(Today is unfortunately a migraine day, so apologies if this is a bit incoherent.)
A report from an area that isn’t the frontlines yet, but is working on it.
Yesterday, I had to make a grocery run. This was to buy the normal, weekly stuff, plus fill in a few more holes and add a bit in a couple of places. I’m mostly done with panicking early. Besides, it’s not early any more.
The grocery store was well stocked. No holes, although paper products were a bit thin. No panic in the aisles. I did see several people who were obviously stocking up, although I question some of their choices. Seriously, how much Diet Pepsi are you going to need?
I got everything I needed or wanted, and found a couple of things on sale that were nice to add to the shelves. I love theMargaret Holmes spiced beans. No problems, no one acting sick. If you weren’t paying close attention, it looked like a normal day.
Yesterday evening, I went to one a ham radio club meeting. I had to work really hard not to either facepalm continually or just get up and walk the hell out. I finally settled on the implied facepalm.
The club’s “AUXCOMM” guru was the night’s table dance. As a part of it, because he’s been asked to by TPTB, he gives us the government approved COVID-19 performance. I just bit my tongue. The majority of his audience nodded right along with him. Good sheep.
The part that really pissed me off was when he started talking about disaster preparedness as opposed to prepping. He showed a picture of the most beautiful pantry I’ve ever seen, owned by someone he knew. Then told us what an “insane” amount of money it took to fill it up for the husband, wife and two kids for a year. Prepping Bad.
But he has a generator, 3 months of food and other supplies. Government-approved level of Disaster Preparedness Good. He doesn’t have to worry about his family if he has to deploy to support some local government in an emergency, because his family is provided for.
So is the other guy’s and for 4 times as long. But Prepping Bad. Reminds me of the whole “premature anti-fascism” thing. You can be right too early, or too much.
You should have seen his face when an audience member with less self-restraint than I am capable of noted his figures on Wuflu cases in NC were drastically out of date – we had 5 new cases show up yesterday, from the same freaking trip to Boston. If you’re counting, that nearly tripled our count in one shot.
This morning, our governor declares a state of emergency. But we’re still not testing anyone who hasn’t been to an “affected geographic area” AND isn’t exhibiting symptoms. We have no clue how bad this is or isn’t. But we can whine about the lack of test kits, even when we can drive an hour down the Interstate and buy the damn things.
We’re definitely on our own.
