The coronavirus is just getting worse all over the world. North Carolina has been under a shelter-in-place order for a couple of weeks now. I'd say compliance is spotty. Lots of people around here have been listening to too much of Trump and Fox News. I've heard them saying that it's a Democratic hoax, that it's just a version of the flu, and other bullshit.
- A friend of mine, wearing gloves and a mask, stopped at a small local place to pick up some supplies. It's owned/run by an elderly guy who wasn't wearing a mask or gloves, nor taking any other precautions. He laughed off the threat and said he was just following Trump's recommendations.
- There's a fundamentalist church next to my neighborhood. Last week, they had shifted to drive-in services. The congregation stayed in their cars while the preacher set up a PA system under the portico. That was pretty good, although it meant that everybody in the neighborhood had to hear the sermon whether we wanted to or not. This week? Back into the sanctuary for Palm Sunday. Wrong answer, dude.
There still aren't many confirmed cases in this area. I live in Madison County and there are none reported here. Buncombe County, where Asheville is, has 31, and one death. Henderson County, south of Asheville, has 50 cases, about half of which are in an assisted-living home. However, the lack of confirmed cases doesn't mean much since there aren't enough test kits to go around. People are only getting tested when doctors need to confirm it, meaning when they're already in the hospital. So the virus is circulating here.
And we're really limiting activities that involve going somewhere. The grocery store is maybe once a week now and we'd like to extend that. We've been doing the post office almost every day, since we don't have home delivery, but I'm going to cut back on that. I do go to the dump every day it's open because (a) we don't have trash pickup here and (b) taking trash to the dump doesn't involve getting in close contact with anybody. And that's about it.
I have not been to the studio for about 10 days now and don't know when I'll get to go again. Even though nobody else is in the studio with me, I would still have to go in and out of public spaces in order to get to the studio. So, for now, I'm staying home.
And what are we doing here to keep busy? Glad you asked!
Seems like the primary project is yard work. Spring has sprung. The weeds have already started to grow and the grass is just getting started. We've already mowed the front yard twice. I'm trying to get rid of all the damn moles that have overtaken the yard. One of my coronacardio workouts is to go around stomping their tunnels flat. Then I come back a day or two later and see where they're sprouting up again, and stomp those harder and flatter. We've been cleaning up sticks, digging up bushes, spreading fertilizer, and all sorts of other (NOT) fun things. At least we're out in the fresh air and sun!
J has been doing even more house cleanup. I mean, when is she not doing it? I guess it's the spring-clean thing. We need to do a major overhaul on the garage sometime soon. Not looking forward to that.
I've been working on three projects of my own. One is getting the Alfa ready to rock. I've been making new door panels because the old ones were really sad. Haven't quite got them to where they should be, but they look better than what was in there. Gotta change the oil and top up the transmission since it leaks too much, and there are several more projects waiting in line after that.
Another project is family history. This is a never-ending jigsaw puzzle. At the moment, I'm writing up storylines for different family branches, taking all the data collected over the years and turning it into stories. Of course, in doing that, it raises more questions that we need data to answer, but it gives a much clearer idea of who these ancestors of mine were.
And one more project is scanning old family photos. I've got some that go back to around 1850, with a LOT after about 1940. No, I don't scan them all, there are way too many. I scan the ones that I think have some sort of merit - a good look at an individual, a shot of a house that someone lived in, maybe a photo of a wedding or other key event. I'm keeping some of the photos after scanning, but a lot are going in the trash. I dumped all the slides, for example. Slides tend to discolor with age, so while I could color-correct some with Photoshop, many are just way too far gone.
So that's what we're doing in lockdown. We're busy doing all the things we said we'd do when we got time.
- A friend of mine, wearing gloves and a mask, stopped at a small local place to pick up some supplies. It's owned/run by an elderly guy who wasn't wearing a mask or gloves, nor taking any other precautions. He laughed off the threat and said he was just following Trump's recommendations.
- There's a fundamentalist church next to my neighborhood. Last week, they had shifted to drive-in services. The congregation stayed in their cars while the preacher set up a PA system under the portico. That was pretty good, although it meant that everybody in the neighborhood had to hear the sermon whether we wanted to or not. This week? Back into the sanctuary for Palm Sunday. Wrong answer, dude.
There still aren't many confirmed cases in this area. I live in Madison County and there are none reported here. Buncombe County, where Asheville is, has 31, and one death. Henderson County, south of Asheville, has 50 cases, about half of which are in an assisted-living home. However, the lack of confirmed cases doesn't mean much since there aren't enough test kits to go around. People are only getting tested when doctors need to confirm it, meaning when they're already in the hospital. So the virus is circulating here.
And we're really limiting activities that involve going somewhere. The grocery store is maybe once a week now and we'd like to extend that. We've been doing the post office almost every day, since we don't have home delivery, but I'm going to cut back on that. I do go to the dump every day it's open because (a) we don't have trash pickup here and (b) taking trash to the dump doesn't involve getting in close contact with anybody. And that's about it.
I have not been to the studio for about 10 days now and don't know when I'll get to go again. Even though nobody else is in the studio with me, I would still have to go in and out of public spaces in order to get to the studio. So, for now, I'm staying home.
And what are we doing here to keep busy? Glad you asked!
Seems like the primary project is yard work. Spring has sprung. The weeds have already started to grow and the grass is just getting started. We've already mowed the front yard twice. I'm trying to get rid of all the damn moles that have overtaken the yard. One of my coronacardio workouts is to go around stomping their tunnels flat. Then I come back a day or two later and see where they're sprouting up again, and stomp those harder and flatter. We've been cleaning up sticks, digging up bushes, spreading fertilizer, and all sorts of other (NOT) fun things. At least we're out in the fresh air and sun!
J has been doing even more house cleanup. I mean, when is she not doing it? I guess it's the spring-clean thing. We need to do a major overhaul on the garage sometime soon. Not looking forward to that.
I've been working on three projects of my own. One is getting the Alfa ready to rock. I've been making new door panels because the old ones were really sad. Haven't quite got them to where they should be, but they look better than what was in there. Gotta change the oil and top up the transmission since it leaks too much, and there are several more projects waiting in line after that.
Another project is family history. This is a never-ending jigsaw puzzle. At the moment, I'm writing up storylines for different family branches, taking all the data collected over the years and turning it into stories. Of course, in doing that, it raises more questions that we need data to answer, but it gives a much clearer idea of who these ancestors of mine were.
And one more project is scanning old family photos. I've got some that go back to around 1850, with a LOT after about 1940. No, I don't scan them all, there are way too many. I scan the ones that I think have some sort of merit - a good look at an individual, a shot of a house that someone lived in, maybe a photo of a wedding or other key event. I'm keeping some of the photos after scanning, but a lot are going in the trash. I dumped all the slides, for example. Slides tend to discolor with age, so while I could color-correct some with Photoshop, many are just way too far gone.
So that's what we're doing in lockdown. We're busy doing all the things we said we'd do when we got time.
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