Everyday brings more closures

Well, all the restaurants and bars were shut down last night, they can still do take-out, but who knows for how long.  People are complaining, of course, but if they'd stopped going out in crowds and disregarding behaviors to curb the spread, maybe we'd have different choices...but here we are.  (The Farmer's Markers have been suspended, the University Bookstore, REI, Nordstrom's,  public libraries, community centers, gyms, etc., all closed.)

I had been planning on working from home today, but couldn't get my credentials to work, so walked in.  Late morning, saw fewer than 20 other people.  Got the computer situation corrected, and met with my colleague and boss regarding what happens next.  No in-class meeting until the end of April now.  Spent the rest of the day at the office working on facilities-related repercussions.  Walked home, stopping by Whole Foods to get some D-Mannose because I have another bladder infection, hit after I'd gotten to work, but had too much to do to leave early.  They had that, but so many bare shelves.  It didn't seem so busy, but whole aisles were emptied out, and the dairy case was picked over.  I bought some tempeh "bacon" and then after I opened it, wondered how you could tell if it was still good.  It wasn't slimy, and didn't smell funky (that's what I found online) so I ate it.  Still feel okay, stomach-wise.

Was it a week ago? Two weeks ago, that the WHO report from China came out?  How it was said what worked and part of that was the quarantines, and the other part was construction of the hospitals, testing, and sending out teams to find all the contacts of the patients.  And the infection numbers started to fall.  Everyone said, "Oh, you could never do that here."  Well, we're having to do that here now; here, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, etc., etc.  Still can't seem to get a test if you need it, though it's slowly turning...too slowly.  So, we wash our hands 'til our skin cracks, and we isolate.  All to slow the spread of infection, to keep the hospitals from becoming overwhelmed...to keep people alive.  There's gonna have to be some monetary aid for lost wages, lost business, lost revenue, lost rent...but now the choice is more stark, it's between choosing that now, or keeping people alive.  We waiting too long to take it seriously, so that's where we are.

With so much of the things that kept my life anchored cancelled now, I'm losing track of time, of days.

The weekend was cold and sunny, with a wind-chill in the low 30's, unseasonably chilly, but today was sunny and warm.  The cherry trees continue to bloom in relative privacy.  I keep waiting for the deer and coyotes to come wandering into the streets, there's hardly any traffic.

My computer keeps kicking me out of programs, when it lets me, I'll try to download pictures from my walk to work.