Unutterably Silly So what are you doing RIGHT NOW?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

I just paid off the last of my student loan!

It wasn't a huge payment each month, but I'm glad it's paid off.

I'm treating myself and my mother to ordering food at one of my favourite delivery restaurants (my father doesn't like what we like, so he's making his own dinner).

I'm also thinking of getting a Ripple Rug for the cats, but I can't find the original in Europe. So it depends on shipping costs whether or not I'm going to do it.

LOL, as you may remember, my two love theirs. The guy who came up with it lives in...Pennsylvania? I think? I just remember someplace back east. We were "early adopters" of Ripple Rugs, and I ended up communicating with him, due to some post office issues. I doubt that I could find his contact info, but I can try. I'm sure if anyone could tell you where you could find it, he could.

Hitch

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by Hitch

LOL, as you may remember, my two love theirs. The guy who came up with it lives in...Pennsylvania? I think? I just remember someplace back east. We were "early adopters" of Ripple Rugs, and I ended up communicating with him, due to some post office issues. I doubt that I could find his contact info, but I can try. I'm sure if anyone could tell you where you could find it, he could.

Hitch

Yes, I remember. Ever since you wrote about it I have been keeping an eye out for one. We did get an "activity rug", which is double layered and in the top layer there are holes. They love it, especially when you stick zip ties through one hole and out of an other.

I found an email address on their website, so I'll email them. Asking if there are any shops in the Netherlands or Europe selling it. If not if they have a price indication for shipping. Iirc it used to be on their website, but I can understand it if they've removed it with the international shipping prices constantly changing at the moment.

It's quite big, so it'll be something we take out for them on a Sunday to play with. I'm sure they'll love it. The only thing that will disappoint them, especially Luna, is the anti-slip coating on the bottom. They love sliding around on their play rug and cat donut, taking a run and jumping on it to slide as far as possible.

[phenomshel]

Hello, all!

Just thought I'd pop in for a second. How is everyone?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Hello, all!

Just thought I'd pop in for a second. How is everyone?

Managing. NYC on lockdown is an interesting experience. SO Kat and I are homebodies who didn't go out a lot before COVID-19, so most things being closed is at worst an inconvenience. (I do look forward to the local diner reopening.)

The supermarket (A Trader Joe's) is open, as is a local Target for non-food items (cough toilet paper cough), as well as markets in Chinatown and the Green Market where Kat shops.

The biggest inconvenience was the self-serve laundromats closed, and if you had laundry, you dropped it off at a place that did it for you and picked it up, for about three times the cost of DIY. Fortunately, the one we use has reopened. Getting a haircut is a bigger problem, but I don't have to go anywhere where being shaggy will be an issue. When my barber does reopen, I'll say "Drag out the hedge clippers and prune it back!" (My hair is thick and grows fast. Baldness does not run in my family. He'll need hedge clippers.)

Amusingly, liquor is considered an essential in New York State, so the liquor stores are all open, though requiring masks and limiting the number of customers in store. And a Bar/restaurant east of me near Hospital Row on First Avenue is closed for normal dining, but has a side wi8ndow where you can get beer, wine, and cocktails to go. They also have a program they invite folks to contribute to to fund their production of free meals for medical personnel at the nearby hospitals. It provides a public service and helps them remain in business till normalcy returns.

A local custom that has arisen is that every evening at 7pm, windows open and locals yell and use noisemakers. It apparently began as a salute to front line medical works, but has turned into a general "We are all still alive, well, and coping" announcement.

How are you doing?
______
Dennis

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Hello, all!

Just thought I'd pop in for a second. How is everyone?

Shel! How are you! And the fur babies? Pop back for another second!

We are in complete home isolation surviving on Amazon and InstaKart deliveries. But still alive!

[cromag]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Hello, all!

Just thought I'd pop in for a second. How is everyone?

Not too bad, here! Thanks for asking!

[phenomshel]

Dennis, good to hear from you! I'm two hours out of Chicago, which you may or may not remember. The local government is being stupid because we have less cases, and want to move faster than our very conservative and science following governor. However, MY boss is following the governor, so I'm still not actually working in the library building more than a few hours a week. We're working on a ton of virtual programming and are heavily promoting our ebook and e-audiobook offerings. We're also offering temporary library cards (which will expire in August) and extending cards that expire during this time without the usual requirements of verifying addresses, etc.

Chris has been working from home the whole time, and will probably continue to do so for at least the next few weeks. He's in the IT department at one of the local hospitals, and they're trying to keep as many people out of there as possible.

POOH!!!!!! Oh boy, do I have news on the feline front. Back in January, Chris (who has never done such a thing since I've known him) brought home a half-starved, half sick baby kitten. She is a brindle tabby. We named her Tabitha. After $300 in vet bills and lots of good food, she's no longer half starved or half sick, but IS nuclear powered and at the moment bathing herself on my desk. The other three are doing well - they are ecstatic with us being home all the time.

Cromag, so glad you're doing well, and it's great to "see" you, too!

[poohbear_nc]

Shel - Congrats on Tabitha the nuclear powered pud! (Kudos to Chris) She sounds like Pixie - I can't remember the last time we updated cat parenting info - we lost Sammie and Goldie in the same year, Stella is doing fine but a bit wacko, and have acquired Pixie, the Energizer cat who never runs out of energy.

I am working from home, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future [doctor ordered self quarantine]. Cats were confused, than ecstatic, and now bored. Same for me too I guess.

Hang around a bit, now that you have the spare time!

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Shel - Congrats on Tabitha the nuclear powered pud! (Kudos to Chris) She sounds like Pixie - I can't remember the last time we updated cat parenting info - we lost Sammie and Goldie in the same year, Stella is doing fine but a bit wacko, and have acquired Pixie, the Energizer cat who never runs out of energy.

I am working from home, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future [doctor ordered self quarantine]. Cats were confused, than ecstatic, and now bored. Same for me too I guess.

Hang around a bit, now that you have the spare time!

LOL yeah, about that time.... as of tomorrow, it's back to full days on-site for me. Chris will be home for awhile yet, so at least the cats don't have to go cold turkey. I will still try to check in, though. And there's always the possibility that we may be shut down again if cases spike. We're not open to the public yet and we still can't have more than 10 people in the building. So we're just dipping our toes into the curbside waters and it's basically me and my boss doing all the running. We'll see how it goes.

We're up to four brats now. Bishop, the 20 lb. blue point Siamese; Bitty, the one we rescued out of the neighbor's landscaping that was just a tiny thing last time I was here; Lily, who is a gorgeous butterball of seal point Siamese that needed to be re-homed due to her original mom's divorce, and now Tabitha.

[Rumpelteazer]

I'm making a list of toiletries I need to get.

At the moment I stay over at my sister's place every two or three weeks. I've already got slippers there and I'm waiting for my favourite sweat pants to be available again so I can order an extra pair. I'm also going to leave some toiletries at her place. That way I have to carry less back and forth.

Next Thursday is a bank holiday in the Netherlands. I've planned to work on Tuesday and Wednesday morning and Saturday all day. She also has the Friday off. So I'm going to her place Wednesday afternoon/evening (whenever she's done working) and stay until after dinner on Friday. We've planned to watch a bunch of musicals (still need to find those) and play Animal Crossing together.

[twowheels]

Checking UPS tracking every 15 minutes to see if my Clara HD is out for delivery yet. It's scheduled for today, but even at 12:15 pm it hasn't been sent out for delivery yet, and the distribution center is 45 minutes away -- I'm worried it's going to be delayed again.

[twowheels]

2:15 PM... still hasn't gone out for delivery -- looks like it's going to be delayed. They already delayed it from the original estimate of yesterday. Oh well.

EDIT: 5:05 pm, I think I can safely assume that I'm not seeing it today... :-/

It's always this way with UPS, even before the pandemic.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by twowheels

2:15 PM... still hasn't gone out for delivery -- looks like it's going to be delayed. They already delayed it from the original estimate of yesterday. Oh well.

EDIT: 5:05 pm, I think I can safely assume that I'm not seeing it today... :-/

It's always this way with UPS, even before the pandemic.

So peculiar. My UPS-ness is the exact opposite; they are the only reliable service where I am. I will pay sellers extra to use it over USPS. Weird. Must be heavily dependent on the personnel in the area.

Hitch

[Rumpelteazer]

Late yesterday afternoon we heard that the city council has decided to make some streets in the city center one way for pedestrians this weekend (and possibly every weekend from now). This is also in our street, from the bridge to the left of us, all the way into the city center towards the right of us.

I've just put up a notice on Facebook, with direction if people come from the direction of the city center. I also uploaded a map I found of the one way situation. I'm also thinking of taping an arrow in front of the door to remind customers exiting which way they have to go.

The business association is also going to put stickers on the pavement in front of our store for people waiting to stand on, so they keep 5 feet apart from each other. In addition I just made signs to put on the window asking customers not to park their bikes in front of the window (which is something that annoys me anyways) but across the street. In the last couple of days we've seen people waiting and people parking/getting their bikes getting too close to each other.

We are seeing that people are finding it harder to keep their distance from each other. Not just during the weekend when it's busy outside. But also in the store we've had to ask people to keep apart. Also when I was coming home from the supermarket on Wednesday someone walked up really close behind me and then past me. That was just after 9am, when it was really quiet and there was enough space to keep apart.

[poohbear_nc]

Today, on one of my frequent walks, I saw a truly extreme example of a guy who had stayed home far too long with absolutely nothing to do ...

His lawn is immaculate
His cars have been washed until they glimmer in the sunlight
He put mulch around the mailbox post and on the flower beds

So .... what next?

He was in the street with a whisk broom and dust pan, sweeping up mulch that had fallen over the curb into the street, and carefully replacing it around the mailbox post.