A personal observation:
The hysteria must have hit right a peak after 12:30pm yesterday. I was at work. We got the email at 11:35 that all Santa Clara County schools are to be closed as of Monday. My own school is out for four weeks. I must go in Monday as a normal work day, and twiddle my thumbs for six hours if I want the district to pay me for my contracted hours for the next four weeks. Tuesday we are all barred from campus. Fine by me.
My commute has been dreamy for the past week as all the tech companies have forced their employees to telecommute. A one hour commute has been 20 minutes. It'll be zero on Tuesday.
Right after I got off work yesterday, I headed to Safeway to get some lunch. It was 3pm. Most of the aisles had already been cleaned out: dry goods, frozen food, canned goods, cleaners, the lot. I managed to get one frozen lunch (which I'll eat Tuesday), a frozen pizza, and some eggs and the last box of cinnamon oatmeal on the shelf.
After waiting in line for 45 minutes, and yes I timed it, I saw how haggard the checkout guy was. I asked him if it was this bad all day, or if it got bad right after 12:30. He said, "It was busy before 8am, but there was a huge rush right after 12:30. Why?"
I told him that's about the time Trump called for a national emergency (two very big words, doncha know). He expressed surprise that Trump had acted at all.
I went to the Mercado down the street from my house this morning. They still have ample stock, so I grabbed more eggs, taco sauce, and tortillas. You know, important stuff. I was one of two customers in the store. Thank goodness for small stores with no real foot traffic!
Other Half is in one of the high risk groups. Cardiovascular issues, asthma, and of course, all the injuries from the bicycle accident over two years ago. Other Half must continue to work, because the company does not have enough money to shutter its doors. There's no sick leave, because this is a brand new job, started just before Christmas. As I'm the one who is the healthiest, though I do have asthma and allergies, I'm going to be the one suiting up to go to Kaiser for prescriptions, doing laundry, getting food when needed.
We did manage an Amazon order a couple of nights ago. We are stocking up on Boost, kleenex, cough syrup, Pelligrino, gatorade, and have two boxes of gloves. We also have the half dozen N95 masks I bought just before the fire season last year.
Other Half is happy to be an Introvert now that there's an excuse to never leave the house.
I'll probably end up with cabin fever by Wednesday. I've washed my hands so much that my hands have dried up and blown away in the breeze. We may end up infected, as the odds are that 70% of us will get it. But I'm determined we will both survive. I hope all of you do too.
Stay healthy, and try not to stress.
