Sunday Morning Post (V.2, #11): OMG

This past week was a wild ride, wasn’t it?

I will not even mention the stock market gyrations. I realize that use of the word gyrations is an understatement.

Our governor closed everything in Pennsylvania effective Friday.  Grocery stores, gas stations, and pharmacies are among the few places that can stay open.  Any restaurants that can operate doing only take-out business have remained open, but many have closed.  I fear that a number of them will not re-open once the panic dies down and the rate of viral infection is reduced.

I am now working at home until further notice.  My company had been preparing us to work from home for a week.  Most of my colleagues had already been at home all week.  Needless to say, our physical work place felt like a ghost town since last Monday.

Warrior Queen’s business has also effectively been shut down.  They have figured out a way to do the things they need to do with a rotating schedule of one person in the office/day.  I guess this was a compromise as it will keep contact between employees, and hence the possibility of the virus spreading, to a minimum.

We had planned to do our weekly grocery trip this morning, but WQ decided to postpone her shopping for later in the week since she’ll need something to do to pass the time. I went this morning with my half of the shopping list. The store was more crowded than usual for a Sunday morning, but it wasn’t the frenzy from a week ago.  The store has recovered somewhat from the near sacking of last week.  The bread shelves were stocked again, but the meat department is still vastly empty. 

My main item was cat food.  Unfortunately, these shelves are still largely empty.  I came looking for certain flavors which our oldest cat (Nyla) likes, but I was disappointed again.  As an added complication the queen cat of the house has chosen this time of her life to act all snobbish about what is placed in front of her. I got what I could and hope that WQ will have better luck later this week.

We have also resolved to do as much as we can for local businesses as we can in the meantime.  Our favorite local pizzeria is still operating for take-out and we ordered a delivery from them yesterday.  We’ll get more than a few meals out of the food we ordered.  So, if nothing else we shall use this as our rallying cry: Support your local pizzeria!

Like everyone else, I am hoping that all of this — the closures, the shortages, the quarantines, the financial hardships, and the pandemic — are all short lived.  Over in two weeks?  Doubtful, but we’ll persevere in any case.

(Thank you for reading.  Be safe, be healthy.)