March 20

Some aspects of daily life here haven't changed at all and others have changed quite a bit. Because of the way our weather out here has gotten crazy over the last few years we plan on being able to stay in if a nasty storm comes through for as long as necessary. As we have gotten older we simply don't go out in those conditions for our own safety. Both of us are retired so we don't have to drive to a job no matter what is going on. None of that has changed.

What has changed is some of the planning because many of the stores we visit have changed their hours. Just this morning the supermarket we visited yesterday announced reduced hours. They no longer are open 24 hours. They also have dedicated hours for emergency personnel and seniors. Other places are totally closed. I just ordered the thread I was missing or short on for the new cross-stitch project--on line. I have two other sources--one I don't deal with because I don't like the owner's politics and the other has become more difficult to get to because of the new round-about between them and me, and I don't know what hours they might be open now. We have been using on-line sources more these last couple of years. I wonder how much retail will move entirely on line during and after this health emergency. I wonder how much of our local economy will be left.

I have thought for some time that globalization and the just-in-time philosophy of modern business had long exceeded it expiration date. Our current situation should under score both points. Just-in-time requires a smoothly functioning supply chain and assumes that nothing will upset that. There is an old saying that "assume makes an ASS out of U and ME." We should have learned that when Thailand suffered those devastating floods not many years ago and the auto industry seized up because the parts came from flooded Thai factories. We have been warned for years that too many of our pharmaceuticals either come from China or from India who gets the components from China. In order to make the respirators the news readers say are in short supply here we have to retool what industries we have because we don't make those here any more. You can go down a list of critical items and find most come from elsewhere. I don't know if our business and political "leaders" will learn from this but what I see doesn't inspire hope.

March 21

I put down the computer yesterday and forgot to come back and post. Oh, well.

Things keep ramping up on the COVID-19 front. Illinois is under a "stay at home" order for all but essential employees. I was amazed by a picture on the news of a long line of people entering a Costco in Chicago. I would have thought most people would have already stocked up but I guess not. California and New York are under the same condition. I suspect the politicians are slowly ratcheting up hoping they won't have to go to the more drastic measures Italy has instituted.

I had an amusing thought hearing one of the many reports on the shortage of medical masks of any kind. Maybe the Muslim niqab (face veil) will become a fashionable western accessory. I saw one woman with a scarf wrapped around her mouth and nose and another two with surgical masks like what Chinese have worn to combat heavy air pollution.

I just found a creative new (to me) appellation for #45: Anus Tangerinus. You can find it in the comments at Infidel753.

We were getting low on milk which we get from a small local dairy so we went out this morning. We also get our honey and maple syrup from that dairy and I just opened the last jars of each so it wasn't just milk. We were almost out of potatoes and onions as well and the store we go to for produce was on the way to the dairy. We were surprised at the number of customers at both sites. Usually the dairy has only one or two customers at the same time we arrive but today it had five. The grocery store was packed and opened two additional registers while we waited. They have also opened a "seniors" hour early in the morning.

John Mauldin has a long letter on his economics blog this morning which reflects many ideas that occurred to me on the COVID-19 epidemic. Interesting note in his blog--one of his sources informed him that several states' unemployment sites have crashed because of volumes they were not designed to handle. This NBC article from three days ago confirms that. Interesting since yesterday the Federal government asked states not to issue specific figures for unemployment until the Federal figures are released. Instead they are urged to use descriptors like "very high" etc instead of numbers. Those guys can't handle real numbers. Hell, they can't handle reality.