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Coronavirus - Several Months On

cstanton

I can easily understate that this has been crazy. Four to six months ago for a lot of people, the scenario we're in now was unbelievable.

 

Over those months, members of the Community stepped up with fantastic suggestions, projects, activities and intentions. Especially in the areas of personally protective equipment.

 

Now that we're still in the the process of dealing with it, as some countries ease down the restrictions, and yet others are still finding ways to cope with it - how are you handling it and coping with it?

 

Are you still working on projects to help with the pandemic, or have things moved on for you?

 

Did you end up identifying more activities that you can help out with, or is the new state of affairs now a business as usual for you?

 

For myself I'm still hiding at home, however more and more is opening up and getting closer to how matters were before and less requests of support, but I know that isn't the case everywhere in the world.

  • in reply to genebren

    That’s some really nice workmanship there Gene, looks fantastic.

  • It seems like I’m similar to others here that stick at home doesn’t really bother me.  My wife struggles a bit but her social circle is slowly re-grouping in gardens.  I’ve been happy at home playing around with LabView in between going out for walks in the countryside - it annoys me too much to walk around the town because it seems like many, many people just make no effort to maintain what is deemed to be a safe distance.  I’m worried I’ll say something and get beaten up image  The museum is closed and I miss going in there - some of the guys have been busy putting up perspex shielding around The Bombe so we can safely demonstrate it once it re-opens in September.

     

    The other thing I’m working on is on-hold at the moment as I’ve tied some of its progress to a roadtest application which I’m waiting to hear about.

     

    Strange times really.

  • in reply to dougw

    > tonight I will be 3D printing some clips to permit easy adjustment of mask strap lengths

     

    I could totally do with something like this for the masks I have, which were custom sewn, but I have difficulty maintaining how tightly they're tied!

     

    > I am thinking about doing an experiment to see how mask use affects our CO2 intake. I suspect it is not a positive aspect of masks

     

    The measurements I've seen have been monitoring blood oxygen levels, what's your approach?

  • in reply to cstanton

    The mask strap clips worked well, but highlighted a small geometry issue in mask design with the first mask I tried. I am now thinking about a new clip design that also mitigates strap angle issues.

    I want to measure CO2 concentration in the intake air supply. Masks retain some exhaled air which is very high in CO2 and this gets re-breathed. The mask also reduces air velocity of exhaled air, which means more of it will stay near enough to get re-breathed. I want to explore if masks create a CO2 "bubble" of higher concentration CO2 around the user. I have a meter and some sensors which I think could all be used for this testing.

  • in reply to dougw

    Hi Doug,

    You should enter your CO2 experiment in the Proving Science Competition.

    John

  • Still keeping ourselves very much to ourselves. My wife does the shopping, carefully and we also have some deliveries.

     

    The slight increases in freedom have allowed us to travel to my mother's empty house (she has been in care for the last year) and finally clear it in preparation for the impending sale - completion failed to happen last week for what seemed like a spurious reason and has probably failed again this week for a different, also somewhat spurious reason! Our solicitors are tearing their hair out.

     

    Meanwhile I have worked outdoors as much as possible and also tried to engage with electronics/software project work, but always feel guilty doing that when it's nice outside!

     

    Still waiting for our final overseas holiday (mid September, booked last January!) to be cancelled so we can get our money back!

     

    Struggling to deal with a variety of government organisations who say "do it online, don't phone us, don't write to us!". But for various reasons I can't do it online, indeed, in 2 cases I could only do it by post and they took 3 weeks to reply, and tell me that they needed additional documentation, which they hadn't initially asked for! Grrrrr!

     

    Neil

  • in reply to jw0752

    I will blog about it if the results are interesting although it would mainly be for everyone's awareness.

  • Here are some things that have changed for me since the start of pandemic:

    • I haven't had a haircut since March and am beginning to look a bit wild even for me
    • I moved from Seattle to Portland - not a wise thing to do if it can be avoided.  The obstacles to be overcome with government and business closures and house sales and...
    • I am much closer to family and grandkids now :-)
    • I go to the grocery store when it is open only for seniors and people at risk
    • I drive around with a box of masks and gloves in the car
    • I haven't been able to do anything with electronics because my things were in storage until I moved into the new house last weekend.  And now they are in boxes waiting to be unpacked. 

     

    But most importantly I have maintained my health and have much to be thankful for.

  • in reply to genebren

    I am extremely envious of your shop :-)