Update from The Land Of The Long White Bra Used As A Face Mask (New Zealand is also known as Aotearoa, "the land of the long white cloud", for those of you going "mrbondini, WTF!?"):

The western part of Auckland was allowed to keep it's liqour stores open because they're under different rules there - no idea why, but they are.

Anyway, the totally predictable happened and everyone from the rest of Auckland got in their vee-hickles and took a little drive to West Auckland to purchase the aforementioned liqour (mainly spirits) - in doing so, going outside their bubbles (family units/flats/etc ie people you regularly live with) and neighbourhoods, which we're all being told to avoid doing. Liqour stores from West Auckland now in deep trouble with the po-lice. So it's online shopping for spirits etc now which is fine with me as that's how I do it anyway.

Still only 1 Death from our friend Co-Vid19 but that was in tandem with Pre-existing Conditions... So a CFR less than 0.1%. Lockdown will continue until early May at best but most likely you lovely folk from overseas won't be able to visit for a while after that - or whenever it ends - as borders will be closed to all but trade until infection/death rates show consistant drop off in several countries.

Bit of confusion about the worth of face masks - general medical consensus that they save other people from a sick you more than save you from sick other people but are still not anywhere like failsafe protection.

Still a country full of - mostly - men in mourning for the lack of live sports as there's only so many times you can watch the same game/games, no matter how good they were before it drives you bonkers. Yes, that Rugby World Cup win was great, but I saw it last night at 7PM, the day before at 3PM....etc, etc.

And still haven't gotten past 768 in Threes...

I Live in a little town in Nevada, even better I live on a 3 acre tract in the boonies so pretty well away from everything. There are only 8 cases in our county so people here are not taking things to serious but My wife and I are both 67 with issues and my disabled daughter is a diabetic so we are on lock-down. I was a semi-prepper so I'm doing good on supplies and I have a decent pension so over all we are in better shape than most.

Stay safe and best of luck to all.

Our Real Estate Agent is a bit of a petrol-head....known him quite a while....share taste in cars...sadly notbudgets tho...

Here's his current....

Here's some good news: Shaunna came home from hospital yesterday afternoon [April 8] and is doing a lot better.  Her leg is still a bit raw from the infection being cleaned, etc, but it has much improved in the last couple of days.  She will still be out of action for a couple more weeks while the wound heals, but no matter, we are just glad to have her home.  Steve and I can take care of business around here, so it's all okay.

Glad to hear shes ok. I just checked up the deaths of the swine flu 575,000 died the first year. Right now this virus has killed 90,000 we are going on the fifth month. 

Of course the Bird flu killed 25000000 in the first six months.

Great to see everyone is doing fairly OK!

Only 3 positive cases reported so far here at Big Bear Lake

with a pop. of about 7000 .. New report comes out tomorrow .

No death reported up here from the virus.

**  All required to wear a Mask now out in Public in this

County or could be up to a $1000.00 fine ..

Being High up on a Mountain in this case is a good thing.

We won't talk about all the snow though this week ...

Glad you have them Mike, wish I could even find some!

LightStar

reply 99

Glad you have them Mike, wish I could even find some!

Here, if you are a little bit handy you can make some yourself:

Answers to your DIY face mask questions, including what material you should use

Hope that might be of some help ?

SwedishTom

reply 100

Quoting LightStar,

reply 99

Glad you have them Mike, wish I could even find some!

Here, if you are a little bit handy you can make some yourself:

Answers to your DIY face mask questions, including what material you should use

Hope that might be of some help ?

Thanks Tom! I can make a mask here, but out of a paper towel and rubber bands, but it probably isn't that great. I appreciate the link.

I have made a few with material and hot melt glue and rubber bands.

Damn sideways crap.

Well, they got fixed, somehow.

It is better then nothing though.  From what I read about the virus it is really small but need the 'saliva/droplets' to travel and that is larger bit and can be easier stopped.  If you have a handkerchief you wont mind "losing" then use some rubber bands and do as RedNeck done above.  If no glue, maybe carefully make some small holes in appropriate places and use the rubber bands to secure it with.

In these times I guess we have to be creative as to what we using, as you already been with using paper towels.

Apart from masks, health authorities are warning that masks alone are not sufficient protection and that eyes should also be covered from the saliva droplets from sneezing/coughing people infected with the virus.  So if any of you need to go out at any time, please wear some sort of eye protection as well.... snugly fitting/enclosed sunglasses or spectacles should suffice. 

Another thing, too, is how the  incorrect use of gloves is not actually protection for the wearer and can give a false sense of security.

A vile practice I'm increasingly reading about here in Oz is spitting in the faces of police and medical staff just doing their jobs.  It always was a disgusting thing, spitting at people, but in this devastating time of the Corona virus it is even more abhorrent than ever, whether the person is infected or not.... and even worse when they claim to their victims to have the disease.

I always believed Australians were better than that, and the majority are, but there is a handful of parasites who are totally un-Australian and should be locked up for a period, not just fined, as several have been, to ponder their filthy, nasty habits.  Fines alone are obviously not enough as the crime seems to be increasing while this pandemic continues and has so many people scared.