Grim days ahead. We open up and get another WAVE of infection and death that lasts a very long time. Inevitable. The next inevitable?

I am a home body L. Probably somewhat agoraphobic. I have always felt safest and best at home from my earliest memories. With gas and electricity and TV and a computer along with three refrigerators stocked with food plus cupboards I would not mind being here inside for months. I wouldn't. I like solitude and aloneness as long as it is when I want how I want for as long as I want. So my life is not all that different. Jim's is of course. I'm very lucky. I have a very healthy fear of whatever can affect me without my permission. I also have a great dislike for people who affect me negatively without my permission. Thank you for your reply and Happy Saturday. I would not do well in a big city. I am an outskirts suburbs quiet person. SIGH. I doubt after all of this I will have changed much at all except I will no longer hug the folks at the markets that I have hugged for years. :) This post was edited by RosieG at April 18, 2020 7:23 AM MDT

I can understand your fear from your personal experiences.  I don't mind being at home for periods of time so long as I know I can go out whenever I want to.  My sister in PA just moved into a new house and, under other circumstances, I would have been down there to help her settle in.  I also feel bad for them because some of the finishing touches outside are not able to be done because they aren't considered essential - like grading the property and laying sod or seeding for a lawn.  She needs to put up fencing so she can let her two dogs out in the yard, but can't do it yet, so they have to get up at 6 AM and walk them.  Of course, in the grand scheme of things, they are fortunate that everyone in the family is well.  

Awhile back you said that you were thinking of or planning to relocate to Pennsylvania to be nearer your sis. Do you still plan to do that or have your plans changed m'dear? I don't see how we will ever get back to the way things were before. I also do not know what our lives will be like once things have "settled down". My imagining apparatus has been overtaxed and so I take a step back and just float for awhile. I'm glad your family is well. Ours is too as far as we can tell. Big blessing these days to be able to say that. Thank you for your reply L! :)

Eventually, I will retire completely and when I do, that's when I will relocate to PA.  Not sure when that will be since I've been retiring for the past five years. :)

Funny honey. Like a typical Armenian goodbye. We get up to leave and then stay at the door chatting another half an hour more! Well you will know you are ready when you actually do it. Thank you for your reply! :)

LOL ... my Jewish family does that, too.  It used to drive my dad up the wall.  When he was ready to go, he was ready to go!

My retirement is sort of tied to when my boss retires.  He and I have been together so long that I would feel that I had abandoned him if I retired before him.  He's 18 months older than me and, hopefully, he will get the bug to retire soon.  :)

Does he have a wife/family he could be spending time with? If so I wonder if she keeps hinting she'd like him to retire? Now when life "gets back to normal" will you be commuting again on public transportation to get to work L? Thank you for your reply! :)

Yes, he's married to his second wife who is 11 years younger.  She has two sons from her first marriage and he has three daughters.  The family blended very nicely and all but her younger son are married with children.  He loves the grandkids, but I don't think he sees himself as spending his retirement around them on a daily basis.  His wife, on the other hand, can't spend enough time with them. :) '

Yes, once it's deemed safe, I will be taking public transportation to work.  I take an express bus which charges $6.75 each way, so it isn't nearly as crowded as the subway which is only $2.75 each way.  With so many people on unemployment or not having as much money coming in, I don't see a whole lot of them spending that much to go and return from work.

Wow L that is expensive but I gather parking in the city is impossible. You go out to work three times a week? An express bus in the city? Does it have special routes to avoid gridlock? I know nothing about it. I traveled once to Long Island for business but we arrived late at night, drove to the motel, got up the next morning and went to Grumman for a meeting. I think it was Grumman. We left that day late afternoon. A whirlwind trip and all I saw was the inside of the airport/hotel/Grumman. Big deal! Thank you for your reply L! :)

Parking in the City can cost you $30+ a day depending on where you park.  I work near Grand Central Station, so that's prime parking cost.  My firm used to give me $75 a month towards transportation, but since I work less than 30 hours a week, I don't have that benefit.  However, if I'm not working to make my life better and easier, I might as well retire. :)  I do actually have the opportunity to put my transportation money into a pre-tax account on which I draw my transportation cost, so it's not that bad.  Yes, there is a designated bus lane into Manhattan so it's a half hour or so ride.  There isn't such a lane going home, so it can take longer, but I don't have anything to rush home for and I just look at it as more time to read.  The buses are like tour buses, so it's a comfortable ride.  

Futurely will seating be staggered to maintain social distancing? Was the you take regularly crowded? I think things will be quite different but how I guess you'll find out. Thank you for the info L. I would not like to have to drive in traffic going to and from work. I, like you, would rather occupy my brain with calm and relaxing not aggravating even it were financially reasible. Have you contacted your boss to find out if he has any idea what kind of timing he might employ for your going back to work or is it too soon? :)

No, the bus I take is never full unless something before that one doesn't show up and people hop on mine just to get into the City.  I have no idea how many or how few passengers there have been since the quarantine.  No one I know from the bus is working in the City now.  Social distancing would be difficult unless there are only a few people.  you know how lose the seats are on a tour bus.  I don't think my firm has made a decision when to try and open back up.  We are supposed to be out at least until may 15 per Cuomo.  I think a realistic time would likely be early June.

That's good to know. Noticed that GAG reversed himself and says Georgia should NOT open now. The GAG is dingbat pendulum who swings both ways at the same time. One could go crazy bonkers trying to figure how the "mind" in the head works. Better to not even try. Thank you for your reply L! :)

He's like a stalk of wheat - blows in whichever the direction the wind sends him.

How do you think we will have changed L? I mean we can't have experienced this without it having changed us. No more handshaking or hugging? Keeping your distance from others? Carrying with you always the possibility that anyone anywhere can be carrier of something that could kill you? I wonder. After GAG is long gone what traces of his political existence will remain? I think I shall ask. Thank you for your reply and Happy Friday m'dear! :)

I think eventually things will go back to the way they were for the most part.  We've had Ebola, SARS, HIV/AIDS, etc. where we have had to curtail some of our interactions with others albeit not to the extent we've had to with COVID-19.  Eventually, this virus will pass.  I do hope that we learn something about the environment from this - cleaner air, resurgence of wildlife in places they haven't been in a long time.  Eventually, people let go of their fears.  

I don't know what Trump's legacy will be.  Hopefully, it will be a lesson on what happens when you elect someone who is completely unqualified to run this country.  My bigger fear is the economic disaster that will befall this country after all the stimulus packages have been given out.  Our national debt was in the trillions before this catastrophe - what will happen when billions more are added to that?  

That is entirely due to the sons of an itch like mitch and marky meadows and jimmy jordan and devie nunes  and finiky infinity sean and outgram laura and rush the baugh and all of the liars deniers supporters worshippers and all their rotten ilk as well as the gaggle who voted for GAG and intend to vote for him again. All of them altogether are GUILTY. They will drown in guilt one day. Poetic justice strikes again. Thank you for your thoughtful reply L! :) This post was edited by RosieG at April 24, 2020 10:36 AM MDT

I agree.

:):):)

Anywhere from one year to 18 months away assuming all FDA trials at various stages go well. Until then it's a crapshoot. SIGH. Lucky are those to whom solitude is a necessity not a burden. Thank you for your reply Shuhak! :)

I read something yesterday or today that Gilead's attempt at a vaccine, one that was thought to have much promise, has failed in whatever stage it was at.  That means, back to the drawing board and hoping one of the other biopharmaceutical trials will be more successful.

I asked a question about it. A STAGE one clinical trial FAILURE! Remsividir or something. All the clinical trials in various stages are subject to FAILURE. GAG is woefully ignorant and dumb not to understand what is involved in drug testing. I was in a two-year clinical trial for CALCITONIN I believe it was the THIRD STAGE. To strengthen bones. I got a placebo which I ordinarily should not have been told but after the trial The doc who held the trials told me my bone density dropped significantly so I should let my doc know and that's when I started taking a bone-inhancing drug. Thank you for your reply L! :) This post was edited by RosieG at April 24, 2020 10:50 AM MDT