Will the San Jose Sharks play in an empty arena? That is the burning question of the day.
Santa Clara County, where the Sharks play, is doing lots of sensible things to try to address the problems presented by COVID-19. They have encouraged people to work from home whenever possible, placed a moratorium on evictions to protect people who will lose income, and placed a mandatory ban on large gatherings.
What this has meant is that sports events, concerts and other popular social events attended by over a thousand people are canceled. Strangely, it has also meant that my Home Owners Association has canceled its monthly meeting with members. Those meetings rarely attract more than about twenty people, so the abundance of caution is, I think, a little extreme in this instance.
My roommate is gradually warming to the idea that there might be a serious concern, but this hasn’t prevented her from driving to San Francisco for a basketball game. There will no doubt be more than a thousand people there and many of them will be from Santa Clara County but, oh well. What can you do when you already have the tickets?
Her family, on the other hand, have decided that there really is a problem and they have canceled their planned cruise to Alaska. The whole family was going and they had booked five rooms, but since it was on a Princess cruise ship they decided they were better off losing the deposits. Princess cruise line will almost certainly change its name when all this kerfuffle is over. Their name is forever tainted.
My own caution so far has led me to decide against attending a political rally, but that’s about it. I have stocked up on disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizers, and I am using them with surprising regularity. It’s surprising for me, anyway. I’m not usually worried too much about germs but desperate times call for improved housecleaning methods.
At the recommendation of my roommate who is brilliant at getting good travel deals, I tried to find a better price on my return flight to Canada in May. It turns out the flight I have already booked is now $40 cheaper. The airline, however, charges $200 for a cancellation, so I will have to live with what I have. It looks as though now would be a good time to book a trip if you don’t mind being in a metal container with a couple of hundred other people.
As someone who has been self-isolating for years, avoiding crowds will not be a problem for me. I will still have to buy groceries and eventually see if there is any toilet paper left anywhere in the world, but otherwise, I’m just going to keep calm and carry on. Being of British origin has its uses.
Snowbird of Paradise 
Covid 19 really is creating a stir. My daughter and I had to go to the bank a couple of days ago, actually go inside, not just to the ATM. Being cautious we took hand sanitizer and tissues to use if we had to touch door knobs etc. I made sure I had my own pen as I knew I would be signing things. There were 3 forms to be signed and I took my pen and signed the first one. Bank lady looked and said that my ink was blue and they preferred black ink and she would get another pen for me. She retrieved one and I signed the other 2 forms. With great show of caution, I then used hand sanitizer. Never seemed to phase her.
My son-in-law is responsible for overseeing the loading of delivery trucks for Home Depot as a part of his job. Normally all manner of products are loaded. For the past 2 weeks approximately, all that is being loaded is toilet paper and bottled water. Large truckloads every night. People must be hoarding!
I took notice that Clorox stock went up on the stock market!
Brickyard HOA meeting, the March meeting, being moved to April begs the question: Is it still the March meeting or has it become the April meeting?
Stay safe but also stay sane!
You are being a lot more cautious than I am, Mary Beth! Right now I am downtown at 10:17am and the place is almost deserted. No trouble finding a table at the coffee shop!
well, I did hear that when one is outdoors it is more difficult to catch the nasty germs as the sunshine does something to destroy them? Not exactly sure of the correct terminology. Keeping hands clean and not touching one’s face (so hard) seems sufficient. I would also avoid crowds though.
I don’t know about the sunshine, but being away from other people seems to be key. As does handwashing and not touching the face. I, too, am finding the latter difficult. But, we do our best, right?
I would be interested to know what precautions people are taking. Yesterday I had to gas up the car and, as suggested on the news, I used rubber gloves to handle to pump and the touch pad. I then went to the grocery store and again donned the rubber gloves. We are hardly ever in crowed places but even so the concern is there. We have a care giver who comes to the house and she has been advised to touch as little as possible.
I now wash my hands when I walk in the house, and I’m trying to do that for the recommended 20 seconds. I also wash my hands more often during the day than I used to.