Puzzle Description:

Check in

#1: Brian Bellis (mootpoint) on Mar 23, 2020

I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe during this time of crisis.

My wife and I are doing fine here. We talk to or text our kids most days just to see how they are doing. The anxiety of not knowing what will happen or when the "all clear" will sound is difficult to take. It is strange how so much has been put on pause.

Be well,
Brian

Thank you, Brian.

"Be well" has been my sign-off for years, especially in business-related communications. But now it has become relevant, and sadly so.

While we face two crises, each of which is horrible, WebPbn is a great distraction and comfort. I'm grateful to Valerie and all the puzzle makers.
Wishing good health and good luck to all.

We are fine here. Baking, organizing, growing seedlings, catching up on reading.

I hope everybody else is well too.

We are all fine. One daughter is on lock-down in San Diego; the other in Columbus, OH. Our main problem is frazzled nerves due to worrying about each other's frazzled nerves. Thanks for asking, Brian - you're a mensch!

Thanks, Brian, for a clever puzzle and a timely topic. Webpbn is a great community, especially now.

My two oldest kids (with developmental disabilities) and I are doing great here in Arizona. There's a long story about the drama that led up to their living back home with me as their 24/7 caregiver, which I'll save for another puzzle. My son, a single guy in Colorado is an introvert and is happy to be at home working remote as a programmer, with no social contacts, except for daily phone calls with me. I am pleasantly surprised at how nice it is to stay at home with my two older kids, as they have some complex mental health issues as well as DD. Never a dull moment around here.(✬‿✬)

Teresa, we must be related. I have two autistic sons and a older son who is an introverted computer software engineer in Denver. But he never calls home. Staying home has been kind of nice, but only because my husband and I both have our income, and our jobs are pretty stable. Some people have it a lot worse. We've been doing puzzles and playing games. I wish everyone here in PBN well.

Thank you Brian. We are hunkered down in the southeast playing cards and board games or outside picking up pinecones. Our household is in good health. Not anxious. Not worried. Not hoard crazy, although I can't say that for my fellow neighbors. Okay guys, please relax and stop taking every item from the shelves immediately. This isn't the 1800s. Some of us would like to have a can of tuna this month.

Stay safe fellow WEBpbners. And thanks for all of the new puzzles. I appreciate them.

Here in New England we are hunkered down. At my afternoon job I am considered "essential personnel" because i cut the checks, both bills and paychecks. My office is secluded, behind a door and large window. i speak to people who come in through that window. (only 2 in the past week)
For my morning job, i work from home. i've brought everything i need home so i can pay bills from there.
We are playing board games and watching movies. I miss my Tai Chi Classes.
i love this community of puzzle creators and solvers.
thanks for the distraction and community.

Thanks for checking up on us all, Brian! Thanks for your great puzzles during this health pandemic!

My husband are I are doing okay, although I've had a cough for the last 5 weeks that I can't shake. So we are a bit worried about me coming down with another coughing virus. I spoke to my doctor today and he was very calming. I told him I was particularly worried because my son, who lives at home, works full-time at our local Stop and Shop on Long Island, NY. We have an awful lot of cases around here. My son is very careful when he comes home. Washes his hands upon leaving work and then goes directly into the shower upon coming home. I appreciate him and all his fellow retail staff for keeping the store open during this crisis but it is nerve-wracking. Stay well!

Uh, yeah. I'm good here. I'm essential personnel at a grocery store. I can be found at a register wiping down everything frequently like a paranoid germaphobe. I feel like I'm on the frontlines trying to keep everybody from getting sick. The panic buying is just about over, so I am recovering from exhaustion while still going to work. I haven't reached burnout yet, and if it continues this way, I probably won't. I'm getting by and energizing myself by focusing on what I can do for others rather than how much I'd rather just stay home all day.

Today though, this thought crossed my mind: I'm a hipster. I was avoiding crowds before it was cool. 😁

Today was my last day at the library, as Louisiana officially shut down all non-essential personnel. We'd been closed to the public for awhile, but answering phones and checking the book drops. Now we'll be working from home (online training classes, mostly) and wondering whether the government will stop cutting our checks.

My son is taking it in stride, but he's a high school senior this year, and I've been low-key in mourning on his behalf. I don't know what will happen with graduation, but his senior trip and Prom and everything else were cancelled.

Hello all - Connecticut is newer to the pandemic, with 10 deaths and 500 cases so far. I expect those numbers to rise dramatically. Our governor has been very much in front of this, and closed schools weeks ago, and every day more and more businesses and agencies are being shut down. As a lawyer I am categorized as essential, as is my wife as she directs a home care agency. I think by and large people are starting to adjust, but not everyone seems to be taking it seriously enough, and those few can cause severe problems for all of us. Stay healthy and be smart!

Belita -- I have two kids with autism too -- though the two of them are as different from each other as night and day.

Kristen -- My middle son is a high school senior too. Like yours, he's been taking it all in stride, but I am sad to see him missing out on the admitted students weekend at the college he will attend, and his prom and graduation.

It's great to hear from everybody around the country. I'm here in not-so-sunny So Cal. We've been getting so much rain. The sky is as gray as our moods. Hope it all ends soon. I thought I had a job that nobody could touch - playing the organ and directing the choir at church. I sure didn't ever see this coming - church closing. Until then, I'm looking forward to my puzzles every day. Hey, the sun just came out. :)

I'm well too, having been sheltering at home for a week. With up to a 14-day incubation period, I suppose I'll be completely out of the woods this weekend. My local daughter is also home with her family. As the designated shopper she orders groceries including mine in advance online, then picks them up, prepackaged, in her car. She has a strict protocol for entering her house and wipes off the groceries, then leaves mine on my front porch, where we wave madly and blow kisses at each other through the window.

I was commenting to a friend the other day about those photos out of Florida where teens and young adults were dangerously and selfishly ignoring all the warnings and commingling closely on the beaches, putting at risk not only themselves but everyone they might come into contact with in the following two weeks. Not us, I said, we're Canadians who follow the rules, and Prime Minister Trudeau, who is self-isolating because his wife contracted the virus on a trip to the UK, had told the country in his daily briefing to go home and stay home. I was so wrong. Most provinces have declared a state of emergency, but two days later there was a photo in the news of young people closely lined up a block long at a Toronto video store, waiting for the release of a new game. The day after that, which was yesterday, the premiers of Ontario and neighouring Quebec announced the mandatory shutdown tonight of every non-essential business and service in the two provinces. Conicidence? I'm guessing it wasn't.

My younger sister lives with my elderly brother-in-law, who is mentally vigorous but a little frail physically, in a small town in the UK, which until yesterday has been notoriously lackadaisical in guidance from its leadership. I emailed her last Wednesday but she hasn't responded, which is highly unusual for her. She is a dual citizen of Canada and the US, and often visits her kids in the US. I don't even know which country she's stranded in. I'm now officially worried.

We are in Florida, where we came to visit my brother and sister in-law (90 and soon 97). After I was diagnosed with a subdural hemorrhage, I had an emergency craniotomy here in Florida, and that's where we are now. I'm the only one leaving the apartment, about once a week to get supplies. So far we are all well, and Webpbn has saved my sanity. Thanks for asking and for the puzzles. I'm glad all of those above me are doing as well as expected.

I'm in Missouri, where we had a mandatory 30-day shut down start today, although I've been working remotely for a week. My company also instituted a mandatory work from home plan for all of our US offices (about 12,000 people) starting last Thursday, and that will go for about 30 days. It hasn't been too bad so far, as I'm used to working from home one day a week. Thank goodness for FaceTime and Zoom and Skype so I can keep up with my friends. Oh and wine - lots of wine.

Take care and stay well, Jota. Lol, Claire. I don't drink alcohol (even drinking wine sparingly provoked dreaded migraines when I was in my twenties so I gave it up and never missed it), but there are days I wish I did ...

Jota! that is really scary!!! I hope you are okay!!!

Getting better! Thanks

Wow, Jota. I'm glad you are recovering okay.

Thanks!

Praying for you all and giving thanks for this site which is saving my sanity lol. I am back home in Iowa City. I drove 1380 miles in 22 hours. Left at noon on Sunday from DisneyWorld (Wyndham Bonnet Creek). I intended to catnap on the way, but my body said otherwise...it wanted to get home and so it never really tired. I stopped to get gas, stretch and have bathroom breaks, but that was about it. I'm now spending 14 days in self imposed quarantine, but I seem to be in good health for a 70 year old. Three of our children are in the trenches, seeing coronavirus patients. we are taking extreme care here. Much love to you all.

We are doing okay here. Our older daughter and son are both essential in the food industry, but from offices. My daughter is working from home, and my son is back and forth. Our nephew, younger daughter, and younger son are all in the construction field, so are currently working, but that won't last if the supply pipeline gets clogged, as in the permit office is closed, etc. My husband is in construction and I direct our local community food pantry, so we're working as well. I wish we could hunker down, because we care for my 98-year-old mother who lives next door with my son and a friend. I don't want her to become a statistic.
Vicki, I too play the piano at church and sing on the worship team. It's been weird not to be there, or preparing each week.

Great idea for a puzzle Brian and it's good to hear from everyone. I'm a church administrator and have been busier than ever. We've moved much of our programming onto Zoom, which allows those with computers to log in and those without computers to dial in so everyone can still participate (to some degree). It's amazing what we've been able to do. Our choir director has pre-recorded the hymns, a couple of our soloists were able to do voice overs, so now I just pop the file into the PowerPoint and we can all sing along from our own locations (With a heavy hand on the "mute all" function, or we sound like the tower of Babel!)
Got to go now -it's time for our daily check-in with the congregation....

Very fun image.

Hi, we were visiting family in Brazil when Argentina ordered the borders to close so it was quite an ordeal to come back. Most likely we have been exposed to the virus in the long hours we had to spend at both airports. That was six days ago. Strict quarantine since then, we couldn't get to our house which is 1800 km from Buenos Aires as domestic flights are also cancelled. So we came to one of my son's apartment in La Plata which is 50 km from Buenos Aires. (my son is a programmer also but not introverted) My older son who lives in this city in another apartment does the shopping.
I still have hopes that we were not infected but we are both very nervous, because my husband is 65 y/o and has heart and lung problems.
So far I have spent the whole time working remotely. that gives me something else to think about. And WebPBN helps also.

Oh Claudia. I hope you both stay well. Being forced to travel during this time must be a living nightmare.

My heart goes out to you Claudia. I hope you and your family stay well.

Will include you and your husband in my prayers Claudia!

Hi, thanks for your good wishes, we are well and back at home in isolation as is the rest of the country.

Glad to hear your are well Claudia!

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