I hope that everyone is keeping well.
Have you been affected by the coronavirus?
I had planned to be in Spain at the moment, but decided to cancel my flight. Here in the UK there are some shortages in the supermarkets. Also bars, clubs, restaurants etc… are closing tonight. However, I don’t know anyone who has caught the virus yet.
Hopefully, I should be able to find more time for Gramps though.
In Austria we do have “social distancing” sanctions for about a week now. Everything except critical infructructure is closed and people have to stay at home as much as possible. Exceptions are work (if homeoffice isn’t possible), buying groceries, to help people who need help and walks alone or with houshold members, but in distance to other people. The virus is still spreading too fast, but hopefully it’ll get slower doing that in the next days.
So far physically safe. The state, Massachusetts, has closed all schools, restaurants, bars and any gathering of people. Stores are still open but people are irrationally hoarding.
The closures include public libraries. Mine allows free access to Ancestry.com but only on their computers. 
I find that toilet paper hoarding behaviour weird.
Does the library maybe allow a connection into it’s network from home? Some universities allow that, so students have the university network access to journals and papers which are behind a paywall otherwise.
Doing OK so far here in Illinois. Have been sharing family stories from the 1918 pandemic with relatives, especially the youngest generations.
The local library is closed but its wifi is still available from the parking lot. One could access Ancestry and other library databases that way but I have plenty of things to keep me busy at home. For example, I recently learned about this relatively new site which has images from various European church registers: http://data.matricula-online.eu/en/
Went shopping Wednesday. No paper product, no chicken (plenty of pork and beef) and no peanut butter. Stores are getting more in but are emptied out soon after restocking.
No remote access. The library has many databases that it offers and most allow home access using your library card number login. The only two databases that do not allow home access are Ancestry and American Ancestors which is the New England Genealogical Society’s collection of databases.
Here in France it’s like in Austria: containment at home is required unless for some activities.
Archives centers are closed too, even if they wasn’t we couldn’t go in there, but lot of things is available on archives and genealogical web sites. Genealogical life still goes on.
Take care of you. Stay at home.
Our local library and history centre closed at the end of last week.
There are shortages of toilet rolls, soap, disinfectant cleaning products and cold/flu remedies. No real problems yet though. I also don’t understand why people are buying so much toilet roll.
I’m staying at home as much as possible.
Hello Nick,
people are guying so much toilet roll.
A “possible shortage” was mentioned on TV and in the newspapers.
Such things become self-fulfilling, IME.
Working from home now full time, but even if we’re set up for that, it not the same thing since the human interactions are less, and the Webex conferences are less creative than those in-person , I think.
We have been planning for pandemic con-ops for years now.
There is less commute-time which is good and breaks are used more efficiently. Some down sides of this are greater consumption of bathroom tissue at home, more sitting around without the inter-office travels for advice and consensus, and that means getting some exercise during the day to ease those aching bones, needing to re-establish borders and lines with loved ones, a furious cat who believes that I am now no longer a guest in his realm but a genuine intruder.
This too shall pass!
brian
Same irrational panic buying here in Oz.
Started with toilet paper; now extended to meat, chicken, flour, pasta rice and, of course hand sanitiser.
It’s actually started me using those trolley wipes stationed outside every supermarket!
Thankfully, very few face-mask users so far - at the moment, it seems to be only Asians doing it here (that may be a cultural thing).
In Oz society, we harbour a profound suspicion of any face-hiding behaviour in public, regardless of whether as a fashion or religious statement - it is perceived as duplicitous or just a bit dodgy (another cultural thing?)
I’m just finishing up (day 13 today) a self imposed 14 day quarantine. On March 2nd I traveled through major airports (LAX, San Fransisco, Baltimore Washington International) to attend an international conference on aquatic habitat restoration and beaver ecology. I returned home on the 10th. No symptoms or adverse conditions at all so far. Our ranch is in the middle of Umpqua National Forest and the possibility of unintended human contact is pretty slim. We just extracted almost 4 gallons of honey from our hives and we’ve got a couple of hundred bottles of home made wine in our root cellar. Not much changing around here. Many of my colleagues are home and are dysfunctional with out their office work. I suspect there will be a new baby boom in ninth months from now.
On my way home from Washington D.C. I stopped in Indianapolis Indiana at my brother’s home. He bequeathed me with hundreds of family pictures and documents from my grand and great grandparents. I plan to take the time to digitize all of them and return them to him.
It has made my compulsive introversion and social aversion eccentricities seem benign & healthy.
I had to look it up. Never heard of it before.
I hope the pictures are marked with who the people are and when/where it was taken. I was given a large cache of pictures with none of them identified and the only clue was that they belonged to my grandmother.
Some images are marked and others not. Documents have dates but there are some very old silver plate images with no names or dates. Frustrating to say the least.
Yes, Umpqua National Forest sports some of the last 3% of old growth forest in the contingent 48. We’ve been here since '91 and love it.
The last time I went shopping, I took my own wipes with me to clean the trolley handle. Now I’m using the collection service, which works well, with no contact with staff or other customers.
There seems to be a slight shortage of meat, but most things I want to order are available or there are suitable substitutes.
It looks like I will have a lot of free time soon. 
Just a quick update.
It looks like the supply of groceries is back to near normal now, including things like toilet rolls and soap. Certain disinfectant cleaning products are still unavailable though.
Hello Nick,
It looks like the supply of groceries is back to near normal now,
Speaking as one who stack shelves in a supermarket, I can tell you;
You are mistaken.
Interesting. I’m not actually going into the shop.
What products are still in short supply?
Hello Nick,
What products are still in short supply?
All sorts, across the store. Even with purchase limits (alright,
rationing) dried pasta, eggs and various tinned goods can be hard to
find at times. Fresh produce and fresh meat aren’t too bad, but even
there, ranges are slightly reduced.
There’s also the issue of staff shortages; People having to look after
their children, people in self-isolation or off sick (for whatever
reason, not just coronavirus) one’s even resigned where I work. Sure,
we’ve taken on new staff to cope, but it takes time for them to become
familiar with the routines and location of stock. Doubly so, with no
visual clues - empty shelves have no products you can match to, and
reading the labelling takes time. We help them - of course we do - after
all, we were all new ourselves, once.
With lock-down comes ‘ways in which we can occupy ourselves’. One of
them is baking. Therefore ready-made pastry, flour, caster sugar, etc.
are also selling faster than normal. Ready meals, OTOH, are almost
plentiful.
Logistics too, is a problem; Even with an amnesty on MOTs for
commercial vehicles (test centres are closed), and an extension to
driver’s permitted hours, there are still difficulties getting some goods
to their destination - drivers sick or in self-isolation, etc.
This message is far longer than I originally intended it to be. To say
nothing of being grossly off-topic. OTOH, it hopefully gives people a
better insight into what’s going on behind the scenes in their local
supermarket.