How has COVID-19 affected you personally?

Batto said:
Why not stone him to death or lynch him? Geez... I understand that the current situation has you on the edge, but you are a "tad" bit overreacting with your call for mob justice...As already mentioned by Mr. Zootycoon - it was a (bad) joke; no more, no less. Maybe spreading internal job affairs to scold colleagues in secret online might not be the best way to calm down other people who are already edgy. Just my 2 cents...

Speaking of calming down: I'm using this as a opportunity to improve more and more of WdG; shifting animals, improving enclosure conditions, cleaning and decorating. I stopped by a quarry yesterday to look for suitable decorative stones. A couple of hours later, I looked like a paleontologist who had made the discovery of a lifetime, and at the same time finished decorating several tanks. The inland taipan and the cape cobra in particular are probably sore today after exploring all those new features in their enclosure. ^^
The still rather cool weather is great for transporting amphibians; my rough-skinned newt is ready to move to the exhibit today.
Stay positive & productive!
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I will admit that my call to publicly shame this nasty man or to throw him in jail and let him rot was over the top, and I apologize for that part. However I still stand behind my view that he deserves to be fired for that distasteful "joke", especially after reading AmbikaFan's report about his previous inappropriate behavior. It seems this person is very hard to cooperate with, and I don't think this is someone you want to continue having in your organization if you want it to work well.

Glad to hear about the time you have been spending working for your animals.

I actually did some animal improvements too yesterday, although my animals are far more quotidian than yours. Yesterday we removed an old dilapidated chicken coop and changed it for a new one I bought earlier this year (another new one we placed some weeks ago already), and another coop that had begun to tilt a little too much due to a small ground subsidence we moved to even out the ground and make sure it is more stable again, then moved back in place. I also moved some of my chickens around to a different aviary (I have 4 chicken aviaries and one open pen, all with a wooden coop) to make sure two of my roosters cannot have any direct contact, not even with a fence in between, and to separate a chicken that wasn't doing as well as she should where she lived previously.

And I also did some cleaning of the pens and removed some unwanted vegetation (stinging nettles) and leftover dead branches from vegetation that was there previously or from the shrubs that I still have in the chicken aviaries.

As the weather is expected to be nice today we might have lunch or dinner on the terrace today. And I plan to do some more terrace reading of Wallace's Malay Archipelago (Annotated version by John Van Wyhe).

I haven't been sleeping well the last couple of nights, but other than that I have held up relatively well under the current crisis - at least as long as I don't read too much news and try to avoid the scary articles and dire predictions as much as possible. Doing research for my posts in the Fantasy Zoos section and looking at animal-related pages on social media have helped me to keep busy, distracted and relaxed in the last few days. I am starting to really get used to working from home and my current assignment is quite challenging intellectually - which I actually like right now, as it takes away some of the energy I might otherwise waste reading and exhausting myself on news. I have had some bad moments when I experience heightened anxiety or despair in the last few days, and I still find these hard times a struggle, but at this moment I think I am managing relatively well.

I hope things continue more or less as they are now, because this crisis and these difficult times are unfortunately likely going to be, to paraphrase someone in the media, an (ultra-)marathon rather than a sprint.
 
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KevinB said:
However I still stand behind my view that he deserves to be fired for that distasteful "joke", especially after reading AmbikaFan's report about his previous inappropriate behavior.
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We only have heard her interpretation of the matter, not his or of anyone's else who was involved; think of the "Rashomon" effect. In dubio pro reo.

Good to read that you keep yourself busy. Keep calm and carry on, as the English say...;)
 
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I have experienced no big changes over last 2 weeks. I drive to work and back home, plus grocery shopping about twice a week (face mask and gloves on). It is pretty monotonous life. So far nobody around me in family, within friends, in our little town or in my company in Prague got infected, knocking on wood.

Public here is slowly getting impatient with the situation and wants to reverse all restrictions, but we are nowhere near end of this situation. Number of new cases and deaths has stabilised, but we are not as good as Austria or Slovakia where daily cases show visible retreat, they have tamed the beast.
 
Jana said:
I (... )but we are not as good as Austria or Slovakia where daily cases show visible retreat, they have tamed the beast.
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Speaking from a local perspective here in Austria, I wouldn't consider the situation "tamed"; the Austrian government / authorities are still on the edge and the restrictions of daily life are still active, with no sign of change in the foreseeable future.
 
Jana said:
I have experienced no big changes over last 2 weeks. I drive to work and back home, plus grocery shopping about twice a week (face mask and gloves on). It is pretty monotonous life. So far nobody around me in family, within friends, in our little town or in my company in Prague got infected, knocking on wood.

Public here is slowly getting impatient with the situation and wants to reverse all restrictions, but we are nowhere near end of this situation. Number of new cases and deaths has stabilised, but we are not as good as Austria or Slovakia where daily cases show visible retreat, they have tamed the beast.
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When you say 'they have tamed the beast' I do think you are wrong Jana, unfortunately.

Even when it is all under more control and locally easing, all it takes is one person on one aeroplane to bring it back. Until a vaccine or at least an instant, reliable test is produced, (and some are predicting a vaccine to be at least 18 months to 2 years away), then mass uncontrolled air travel is a thing of the past, along with public transport and mass closed gatherings (which are the way most people socialise) where people cannot 'distance'.

The principle of un-restricted free borders and free movement of people, is suspended and may never return. This removes the core ethos of the EU, and it will be interesting for us to watch (from the outside!) to see if it survives this crisis.

You are right with regard to the building impatience of the public, and we waiting see what happens when restrictions are eased. Lifting them will be impossible, as we are already being warned of potential 'mass trespass' once the confinement is over. This of course has already happened in several countries at the start, and in hindsight was probably allowed even encouraged by Governments, to allow them to introduce lock-downs because the public had shown they could not be trusted.

Clearly no Governement has the political or military power to keep its population under house arrest for two years until a vaccine is available, so we must all wait to see how they control the 'release'of the people....
 
I know a lot of you are already doing this, but I do think that everyone should go outside and look for wildlife, assuming you aren't locked inside. It's pretty easy to do this while staying 6 feet apart from others, and I have had some insanely good sightings, it's probably the only thing keeping from me from just crying in a corner this entire time. Some of my best sightings have included a Golden Eagle and several Whooping Cranes. I even discovered a vagrant Eurasian Wigeon yesterday.
 
birdsandbats said:
I know a lot of you are already doing this, but I do think that everyone should go outside and look for wildlife, assuming you aren't locked inside. It's pretty easy to do this while staying 6 feet apart from others, and I have had some insanely good sightings, it's probably the only thing keeping from me from just crying in a corner this entire time. Some of my best sightings have included a Golden Eagle and several Whooping Cranes. I even discovered a vagrant Eurasian Wigeon yesterday.
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Just heard on the radio that the UK is introducing a ban on all out-door exercise, because people were doing just as you suggest - and interestingly only a few days after a new Government advertising campaign started on TV showing joggers running.

Certainly a lot more traffic on the roads this week, (two weeks into our lock-down) and many, many more police... There certainly seems to be a deliberate policy by Government of allowing people to abuse the 'requests' and even do just the things they've been told they could - and then tightening things further, once it is proved they cant be trusted.

They are politicians after all...
 
The UK govt haven't banned all outside exercise...yet. But they will if certain corners of the public continue to flout social distancing and exercise rules.
 
Crowthorne said:
The UK govt haven't banned all outside exercise...yet. But they will if certain corners of the public continue to flout social distancing and exercise rules.
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You have clearly heard a different news story to us... The media is very obviously only distributing selected news. Our staff have been followed by police on their drive to work in the last two days. Only when they saw the zoo uniform, did the patrol car move on. Perhaps the Government needs to pull the new 'advert' showing the jogger, as they clearly inviting problems - unless as I said, this is actually the intention. These are the people in charge of our future: Scotland's chief medical officer steps back from public briefings
 
I think the media have sensationalised a comment made by Hancock this morning on the Andrew Marr show.
"I don't want to have to take away exercise,as a reason to leave home ... because too many people are not following the rules"

He went on to say about people pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable.

Last week I had to visit houses in an area that I'm not familiar with and thought about taking my camera, to try and get some buzzard photos along some of the rural roads. But even before hearing what Hancock said this morning, I thought it might be construed as being beyond the rules.
 
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littleRedPanda said:
Last week I had to visit houses in an area that I'm not familiar with and thought about taking my camera, to try and get some buzzard photos along some of the rural roads. But even before hearing what Hancock said this morning, I thought it might be construed as being beyond the rules.
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Our staff travel to work from all points of the compass, and our van is doing more runs than before to collect donated produce. There is a noticeable increased Police presence on many roads, and today there has been a definite increase in the amount of non-local ordinary car traffic past our site, and cars calling in to see if we are open - a change from the deserted roads of the last week or so. It would appear not to be sensationalised, but rather an astute assessment of what he was really saying behind the words being mouthed. Get ready for the ban to be tightened - remember, the public cant be trusted! They are being set-up and the test will come over the Easter weekend. Jana was quite right above, ref the building impatience of the public. Be ready for Police and Army road-blocks to follow soon after...
 
Andrew Swales said:
It would appear not to be sensationalised, but rather an astute assessment of what he was really saying behind the words being mouthed.
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The fact is, there is not an 'exercise' ban at the moment, but I agree it might come. I did notice quite a few police vehicles around Leicester last week, but think that was more because there was so little general traffic.
 
littleRedPanda said:
The fact is, there is not an 'exercise' ban at the moment, but I agree it might come. I did notice quite a few police vehicles around Leicester last week, but think that was more because there was so little general traffic.
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I didn't say there was a ban at the moment - I said that the radio piece that we heard, reported that the Government was introducing one (#367 above) - it didn't say when...
 
Matt Hancock's comment this morning was a warning, if the minority of people flouting the rules, by having barbecues on the beach or sunbathing in the park, continue to do so, then an outdoor exercise ban will most likely be enforced. They'll do it if they have to, but there's no official announcement as yet (although I haven't checked the news in 20 minutes, so who knows, it all moves so quickly now)

I really hope it doesn't come to it. My walks by the river are keeping me sane. The river does tend to get busier after any 10.30am, especially at the weekends, and I've seen more police patrol cars along the embankment lately. People are getting the gist of things though, giving plenty of room, crossing over the road or walking on the grass, and making sure the bridges over the river are clear before using them.

I've also heard a lot more emergency service sirens in the last week; I don't live too far from the hospital, so this is a constant reminder of just why we are all doing this.
 
Things aren't too bad in my area, but I'm super paranoid that crap will hit the fan at some point. Gonna go to the grocery store early in the next few days to top off our supplies, when I'm done we won't even have to THINK about going to the store for like, two months!
 
TheMightyOrca said:
when I'm done we won't even have to THINK about going to the store for like, two months!
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Unless your fellow citizens have had the very same bright idea and you'll end up in front of empty shelves.

Just don't be like some Europeans and Asians before you and fall for panic buying (or, as we call it locally, "hamster shopping"). Show solidarity - Buy responsibly.
Otherwise, the supermarkets will react accordingly: [Trigger warning: European humor!]
 
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