April 1

We did our shopping yesterday. We generally shop every 10 days usually when we are out of milk. Things have definitely changed. Two weeks ago I saw two people with surgical style masks and one with her scarf up around her mouth and nose. Yesterday about 10% of people were masked. The experts are till in dispute over how effective the masks might be for the general public. Most do agree that the surgical and N95 masks should be reserved for medical personnel. One interesting chart showed that places like Singapore and other Asian cities where even in more normal times people wear masks have had lower infection/mortality rates. We looked up a couple of quick and easy ways to sew our own. I have plenty of pretty fabric.

Other things were different also. The little dairy was almost out of the locally produced meats they usually carry. We thought we would pick up some breakfast sausage but it was sold out. We were able to get our butter, milk, and yogurt. The Meijer we normal go to for most of our groceries had major gaps. We decided not to take advantage of the early hour (7-8am) reserved for people our age and didn't get there until just before 9 since we went to the dairy first. However, I don't think they were run out of their stocks in just two hours. No flour at all. None of the yogurt we normally get. Yeah, I know we got yogurt from the dairy but we use the two brands differently and try to keep a couple containers of each. The canned veggies had big gaps. The juice aisle was half empty. The cat litter was almost gone. We got two 26lb boxes when normally we would have got the smaller boxes. We wanted the flour since our canister was almost empty so we went to our back up supermarket. They were totally out of our favorite brands (King Arthur and Red Mill) and were almost out of most of the other brands. We got two of the last three 5 lb bags Ceresota but Pillsbury and Gold Medal were almost gone. They did have a few 10lb bags. We did find the chili beans the other store was out of and got a couple of cans. They didn't have much left there.

April 2

Cut the pieces to make two masks. Will press and pin tomorrow and then sew on Saturday. We were vacillating because the opinions were all over the place on whether non-medical people or emergency responders should wear then. The consensus seems to have settled on yes regular people should wear masks of some kind when they are out of the house. They won't hurt and may help reduce the spread of the virus. However, the surgical and N95 masks should be left for medical personnel. After finishing the first two I will see if I need to adjust the pattern.

Tomorrow I will get the next set of starter pots filled and prepped for seeding over the weekend.

My jaw dropped last week when the new unemployment claims exceeded 3 million. The newest figures more than doubled last week's tally.