Pre-Incarceration Day, March 15

I, on the other hand, CAN afford to call my handy-woman who will shop for me.  Thank God she is only 64.  I, who CAN text, sent her a list of 2 weeks of staples.  I had no idea what she might bring me.  I did shop 4 days ago and there were gaps on the shelves.  I was fortunate to find my toilet paper, but there weren’t many choices, nor very many rolls of any kind left.  Disinfectant – none.  Paper towels – none.  Hand sanitizers – none.  Ice – none.  I understand toilet paper, disinfectant, paper towels, hand sanitizers, but for the life of me, I don’t know why people were hoarding ice.  If you know, please let me know.  I figured, oh well, I can wait until they restock.  Wrong!  The long arm of the state took control.

At a press conference Governor Newson announced the closure of restaurants and bars, night clubs, wineries and brew pubs.  In the restaurants allowed to stay open, patrons will be required to “socially distance” themselves.  (Bet “socially distance” makes the new words in the dictionary this year.)  He said that any meeting of 250 people or not must not happen.  I begin to see that I probably wasn’t going to have a chance to solve the forage problem myself.

Day I of Incarceration, March 16

Now how do we go about this Marietta, my handy-woman and I discussed.  As I said, I’d sent her quite a list and sent her off into the wilderness for food and household supplies.  I explained that if she couldn’t find it all, that was fine.  I got some interesting substitutes, but I can get through 2 weeks.  But there was no Save Mart already cooked chicken or hamburger.  Thank God, Moe’s food comes by mail. But this brought up that how do you get the food, etc., into your house safely.  Sherri Coulson wrote, “Have Marietta get to the store to stock your shelves and the freezer.  Can you freeze milk and yogurt?  When she gets to the house have her strip off her clothes which you will immediately throw into the washer – and be sure to rinse twice.” Kinder than Sherri I imagined Marietta naked and freezing on the door step, so I could give her a robe which I would wash immediately once she had a bath and put her own clothes back on.  Sherri wrote, “If it wasn’t so serious, it would be hilarious.”

Not realizing my plan for her, Marietta had offered to come over and board up the windows so I couldn’t escape.  She wanted to know if MY HAZMAT suit was clean – she was worried about contamination, too.

The news was not good tonight.  6 counties near and including San Francisco have been ordered to shelter in place (another new word).  Airlines say they will go bankrupt in a couple of months.  (See what they get for the bad spacing issues, surly agents and circular routes.)  They want loans, suspension of taxes and a long line of other assistance.

There will be no travel unless ABSOLUTELY necessary.

35 million kids are not in school because schools are closed.  This brings up the problem of feeding millions of kids who only get their meals at school.

The fed has dropped interest rates to 0%. (Damn, if I could leave the house, this would be a perfect time to refinance.)  It may eventually, but the stock market plunged for the second biggest drop in history.

Wow, t finally declares a national emergency.  The right leaning rumors are that he will close all the banks.  Oh, my.  He did say they were considering a national 8:00 PM curfew, but if people can’t go out, why would there be any need for a curfew?

No, he is not responsible for any of the problems that we are facing because they have done a marvelous job.  However, that is not what ANY medical czars say.  They say that decisions he has made in the past make things worse and then there is his refusing to recognize there was a problem up until now.  Here are some of his past decisions.

• His first budget proposal contained proposed cuts to the CDC that former Director Tom Frieden warned were “unsafe at any level of enactment.”
• Congress mercifully didn’t agree to any such cuts, but as recently as February 11 — in the midst of the outbreak — Trump proposed huge cuts to both the CDC and the National Institutes of Health.
• Perhaps because his budget officials were in the middle of proposing cuts to disease response, it’s only over this past weekend that they pivoted and started getting ready to ask for the additional money that coping with Covid-19 is clearly going to cost. But experts say they’re still lowballing it.
• In early 2018, my colleague Julia Belluz argued that Trump was “setting up the US to botch a pandemic response” by, for example, forcing US government agencies to retreat from 39 of the 49 low-income countries they were working in on tasks like training disease detectives and building emergency operations centers.
• Instead of taking such warnings to heart, later that year, “the Trump administration fired the government’s entire pandemic response chain of command, including the White House management infrastructure,” according to Laurie Garrett, a journalist and former senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Even trump seems to have gotten the message and he has found a way to dispense real information in an appropriate manner.  HE said no more people in a group than 10.

Day 2 of Incarceration 3/17

We have walked four miles each day.  There is less traffic.  Today I could see how my local economy grinds to a halt:

Lolly Cup, a yogurt and coffee restaurant, closed.

Two Guys sandwich shop closed

Oh my God it must be serious, the drive thru Starbucks closed.

I panicked.  For someone who didn’t drink coffee until I was over 40 (not because of Joe who didn’t drink it at all) I began to get the DTs.  When Joe was dying, it was a daily latte I purchased or some kind neighbor brought me, that got me through.  I don’t don’t like to admit it, but it is so.  My coffee wasn’t good until my friend told me to get a French Press.  My coffee got much better, but this grind isn’t the usual at the local grocery store.  What if there wasn’t an open Starbucks or another shop that did French Grind?  I can’t drink instant.  I had a Black and Decker coffee maker I could dig out and use the regular grind.  I hurried home and ransacked the garage.  In an attempt to rid myself of unneeded items, I’d done it, I’d given the pot away.  I was beside myself until I went online (I am one of those old folks who can both text and use the internet) and saw that there are several Starbucks nearby.  I sat down and cried.  This emergency we are all facing had become much too real.