"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

[RayseM]

As I understand it - the working theory is that the virus did come from animals - not necessarily a wild animal market but rather a research facility in Wuhan, near the market, where experiments/research was done on wild animals. That facility is now closed. Doctors from this facility were the 1st infected - likely from some kind of contact with bats - a bite or ticks. NON of this is confirmed - just conjecture based on initial information.

As to the wild animal markets - the closing of those is likely to be high on the list of priorities by world health organizations in the near future. Still it only takes one market - one incident to start the disease spread

 

[Jolipapa]

Sorry, I love you buddy, but I can’t let that go unanswered.
The NIH is one of the worlds foremost health research organizations. A lot of hard science comes out of there and governments from around the world send scientists to work and study there. They are at the forefront of developing breakthrough treatments for all kinds of diseases. Trust me, if you get some bizarre unknown illness, that is the place you want to be treated. I’m not just saying this because I live near their main campus - do a little research and I think you will see what I mean. Healthy skepticism is always warranted, but these guys really are the experts.

Time will tell...

 

[screened porch]

I went into Field and Stream yesterday to buy some .22LR because mine is stale (something like 3 duds out of 27). They had only subsonic .22LR. They were out of 9mm except for shot shells, and I got the penultimate box of .38 spl target rounds. They'd sold $30,000 of ammo in two days.

At first I thought, "these guys really expect to have to repel bands of wheezing toilet paper thieves?" But maybe it's more a case of laying in more of what you care about. Like Meijer's is out of bottled water, probably not because anyone thinks the virus will cut off the tap-water, but because some people shudder at the thought of having to drink tap-water so heaps of bottled water make them feel secure.

Listen to me sounding off, when I've been meaning to avoid this place until we experts are through criticizing the "experts".

 

[jc57]

I went out to buy some essentials yesterday. I've actually been sick with *something* for about 2 weeks and just yesterday was my first day back at work, which ended up being a "work from home online" day. That is the plan for the foreseeable future.

I noticed that traffic seemed typical. People were out doing their regular things. I bought some bags of coffee beans at Starbucks. They had taken up the tables and chairs and were only offering "grab and go" - which was fine, that's all I was doing. It was nice to be able to find a parking space there for a change.

I stopped off at a smaller grocery store that was nearby. Normal but perhaps light number of shoppers, plenty of food everywhere. A few shelves were mostly empty - notable commercially produced bread, bottled water, and hand cleaning products. However, this place bakes their own bread, and had plenty of that (which is wonderful bread). I got a couple of loaves.

Went to the liquor store - it was about as busy as it usually is, plenty of stock, normal pricing including things on sale. I bought what I went there for, and headed home.

For now, it is unlikely I will run out of whiskey or coffee. We've got more bread in the house (including the freezer) than we have had in ages. We can live off of pasta, rice, canned foods, the foods in the fridge and freezer, and the body fat we have stockpiled over the years for just such an occasion. My city has very good tap water, so we normally just drink that.

As long as the place we buy cat food online (5 cats) continues to deliver our regularly scheduled deliveries, I think we're good to go.

Everything in the world seems really weird when you are watching TV or looking at the Internet. When you go out about your business, life seems to be running as usual.

That may be because I live in a state that has not yet experienced many cases, and where they are not doing any kind of mandated lockdowns yet. Perhaps that means we are not taking the proper precautions, so we are setting ourselves up for a crisis later. I don't really know. There are enough cases of media and government hype, to where you become desensitized to it all. So when the boy cries "wolf" and there's really a wolf that time, you don't pay attention. Maybe this is the wolf.

I am not worried about things like firearm ammo. There is no way this plays out that makes me think I will ever need more rounds of ammo than will fit into a single magazine or the cylinder of a revolver, unless we need to start hunting squirrels in the back yard to feed the cats.

 

[joeradza]

I've been a photographer for 60+ years but my equipment numbers have dwindled drastically in the last few years but yesterday I dropped my primary camera and destroyed my lens. So I did what any self respecting member of my generation and current citizen would do. I bought a new shotgun. LOL!

 

[Jack Black]

Beer Street by Hogarth is cheery not fiendish.

O course it is

Everything in the world seems really weird when you are watching TV or looking at the Internet. When you go out about your business, life seems to be running as usual.

Sensible post John I was considering going into the city centre today, and had a look online first. A series of photos, from the train station, the market, the main shopping streets showed the place looking like an absolute ghost town. Maybe they were taken at 5.00am or something, because when I visited those places, they were much the same as usual, and the shops still have plenty of provisions, of all kinds

Parliament has just approved new laws, including authorising the police to detain anyone suspected of having the virus, so if I disappear for a while, it'll mean that my 5-year old cough has caused me to be dragged off!

 

[Modoc ED]

We've got several cans of Spam and several cans of sardines along with several boxes of saltine crackers and Ritz crackers. Add to that several cans of chili with and without beans and canned tamales and many many many boxes of Maruchan flavored noodles - beef, shrimp, and chicken and we're set for a long siege.

I'm on a feeding tube and can't eat solid foods but we have a Vita Mix blender that can turn anything into a liquid/puree.

Oh yeah. I forgot the canned anchovies both rolled and flat and several jars of peanut butter.

Happy eats to all.

Oops - forgot the dozen or so cans of smoked clams and oysters.

 

[kamagong]

Parliament has just approved new laws, including authorising the police to detain anyone suspected of having the virus, so if I disappear for a while, it'll mean that my 5-year old cough has caused me to be dragged off!

I don't normally have gallows humor, but I think I'm starting to go stir crazy. Jack, your comment made me think of this old scene.

 

[Jack Black]

I don't normally have gallows humor, but I think I'm starting to go stir crazy. Jack, your comment made me think of this old scene.

I know the feeling Christian! Thanks for the clip, I've never seen the film, but that's a very sinister scene I've been trying hard not to think of another film

 

[Peregrin]

The first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and it feels like:

For all you Game of Thrones enthusiasts.

I was somewhat reckless in my youth, and managed to survive it. I'm old now, not ancient, but old. I've become quite a bit more cautious, as I'd like to maximize my stay on top of the grass.

That said I'm going to err on the side of caution regarding this pandemic. I hope that others will follow the advise of the medical experts. I know I will.

 

[JB in SC]

We usually have a reasonable supply of groceries but did lay in some essentials prior to the panic buying. My son told me the store sold out of 9mm early this week and could not say when they’d get anymore. All AR style rifles were gone yesterday, handguns were getting sparse too. No inflated prices from suppliers yet. On a lighter note Walmart had quite a bit of toilet paper and paper towels this morning...for about 30 minutes.

 

[screened porch]

O course it is


Parliament has just approved new laws, including authorising the police to detain anyone suspected of having the virus, so if I disappear for a while, it'll mean that my 5-year old cough has caused me to be dragged off!

Keep sucking those hobnobs!

We've got several cans of Spam and several cans of sardines along with several boxes of saltine crackers and Ritz crackers. Add to that several cans of chili with and without beans and canned tamales and many many many boxes of Maruchan flavored noodles - beef, shrimp, and chicken and we're set for a long siege.

I'm on a feeding tube and can't eat solid foods but we have a Vita Mix blender that can turn anything into a liquid/puree.

Oh yeah. I forgot the canned anchovies both rolled and flat and several jars of peanut butter.

Happy eats to all.

Oops - forgot the dozen or so cans of smoked clams and oysters.

Sounds like you're well set food-wise and recovering otherwise. Good to hear from you.

 

[meako]

Using the police as medical assessors is a like doing brain surgery with a marline spike and lump hammer.

You could always eat the cat...oh! but isnt that how this started in the first place?....
The teason the shelv3s have no food is that people now nred to eat more in order to poo more in order to use up their loo paper.
Personally im boycotting toilet paper forever..i have the solution in hand...no literally, in my hand.

 

[Will Power]

Went to the supermarket, seemed like plenty of everything including coffee beans which to my astonishment had vanished 3 days ago -thought I was the only grinder Plenty of fruit&veg, meats, fish etc. Couple of strange things had vanished: chick-peas and potato-crisps(chips) but only the potato ones not maize chips, clearly a nutritional necessity

This is one good thing about living in a country with a very small population 5m and lots of space- nobody ever gets too close anyway and it's difficult for critical masses to form But I'm not holding my breath, human ignorance is universal wherever you go Could some US Forumites mail me a pump gun and 500 shells please?

 

[Half/Stop]

Went to the supermarket, seemed like plenty of everything including coffee beans which to my astonishment had vanished 3 days ago -thought I was the only grinder Plenty of fruit&veg, meats, fish etc. Couple of strange things had vanished: chick-peas and potato-crisps(chips) but only the potato ones not maize chips, clearly a nutritional necessity

This is one good thing about living in a country with a very small population 5m and lots of space- nobody ever gets too close anyway and it's difficult for critical masses to form But I'm not holding my breath, human ignorance is universal wherever you go Could some US Forumites mail me a pump gun and 500 shells please?

Will, would you prefer a 20 or a 12?

 

[Will Power]

20 Please Ron, better in these confined spaces

 

[Just Tom.]

Took stock of my supplies for the coming apocalypse. Do you think I over-prepared?

 

[RayseM]

Took stock of my supplies for the coming apocalypse. Do you think I over-prepared?

An apocalypse without peanut butter is like the end of the world

 

[Student762]

One of the few benefits of the outbreak is that my university has cancelled physical classes, saving me more than just a few hours lost each week in an inconvenient commute.

 

[5K Qs]

One of the few benefits of the outbreak is that my university has cancelled physical classes, saving me more than just a few hours lost each week in an inconvenient commute.

Every cloud has a silver lining!

As an instructor, I'm finding that the move to online classes is costing me a couple of hours extra prep per day (and I'm a retiree teaching only 1 class this semester), and so far, I feel like my effectiveness has dropped significantly.

- GT