Exactly....Now is not a good time to be living anywhere in NY.

LOL! Was there ever a good time to live there?

I'm going to be "that person" right now and tell you guys a quick story. On April 1st, my friend Bill was healthy, working, living life, loving his wife and kids. On April 2nd, he suddenly felt bad. On April 15th, Bill died on a ventilator after his lungs were so full of fluid that he basically drowned in an ICU bed. I've been getting the daily updates on how he was doing. He didn't live in NYC. He was a nurse in a big hospital, taking all the precautions he could take, and now he's dead. I wonder if, on April 1st, Bill wondered if his Will was up to date and thought he should check it. I wonder if I should check mine while I feel fine.

Joke about this virus all you want. If it wants to kill you, there's nothing that's going to stop it and you're not going to get much warning.

So sorry for the loss of your friend. It is a frightening situation and so hard on family and friends that are unable to be with them during their hospitalization or with them to say goodbye when the time comes. I have nurses in the family and one of them (on the young side) just recovered from the virus and is once again back in the line of duty and the other is an ICU nurse with a toddler at home so it is stressful to say the least.

The best they could do was hook up a FaceTime session so his wife could see him and talk to him Tuesday night while he was sedated and on a ventilator. I hope that gave her some closure, but I know she wasn't willing to say goodbye at that point. I don't know if giving them a FaceTime session is standard or if they made an exception because he worked at the hospital.

I'm so sorry Pippi! This has to be incredibly difficult for everyone.

HMS Pippii:

So very sorry for your loss. This virus is no joke:(

Stay well everyone.

Hospitals in my area have been accepting ipads for patient communications with family members. The local school district donated a bunch of what they called expired ipads.

My bank donated 400 iPads to at least one major hospital - they're perfectly good devices, but have been taken out of use at the bank because of consistency for frontline devices and were fortunately still in our warehouse. I can't think of another situation where family isn't allowed to be there with their loved one.

Not much of a concern, but I also don't really want to call it "benefits" to seem insensitive either as the state of what's going on is horrible but...

I am really enjoying the lack of traffic going into work, especially since I drive a manual. My old 7 mile commute would usually take 40mins-1hr. This is what I imagine Los Angeles was like in the 40s or 50s. The office is mostly empty too. It's quiet and peaceful, minus the therapeutic click clacking of my mechanical keyboard (think IBM Model M from the 80s). Being at home more gives me more time to spend with my family, and coming up with innovative ways to stay connected to friends and family has been fun (online gaming, virtual happy hour, Facetiming and watching Netflix). My cooking skills have also been improving too since only unhealthy fast food places are open currently near me.

I hope to not offend anyone with sharing my thoughts, I urge everyone to enjoy the little things while we are still able to. Furthermore, I just want to view things from the perspective of the glass being half full and hopefully spread some positivity. Thanks for reading and take care!

Great perspective Florist!

I'm going to try and find some new positives that have arisen because of the current crisis.

My favorite positive is that my commute involves a flight of stairs and I haven't worn shoes to work for 5 weeks and 2 days. It's really lovely to lose the 45 minute commute each way. I feel like I retired except that I'm still working and have an exam in process.

It's also REALLY nice to roll out of bed and be online in 10 minutes (or to not roll out of bed, grab the phone, and get up when I can no longer get everything done on my phone)

Discovering that I can play with the grandson on FaceTime while he aims his iPad at the screen where he's playing MineCraft, and I can make all the appropriate comments while reading a book.

I'm still laughing at one of my indirect reports who wasn't paying attention to her boyfriend in his boxers who was sitting behind her during an exam WebEx meeting until he got up, scratched, and wandered out of the room... really sure that won't happen twice, but it was funny AF in the moment.

As someone said, "Stay safe. Stay sane. Stay the F away from me."

OMG! That's hysterical! And at the same time would make me completely panicky! Hopefully there were no examiners on the call, and no confidential information was being discussed.

That is a great idea but make sure that the donated devices were wiped of customer information otherwise you will have other issues.

I'm at the office everyday, as usual, but the drive in is much quieter. And so is the office. But have been on 8 hour/day conference calls on new platform build for a week with two more full ones to go and that is taxing under any circumstances.

Sorry to hear but as per other social media sites only the teachers have it difficult (even worse than the medical profession). Your normal day is nothing as compared to what they face during these trying times.

There were examiners... fortunately, nothing confidential was being discussed because he didn't show until he stood up. I was happily on mute and the person talking was busy looking at his other monitor and didn't notice it. #remoteexams

My teacher friends are tearing their hair out trying to function in this environment. Not all heroes wear capes.

Teachers here are hopping on the buses that take noon meals to the kids that probably aren't getting hot meals during the shutdown. Won't hear me say a bad word about them!

In 6 weeks my daughter heard from her teacher twice.but I am sure that she is busy with lesson plans and grading online classes and administrative stuff (not a sarcasm font) but like banks they needed to be prepared for this prior to the pandemic. They are not on buses here as the few who qualify are required to pick up at the schools. In my neighborhood they are constantly complaining that they are working harder than the rest of us which is doubtful. I am also sure that it would be different in different areas of the country but not in my community.

The real hero's of this in my area are the forgotten workers: the grocery store worker, pharmacy workers truck drivers, IT support, utility workers and many many more all doing what they do without proper training and supplies to deal with the virus.

I agree, there are many more hero's besides the healthcare workers. Not shooting them down here, just saying that others are valuable too.

Yeah for utility workers!

now the planning to unwind the remote workers and slowly migrate them back into the office becomes the focus...