Contactless

No new post yesterday ... I guess no news is good news. It's starting to get hard to keep track of the various celebrity infections and deaths. We've been assured Betty White is safe and in quarantine, though 😂

Infections are starting to hit a little closer to home - I have a couple friends locally who are confirmed cases. A colleague has it (that was the person I mentioned last week as the first confirmed case I know - now that they've told us officially I will say it's a colleague), and another colleague's parent just passed away from it.

We had a big departmental [virtual] meeting yesterday where someone mentioned they attended a meeting earlier in March in New Orleans. Someone asked if they were concerned, since that area is becoming another "hotspot," and they very somberly said that they did come home with "something," and some other people they traveled with were sick as well. But tests weren't available then, so they'll have to look for antibodies when that test is available, to see if it was COVID-19.

My husband and I went out yesterday morning to pick up a grocery order. It was a much better experience than last time, because they've changed to completely contactless - the store worker just puts the bags in your car and you leave, there's no paperwork to sign. We got everything we ordered except for some jerkey my husband wanted, and any type of pasta. But we have plenty of fresh food for now, as well as packaged and frozen stuff. I signed up for a produce delivery service that starts next week (they also have meat, dairy, and some pantry things), so this Friday I'll be able to go in and customize my first order.

Band performance on 4th of July, 2017

I've been saying since all this started that it's going to be really hard for a really long time, but it's becoming more and more apparent to people that this isn't going to be over after a couple weeks or even a couple months. This is an excellent paper, from reputable sources, about what needs to happen before we can phase back into different aspects of normal life. (Even just the executive summary is worth a read!)

With the extension of school closures and large gatherings, we had to cancel my band concert, and it's looking like we won't be able to perform for any crowds this summer either, though none of our venues have cancelled yet. (If they're recommending groups of less than 50 people, our band alone is twice the legal limit.) We still received an e-mail today from our director about what to prepare for any potential summer performances.

And yes, if anyone is wondering, we finally succumbed to peer pressure and started watching the Tiger King documentary on Netflix.

Me: I can’t stop thinking about, talking about, or reading about the coronavirus

Netflix: let me introduce you to Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin. #TigerKing pic.twitter.com/1Oamnc2vMF

— Mary (@maryyyyrosee) March 23, 2020