Strange times

[bladespark]

To be honest, most of the news about the current crisis has lowered my already low opinion of the human race (people are still having beach parties in Florida! Still! Fetlife has listings for current, active, swingers parties! Some of them are Covid-themed! WTF people! Why are you all so stupid? And the hoarding and the price-gouging, and Trump and just... ugh. Ugh.)

However, there is a small slice of the news that just delights me. Pomplamoose pledging to spend all their Patreon income for a month on hiring other musicians to do from-home recording gigs, so that they can keep people whose concerts and studio gigs have been cancelled in work. 3-D printing groups finding ways to print useful things (though some of those are unfortunately over-ambitious, I have a friend who keeps saying that medical regulations are written in blood, and untested designs *will* kill people, and he's probably right. But they're at least trying, and some of those projects are printing tested designs, thankfully.)

Today I found out about distilleries pivoting to make hand sanitizer. Some of that is just good business, of course. There's a demand, and they can meet it. But it's not just that. One local place is giving 4oz away to anybody who turns up with a bottle, and their first wave of bulk orders were all for hospitals and other vital industries, not just for random people. I am considering dropping by there while I'm out today, since I need to leave the house for once, and I finally have a working car again. Might pick up my free 4oz, and might also spend some funds on one of their more traditional products, if they have any in stock. :3

Edit: Of course my trip out has been cancelled. Oh well, I don't really need booze. Just... Sigh. :(

Comments

[silveradept]

I realize that people are sometimes desperate for company, but it just seems life a bad idea at this point for people to be advertising they intend to have get-togethers. Especially of the kind where people are going to be in proximity and exposing multiple lanes of infection.

I do like the distilleries being able to produce a different and useful alcohol-based product.

[thewayne]

I had to go down to the library yesterday afternoon to retrieve a password, a couple of files, and some config information in order to work from home. I also borrowed a movie and retrieved a spare box of Kleenex. We've been closed for a week and they're doing a deep cleaning of the entire campus and had already done our building. My boss had unlocked the building, we had a great conversation from a safe distance.

I could not believe the amount of traffic in town! To me, it looked slightly higher than normal, and this was AFTER the Governor of New Mexico "shut down" the state last week Monday!

Today I find out that my county now has its first case, someone at the local Air Force base tested positive.