How COVID-19 is affecting society

Beebo Brink

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As jobs continue to wither and people lose their salaries, our growing concern is how the local drug addicts are going to react. My wife is working on increased security measures for the house: checking locks and fortifying windows. We have a bar-brace for the back door and we're going to start locking the front door at all times.
 

Rose Karuna

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As jobs continue to wither and people lose their salaries, our growing concern is how the local drug addicts are going to react. My wife is working on increased security measures for the house: checking locks and fortifying windows. We have a bar-brace for the back door and we're going to start locking the front door at all times.
My brother has a similar problem in his neighborhood in San Diego.

He planted very thorny cactus underneath his windows. He said that was one of the best deterrents he's ever done. Anything unpleasant, cactus, a dog barking, even just a lock might make them go someplace else instead.

Not sure if you have any pepper spray but one of the things I always kept camping was "bear spray". It would probably just piss off a bear but it will seriously stop a human. They will not be able to open their eyes. If you don't have pepper spray you can make your own but you have to wear gloves and be very careful. I made some in my food processor with habanero peppers and dish soap designed to keep the iguanas off my garden but it would certainly slow someone down if you sprayed them in the face and then conked them in the head with something like a golf club while they're clawing at their eyes.

Put empty cans or Christmas bells in front of points of entry so if someone is trying to get in they make a lot of noise. That can be a deterrent all in of its self.

Dogs are awesome too. Some cats are, I used to have a cat who immediately knew when there was an intruder and would growl loudly and then meow like she'd caught a mouse (and she knew the difference between an intruder and a friend or neighbor). She would stand in front of the door and growl and meow. Twice she caught people (strangers) who were looking under my plant pots for a key to the door and once she caught a really strange guy on my front porch at 4 in the morning so high he didn't know his own name. 🤪
 

Beebo Brink

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Put empty cans or Christmas bells in front of points of entry so if someone is trying to get in they make a lot of noise.
We've got bells or a mini-alarm on all the doors, plus a home security system. The hounds are useless: Josie will run upstairs and hide because the slightest sound or novelty scares her and Sallie will ask the intruder for a treat, especially if it's a guy (she loves men, she gravitates to any workman who visits the house). I miss our Scotties, who were absolutely fierce about intruders and who sounded a lot bigger than they were.

Our side living room window is over some rootbound shrubbish thing that will twist your ankle if you're not careful, but we've got a long row of windows facing the street and there's nothing but concrete there, so quite easy for someone to step up from the sidewalk and try to force them open. Mrs. Beebo is cutting wood dowels to jam the space and keep the sash from being lifted.

All in all, our place is less inviting to casual break-ins than just about any other house on the block, so here's hoping we get skipped as just not worth the bother.
 

Maggy Hazelnut

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Not sure if you have any pepper spray but one of the things I always kept camping was "bear spray". It would probably just piss off a bear but it will seriously stop a human. They will not be able to open their eyes. If you don't have pepper spray you can make your own but you have to wear gloves and be very careful. I made some in my food processor with habanero peppers and dish soap designed to keep the iguanas off my garden but it would certainly slow someone down if you sprayed them in the face and then conked them in the head with something like a golf club while they're clawing at their eyes.
Another spray that works well is wasp/hornet spray. The kind that can shoot 15' away (to spray their nests). If you spray that in someone's face they can't open their eyes or do much of anything cept scream. I keep a can of it by my bed. My doxie is a great one for barking like crazy if he hears something in the daytime but if it's night time & he's asleep not much wakes him up. lol
 

Jopsy Pendragon

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... and once she caught a really strange guy on my front porch at 4 in the morning so high he didn't know his own name. 🤪
He visited me too, but was even higher and couldn't communicate at all. Just kept trying to use his key in my front door. (I was in the front balcony trying to explain that this wasn't his townhouse)!

Saw the San Diego covid-19 tracking nap yesterday. Most zipcodes have 1-10 residents confirmed positive. Zipcodes around mine had 20-30 each. Mine (Hillcrest) led the city with 58. :(

I was due for a grocery run yesterday, but that changed my mind. Face covering mandates go into effect tomorrow. $1000 fines for non-compliance start on Tuesday. I may wait until after that before going further than my mailbox to resupply.
 

Rose Karuna

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He visited me too, but was even higher and couldn't communicate at all. Just kept trying to use his key in my front door. (I was in the front balcony trying to explain that this wasn't his townhouse)!

Saw the San Diego covid-19 tracking nap yesterday. Most zipcodes have 1-10 residents confirmed positive. Zipcodes around mine had 20-30 each. Mine (Hillcrest) led the city with 58. :(

I was due for a grocery run yesterday, but that changed my mind. Face covering mandates go into effect tomorrow. $1000 fines for non-compliance start on Tuesday. I may wait until after that before going further than my mailbox to resupply.
Wow you and my baby brother are practically neighbors, he's in North Park.
 

Sredni Eel

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Take out ordering tale:
I freaking *needed* a gyro. *Needed* So I went to Dino's Grill, which is a local eatery.

It's cleaner than some hospitals now. I could smell the disinfectant. Of course with the mandates for essential businesses in effect, they had markings on the ground outside, and a disneyland style roped off line that places you in front of a plexiglas barrier near the register. They present the card reader to you, you put in the card, then you take it out. No signing, no PIN. They want you the hell out of there pronto.

All the workers are wearing N95s and nitrile gloves. In spite of the shortage for medical workers, these folks deserve them too.

I gave a nice tip and left out the side door.

I don't know how the SF Bay Area is handling the whole mask issue right now, but what I heard last night seems kind of optional. I wear a mask because I freaking don't want to get sick. As an asthmatic, I've had nightmares about suffocation, and this virus has symptoms eerily similar to my nightmares. It's the one way I don't want to die.

I think people are stupid if they don't wear something over their faces. It won't necessarily help *them*, but it will certainly go a long way toward helping other people.
 

Casey Pelous

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Now they say normal folks should wear masks?

Where the heck is a body supposed to get masks, NOW?
It's not a complicated thing to make. Figure 9"x6" for an adult mask. Get fancy and use a couple of layers of cotton -- old t-shirt would work. Maybe put a finer layer of something in the center. Sew on a couple of elastic ear loops and you're in business.

Watch -- shortly they'll get very stylish, if we follow the same pattern as Hong Kong during SARS.
 

Clara D.

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Not sure which will get me odder looks in this rather clueless part of town --- wearing a bandana like a train robbber or my painter's mask :p
 
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