March 15

The corona virus situation is interesting and getting more so. We can (at least for now) simply look on. Some years ago, when the weather got strange, we started keeping about a week's supply of food and necessaries on hand. We have refined that somewhat and now only shop to replace what we have used. We did that on Tuesday. Then on Thursday, because of the declaration of "national emergency" decided to drop in at our local dairy and another supermarket for things the other store didn't carry even in more normal times. No place was crowded and all the shelves were  stocked except for the rubbing alcohol which had only three bottles left. It was on a 2 for 1 sale so we took two. I think the sale was more responsible for the scarcity than customers in a panic.

My brother went out yesterday to shop at two Aldi stores and reported a very changed situation. Both stores were crowded and were sold out of quite a bit, especially toilet paper and paper towels and some canned foods. It was almost as if a switch had been thrown.

Neither of #45's addresses were in any way calming, if we had needed calming which we didn't. Frankly, he bungled both. The Friday briefing showed exactly who will benefit from this epidemic: the big Pharma and health care companies. He seemed more concerned that the bill that we being developed in the House didn't provide further tax relief to big business than anything else. They got almost all the benefit from the last tax cut so I think it is past tine they "took one for the team." Now let's see if Moscow Mitch and the Senate sycophants can man up and pass it as well. Their Dear Leader has already said he would sign it.

Most schools around here are going to employ distance learning until at least April 1. That changed almost overnight also. We get most of our news from Chicago where the school board was intending to keep schools open except for particular cases which would close only long enough for a deep cleaning. Then the governor ordered all K-12 schools to close until March 30.

I read one of my favorite prepper bloggers this morning who said she felt as if things weren't quite real and wondered if others were feeling the same. Well, yes it does feel somewhat surreal. We have kept tabs (as best anyone over here can) as the Chinese infections climbed, their death rate rose, and they instituted travel bans and finally locked down entire cities. We have watched (again from a distance) as Italy recorded its first case, quarantined villages in the north, then imposed a travel ban and locked down the northern third of the country and then finally on the entire country. We were certain the virus would reach our shores all the time #45 was insisting it was a hoax, that it was a Democrat plot against him, imposed travel bans from the first areas hit but the virus, repeatedly demonstrated his abysmal ignorance of the biology involved. What were we doing during all this? We were asking a question we have asked frequently over the last several years: What if? It seems to me most people are averse to asking such a question. And because they don't ask that question they are in panic mode now. The author whose blog I read today notes that all the rules we operate under seem to have gone up in smoke. We depended on the Federal government for honest information but now we see the Liar-in-Chief spouting misinformation and know we can't depend on them any more. We see governors saying aloud that they can't rely on the Feds for support and aid.

It will be interesting.