The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

I have seen general chat topics about how we are coping with the Covid-19 crisis and what effect it is having on our reading, so I am creating this space to allow you to discuss whatever you like.

I spoke with my local food bank today. With all the closings, low wage workers are needing their services more than ever.
The woman I spoke with said they will take anything, but cleaning and personal hygiene products are often forgotten as donations. And money is always welcome.

Stay safe, everyone, and wash your hands!

And change your clothes as soon as you get home.

Some academic press access page (Cambridge) no longer reachable for me, due to their decision to make some books free temporarily, and the entire population decided they want to read academic books all of a sudden.

Scribd have made all their e-books free for 30 days:

https://blog.scribd.com/home/2020/3/1...

Loads of places are sending me books and free resources. I have a whole library of libros en español I received yesterday. Now I just need time.

Wendy's point about changing clothes when arriving home is a good one. ALso if you buy things, it's not a bad idea to set them aside, wash your bags (if you use reusable ones) and let whatever purchases sit for a day or two. Vinegar & water is safe to spray on almost anything you're going to eat. Let it air dry.

I have been thinking about my favorite restaurant & wondering how they're getting through all of this. Our state is pretty much closed down completely.

Wash your hands - please do take care of you.

It's a bit sad that Liverpool FC -- all this, after 30 years... Hopefully that can be rectified somehow.

Also, if you are in the US - get your mail-in voting registration ASAP! Vote.org has deadlines, but they may be changing as I type.

Wash your hands! Stay safe everyone. I will check in soon when I am allowed to come up for air again.

Seniors is high school will end their school years with no prom, no senior skip out day, no graduation ceremony. People in nursing homes can’t have visitors or even sit together in the dining rooms.
One local nursing home told my friend she can’t even send in store bought treats for her mom.

My daughter was set to graduate from her university at the beginning of May. That's been canceled now with hope for something at some future time.

Staying in but feeling too distracted to get much reading done lately.

Worried about my elderly parents, especially my immuno-compromised mom, as well as for a friend with serious health issues.

Am taking joy at having both my university-age kids home with me, my cats, hearing/watching birds, and seeing my azaleas beginning to bloom.

Man that stinks. It really does break my heart about kids’ graduations and senior years being ruined. All the kids my daughter graduated high school with are graduating college this year (she graduated a year early) and they’re all so disappointed. Such a fun time of year for graduates and it’s taken away.

One of my dear friends is getting married in Chicago in June and we booked our flights right before all this started hitting (of course) and now it seems very unlikely we will get to go if the wedding isn’t canceled, and I think it probably will be. Can’t get our money back on the tickets but we can use them for another trip within a year, I think. Although if latest estimates are correct we won’t be getting on any planes within the next year either.

Courts are scrambling to figure out how to handle criminal cases, especially for clients who are in jail and unable to make bond while they await trial. I’ve been filing a lot of motions for bond reductions this week and my hope is that my nonviolent offenders will be allowed out on their personal recognizance. It’s a huge mess and there are speedy trial concerns as well.

My husband and I have been isolating by choice for 13 days now (over 60 and husband has asthma). It's working for us, but we are lucky to live in a place that is suited to being home and to be retired and already living a quiet life. I am glad we decided this early because it has helped our kids to feel better and we know that we have not participated in spreading anything either. I have been advocating for social distancing in my small circles like yoga, but am so sad to watch how fast it's spreading. I do hate not being able to get together with my kids. My son and daughter in law are right in the thick of it in Seattle. She works in medicine and he drives a city bus, so both are still working so far. My daughter and son in law to be are in NYC. She is working from home, but he works in a hospital in a social work job which is, so far, still having him come in. The hardest part for our personal lives is that their wedding is scheduled for May 30 in Seattle, so hope is fading for that and it's a great personal sadness. That said, it's not the same kind of burden that many are facing.
Everyday we wake up to a different world from the day before and I hope we all take care, stay well and help where we can.

According to my elder daughter, I don't do anything which involves meeting people (which is a slight exaggeration, but I don't need to get closer than 2m from anyone). My neighbour offered to do my shopping for me, which is nice of her, but she is only five years younger than I am.

My heart aches for older people. My 88 yr old aunt is failing and is being moved from hospital to nursing home and her children are not allowed to be with her through theses transitions. It’s awful for my cousins who can’t be with their mother to comfort and reassure her.

My grandchild are all housebound so I’m doing the only thing I can do and bring them here for a change of scenery and some spoiling, and to give their moms a break. I’m not yet 60 so I don’t need complete isolation from family.

Now I’m heartbroken. My husband and I agree it’s not safe for my young grandchildren, ages 4 and 6 and our 15 yr old with Cerebral Palsy, to be around me since I’m still working. The 4 & 6 yr old boys come over every Thursday, I stop at my granddaughters house on my way from work a couple for times a week just to see them an my daughter, and usually about every 2 -3 weeks all the grandkids have a “cousin sleepover” at Grandma’s. Our grandkids are a regular part of our weekly life and now I’m not seeing my mother or my grandkids for who knows how long.
All this time to read doesn’t mean quite as much when I can’t see my family.

I’m so sorry, Wendy, that you had to make that difficult decision. I hope you guys can find a way to do some virtual checkins to help ease the strain. I’ve just downloaded the Zoom app myself and I haven’t tried it yet so can’t vouch for it but maybe worth a look.

I'm sorry, Wendy! Heartbreaking for sure.

It's so hard. My 97 year old mother in law is very strong and healthy, but none of us is visiting her because we can't be sure we won't bring something in with us, however carefully we're managing our contacts. My sister's stepmother is 94 and still very fit as well, but she can't go out anywhere safely, or have us in, for the same reason, and of course her senior events are all cancelled. She's lonely...Her grandchild's boyfriend's friend tested positive, and however many degrees of separation that might be, this grandchild is staying away even from the front porch.

I'm so sorry, Wendy. This is heartbreaking. These are sad times.

I think I'd get more reading done since i'm home all the time, but I'm too anxious to read as much I would if it were holodays. I'm reading, but less than I thought I would.

Thank you for indulging my self pity, but considering that all we are dealing with his temporary separation while other families are planning funerals I am done complaining. At least for now,

My family is fortunate because every household has at least one source of income to keep them afloat.

I found out today that I will have every other week off, with pay, until they set up us to work from home. I don’t have the self discipline to work from home! I thought about setting my computer up in a room at my husband’s office, but he didn’t seem too excited about me being in the next room doing phone interviews, so maybe I’ll just work from home.

Wendy, working from home isn’t as hard as it sounds. Once I’m in work mode, everything else fades. I just get unlimited bathroom breaks and can work in sweats.

Thanks, Tracy. I volunteered to stay at the office so parents with vulnerable kids or daycare problems and people at risk or who care for at risk people can work from home, none of which applies to me, but they banished me anyway. The only thing accomplished by running at half staff is providing social distancing. We are more spread out at our desks now.

I know people need me so that will give meaning to my suffering I guess. I won’t be doing my usual job, which doesn’t involve the phone, I will be taking calls from people applying for assistance.

Who else has shifted to working from home for the first time?

I’m sorry to hear about your mother-in-law, Lark. I hope video visits keep her spirits up.

I'll be working from home for the first time on Monday. I was one of the last two in the office yesterday.

Will that be a difficult adjustment, Hugh?

Fortunately, although I think subconsciously I am far more worried about the health of loved ones than I will admit to myself, I can read during this time. I hope you can settle into reading, Alysson.

I’m more worried about well meaning friends wanting to be in touch by phone all day!

I’m just grateful I don’t have to be homeschooling kids. It seems girls are having an easier time of doing schoolwork at home with minimal reminders from parents than boys, from the people I know.

I'm sorry to hear everyone is missing their families. When I finally got off work early this morning, I drove past my Mom's house (where my Dad, despite being divorced for years, is staying so they have been sheltering in place together for about 10 days so far.) I waved to them from the sidewalk. I was afraid to even drive into the driveway.

They've been keeping busy taking very small walks (this is safe to do, so long as you don't mingle with other people outside.) They've also been facetiming with the grandkids who aren't able to visit either.

Early in the week, my sister drove to my work to get TP for them b/c the stores were all out & we didn't want them hunting any down.

I came out of the hospital fully gloved, etc, met her in the overflow ER (the parking lot w/ tents) tossed her a bag w/ TP & hand sanitizer and a couple surgical masks (not really useful, but they made me feel slightly better if my parents had them.) Then she drove to my mom/parents house, sprayed it all w/ a diluted bleach solution, left it on the porch for two days and we called later to tell them to go get it. I wanted to make sure all germs were long-gone before they came out to pick it up.

When I tried to shop this morning, I saw the store from outside & just decided I'll keep eating at work.

If it helps anyone feel better, know that you're doing the very best thing for everyone by staying away right now. If we'd all started doing this in January, there might be far less of an emergency than there is.

Safe cyber hugs to all. I'll be back as much as possible (I finally got some reinforcements at work this week and I have the whole day off!!!) But don't expect to see much of this particular mod until the pandemic ends (which it will. It has to end.)

Stay healthy, Ella. I’m glad your parents have been isolating already.

I am a church minister and as all mass gatherings have been suspended in the UK since Monday this affects worship and all activities in our buildings. I have to officiate at a funeral next Friday. My normal practice involves visiting the bereaved family to help plan a suitable service. This has to be done now by phone and email. Funeral services are still taking place at crematoria but the smaller the gathering the safer. On Friday all restaurants, pubs and cinemas had to close at midnight. So no after funeral gatherings. I have had 6 wedding postponements this week that were due to be taking place in April and May. As a faith community, we have set up a group of volunteers to get essential supplies for those who have to self isolate or have chosen to do so due to vulnerability. Most pastoral calling will be by telephone and email. Planning meetings are now achieved by using Zoom We are looking at devising some online thoughts, meditations and a few colleagues are live streaming worship. My wife teaches Maths and as the school closed on Friday from Monday t will be online learning. I am concerned about the effects of all this on my eldest two sons, one works in transport, th other in the hospitality industry. My mother in law is self-isolating as last year she had chemotherapy treatment and my elderly aunt (87) is doing everything she has always done and thinks it is a mild flu. This is something we all have to get through and all have a responsible role to play. It will bring out the worst in some and the best in others. But we will get through this.

I worked mostly from home for some years. It does take a bit of getting used to, both for yourself and for people who think you are available all day. My parents were still alive at the time and I could be available for them if they needed something. One other advantage was that the coffee was a lot nicer.

Val wrote: "...It does take a bit of getting used to, both for yourself and for people who think you are available all day. ..."

I suggested my husband wears a tie when he is working at home, so that I can tell whether he is available or not. This afternoon, I went into the study and he was wearing it as a bandana!!

Lagullande wrote: "I suggested my husband wears a tie when he is working at home, so that I can tell whether he is available or not. This afternoon, I went into the study and he was wearing it as a bandana!!."

Hmm, that’s not good. Experts recommend keeping your daily rituals even while working from home, see if he wants to try this?

Audible offering some free audiobooks with no login required. Mostly suitable for kids from what I can tell

https://stories.audible.com/start-listen

For as long as schools are closed, we're open. Starting today, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming, learning, and just being kids.

All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet.

Lia wrote: "Audible offering some free audiobooks with no login required. Mostly suitable for kids from what I can tell

https://stories.audible.com/start-listen

For as long as schools are closed, we're open..."
There are several classics on there, too.

Someone posted this earlier, and I had to chuckle:
They said a Mask and Gloves were enough to go to the grocery store. They lied. Everyone else had clothes on.

Hampshire libraries have now closed for twelve weeks. The announcement says they will be making more ebooks available through BorrowBox (although when I looked it was mostly children's books).

A different kind of Mothers' Day
We show our love by not gathering and visiting.
(from Facebook this morning)

I wonder if Waterstones in UK will survive when this is all over - their reputation has taken a big hit. They had insisted on stores staying open - leading to staff at the stores using Twitter to ask customers not to come. Finally tonight have closed after a big backlash.

https://twitter.com/swanseastones/sta...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...

Other than being more likely to have staff with contacts at The Guardian (and more likely to have overlaps of followers with those of us on this group on Twitter) why are they different to all the other non-essential shops still open?

Waterstones is closing tomorrow. I think it's partly b/c they hadn't done anything to protect their workers. But honestly, it's the ONLY store I have heard talk of in the US.

Daily Mail perspective which isn’t exactly of a similar view generally to Guardian:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...

As someone who was part of a industry that (deservedly) lots its reputation after the financial crisis, reputations don’t come back quickly if ever.

A lot of shops are either already closed or not intending to reopen tomorrow.

But this story will be forgotten tomorrow, it’s not what actually what was perceived to have caused the virus (which is the difference to the GFC) and they have now closed like Blackwells which also only decided today it would close. WH Smith I believe remains open exposing staff and customers to risk. Amazon have been in trouble for allowing price gouging early on. Tesco today for chaos at some of their stores. So where will people buy books in future?

It’s a different business every day (again different to the GFC) - Pets at Home (we will sue schools that don’t treat our staff as critical workers) and Wetherspoons (pubs should stay open) for example have managed their own unique PR disasters. Even the National Trust have upset Social Media twice over - first by “irresponsibly” opening to everyone, now by “unfairly” closing etc etc

Val wrote: "A different kind of Mothers' Day
We show our love by not gathering and visiting.
(from Facebook this morning)"

Happy Mother’s Mum’s Mam’s Day to all the UK genetrix today!

Ohio is under Stay At Home orders as of Monday at midnight. My husband, who owns a residential and commercial building inspector business, is trying to convince himself he’s essential. I don’t really think he is on that list though.

Our politicians are trying to hammer out a bill to help people: the Dems want to give money directly to people and Republicans want to give money to industry/business and let it trickle down. If the two parties agree on anything before the pandemic dissipates I’ll be surprised. I think we all agree the US would be better served if Trump didn’t speak at the daily briefings,

There have been of funny memes coming from unusual situation. One my daughters found particularly funny was:
OMG! Is anyone else tired of babysitting their parent’s grandkids?!

Dave and I watched Howard and Maude last night, that film made day 1 of quarantine worthwhile.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outloo...

This was written almost a week ago, before NYC was hit the way it is currently being hit by an ED resident in NYC. It's a good peek into how virtually all US hospitals are operating at the moment, except those who are really hit hard (Washington state.)

A lady on twitter left through her front door, acting like she was going to work, then climbed in the window of her office. Her kids never knew she was home.

Anyway, I suggest a read of the article.

We created a list of resources to help encourage people to stay home. I thought I'd share:

Music:
Daily, check twitter/facebook/ etc for free "home concerts" from people from the Indigo Girls to Guns N Roses. There have been multiple "couch concerts" every day for the past week or so.

The Met is streaming a new opera every day from its collection here: https://www.metopera.org/ (They had to cancel their season, but the vault is open & streaming. A new opera comes up every day at around 7 pm. Go to the dots in the lower left corner to find today's opera. At the moment it's a great performance of Evgeny Onegin w/ Renee Fleming & Dmitri Hvorostovsky.)

Art & Travel:

Google -- as always -- has a bunch of stuff to see w/o moving your ass:

Museums you can tour from your computer: https://artsandculture.google.com/par... -- you could literally just do this all day every day for a year and never see the same thing twice.

That said, Google Arts & Culture is a nice page to start with if one is overwhelmed by the choice on the previous link: https://artsandculture.google.com/ -- from there you can see the art, but you can also climb Machu Picchu, view the Brandenburg Gate or Tower Bridge, etc. Do a bunch of virtual reality stuff w/ dinosaurs and more current nature, learn about food history, etc -- just keep scrolling.

Go to Google Images & type in stuff like "show me something pretty" or "show me something funny" w/ the video tag...
https://artsandculture.withgoogle.com... -- you can see most/many of the national parks from this page. They do seem to change a bit, but always interesting & time-consuming.

Stay fit:

Yoga:
https://www.corepoweryogaondemand.com... -- no set time, just do it when you want -- each class has a minute mark so you know how long it'll take.

Also yogaworks is streaming free classes while their studios are closed (not sure how, but someone here took one earlier.) https://www.yogaworks.com/classes/live/

Zumba: https://www.youtube.com/user/305Fitne...

Ella's fav is Sterling Brown on YouTube - no equipment needed: https://youtu.be/PVr9fU2Kgjs

Books & Audiobooks:

If one doesn't have books at home, there are LOADS of free books at your local library which is still running online.

If that doesn't thrill you,
The internet archive is always free & open to the public: https://archive.org/ Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

JSTOR is adding new stuff by the second: https://about.jstor.org/oa-and-free/ During the current COVID-19 crisis, JSTOR and our participating publishers are making additional content freely available"...anyone can get in actually.

Audible has a ton of books free to stream - NO LOGIN or membership required during the virus -- https://stories.audible.com/start-lis...

Puzzles:

Most newspapers have opened their daily crossword puzzles

There are TONS more if you simply google what kind of puzzle you want sudoku etc

https://logic.puzzlebaron.com/puzzles... -- tons of puzzles all free, they do require login, but we have NEVER been spammed by these people ever the office has had an account since 2014

Learn Something!
A new language, how to knit, how to cook, how to repair your clothes washer -- it's all out there, much of it completely free.
Self-directed learning is really great & homeschooling resources abound -- anyone can use them, even without kids to teach!

Languages are my thing, so Language Transfer keeps all of its courses free & open to the public always. Mihalis Eleftheriou is the guy who started it. Here's a basic quick interview w/ the him (he is great) Worth listening to this interview, or at least the beginning of it b/c he has a great view on the world & how the way we think about language could actually heal the world/nationalism etc (5 mins) https://soundcloud.com/languagetransf...

If you don't want to learn a language but just are interested in how education, politics, learning, the planet & healing our world all come together, this is a great interview: https://soundcloud.com/canguroenglish...

Here's Spanish: https://soundcloud.com/languagetransf...
or https://www.languagetransfer.org/ for all of their languages (this is actually a BRILLIANT course & super easy to learn from.)

Non LT stuff: The US Foreign Service Institute is grueling, but it's very complete & also open/free - your govt pays for it, why not shock the rest of the world & be an American who at least tries to speak another language: https://www.fsi-language-courses.net/

There are literally thousands of free apps and online programs for everything from Spanish to indigenous languages from many countries.

There's more - you can stay home & have fun. We'll update if we can. Hopefully some of these resources might be helpful to those who are not used to being alone or having free time.

Great list - thank you, Ella.

I didn't realise the newspapers were opening up their crosswords. Hoping for some Cryptics...

Ang wrote: "Great list - thank you, Ella.

I didn't realise the newspapers were opening up their crosswords. Hoping from some Cryptics..."

The Guardian crosswords have been free online for years, and the archive goes back to 1999. Independent (if you can put up with ads) and Financial Times are free too. Haven't checked Times and Telegraph recently - they are normally paywalled.

That’s an awesome list, Ella! Thank you! I will pass some of that on to friends and family.

I am finding that people I care for feel that constant contact by phone and text is called for, so I am feeling more crowded than when I worked.

My challenge will be to make myself get some exercise everyday. Walking was built into my work day, but I could turn to veal if I don’t make a conscious effort to get up every two hours and take an actual walk everyday. I have no children at home and my husband has never been under the delusion that cooking and cleaning is women’s work so there’s no pressing reason for me to put my book down and get up.

Thank you for compiling that list Ella.

This is my favourite coronavirus meme at the moment: https://www.facebook.com/attilathesto...
(courtesy of poet and songwriter, Attila the Stockbroker)

I just heard the term "doomsurfing" over on twitter...seems about right to describe my behavior online these days.

lark wrote: "I just heard the term "doomsurfing" over on twitter...seems about right to describe my behavior online these days."

Ha! That is exactly what I have done all damn day! I picked up The Memory Police this morning, fully expecting to finish today: I’m on page 21. I have been on Twitter all day, except for the hour or so that I just spent in front of the tv because Mr and Mrs Smith was on.

Tomorrow I will read. I will shower and I will read.

lark wrote: "I just heard the term "doomsurfing" over on twitter...seems about right to describe my behavior online these days."

I don't do Twitter but I find myself obsessively toggling between the NY Times, Washington Post, Factcheck.org, Politifact, Pro Publica. And podcasts on top of that. It's taking me days to read a wonderful book that's only 265 pages. Putting a stop to this is much harder than not touching my face :(

I’ve managed to abstain from all newspapers and social media (besides Goodreads) for the past month besides a roughly weekly check-in just to see quickly that it’s OK to go outside and buy groceries. If something crucial happens that would affect my day-to-day life, like a total lockdown, I would luckily hear it through friends on WhatsApp. I was divorced in January, and I find the time alone in the new apartment just w/ the dog oddly fulfilling, just surrounded by books for work & leisure, daily Met Opera streams, cooking, baking, exercising etc. I do worry about family, but luckily so far everything is alright and they keep me posted.