How is everyone doing?

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Hawkbox

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I've worked from home a decent portion of my life and I'm an IT nerd to start so this hasn't been to hard for me. However earlier today I heard my wife on a conference all with a bunch of other non IT people and some of the older staff, especially the ladies but probably the guys quietly were having a really rough go of this and were incredibly lonely.
It made me realize this is probably happening everywhere and I wanted to just check in with everyone here and make sure everyone's doing ok.
I know we don't know each other mostly but this is still a damned good community and if any of you need anything, even just another soul to talk to for a while I want to help. PM me and I'll send you my info if you want it, doesn't have to be public.
On the other hand, if anyone has anything good to share with everyone I think we could all use some levity right now too.

Just take care of yourselves everyone, and be kind.
 
Good stuff. I expect most are doing pretty well, but my go to in a crisis is to solve problems and help people. Staying home and staying out of the way is not my skill set.
 
Captain's log, stardate 202003.20

Social distancing, day 3. Trying to keep my human interaction to a minimum. Checked beer supply, current inventory:

Aprox 2.5 gallon "Manky Red" on draw(7.3% 57ibu red ale)

10 gallons Czech Lager(5 of Dirty Bohemian and 5 of Almost Bohemian), should be ready to tap on taps 1 and 2 on April 1.

5 Gallons of light(ish) cream ale bottle conditioning(about 3-4 weeks out)

5 gallons 5% Caz Red(red cream ale), will go on tap 3 when Manky Red blows.

approx 7.5 Gallons Dirty Bohemian in fermentor 3.

9 cans Miller Lite

5 cans Bucsh Light

1 lonely bottle of Shady Bohemian Czech Black Lager.

Probably need to run a batch of Blonde on Blonde next then Shady Bohemian. Need to stagger my ales and lagers to preserve my yeast bank in these trying times.

Seriously though, me and mine are doin alright. Strange times and probably a long time before anyone feels "normal" again, but we will get by...we always do.
 
Good on you Hawk for a very thoughtful post. All is good here with me and mine here in Waterloo Region in Southwest Ontario. I have been working from home since Monday, along with Finance, IT, and those over age 60. We are running a skeleton staff at work, and continuing to provide goods to local industry. Being in sales, as long as we are invoicing, I am getting paid.

It is crucial that we keep industry running. For our food supply, consumables, and medical supplies. We must have a functioning economy to get through this or we will all be on spring break, and it won't be pretty.

I find the numbers from our great friends in the US of A, a little, if not a lot, concerning. The last two days. Almost as many new cases in the last 24 hours as Italy. Stem the tide my Americam friends, keep a safe distance, but take care of each other.

The encouraging pattern is that the number of new cases in China has dropped dramatically to the 10's, not the thousands.

What I find worriesome is the silence of N.Korea and their situation. They must be overwhelmed too.
 
Nice Hawkbox, I'm a software developer and have worked from a home office for many years and this is no big deal for me. Our (multi-national) team uses zoom for daily meetings. Main office is near Dallas TX and we have two developers in Canada. Wpg and London.
 
The concern for all is appreciated Hawkbox! I worked from home occasionally in my last couple of years and it’s different after going to a specific place of work for many years. In these times, family, friends and neighbors are important. Stay positive and don’t let the “news”/media get you down.
 
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I know we don't know each other mostly but this is still a damned good community and if any of you need anything, even just another soul to talk to for a while I want to help. PM me and I'll send you my info if you want it, doesn't have to be public.
On the other hand, if anyone has anything good to share with everyone I think we could all use some levity right now too.

Just take care of yourselves everyone, and be kind.

Absolutely spot on Hawk! And Bulin too...we all have our different coping skills as social animals and most recently, some of us have been a little too prickly to the notion of finding a speck of humor in the matter. What's the expression, if I didn't laugh, I think I might cry? Having been through a number of airports in the last few weeks has made me a little anxious at times but as each day passes and I don't feel any different or have developed any symptoms, makes me realize how lucky and blessed I really am. Humor aside, this is serious stuff and serious stuff needs to be tempered with a calm and rational head and not frantic behavior like that leading to the spot shortages of toilet paper, hand sanitizer and spaghetti sauce!

I was so happy that my new LHBS is staying open with their doors shut as well as continuing to do mail order that I changed my plans this weekend so that I could brew AND help keep small outfits like them in business. Big props out to Maryland Homebrew in Columbia MD...ATTAGIRL Chris and all your staff!! Some of the local breweries in Maryland are doing drive by service for Crowlers and Growlers while Pennsylvania has mandated closure.

What's that other old expression? The plan is the plan until it changes...well this is the new normal... until it changes! Hang in there everyone, care for your families, your loved ones, wash your hands and I can't wait to see the face masks on the DIY thread!
 
My wife has been researching face mask patterns.
 
My wife and I are heading back to our friends cottage (just us, not the friends) for a couple days to ourselves. So, a couple days of a more pleasant type of isolation for us:D
 
Another IT worker here, so work-wise it hasn't really made much of a difference to work from home vs in the office, but....because daycare and schools are closed, the kids are home too. That has been a big adjustment, to basically not only working from home but also homeschooling at the same time. Still working on a routine, but we are getting there...
Otherwise....rationing toilet paper! But, still have enough ingredients for my next 3 brews, including my very first lager! May harvest yeast from it though, just in case.
So far bottle shops are still open, so if my my 3 cases of homebrew + 1 case of commercial beer get running low... ;)
 
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Cheers Hawkbox your alright I suppose;):D.
Sounds like we're a bit behind on the covid in the numbers sounds a bit worse overseas. I'm screwed if we gotta self isolate you can't provide pest control/termite inspections sitting at home...:confused:.
Stay clean my brew buddies treat yourselves like your fermentor:D:D:D lol.

You know a colaboration brew day seems to be on the cards if we end up sitting around :rolleyes:.
I just watched real ale craft beer get tanked on a three hour live steam asking for live donations so he could support the local brewerys haa exciting times I say Great Time to Be ALIVE!!!
 
It's actually quite easy to stay at home where we live. My job and my wifes both include needed Interaction with some of the public at large. However substantial steps are being taken to control spread or possible contact. For example I run 3 or 4 machines with 3 other people so each time we switch we wipe it down when finished and wipe it down before the next person uses it. The wife works for a motel so as people pass through you can only imagine the strict set of cleaning they are doing now along with ppe. I personally don't see a total lock down in our future but the economy will dictate more adjustments worldwide than the virus in the long run I'm afraid.
In response to your concern of the spike in cases in the US @Craigerrr there has been a spike in testing that IMO has done this. I look for this to slow when testing gets caught up, fingers crossed. My theory anyway. We were grossly behind in the testing we are capable of.
With enough grain for several batches, 10gal in fermenter, 20gal in keezer and prob 100+ bottles stashed we be good for refreshments for a bit;).
We currently have some tomatoes and pepper plants started and are planning a larger than normal garden(we have plenty of space so why not)including starting some lettuce and such in the green house.
Keep hands and minds busy fellow brewers and we will be a better earth when this is under control. My hope is as a shrinking planet so to speak, we will be the better and can work together better.
Rambling on huh, sorry.... BREW ON FELLOW BREWERS!
 
Kind of you to offer assistance Hawkbox. Getting reports from our local hospital every 2 to 3 days and no cases reported here yet. Only going out to shop for a few odds and ends once a week, so minimal exposure risk. Using the wipes at store entrance on the way in and to wipe down everything before touching as well.
I'm not an alarmist, but being 70+ and asthmatic with other COPD related complications, just being careful. Going to start spraying down fresh fruits with an Iodophor solution and sticking to frozen vegetables for the most part Other than that, life goes on. Hope you and everyone else here stay safe and well.
 
We've been hit fairly hard here in Colorado. My wife is in the healthcare field and the emergency room drive through at her facility has been deemed the testing location for our county. So that brings it a little closer to home than we'd like but what do you do? I'm getting ready to start my second week of being off and it doesn't sound like I'll be back anytime soon. I can do some of my job, and meetings online, so at least there's that.
Being at a little higher exposure risk, we're trying to minimize outings as much as possible. I do get in my car and drive just to get out, and I've ventured in the local grocery a time or two to grab a few things.
 
Have gas prices plummeted in the US? Our prices have dropped substantially from $1.17/liter ($4.43/usg) to under $0.80 ($3.02/usg), paid $0.76 yesterday. Keep in mind that is in Canadian dollars, discount by approx 26% to compare to USD (4.43C =3.28US, 3.02C = 2.30US)
 
Have gas prices plummeted in the US? Our prices have dropped substantially from $1.17/liter ($4.43/usg) to under $0.80 ($3.02/usg), paid $0.76 yesterday. Keep in mind that is in Canadian dollars, discount by approx 26% to compare to USD (4.43C =3.28US, 3.02C = 2.30US)
Cool $1:20/it here ~. Prime minister shutdown pubs and clubs here as of today Monday. We've had a big spike in cases and looks like we're not taking it serious enough with the public social distancing big crowd gathered at Bondi heck maybe they'll close the beaches!
 
Great post Hawkbox.

Business as usual for me but the rest of mi familia has been shut down. Nice having a full house again and a lot of the games that were collecting dust in the closet are getting broken out in order to keep everyone from going bat-shit crazy. Last night there was an absolutely epic game of Battleship that came down to the last shot. My daughter is never going to let me forget that one. I demanded a rematch today!!

I skipped brewing this weekend in order to get some necessary painting done, but will be back at it next weekend.

Stay healthy fellow brewers.
 
We're social distancing. Working from home. Aside from hoarding emptying out the grocery stores, all is well. It's a bit surreal, empty streets, even the stores empty of people and some of the oddest things. I never realized that cream cheese is apocalypse food. Both of us are healthy, we're reaching out frequently to friends and family. Need to go down to the brewery and test my pale ale. Stay well, all, and keep your distance.
 
I'm having a rum right now and feeling shitty because I found out I have to layoff 2 of my guys Monday morning and have no say in it. They're both great but we're at like 30% revenue right now and I don't have a good argument against it.
 
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