The COVID 19 outbreak. Does it mean MORE backpacking this year?

[jscott]

Soap doesn’t kill viruses. People kill viruses.

keep the nation free for soap! It’s your right.

p.s. anyone else getting a “make a forest your final resting place” pop up ad? kinda…bad timing…or maybe not!

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I went shopping to get some frozen chicken and vegetables. I couldn’t get either.

Waiting in line to get into Trader Joe’s:

Empty shelves:

There are going to be more deaths than just from the virus itself when this is all over. Puerto Rico was a trial run. This is the main event.

[Edward John M]

Soap doesn’t kill viruses. People kill viruses.

keep the nation free for soap! It’s your right.

p.s. anyone else getting a “make a forest your final resting place” pop up ad? kinda…bad timing…or maybe not!

Nope I am getting lots of Facebook messages about cheap cremation ROFL

[BlackHatGuy]

I don’t get ads. But I always enjoy hearing what y’all get!

[Jerry Adams]

And now you’re going to tell us more about how great apple products are…

Again… :)

[AK Granola]

Our stores are still getting regular shipments. People are just shop, shop, shopping. But more is coming in as fast as people snap it up. Eventually people won’t have room to hoard more and the stores will have more stuff on the shelves. There’s still plenty of food, just odd stuff that has been cleaned out, probably because some social media post made everyone freak. OMG there won’t be any potatoes! So they buy a ton.

Panicky people are scary.

[BlackHatGuy]

“Panicky people are scary.”

And many scary people are panicky…

[Nick Gatel]

I don’t get ads. But I always enjoy hearing what y’all get!

I have all Apple products (iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro) and I get ads. Oh, I could disable them, but don’t for my own reasons. Of course, Google and others track us and serve up ads based on our browsing history, and that doesn’t bother me. But is there something else going on? Is Siri secretly listening to us? Here is a true story that happened last night.

I was telling Joyce about one of my ex-employees. Joyce knows him well, and he is a down to earth great guy. Sometimes naive. Anyway, his house in Phoenix is on a hillside and about a couple acres is size. He needed to move some large boulders, do some grading, etc. So he decides to buy a used backhoe. Goes to a used equipment dealer and buys one with a trailer. As they are hooking up the trailer to his truck, he asked the salesman, “Can you show me how to operate this thing?” Absolutely a true story. They showed him and he has been using it ever since. He even bought some property in the mountains and it is up there now. Joyce was in tears laughing. It was so typical of this guy.

So right after this I went to my own website to check some programming changes I had made earlier. Here is the home page. I was so shocked, I did a screen save.

 

I have Never typed backhoe, tractor, or anything like that into a browser or even a document. Coincidences? How many of you get backhoe ads (before reading this post)?

[obx hiker]

I’ve read similar stories but thought maybe they were just more internet legends. (I.E bull-hockey) Seeing is believing.

Now cookies and etc. that stuff is real. I use a VPN and browse in incognito and etc. and I still have to clean up at least weekly. Go into settings, clear browsing data yada yada.

Some companies/websites are worse than others. Some are so bad I quit using them. Do My Own Pest Control are you listening out there?

I know stuff/apps like Siri and Alexa are convenient and therefore seductive for that reason but screw that.

Still I also have no illusions that the data available about me isn’t probably staggering.

[Jerry Adams]

okay, it’s Nick that will tell us how great apple products are…

again… : )

[Jerry Adams]

“Eventually people won’t have room to hoard more and the stores will have more stuff on the shelves. ”

Brenda and I have been talking about this

How many rolls of toilet will fit in one house.  There must be stacks and stacks.

Again, we couldn’t stop laughing.  You had to have been there.

[Gary Dunckel]

I heard about that guy bought like a zillion cases of hand sanitizer. He then tried to sell them at a big markup on eBay. He was shut down by that firm. So now he just has maybe the planet’s largest stash of sanitizer sitting in his garage (or maybe a huge storage locker).

Yesterday I went to my closest grocery store for some milk and butter, and also some paper towels ant TP. I was amazed to see what had happened in the past week. There of course was zero TP and paper towels, and the dairy section was seriously depleted. The most amazing thing was that ALL of the dried pasta was gone! I then hit another store, which I heard had been restocked a few hours earlier. Again, most of the above things were already depleted. I was able to get some milk and also the very last of my favorite Irish butter. I then cruised over to my local Walgreen’s to see what was happening there. The manager told me to come back today at 10 AM after they restocked the TP and paper towels (with a limit of 4 of each per purchase).

What I think I’ve learned here is that there is some sort of distribution problem with certain grocery store chains. As much as I dislike Walgreen’s prices, they do seem to have a pretty efficient warehouse distribution scheme.  But the apparent greed I’m seeing among the citizens is a bit disheartening.

No worries now, since I’m pretty much re-stocked for a week or so. I get to hit my favorite nearby open space this afternoon to pester the ducks and geese once more before the next snow dump (6-8″) comes tomorrow. AND, my Durston X-Mid 2-p arrives tomorrow, so I’ll get to play with it while I wait for the snow dump to stop. And, you know, re-read some of my Hemingway books while I self-quarantine, and also take some well-timed naps.

[Brad Rogers]

The guy that bought all the hand sanitizer (18K bottles???) lives in a town about 15 minutes from me.  I don’t know him, and I guess I admire the entrepreneurial spirit, but hording and price gouging during a time like this is just plain immoral.  I hope he loses his shirt.

[Jerry Adams]

I just noticed the backhoe ad thing that Nick mentioned, that’s funny, creepy that Siri is feeding you ads about what you were saying

I have an Android.  It doesn’t do that, I put tape over the camera on my (Windows) PC.

[Nick Gatel]

We don’t even use Siri. Much easier to type even though we are senior citizens.

A few years ago Joyce bought me an Amazon Echo. Her IT guys at work said I would like it. To get it to work with all of my stuff I had to do some IFTTT “programming” to get it to do anything useful. A month later my unit was for sale at the local Goodwill store.

Apparently people aren’t using Siri to make purchase decision. “Siri, should I buy an extra case of toilet.” Or if they are, they might be getting bad advice.

[Jerry Adams]

Bad advice on TV

Someone rigged up a plastic entry lock where people could decontaminate before entering

They didn’t even debunk it

You would have to decontaminate the person’s nasal passages and lungs which isn’t possible

I heard about other people that do that

Don’t let anyone into your house that’s not a family member.

[Nick Gatel]

What if a family member gets infected while out of the house?

[Larry Swearingen]

So what is it with the Toilet Paper ? Surely you have enough in house already
to last a couple of weeks. If you run out what’s the worst that can happen ?
You have to start using old Newspaper ?
Oh yeah, I forgot Millenials don’t get the Paper anymore.

SO…….Use your damn Cell Phone !

Larry S

[obx hiker]

^^^  Brad , Well the NYT news piece made your neighbor famous, he started getting the negative attention he richly deserved and more importantly he received attention from the state of Tennessee; (taxes? and I’m sure more…) and anyway he contributed his remaining stock (after by his own account making @ 100,000) to charity /health organizations etc.

So it sorta ended better.

The “stock” was gathered by riding around much of Rural TN, KY WV, Al, GA  etc.?? and hitting all the crossroad/small town Dollar General stores and etc. so I guess those rural folks are still S.O.L.

 

 

[obx hiker]

The solution to all your TP woes:

Seat looks a little Spartan.

[BlackHatGuy]

“and anyway he contributed his remaining stock (after by his own account making @ 100,000) to charity /health organizations etc.”

After crying and saying he wasn’t a bad person…

[W I S N E R !]

Cancelling all of my backpacking and camping reservations today but I can hardly be bitter about that…

Had Anza-Borrego scheduled for this weekend, followed by car camping and backpacking in Zion two weeks later.

Parks are cancelling no questions asked, full refunds, which is nice.

While I could probably still go if I wanted to, it doesn’t feel right.  Telling extended family “See ya, won’t be in touch for a few days!” at a time like this doesn’t sit well; I’m sort of the go-to person for aging parents and in-laws to get help with things.  I fix the leaking faucets, I’m the one on call for emergencies….

The Zion trip was going to be my wife and I.  The kids’ Spring Breaks don’t overlap so we were going to do our own thing.  While they’re both independent, again, it doesn’t feel right saying “see ya” under these conditions even if we could.  And in two weeks, who knows where travel allowances will be anyway.

But in the meantime there are movies and games and art and books and my backyard gym and cooking and talking and walks in the neighborhood…We are quite fortunate.  My courses have shifted online so I also spend a good deal of time each day communicating with students.

 

 

[W I S N E R !]

On topic with the OP, it’s most definitely looks like it will mean FAR LESS camping and backpacking for me.

Which is perfectly OK.  Hard to be bitter about forgoing the luxury of vacations at a time when people may truly be hurting….

[David U]

Just cancelled my Zion’s trip for mid April as I would be flying in from Canada.  So disappointing.

Still have a couple of trips booked for the Canadian Rockies which is only a short drive away.  Thankfully.

Stay safe and healthy people.

[Russ W]

Looks like the Appalachian Trail Conservancy is asking folks to cancel or delay 2020 thru hiking plans:

https://thetrek.co/appalachian-trail/appalachian-trail-conservancy-urges-thru-hikers-postpone-hikes/

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