear some places are doing it right, maybe 90% of the population won’t actually have to get it. I’m supposed to be getting a rapid test today with results in 20 minutes although I was told the appointment would be at least an hour.
Thanks for the thoughts. None were CV-19 related. My FIL had a heart attack, my MIL died of ALS, and my mom had a 35+ year battle with MS where she mostly won until the last couple of years. She passed away this morning. It’s just difficult to deal with all within a short time period and especially while dealing with this damn virus.
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Arghhh. So not only are we having an open service for my mom for anyone who wants to attend, but we are now having a mercy meal indoors for anyone who wants to attend.
I just had to tell my family that we (me, wife and daughter) would not be attending my own mom’s mercy meal because it is irresponsible in light of the current circumstances. And of course I’m the crazy one.
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