March 5

Welcome to March. The weather has been very mild so far. North of us got snow yesterday but here it was simply rain and not much of that. I would love to put my winter coat away but won't just yet. The patio is getting more reflected light off the fence which will warm up the pots and get rid of the snow and ice remaining. I have pots set up for indigo, madder, woad, and woodruff seeds but haven't planted yet.

The corona virus (COVID-19) has certainly thrown a monkey wrench into our economy, politics, and society.The news this morning said a small European airline was going out of business and it may not be the last. The heads of the American majors are in DC pleading for financial help. The Senate is supposed to consider and vote on the $8+billion emergency funding package for the government to deal with the virus. Pundits this morning were critical of how long the politicians delayed such funding, how long government officials all the way up to #45 refused to acknowledge the situation, and of how little is earmarked for aide to small business to help them stay afloat for the three months (or more) this thing is supposed to last.

A couple of news items this morning and several bloggers I read mentioned stores running out of supplies--bleach, sanitizing wipes, toilet paper, paper towels, and food items. Evidently people in some areas have decided to stock up just in case. We did our usual shopping yesterday and didn't notice any scanty or bare shelves. We had to go out for some bleach this morning because we ran out doing our usual laundry and found plenty on the shelves. We didn't stock up--just replenished what we normally use but were out of.

The main problem with the COVID-19 is the same problem we had with SARS, Ebola, etc.,--it is "novel" (as the name Novel Corona Virus suggests) and we simply don't know enough about it. Among the questions are "how easily does it spread" (very easily evidently), "how wide spread is it" (no one really knows), "how lethal is it" (again no one really knows and we won't until we know how many actually have it).  I could go on but you get the idea. I  do wish we could rely on our government to provide them but #45, according to a story Mom was just reading, just asked why we can't simply use influenza vaccines against it. To say the man is intellectually challenged is to be kind to the moron. Unfortunately he has eviscerated all the agencies we once relied on to deal with this kind of situation.

The economic situation is going to be interesting. So much of the global economy runs through China and the lockdowns there will have world wide effects. A news story earlier this week said that the bridal industry it taking a big hit because so many bridal gowns come from China nowadays. The global slowdown in demand for oil spurred OPEC to cut production to try to keep prices high and we noticed that the station where we fill up was down to $2.01/gal--the lowest we have seen in ages. Italy has closed schools and universities. I wonder what parents are doing for child care and how much of a drain on family finances that will be. California evidently has declared a statewide emergency. I only caught the headline on that so I don't know the details.