Spring break is now until April 12th, with Wed-Fri elearning each week.
Sounds suspiciously like my country as well… You sure you’re not in South Africa? 
It seems as if us homeschoolers got a definite edge here. As do doomsday preppers etc…
Uh … whut? That’s some pretty stoopid shit right there.
McAfee has been crazy for quite a while.
At present NZ theoretically has only 6 cases, and they are all people coming back from overseas or their immediate families - no community transmission. In order to try and keep it that way the government has just announced that people coming back from overseas are required to self-isolate for 14 days, and all cruise ships are banned until the end of the cruise season.
People are commenting that the government has no way of policing the self-isolation thing. But quite honestly, if I knew that someone was flouting that regulation then I would be reporting them immediately. This is a serious threat and we need to take it seriously.
The chairman of the cruise ship association has slammed the cruise ship ban, calling it draconian and complaining that the government didn’t consult with anyone before implementing it. He can go take a flying f&^%. He doesn’t seem to understand the concept of “government”. They don’t have to consult for everything, and sometimes they need to take unilateral action. This is one of those times.
I applaud the measures the government have taken.
Zero confirmed cases in my county so far but they’ve declared a state of emergency. Our city school district just announced they’ll be closed anyway March 18 through April 12.
Friday, New York State told all restaurants and the like to cut occupancy to 50% of what they’re allowed. We walked into a place last night to find half the tables and booths taped off.
Monroe County NY went from “not currently planning to close school” to “all schools in the county are closed indefinitely” in the span of 24 hours. There are two known cases in the county, one of which is a school employee who travels across the city to attend church - expanding the reach and number of people who may have been exposed.
We’ve spent the last 2 working days scavenging old PCs (we’re handing over a dozen people 22" LCDs w/ HP minis bolted to the VESA mounts and saying “here, set this up at home”), laptops, etc. to image, prep, and distribute to the remaining quarter of the company that didn’t already have laptops. And that continues Monday & Tuesday as Wednesday is going to be a full-company work from home test day assuming we can get a second VPN endpoint online (our network guy is working all weekend to make that happen) to handle the load.
Shit’s accelerating at a ridiculous rate.
I’m starting to wonder if my kids will actually go back to school this year. Tbh it would make my life easier during the move, as I wouldn’t have to hear their dad complain about having to house them and get them to school every day. Only would feel bad that they wouldn’t have had any warning before telling their friends goodbye since they won’t see them next year. Especially the oldest, since she’s graduating. Though I honestly don’t think she’d be too upset by it. Or if they cancelled graduation ceremonies either. Guess we shall see.
Interesting to note that Namibia with only two COVID cases have gone on a lockdown, while ZA with 38 cases did not.
Interesting times ahead.
Our entire government has been asked to work from home until told otherwise.
I’d never done it before, though it is an option. I never thought I’d need to and I prefer the office experience anyway. I like the separation of leaving the house and going to work. This will be interesting.
So, I’ve packed up everything I think I’ll need. I have both laptops, my phone, all the necessary e-tokens to generate the passwords I need, my notes and documents that I have printed out on my walls.
I’m pretty sure that our VPN won’t be able to handle the strain. We’ve been talking about staggering hours throughout the day for our team. I’ll probably log on Monday at noon and see how things are going. They’ll have worked out any bugs by then or made plans for how to handle it in my absence. I’m a follower, not a leader.
Well, we had no community spread of the disease. That is until some jackass decided that his wants were far more important than the population of New Zealand. He flew into Wellington knowing that he was showing symptoms of and was being tested for the corona virus.
He got the text saying he had the disease while he was having breakfast in a cafe in central Wellington.
At best this was selfish and arrogant, at worst, criminally negligent. What an arse.
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Dear diary,
I’m going to be a jerk today. After careful consideration, I’ve decided that being a jerk is what I need to do. The question is how to do it. It needs to be something that will be publicly visible. Being a jerk where no one can see it is so unsatisfying. I’m thinking of a way that could possibly kill other people and could leave to lawsuits and criminal charges if it were traced back to me.
Yeah, that’s the ticket. Good talk, diary.
(Very few people actually do this, but then again, the person who traveled to Wellington isn’t a shining example right now of thinking about consequences of their actions. Why is common sense still so uncommon?)
I’m putting here what I wrote on my FB status:
So, I was driven out into the wilds to hunt kitty litter, bleach, and toilet paper. I have just returned to the safety of my cave dragging the spoils of kitty litter and bleach, but alas, the toilet paper proved elusive. I’m afraid is has been hunted into extinction in my area and I may have to wait until the great spring migration to repopulate the decimated herds.
I am not happy with the idiots who have purchased a year’s supply that they don’t need and left the sane ones eyeing the rags in their closets and drawers in speculation.
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Panic buying and hoarding is going to take a long time to recover from. A guy in Tennessee has a home business buying and re-selling things through Amazon. He’s been doing pretty good for the last 4-5 years.
In early February, he finds 2000 “pandemic packs” at a nearby liquidator. After a little negotiation, he gets the lot for $3.50 per pack. Sells out at $40-$50 each. Then he and his brother go around to stores in Tennessee and Kentucky, driving 1300 miles and cleaned out the stores of their hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes. Other things he sold were priced from $8-$70 each.
For the 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer he currently has, his price was $16 each, which is actually fairly reasonable after $10 shipping for the hazardous material it’s considered to be, minus initial cost and Amazon’s cut.
Now he can’t sell it because Amazon and eBay have both cracked down on price gouging. Initially, he was going to see if he could sell it locally, but after The New York Times published their article, the Tennessee attorney general’s office sent him a cease-and-desist letter, and he’s going to see if he can donate the supplies.
That’s just a localized case, but it does demonstrate how hurtful taking advantage of a supply and demand situation can be. Would this be a candidate for lawsuit fodder for someone who lives in that region that gets sick due to not having hand sanitizer?
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Here in CA that kind of price gouging is prosecuted with prejudice. People got fed up with it after the fires from the last few years.
I’ll use rags before I pay insane amounts for TP. 
Our governor just closed bars and restaurants for dine in, and there’s a good chance schools will be wfh the rest of the year. I plan to just swing by stores any time I’m out running errands and pick up whatever I can find. We have so much food it’s ridiculous, but we do need some cleaning supplies and toilet paper. Nothing super urgent but still…
Govt took action and initiated a lockdown. Yesterday we had 61 cases and confirmation of local transmission.
Fun times ahead.
$Wife made some masks out of material.
It won’t stop the virus, but it will make you more aware when you try to touch your face.
That is the general aim, to minimize touching your face.
Reminder: Please don’t touch my face.