How is everyone holding up?

[SuncrestReef]

With most of us stuck at home, how is everyone doing?  I'm still getting used to grocery shopping only once per week compared to the past when I usually decided what to make for dinner the same day and did nearly daily grocery runs.  I've found planning meals for a whole week has really reduced the amount of wasted food.  My wife is still going in to her office 3 days per week which I think is good because she's not used to being home every day like I have been in retirement for a coupe years.

Last night my wife & I participated with a big group of fiends using the "House Party" video conferencing app to have some fun.  It includes a bunch of games that provided a couple hours of good entertainment.

My tank is probably cleaner than it's ever been.  I'm also being more active on Reef2Reef, Neptune Community Forums, and Facebook reefing groups helping answer questions and solving Apex problems.

I hope all of you are coping with this dramatic change of lifestyle.  What have you been doing???

[Nicknjo]

Tank cycled, bacterial bloom cleared, 3 fish in QT with 5 weeks to go, about to set up a coral QT. No quaranteen for me here essential personel but traffic has been nice[emoji23]

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[Oregonic]

The body shop I managed closed the first week of the month for the owners retirement. I landed a job at Progressive Insurance the second week of the month and I start tomorrow. They delayed my start date a few times due to coronavirus and the company switching to 100% digital but tomorrow is the official start date. Normally the first 2 weeks are spent in Ohio or Arizona for training but I will be completing it digitally.  They are not allowing employees to go out into the field so I guess my home will be my office for the near future. 

[SuncrestReef]

Just now, Oregonic said:

The body shop I managed closed the first week of the month for the owners retirement. I landed a job at Progressive Insurance the second week of the month and I start tomorrow. They delayed my start date a few times due to coronavirus and the company switching to 100% digital but tomorrow is the official start date. Normally the first 2 weeks are spent in Ohio or Arizona for training but I will be completing it digitally.  They are not allowing employees to go out into the field so I guess my home will be my office for the near future. 

Congrats on the new job.  I'm sure job hunting would be very difficult right now.

[Oregonic]

9 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said:

Congrats on the new job.  I'm sure job hunting would be very difficult right now.

Thank you 🙏🏼. I feel very lucky. 

[xxkenny90xx]

I really thought I'd be essential (I replace windows and broken glass) but apparently not in wa. So here I sit. Both tanks are sparkling clean, lots of old frags have been epoxied on my rockwork, and I'm struggling to find more things I can do with the tank. We just took our evening walk with and brought the rc cars along which was fun. Other than that not much going on. I have 2 family member who are very sick and 2 coworkers who are recovering. Scary times. I did see a nice meme on R2R today, I'll share it with you all! 

 

[Oregonic]

9 minutes ago, xxkenny90xx said:

I really thought I'd be essential (I replace windows and broken glass) but apparently not in wa. So here I sit. Both tanks are sparkling clean, lots of old frags have been epoxied on my rockwork, and I'm struggling to find more things I can do with the tank. We just took our evening walk with and brought the rc cars along which was fun. Other than that not much going on. I have 2 family member who are very sick and 2 coworkers who are recovering. Scary times. I did see a nice meme on R2R today, I'll share it with you all! 

 

Hopefully they recover quickly. Great meme. 

[Willapa]

We’re just taking one day at a time. We’re lucky in that my wife and I both have our jobs still and no salary cuts and can work from home. But we have a 3 year old with no day care or help from grand parents anymore. So juggling keeping her all day and us both getting 40 hrs has been really hard and I have limited time for my tank. My wife starts work at 5:30 am and works til 9:30 am. I get kiddo up and fed and I start work at 9:30 and work through out the day but multitask with her if my wife has a work call. I stop work at 5 pm and take over kid duties and cook dinner so my wife can start work again to finish her day. She’ll work til dinner time and we’re lucky to get kiddo to bed by 8:30. By this time we’re spent but gotta clean up and take care of house chores. Wife will work a little on Saturday but we’ve had the weekends luckily to rest a little. We’re looking at taking some leave from work so we can keep up the pace since it looks like this is the new reality for a while. I’ve really enjoyed being around my family more, but my daughter has had a hard time with the shift in schedule and routine and is all out of sorts. This leads to her being real cranky and hard to manage. So we’re trying to keep our patience with her as she settles into a new routine. But my tank helps me unwind. I’ll do maintenance and such after everyone has gone to bed and helps clear my head so I can get some good sleep. Having the sun out today was a blessing.


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[obrien.david.j]

Working from home, all week.  End of the day, ears hurt from headphones and I need a stretch.   

Flip Side, after a walk in the evening - it's back to the garage and another phase of the plumbing and fish room remodel.  

[Blue Z Reef]

@Willapa I am in a similar scenario to you.

 

Fortunately I am able to work from home as well. My wife works night shift in the ICU as a nurse...which is pretty much the last place you want to be these days. We use to have my parents help out and occasionally hers as well to watch my son, who is 4 now, but we aren’t doing that now. So she does 3x 12s and when it lands on weekdays, I have to keep the little guy entertained in my office while I work and she sleeps. Fortunately everyone is understanding of this so I usually don’t take phone calls those days and get in what work I can. It’s rough with childcare now but hang in there! It’s been hard on my son as he is missing preschool. We just keep telling him it’s “spring break” and everything is closed! 
 

it has been nice doing more around the house, staying out of Portland traffic, and tinkering with my tank. This last week was fun as I finally got my Trident and DOS going! Every piece of gear I add to the apex, I’m more impressed! It’s been a lot of fun lately, which is a major change from my control systems of the past!

 

so if everyone could do our family a HUGE favor and STAY HOME, hopefully things can get under control, my wife’s stress level can come down 👩‍⚕️, and we can all go about our reefing lives 😁🐠🐡

 

 

[Bevo5]

Hey, please make sure she knows how much the random strangers on your reef forum appreciate everything she’s doing. 

[Teramelos]

Likely gonna being selling everything reef related to cover bills and cost of living while out of work this long. The system doesn’t favor everyone, been working 10-12hr weeks at essential businesses only to be exposed daily then to be laid off without pay or severance and must rely on government assistance. Dark times for sure 

Edited March 30, 2020 by Teramelos

[albertareef]

5 hours ago, Teramelos said:

Likely gonna being selling everything reef related to cover bills and cost of living while out of work this long. The system doesn’t favor everyone, been working 10-12hr weeks at essential businesses only to be exposed daily then to be laid off without pay or severance and must rely on government assistance. Dark times for sure 

Sorry to hear this - definitely brutal out there.  Jeff has been selling supplies at cost to help folk out but I realize that is only a drop in the bucket.  Hopefully something comes up before you have to break it down - good luck!

[GreenJeans]

This really hasn't been so bad for me.

My whole office has gone remote so I've been working from home, and am more productive than ever.

I'm a bachelor, have my own place, and a bidet!  No kids or family dynamics stress added here...

I used to go grocery shopping maybe once per week, that's been easy to scale way back, and I've had no reason to leave the house for a while now.

I have two dogs and two cats in addition to the new (since early Feb) reef tank, so I get plenty of companionship for an introvert like me in times like these.

Having the new reef tank has been a really satisfying and fun project to work on!  It's sparkling clean, and I'm super aware of how everyone's doing...

Plenty of time to research how to really dial in my apex, my vortech pump profiles, and watch the dino bloom start in the tank...figure out whether to do anything about it...

I've got a coral QT tank set up and just did my first coral dip and fragging! That was fun, so interesting to see all the creatures that come out in the dip - I really want a microscope now.

And I just ordered a Foxface from LiveAquaria(diver's den) to hang out in the fish QT tank with me while I'm in QT! Plenty of time for observation and careful treatment.

Edited March 30, 2020 by GreenJeans

[Tandor69]

Last week was weird getting used to teleworking. The wife is also teleworking but her job requires privacy so I only see her on breaks and lunches. I am lucky to work some where that I can telework for at least part of my job and they are paying us whether we are doing work or not. The biggest downside for me is I was this close to pulling the trigger on my dream (for this house anyway) tank but have decided to hold off until things are better. I did pick up a couple of Reefi lights from @danlu_gt and have contented myself with setting up one over my 20 long. I feel blessed that no one I know has come down with it and hope things are going to get better sooner than later.

[SuncrestReef]

A funny thing happened today.  I was in the shower when I heard the doorbell ring.  When I later checked the front porch, there was a delivery of BBQ ribs sitting there in a bag.  Completely confusing because I didn't order anything.  A few minutes later my wife texted me from work to ask if any BBQ was delivered.  It turns out that our house sitter/aquarium sitter/dog sitter placed an order, but the last time she used that app was when she was at our house, so it remembered our address instead of hers.  I thanked her for the free lunch. 🍖🤣

[Blue Z Reef]

Best sitter ever! 🤣

 

[Bevo5]

I’m very much wanting to sit on a roof deck and drink some pints. 

[TheClark]

23 hours ago, Blue Z Reef said:

@Willapa I am in a similar scenario to you.

 

Fortunately I am able to work from home as well. My wife works night shift in the ICU as a nurse...which is pretty much the last place you want to be these days. We use to have my parents help out and occasionally hers as well to watch my son, who is 4 now, but we aren’t doing that now. So she does 3x 12s and when it lands on weekdays, I have to keep the little guy entertained in my office while I work and she sleeps. Fortunately everyone is understanding of this so I usually don’t take phone calls those days and get in what work I can. It’s rough with childcare now but hang in there! It’s been hard on my son as he is missing preschool. We just keep telling him it’s “spring break” and everything is closed! 
 

it has been nice doing more around the house, staying out of Portland traffic, and tinkering with my tank. This last week was fun as I finally got my Trident and DOS going! Every piece of gear I add to the apex, I’m more impressed! It’s been a lot of fun lately, which is a major change from my control systems of the past!

 

so if everyone could do our family a HUGE favor and STAY HOME, hopefully things can get under control, my wife’s stress level can come down 👩‍⚕️, and we can all go about our reefing lives 😁🐠🐡

 

 

Wow!  I had no idea she worked in the ICU.  Keep being a super dad and all of you stay healthy!

[TheClark]

I have been telecommuting since at least 1998.  No changes here sadly, still busy as can be!  Been watching allot more news though hahah.

Daughter is doing online school via chrome books.  Son's college start is delayed, but all his classes this quarter are online.  Wife is telecommuting, going well.

Actually did a tiny amount of work on the reef room.

 

 

[Higher Thinking]

I have been telecommuting since at least 1998.  No changes here sadly, still busy as can be!  Been watching allot more news though hahah.
Daughter is doing online school via chrome books.  Son's college start is delayed, but all his classes this quarter are online.  Wife is telecommuting, going well.
Actually did a tiny amount of work on the reef room.
 
 

I see you posted a link to your UN-UPDATED build thread....[emoji6]

I'm still going into the office. We're a fundraising company that's raising money for food banks and rescue mission across the country. Let's just say those organizations are seeing a massive spike in services, particularly the food banks.

We've split our entire fundraising team into two groups and created two different shifts. That way we only have to have half the people in the building at any time and they're spaced out. Easier to manage them, but the hours are longer.

Wife is a nurse at Providence so you can imagine how that's going....

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[Bicyclebill]

Well, it's 11:10 on Monday ( I believe) night and I'm cracking a beer. I've been working from home for I believe starting on three weeks. I took a break from drinking on the 3rd, and went through the 20th. But I decided if I'm going to make it through this human calamity, I need beer. I think humanity, and especially governments, are for the first time listening to the doctors and scientists that hammer on the influenza strains every year. The fact that the new expected Us death toll is roughly 50% higher than US death toll from influenza in 2017-18 and is going to collapse society as we know it kind of blows my mind. It's kind of funny/not funny that we don't even put a second thought to the flu. Can you imagine if this is what happened every year when flu season started? Why doesn't it? Bueller... Bueller...

[SuncrestReef]

8 minutes ago, Bicyclebill said:

Well, it's 11:10 on Monday ( I believe) night and I'm cracking a beer. I've been working from home for I believe starting on three weeks. I took a break from drinking on the 3rd, and went through the 20th. But I decided if I'm going to make it through this human calamity, I need beer. I think humanity, and especially governments, are for the first time listening to the doctors and scientists that hammer on the influenza strains every year. The fact that the new expected Us death toll is roughly 50% higher than US death toll from influenza in 2017-18 and is going to collapse society as we know it kind of blows my mind. It's kind of funny/not funny that we don't even put a second thought to the flu. Can you imagine if this is what happened every year when flu season started? Why doesn't it? Bueller... Bueller...

Enjoy your beer!  I know I couldn't have lasted that long without a drink under these circumstances!  🍻

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I could work from home... probably should work from home. But alas, we don't have a reliable internet connection.  So to the office for me!!  Starlink can not get here soon enough!!! 

 

[albertareef]

21 minutes ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

I could work from home... probably should work from home. But alas, we don't have a reliable internet connection.  So to the office for me!!  Starlink can not get here soon enough!!! 

 

You must be in the new house then?