Unpredictable results of the pandemic

April 9, 2020 • 8:30 am

If we knew in advance that a pandemic was coming, and could foresee what would happen, I suppose many of us would have predicted the lockdown under which most Americans now live.  But I doubt that I would have guessed that, beyond the deaths, misery, and confusion, we’d also have to live with more minor but completely unforeseeable deprivations.  Here are three that I’ve noticed:

1.) Nobody can get a haircut, at least not in a commercial salon or barbershop.  The upside is: who cares? Who’s gonna see you? As with others who aren’t bald of depilated, I’m getting shaggier and shaggier (I’ll document this over time):

2.) Sports is effectively dead for the time being. Every night I watch the sports broadcast on the local news (only because it’s the last thing before my beloved but now scary national newscast), and it’s sad: they replay highlights from previous seasons of the Bulls, Bears, Sox, Cubs, and Blackhawks, and simply report that one event after another is canceled. I am not a big sports aficionado, but many people are, and this will be distressing to them.

3.) Dating is pretty much out of the window. You can’t meet somebody either online or in person, since there’s social distancing, and where would you go with them anyway? The classic dating ads tout a love of “long walks by the lake,” but Mayor Lori Lightfoot has closed Chicago’s lakeshore because people were congregating there and violating social-distancing norms.

Those are the three that I’ve thought of in the last day. Do you have other unpredictable outcomes?


168 thoughts on “Unpredictable results of the pandemic

  1. Rapidly approaching a basic beans and rice diet as the local fancy grocery store no longer has an olive bar or exotic cheese.

    1. My go-to meal these days is black beans and rice, with other stuff mixed in: eggs, some stir-fried pork, or the like.

      I’m told that black beans and rice is a nearly complete diet. But I’m getting pretty sick of it!

      1. We ordered out from our favorite local Indian restaurant last night. Got a bottle of wine with it. It was excellent and there are enough leftovers for tonight, too! (Except the wine’s all gone.)

      2. I got turned on to black beans at Mexican restaurants. One day at home I made chili and decided to use black beans instead of the usual kidney beans. I’ll never go back! Black beans are the best.

        1. Absolutely! When I was young I hated chili because I hated kidney beans and my Mom always made her chili with kidney beans.

          I still hate kidney beans but have long since come to love chili. Real chili of course has no beans. But even chili with beans is great as long as the beans are black or pinto, heck even white beans.

          1. I don’t care for kidney beans (except in certain recipes, where they work) but I can eat them.

            Black beans are my favorite. In Chili I use about 60% frijoles pintos and 40% frijoles negros.

            1. Mixing them is good too.

              What kind of meat do you like to use? Ground beef and or pork is good and easy, but if I feel like taking the time pork butt and beef stew meat are a step up.

              1. I was only railing at how most upscale Mexican restaurants in SoCal offer black beans as if everyone agreed that they were better than the pinto bean (refried beans usually) offered at the lower end places. It’s certainly ok to personally prefer one over the other. I enjoy pretty much all kinds of beans, just so you know.

              2. Paul,

                When it comes to refried beans I think both black and pintos are delicious. But whichever are used, they have got to be made with LARD!

              3. I would likely agree with you if I knew the facts. I have had a sneaking suspicion that my liking of refried beans correlates almost exactly with the amount of lard used in their preparation. It’s probably harder to hide the lard in the typical black bean preparation.

      3. My stylist (cutter?) works from home, and we have agreed that is probably a bad idea for the time being. Things are going to start getting interesting in a month or so.

        We have been surviving on three winter favourites that are easy to prepare, and use simple ingredients: Moroccan harira, which is a chickpea (garbanzo) soup, Minestrone Soup, and Mulligatawny soup. Amazing how many recipes start with: “Sauté onions, carrots and celery”. Recipes can be found with a quick Google search.

        1. Those are three great soups. I’ve also made a big batch of Mysore rasam and last winter made a big batch of harira. I freeze soups in single size portions and they stay fresh in the deep freeze for up to a year. I also have a good stash of cioppino, pozole and caldo de pollo. As you can surmise, I love soup, both making and eating it.

    1. I have two John Prine albums on CD: the first one and Bruised Orange. I hadn’t listened to either in ages but put them both on twice today as my small homage to him. They seem quite different: the first full of gritty slice-of-life songs with a generous dose of sardonic humour and Bruised Orange much more whimsical. Both good, especially the first one. Quite an accomplishment for someone in his early twenties.

      I also felt sad: because of his death, which I imagine was very grim, but also because the characters in the songs of the first album, although presumably fictional, ring true: people for whom life hasn’t worked out. John Prine at least had a full life.

  2. I relocated to the mountains of Virginia in early February. Just under the social-restriction wire. I wonder how or if the movers would be able to cart all my stuff. We sold our Williamsburg house and when we closed, we were met by a woman in gloves and masks, shown into a room with table, chairs, stack of documents and Lysol wipes, hand sanitizer, etc. The woman left the room and told us to knock on her door if we had questions.

    With a large landholding in Floyd County, Virginia, we purchased a small tractor. Both deal and the delivery are traditionally sealed with a handshake, but not in these times. Both sides were uncomfortable with the absence. I wonder if it voids my warranty.

    By the way, Prof. Ceiling Cat, Emeritus, you have surface in your alma mater’s social media. Check out Lord Botetourt’s Facebook page.

        1. Yes. Twitter. Four houses of four each william and mary alums quarantined. Pcc(e) in one of the houses. Pick the group with whom you would like to quarantine. Interesting selections from several walks of life.

  3. It’s an ill-wind that blows no good. I am at best indifferent to sports, and the lack of it not only doesn’t bother me, it’s made group calls with co-workers more pleasant because I don’t have to listen to them talking about the last game, and then asking if I saw it, or what team I support. Also, being married, I not only don’t date, but my wife cuts my hair.

    1. 1/ For approximately the 2500th time, I’ve just cut a bit of my own hair (assuming a little snip or two, once a week for 50 years.
      2/ Sports is doing it, not watching it, once you’re old and need to: so about 150 km. done on bike, small amount on rollerskis, and poling machine from ConceptII, no rowing macine says hip surgeon for 2 more months.
      3/ On our last date, we each donned a mask separately, she to buy enough stuff to make 6 months worth of granola, me to get drinking water (our well is very clean, but much too ‘tasty’–hardest water in southern Ontario I’d guess.

    2. There was an article today in the Washington Post that the US has a glut of chicken wings because March Madness, the NBA and other sports activities were cancelled. I did our weekly grocery shopping this morning and sure as shit, they had a huge sale of chicken wings. I hadn’t read the article yet, but I bought a few pounds because they were dirt cheap. Then I bought some blue cheese and ranch and buttermilk. Guess what I’m having for dinner tonight?

  4. My dog needs a groomer seriously. I’m too small and he’s too big to bathe him. He’s an Australian shepherd so maybe when this is back to some interaction between groomer and the paying and of the client he’ll look as if he’s been herding sheep instead of cats.

    1. My dog needs his nails trimmed — I don’t see well enough to do it. I also don’t have cutters. He also needs grooming — he’s small, but terrified of water, and I’m short and it’s a mell of a hess if I get him in the sink for a bath. Oh, well. This, too, shall pass.

      1. Don’t know if you’ve ever tried them, but there are dog grooming wipes pretty commonly available. I’ve never tried them on dogs, but I’ve used them on cats before and they work reasonably well. Not as thorough as a shampoo, but not bad and much easier. They should be available for delivery from on line pet stores. Amazon has a large variety.

      2. Mine, too.

        I cut her nails once and nicked the quick and then vowed that, if that was going to happen to her again, it would be because someone did it, not me.

        I think PetSmart (select locations) is still grooming, but I don’t know what restrictions might be in force.

  5. My kids cut my hair (very short). I don’t watch sports, but my sons are swimmers and this has a normalizing effect on their lives. What was once a distinguishing characteristic among their peers has now temporarily vanished.

    Life without work is hard for those who like to work. I miss work. This is not my life:

    Working Man

    1. Luckily for our household my wife has hoarded hand and body lotion for decades. We won’t run out in our life times.

    2. I have cracked knuckle skin and a couple are a little bloody. We have plenty of lotion, but I keep forgetting to put it on…I’ve never liked hand lotion. I’m wearing gloves when I go out shopping and today was the first time I wore a mask. I’d say 75% of the people at Fred Meyer’s in Monroe were wearing masks today. I was glad to see it; makes me feel a bit safer.

  6. people were congregating there and violating social-distancing norms.

    It’s funny how quickly social distancing has become a “norm”.

    Anyway, you regularly make posts bemoaning the quality of modern pop music and I usually respond by saying that good quality music is still available but you have to go and see the bands live. Clearly that’s not happening at present and I normally spend the summer at three different music festivals. Two have been cancelled and the third can’t be far behind.

    1. I’ve had to cancel a couple of concerts I was really looking forward to also. I’m sad because I may not get another chance to see at least one of them, Tool.

      I was also looking forward to seeing Jerry in Tallahassee. The kids were looking forward to it also. Probably wont’ get another chance to see him either.

      1. I was planning on a bunch of friends flying into Seattle and all of us were going to Comicon. Nope. Then we had a trip to Boston planned. Nope. And my grandmother turns 93 this year and we were planning on flying down to California at the end of May for that. Nope. Maybe next year…

  7. “If we knew in advance that a pandemic was coming, and could foresee what would happen,…”

    Everyone with investments would have sold in massive numbers, tanking the economy.

      1. Wow – you mean, even _I_ could be President of The United States?

        Seriously though- I was talking broadly- I understand your point… actually I don’t know the difference so I’ll have to read about it.

      1. They claimed a third party made all decisions for their portfolio

        I hope they tell us all who they have, I want their company.

        I wonder how they signaled the sales- tug on right ear lobe, wipe down forearms, … touch face! AAAAGH!

  8. One of John Oliver’s recent coronavirus videos shows an Italian official criticizing mobile barbers. It is sadly hilarious,

    1. Yeah, I caught that show too…sadly hilarious is right. He’s still doing well in his small office. The not wearing pants bit last weekend was also hilarious.

  9. I can’t go to the dentist. It’s not the dentist’s fault. The PA government said so. At first even emergencies were forbidden, and people with emergencies were told to go to the emergency room – which does not do dentistry!

    I’m glad my abscess and root canal came right before the virus reached Pennsyltucky and things got shut down.

    Now, enough people protested to the government that I do believe there are certain things a dentist is allowed to do.

    I can’t see well, and I need my glasses checked. I haven’t even tried to see my eye doctor. I suspect she’s shut down, too. I don’t know if she’s able to see patients with an emergency.

    (And eye emergencies do happen, too. A young man suddenly was seeing double. The eye doctor took one look at him and sent him straight to the emergency room. In no time at all he was in the operating room to have a brain tumor removed.)

    These little local distilleries have added hand sanitizer to their repertoire. There’s a wonderful distillery just down the street from me, and in addition to their fine booze and fine bottled cocktails, they are now giving out their own fine hand sanitizer to customers who can order booze on the website and then come down to the distillery and cellphone call inside and someone will bring their purchase out to them.

  10. Don’t have hair on top any longer so starting to look like larry from the three stooges.

    If you wanted to know about the most expensive waste of time, the no longer acting secretary of the navy can take that prize. Modly is the name to forget but he spent $243,000 and 35 hours round trip to speak directly to the crew of the Roosevelt and trash their fired captain. Made the flight, not commercial by any means, but on a C-37B, same as a Gulf Stream 550, cost per hr. $6,946. This is how the military spends our money these days. Don’t you feel safe?

    1. I find a kind of poetic justice in it.

      He fired the ship’s captain essentially for using an insecure channel to criticise the Navy. Then he himself got fired essentially for using an insecure channel to criticise the captain.

  11. Never thought I would witness a concert played to an empty house but that is exactly what happened with the last performance by the Berliner Philharmoniker before the lockdown.

    They had already decided it was unsafe and unwise to allow an audience in but with extra spacing the orchestra decided to play the planned concert and it was streamed live, also free.

    They are also showing quite a bit of free stuff online. There is also the option of a trial free week for their subscription service, although card details needed and you have to remember to cancel. That said, 150€ a year is a good deal when under normal circumstances there is a live performance streamed nearly every Saturday and an extensive archive available all of the time.


  12. Trapped for a month at my mountain farm in Central France. My only distraction are four half-grown Muscovy ducks, and from my Conservatory I can watch them parade back and forth to the pond a hundred yards away. The lack of feminine company is a torment. What do women look-like? What do they smell like? What should I say if I meet one after all these weeks alone? Hope I don’t start to quack. George…

  13. One unforeseen consequence COULD be that on average we get a bit fitter. One way in which people are using the time in enforced lock down is by taking up exercise, often following some tv ‘guru’ or alternatively in other cases dusting down bits of exercise equipment that have remained embarassingly unused for months (or years) previously. Of course we will have to see if the initial enthusiasm is maintained but if it is it could be a small positive outcome of the pandemic.

    Admittedly my speculation assumes that the number of previously inactive people taking up exercise will out-number those whose previously vigorous sporting activities have been curtailed by the lock-down. However, my feeling is that the latter group will find some way to keep exercising so there could be a net increase in exercising. It’s a nice thought anyway that the pandemic might lead indirectly to a few premature cardiac arrests being avoided.

    1. In my county they are threatening to shut down the bike trail because many walkers and runners aren’t social distancing on it. Why do idiots have to ruin it for the rest of us?

      1. We also have this rule but any risky recreational activity also brings the risk of an accident, thereby risk to A & E personal, unnecessary time wasting on over stretched medical facilities and resourses. Social distancing is just one facet of concideration.

    2. Could be. I can see it going the other way though too. Sitting around eating, drinking, watching TV.

      In favor of your speculation, I’ve been looking for weights to buy for working out at home since I can’t go to the gym. I haven’t been able to find any. Nothing used from private sellers, nothing from the local sporting goods stores. I talked to the proprietor of a local sporting goods store yesterday. He asked what I was looking for, I said, “Weights, preferably an Olympic bar with center knurling, about 500 lbs of weights, a power rack and a good bench.” He laughed. He said he had a pair of 2.5 lbs Olympic plates and one 80 lbs cowbell. He said he’d been wiped out, but sometime next week he has a truck coming in with 20,000 lbs of weight equipment. But you have to be quick because the last such truckload he got was mostly gone within 4 hours.

      So apparently people are buying fitness equipment like crazy. Me? I’m still stuck doing pull-ups, push-ups and squats with a backpack filled with cat litter (clean!). I’m definitely going to lose ground at this rate. Which is frustrating because it’s much harder to get it back at my age than it was even 10 years ago.

    3. Entropy takes over. People will mostly choose the ground state. It’s very hard on elite athletes. Some will walk more, but mostly it is the psychological effects that put a burden on most.

      Stress can take years off many people’s lives.

    4. I see lots more people walking and biking than I used to

      Lacking any home fitness equipment other than some not very useful resistance bands, I greatly miss the gym, especially HIIT on exercycles.

      On the plus side, i’ve rediscovered the benefits of isometrics. Lifting yourself off a solid wooden chair, or pulling down by gripping its underside, attempting to lift with one hand a heavy wooden table while reading, provide an excellent upper body workout. Every 10 mins on the computer is now followed by one minute’s exercise. Instead of multiple push-ups , try the three minute push-up, ie, take 90 seconds to lower yourself, 90 seconds to return.

  14. I get worried when Trump says we are approaching the peak of the virus. I’m afraid his MAGATs will take this as a cue to relax social distancing and masks thereby prolonging the virus.

    During my last few trips to buy groceries I have seen several people (total of about 10 so far) wearing their mask under their chin instead of over their mouth and nose. All of these people were black. I have seen reports of higher incidence of the virus among blacks. Why would a person bother to wear a mask in public if they are going to wear it under their chin???

    1. Seriously? Social distancing is what is prolonging the virus, the quickest way to get through it is to let herd immunity develop. The current plan seems to be to destroy our economy while we isolate waiting for a miracle cure or, more likely, waiting 18+ months for a vaccine, which may never arrive.

        1. I recommend OANN – One America News Network

          John Oliver highlighted OANN in his piece on Sunday

          1. Saw that. It was good. Oliver is a national treasure.

            I’d never heard of OANN before I watched the Oliver piece. Holy shit. You couldn’t possibly parody that operation.

      1. Just look at the numbers difference between Norway and Sweden (several other examples as well) to see how wrong you are.

        1. In the absence of a vaccine or other effective therapies, no matter the different ways this pandemic is fought at some point authorities are going to have to make a decision; when do we pull the trigger and open our economies back up? Without a vaccine or other effective therapies our only solution has been to shut down our economies. That has been effective but it is not sustainable. Norway, for example, has got control of their epidemic and expect to open back up on 27 April. What happens if the virus returns on 1 June? It will return.

          The hard truth is that our civilization cannot survive 18 months of shut economies waiting for an effective therapy. We are really under the gun. I can’t speak for anyone else, but this is my primary anxiety.

          (I do think there is hope for much faster resolution – and that’s what I’m clinging to.)

          1. Surely ‘open up our economy’ is NOT a black/white, AKA 0/1, matter. That’s the crux, and the hope, for countries whose ruling (party/criminal moron) isn’t so bad as that in in U.S.

            I realize it is still early and some relative numbers may change considerably. But a situation with two countries
            right next to each other,
            very similar populations,
            among the world’s best in health systems, but

            two governments who decide quite differently what to do, and finally,

            9 times the number of deaths in the country with only twice the population,

            that seems to me getting very convincing that anything even remotely like the ‘let tham die in droves and get lots of immunity for those left standing’ strategy has been by now pretty surely shown to be a grave error.

      2. Rooks is factually correct – the fastest way through would be to let the virus run its course. Of course that’s not acceptable and people like rooks say it mostly for shock value and, in some cases, because they are not moral people.

        However, it must be stated that at some point in the future we will have to return to work and the virus is not going anywhere. We will have to make this kind of calculation at some point. Hopefully we will have enough immunity and proper therapies so that the number who die is not unacceptable. Remember, we tolerate more than 40000 flu deaths every year in the US and we still all go to work. Once we have a vaccine, much of this problem will be workable. Until then, we may have to make a very difficult decision somewhat along the lines that rook makes.

        1. The virus could be eradicated in a couple of weeks if EVERYONE followed the social distancing. The virus is unsustainable without hosts to pass it around. If people want the economy to return they should focus on their behavior and not the economy.

      3. That’s a very frightenng comment, espeically for those of us who live in poor countries with marginal health care.

        There is, however, a third way. We are spending trillions on stimulus and the economy of the world has tanked, and this si truly intolerable (again especially in poor countries where people have no savings and, shortly, no food). If we had, early on, bought everyone in the world high quality masks incorporated into a full-face mask, even if it cost $100 each, we’d have come out ahead and saved the world in the process.

        We can still do something like this on a smaller scale. It cold solve the problem quickly.

  15. We’re in the process of moving from a house that we’ve lived in for 35 years, and all the places that would normally take donations of unwanted items–ARC, Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc.–are closed. On the positive side, I never would have predicted the number of items people will haul away from a parking strip.

    1. Hey, Gary. I think you mentioned once that you were a John Prine fan. I put a link in #2 above to an interview he sat for in 2005 with the poet laureate of the Library of Congress. Thought you might find it interesting.

      Gonna miss that guy somethin’ fierce.

    1. When your two balls occasionally end up very close on the fairway, walk fast and pick the better lie. You’re neither allowed to handle the ball to see which is which. But remove it from the cup at the end of the hole with a sterile wipe (and, half the time on average, say ‘Oops, sorry, wrong ball!’

  16. I am bingeing on podcasts while doing a lot more baking, and recently heard PCC(E) on an episode of the Infinite Monkey Cage.

    1. The whole family has started bingeing The Great British Bake Off show now available on Netflix. It has led to baking. Just cookies and tiramisu so far, but much more is in the works. Next is some sort of lemon cake with Limoncello curd and a lavender sauce.

    2. My wife is a bread baker and has wanted to bake bread since the lockdown. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been yeast available for a month. I checked at two stores today and still no yeast. Go figure. No rice either or popcorn. Grrr.

      1. Sourdough? Tastier and healthier. If your wife has some rye flour she can get a sourdough starter up and running in 4-5 days. If she has only wheat flour it will take longer. Google “Make a sourdough starter”.

        1. Good advice, thanks. We had a starter for many years (named Captain Kirk for some reason)…rye flour…will have to check.

      2. I ended up buying yeast from Amazon at not too great expense. What has annoyed me (and probably your wife) is that I bet many of those buying yeast have never baked with it and are buying it performatively out of that vague panic-hoarding sense. I actually use it all the time and had just run out!

        1. It’s crazy, we had a stash in the freezer, but it was 5 years old or so and we threw it out a couple months ago after doing freezer maintenance. Like dopes, we didn’t replace it. Yes, Amazon will probably be the where to purchase.

      1. They were trying to sell it because the value will plummet as soon as Trump leaves office. The grift is based on Trump being in the White House.

  17. If people practised ‘hygiene’ like Mayor Lightfoot they could get their hair done too! But if you stay unhygienic you have to stay shaggy. Tant pis.

  18. Unforeseen consequences: Local paint stores in our area are extremely busy. Apparently people are doing home beautification during quarantine. Also, the garden centers of local hardware and yard item business are selling quickly out of plants, mulch, soil and yard ornaments as exterior landscaping projects exponentially increase.

  19. What I did not foresee is outdoor activities being curtailed. Like ski areas and boating reservoirs closing.

  20. The Einstein hairdo is always ‘nice’, sports could use no socks like Einstein, and one could possibly date your cousin, also like Einstein.
    Then again … Einstein didn’t like the quantum stuff … so not all Einstein is legit …

  21. Late last year I had a front tooth removed to be replaced by an implant in September. So, I’ve been going around with a gap which may endear me to locals as that’s rather common here in the Wild West of Idaho. Only, I don’t have confidence the dentist will be able to finish the job and give me back my normal appearance. Maybe sometime next year.

  22. abandoned animals, house pets – and after the tiger got the virus (true??), there will be ignorant cat owners who dump them. Dogs abandoned due to cost or irrational virus fears. If strays or lost are seen, please notify local shelters?

  23. Related to number 2 – a separate Sports Section has disappeared from the Denver Post, and the sports writers are actually writing some interesting personal life stories, e.g. the local MLB umpire who is spending much of his time preparing and delivering food relief.

  24. A few random things I didn’t anticipate:

    In my neighborhood, people putting out boxes of free things to share, such as citrus and in one case, notecards intended to be sent to elderly shut-ins

    Not gaining weight. This isn’t due to an exercise regimen, but I simply don’t feel much like eating.

    How quickly some environmental aspects have improved, such as less air pollution. Makes me hope that after this mess is largely over, people will think, “gee, we can positively affect the environment.”

    Larry Smith

  25. There have been reports of people having virtual first dates. It wouldn’t surprise me if the major dating apps have added such functionality. The apps could presumably interface to Zoom or equivalent to enable an online meeting without having to exchange phone numbers, email addresses, etc.

      1. Your point being “what’s next?” Well, virtual dating does reflect a positive outlook. It assumes the pandemic will one day be behind us and we’ll live to see it.

      2. People won’t know if they’re virtually married to a real person or an AI construct. Their virtual offspring could be half AI.

        I have no doubt that AI/human hybrids will be stigmatized.

  26. The Easter visit to my sister and her children had to be cancelled due to the restrictions. So we sent each other little presents.

    My Easter Bunny was very resourceful. I received canned food with one my favourite spread: cooked Mettwurst and Niedersächsisches Heidefrühstück (literally “Lower Saxony Heath Breakfast”). Yummy. 🙂

          1. No the bunny is real, that’s the point being made, it is essential… come on, get on board!

            I was responding to the “bizarre” part of the comment.

    1. Hahaha. Same here! I was growing mine out too and in respect to my wife I shaved. But I also remembered reading a comment by Ken Kucek who said he might shave since he had a habit of stroking his whiskers.

      Hey Ken, have you shaved yet?

  27. 2.) Sports is effectively dead for the time being

    This morning’s talk radio said something about the NBA televising a Horse competition. Horse! The sports fans are getting desperate.

    Do you have other unpredictable outcomes?

    My kid appreciates school. No doubt 40 years from now, he’ll be telling my grandkid to suck it up, ‘back in my day when we had the coronavirus, we treasured the opportunity to do what you’re whining about.’

  28. 1. Choosing colleges. Campus visits are out. My daughter is a high school junior and wants to play a sport at the division 2 or 3 level. She cannot go to recruiting tournaments or camps. We had planned to mix one with our spring break and another with our summer vacation and those are out.
    2. Hiking – as ridiculous as that seems. The state parks are closed. The national forests are closed. The local university has closed its forest land. I am forced to hike illegally.
    3. Libraries are closed. Thank ceiling cat for Kindles.

  29. A variety of surprises come to mind:

    1. Hospitals not being able to handle anything (almost) but Covid-19 patients. This will also cause loss of life for people who were scheduled for life-saving procedures.
    For example, after an angiogram it was determined that my son-in-law could get stents. Had he needed open heart surgery, it couldn’t have been done now.

    2. Learning that ventilators may not help people survive if they must use them for too long. Are these people being offered a choice if they’d prefer a different kind of death? Also, learning that a Covid-19 patient when told that he needed a ventilator was more concerned about the cost and the impact on his wife.

    3. Learning that Blacks and Latinos have a much higher percentage of deaths from Covid-19.

    4. The unbelievable unpreparedness of the federal government for a pandemic.

    5. The federal government leaving it up to each state to obtain its’ own critically needed medical supplies, etc.

    6. I hadn’t expected much from our president but, he exceeded my greatest fears. Touting a drug that hasn’t been fully tested and approved (and, which he may own some of).
    Using his press conferences for election purposes rather than sticking to pandemic matters. Trying to exert influence over distribution of relief money to big business. Etc. We all knew that he was incompetent and a liar.

    7. Finding out today that Churches and other religious entities can receive handouts as though they were small businesses.

    7. Finding out today that federal funding for most community Covid-19 testing sites stops tomorrow, ostensibly to allow “states to dictate their own priorities” which “will
    ensure each state has the flexibility and autonomy to manage and operate testing sites within the needs of their specific community and to prioritize resources where they are needed the most”.

    8. People wearing gloves and/or masks to protect themselves and/or others but then throwing them on the ground.

    There’s so much more, but to end on a positive note, I am thrilled to see the heroism of the medical profession, first responders, employees of essential businesses, etc. And, how wonderful to see the many good things being done by so many human beings.

    1. I live in area with very few cases and the hospitals are empty. I talked with an ER nurse and they are starting to see emergency that come from people avoiding doctors and hospitals. She mentioned gall bladder complications and even heart attacks.

      If you are truly sick, you still need to go to the doctor.

    2. All but 3. may be surprises. But the negation of 3., had it been a fact, would be the surprise.
      In a country with a (3rd world/make a shitload of money from the public) style of health system, the impoverished, and the xenophobicly, sometimes racially, discriminated against, are surely going to be much worse off in a pandemic in every way, especially the probability of being killed. Statistics about other earlier than most deaths from diabetes and heart disease already say so.

  30. My daughter is feeling aggrieved because the public exams for those a year older (A
    levels) and a year younger (GCSEs) have been cancelled, but she had/will have the stress of taking them.

    My son, in the year below her, is equally aggrieved because he really only got his act together at school when his mock results weren’t what he was hoping for, and now he won’t have a chance to improve on them. School was closed without notice, so he didn’t get to say goodbye to his friends and no-one knows if/when his leavers’ Prom will take place.

    My youngest is only 11 and so exams aren’t an issue for her, but she enjoys school and misses the routine and social side of attending.

  31. I’m the same age as you (actually a month older), and when you posted earlier “Should I get my haircut” that was the day after I had asked myself the same thing and answered “No”. So my hair looks much like yours now.

    Last week I had to go to the bank to deposit a cheque. Yes, a lot of cheques you can just photograph them with the app and upload them to your account. But not this one. Once I had found a branch which was open, I went over there and found there were guys in masks interviewing you before you could go in, to try to exclude people who might have the virus.

    It used to be that when you had masked men in your bank branch, you were in trouble. But now it’s all different.

      1. It’s me, Paul. WordPress highjacked my sign-in and used the one from our WordPress blog even though I told it not to. Grrrr. Seems like I can’t use the e-mail I use to sign in to WordPress to comment here, then.

  32. I listen only to the PM’s briefing every day at 11 am est then don’t consume any other news. I find it too stressful to be constantly bombarded with covid news. I used to always consume news.

  33. As democracies are forced to adopt increasingly draconian, totalitarian social measures in order to control the spread of the epidemic, so the citizens of these societies become inured to living under such strictures.

    How much freedom will people regard as ‘normal’ after the pandemic passes?
    And how will democratically elected governments weald this new found power?


  34. Regarding hair cuts, it is interesting that here in South Australia hair dressers are still open, and churches etc were among the first to be closed down! I had my hair cut yesterday since I was beginning to feel like a wool-blind sheep.

  35. Haven’t had anything close to a haircut in at least 5yrs. It reaches a steady state. Of course when I tell people that, they have no idea what I mean.

    Little interest in sports other than baseball, and haven’t followed that for a long time, so I haven’t noticed that, either.

    I was laying bricks / rebuilding the greenhouse out back before this all started, and I continue, with my mason. We keep suitably separated for the most part. We talk about the virus, he’s very interested in what I know about the general molecular details, and I always ask whether anyone in his sphere is showing symptoms, which they don’t seem to be. I like to think that brick/mortar dust and the virus may be mutually incompatible. And then when it’s too wet or cold I have electrical work in the basement, which is a solo effort, so aside from infrequent trips to the grocery store it’s basically business as usual for me.

      1. Thx! Continuation of the plot is contingent on Lowe’s remaining open (for mortar). Most everything else needed can (and does!) come from salvage, incl old railroad rail from the remnants of the old steel mill, destined as joists for the floor of the potting shed above the cavernous cellar that was intended for growing mushroom (which, it turns out, was a Victorian passion).

      2. It does seem to be a good opening. I want to know what is next for Hempenstein. Did the virus destroy all of humanity, is he now alone wandering old Lowe’s stores looking for supplies?

        1. Set amidst a dusty landscape, and a cracked asphalt parking lot, a Lowe’s – the dyes in it’s well-known warm blue colors faded to reveal an unusual red color, has become an outpost for coronavirus-resistant wanderers. A girl in ragged dress hands out a cup to those who push through a gateway fashioned from nickel-plated hinges, plywood, and a Nest home surveillance system, as the doors don’t work anymore. He pours from the cup a blend of mineral spirits and Fast Orange to sanitize a spot on the grip on the giant wobbly blue dolly, as the casters swivel and squeak along the unusually shiny floor.

          [ who wants to go next? ]

        2. Beside the contractor’s checkout register, someone put a sign on the coffee station that used to provide free morning coffee that reads, “In Memory of Days Gone By”.

    1. And gave proof that it does rain in Southern California. We’ve had something like five days of it now which is somewhat unusual this late in the season. Perhaps we’ll have a wetter spring in the age of global warming.

      I think Maher really misses his crowd. I’m a bit surprised he doesn’t try to do his group chat but instead talks to each guest separately. Perhaps that would be too close to Hollywood Squares.

  36. I work in an operating theatre, now being converted to an emergency intensive care unit. There were a number of things I didn’t see coming – such as the relationship between us at work becoming tighter. Neither did I realise how uncomfortable it would be to scrub for a long operation in full PPE, as the filter masks have to fit very tightly and a) hurt and b) tend to cause you to mouth-breathe. Trying to learn enough ICU background to hit the ground running is hard and likely to prove a rocky path and not one, it occurs to me, that you want to hit running.

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