Adaptation to COVID world

I thought that I'd start a thread to feature the changes the whole country is going through. Feel free to throw in anything interesting you think might fit. I just read al.com's "Things to do in Birmingham, March 20-27", which normally lists concerts, club dates, museum exhibitions, sports events and the like. I clicked on it, wondering how they were handling the shutdowns due to Covid-19. Turns out that they were featuring new recordings, movies, tv shows, books by B'ham natives and residents, those with connections here. It made me think about how the country was adapting to massive changes.


I just read an interesting article on a musician who has seen his bookings (and his income) crater due to covid-19. He's going to try to make a little money using Patreon, but the internet and computers are not his world.

“The vast amount of contact I have with people playing shows makes me the most dangerous person in the room especially because I am also singing and spraying spit for hours at a time,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “In the bars people get drunk and say ‘f--- the virus’ then they want to hug and kiss on you/me. The prevailing attitude becomes an insensitive petri dish of disdain and complacency that does not adhere to the decency of simple respect for fellow citizens, therefore I plan on starting some live online shows in this brave new world which I will announce accordingly."

With gigs gone, a roots-rocker takes his music online

 

Well, Walmart last night just started temporarily closing all its stores to customers at 8:30 p.m., the better, hopefully, to allow associates to get the store stocked and cleaned.

It was 8:40 p.m., and a group of us were together, actually getting stuff done easily, and I went, "Geez, this is great! They ought to do this all the time."

We've adjusted already!

(I thought I'd throw a positive, light-hearted -- but true! -- one out there right off the bat).

 

My wife is a college professor. I was scheduled to speak to her class yesterday. Her school has gone all online. She is doing class via Zoom. I still spoke to her class yesterday. She was in one room of our house. I was in another. That was odd to have a web-based conversation with my wife 20 feet away.

 

One thing I can see is more remote working situations - perhaps attached to daycare centers. People would still leave their homes to an office that has access to all of the things they might require - but there is a difference between working "at home" with the distractions and having a dedicated office environment. Having such a place attached to a daycare center would just be a plus for all involved.
Having these centers located in many communities would cut down on commuting and ultimately lower real estate prices all over the place since people can "work" where they live. Also cut down on traffic and carbon emissions, sexual harrassment complaints etc. Probably boost productivity since there would be less co-worker interruptions.

 

More of us may be doing that with our significant others depending on how long this goes continues. If I'm lucky, my project list will kill me before the virus does.

 

I'm seeing a lot of similar posts. Dad working in one room, mom in another, kid doing school in yet another. I'm also seeing "I didn't realize how loud my husband was until he started working from home. I'm a room over and it was still hard to hear!" (or they are both in the same room due to apt. size or internet limitations).

 

There's a craft distillery here that is making alcohol based spray cleaner and sanitizer and giving it away. I don't usually buy booze at their price point but I guarantee that I'll be buying a couple of bottles from them once things calm down. I just picked up the only bottle of hand sanitizer I've seen since this thing got cranked up good.

 

Performers everywhere are really hurting which made this really hit me ...

 

wasnt there a startup that did this that tanked in the fall? Me work or we work or something

 

I -start- my university communications job on Monday, haha - Justtt managed to limbo in under a 30-day hiring freeze imposed by the university president. Apparently, we're work from home 3 days a week, with the office phones being covered by us all taking 2 days a week in-office. I interviewed for the gig two weeks ago, before this all started hitting the fan, so I'm not entirely sure what their mindset as far as what I'll be doing.