Day 3: Sunday
Last night I read several more chapters of World War Z and it was none too easy to fall asleep.
This morning I went to the Farmers' Market, arriving shortly after it opened, and found roughly the normal crowd of both vendors and customers. Most wore no protective gear; the vendors, in any case, come largely from less affected parts of the state. I wore gloves while making purchases, but not for any reason I had thought through. I was careful to buy no more than I expected to eat over the coming week. If other people were hoarding, I didn't see it. Most of what is sold here is perishable, but can last weeks in the fridge.
The Sunday Assembly held a team meeting by video, for the first time. That part went smoothly after the first ten minutes or so of people getting used to the app. No-one had trouble installing it -- ten years ago would have been different. We took it for granted that an indoor Assembly for next month was off the table, and mulled whether to hold an outdoor event -- hereabouts the odds favour good weather in mid-April -- or one online, by video again We don't really know how to do this.
I made a loaf of bread, and checked online for flour, which I shall be using up fast if the boys still eat bread at the rate they used to. The two default big-box stores have roughly no whole wheat flour in the nearest eight or ten towns. I can order it online, but that adds shipping cost, in some cases a lot of it.
My wife tells me her church's service had viewers as far away as the Netherlands. Presumably the churches over there are also not holding mass gatherings. A report in the Guardian says the peak of the epidemic there is expected in late May or early June, and even if the usual summer lull in coronavirus family infections does come, things will stay bad for months, with 10% of vital personnel unfit for duty and not enough test kits even for them. (The US gov't seems to have little enough idea how to get through next week.) A Guardian columnist sardonically points out that the people have not, in fact, had enough of experts. Me, I look forward with all due schadenfreude to what the anti-vaxxers will say when a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 is offered.
I have also looked into certain aspects of California law. Most of this family's assets are owned jointly by me and my wife: if I am either incompetent or dead, she can do whatever is needed, with no obstacles at all. One of my retirement accounts is in my sole name, and would need to pass through Probate before she could inherit it. The other has a strange legal status whereby I am the beneficiary (am I the owner at all?) as long as I am alive, but when I die, she becomes the beneficiary and can make withdrawals. The only obstacle there seems to be notifying the financial institution of my death.
Quackery for profit has already begun (see also World War Z): a shipment of fake CoViD-19 tests has been intercepted coming into the US. Keep checking those cargoes, guys!
By the number of hospital cases, there are probably several hundred undetected patients in this county, and perhaps a thousand or more newly infected. The numbers continue to grow very fast, except in China. It would be interesting to know how China is restarting its economy, but if there are reports on that, I don't see them. Ireland is taking the epidemic very seriously. It's two days before St. Patrick's and the Taoiseach is asking pubs to close. All of them.
Finished WWZ. If you haven't, it ends on a relaxed note, for which I am glad.
This morning I went to the Farmers' Market, arriving shortly after it opened, and found roughly the normal crowd of both vendors and customers. Most wore no protective gear; the vendors, in any case, come largely from less affected parts of the state. I wore gloves while making purchases, but not for any reason I had thought through. I was careful to buy no more than I expected to eat over the coming week. If other people were hoarding, I didn't see it. Most of what is sold here is perishable, but can last weeks in the fridge.
The Sunday Assembly held a team meeting by video, for the first time. That part went smoothly after the first ten minutes or so of people getting used to the app. No-one had trouble installing it -- ten years ago would have been different. We took it for granted that an indoor Assembly for next month was off the table, and mulled whether to hold an outdoor event -- hereabouts the odds favour good weather in mid-April -- or one online, by video again We don't really know how to do this.
I made a loaf of bread, and checked online for flour, which I shall be using up fast if the boys still eat bread at the rate they used to. The two default big-box stores have roughly no whole wheat flour in the nearest eight or ten towns. I can order it online, but that adds shipping cost, in some cases a lot of it.
My wife tells me her church's service had viewers as far away as the Netherlands. Presumably the churches over there are also not holding mass gatherings. A report in the Guardian says the peak of the epidemic there is expected in late May or early June, and even if the usual summer lull in coronavirus family infections does come, things will stay bad for months, with 10% of vital personnel unfit for duty and not enough test kits even for them. (The US gov't seems to have little enough idea how to get through next week.) A Guardian columnist sardonically points out that the people have not, in fact, had enough of experts. Me, I look forward with all due schadenfreude to what the anti-vaxxers will say when a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 is offered.
I have also looked into certain aspects of California law. Most of this family's assets are owned jointly by me and my wife: if I am either incompetent or dead, she can do whatever is needed, with no obstacles at all. One of my retirement accounts is in my sole name, and would need to pass through Probate before she could inherit it. The other has a strange legal status whereby I am the beneficiary (am I the owner at all?) as long as I am alive, but when I die, she becomes the beneficiary and can make withdrawals. The only obstacle there seems to be notifying the financial institution of my death.
Quackery for profit has already begun (see also World War Z): a shipment of fake CoViD-19 tests has been intercepted coming into the US. Keep checking those cargoes, guys!
By the number of hospital cases, there are probably several hundred undetected patients in this county, and perhaps a thousand or more newly infected. The numbers continue to grow very fast, except in China. It would be interesting to know how China is restarting its economy, but if there are reports on that, I don't see them. Ireland is taking the epidemic very seriously. It's two days before St. Patrick's and the Taoiseach is asking pubs to close. All of them.
Finished WWZ. If you haven't, it ends on a relaxed note, for which I am glad.
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