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dreamshark Richard and I were in Portland for one week (March 10-17) and the world turned upside down. The day before we left, Oregon's confirmed count jumped from 7 to 14, and Minnesota confirmed their 2nd case. Worrisome, but not yet at crisis level. Serious consideration of cancelling Minicon had just begun. Richard and I were still planning to host the voting meeting at our house, because... why not? My personal belief at that time was that there was about a 50/50 chance that we would be forced to cancel Minicon, then 5 weeks away. NINE DAYS LATER that seems like a laughably optimistic estimate.
While we were in Portland I watched in horrified fascination as the pandemic rolled across the US. As I may have mentioned, Oregon is sandwiched between two of the most affected states in the country, so anxiety (and public response) was at a high level. The governor kept up a constant loud demand for test kits, and when a small subset of the requested kits finally arrived, their case count quickly ballooned from 14 to 40. At this point, Minnesota appeared to be about 2 weeks behind Oregon in terms of case count and community spread, but as soon as Minnesota got a couple of thousand test kits they quickly caught up to Oregon's case count. Public gatherings were cancelled at an accelerating rate. NATIONAL SPORTS FRANCHISES cancelled their seasons! The term "social distancing" emerged and the guidance from public health agencies finally got past the minimally useful "wash your hands" and started to address the uncomfortable reality that this is an airborne disease, not norovirus. Italy's health system began to collapse as their case count shot from an already shocking 9,000 to 35,000 WITHIN A WEEK. Restaurants were being shuttered in cities and states all over America, eventually including both Oregon and Minnesota. Schools were closed in Oregon, closely followed by libraries. Two days later, Minnesota followed suit. I cancelled the voting meeting at my house, prompting an online kerfuffle. Minicon was officially postponed. As the week wore on, the CDC kept issuing guidance against gatherings of smaller and smaller sizes, eventually getting down to 10.
Travel restrictions went into effect worldwide, and domestic airlines embarked on a massive set of flight cancellations. I was getting increasingly nervous about United (never the world's most accommodating airline) cancelling my connecting flight home and stranding me in Denver. A week ago, a little domestic travel hadn't seemed especially risky - now it seemed like folly. But as it turned out, it was actually pretty easy and felt less dangerous than a trip to the grocery store, although a little spookier. The Portland airport was a ghost town, feeling a little like that Steven King story. Not only was it nearly empty except for an army of bored TSA personnel, all the shops were shuttered. Denver was a little more alive (fortunately the restaurants were still open. United does not deign to provide food on flights under 3 hours and we were in the middle of 8 hours of travel). But United did not cancel our flight, and managed to get both flights in the air right on time, so I could live with the dearth of sandwiches. The planes were not exactly empty, but we had vacant middle seats between us on both flights, making the trip unusually comfortable.
We arrived home late Tuesday night, and I have not left the house since. We unpacked, inventoried the food supply in the house, and are contemplating the best shopping strategy. Richard likes to shop in the middle of the night (because he likes to do EVERYTHING in the middle of the night) but was stymied when he found out too late that our usual Cub had just changed their hours to close at 10. Huh. I guess everything needs to be researched in advance now.
While we were in Portland I watched in horrified fascination as the pandemic rolled across the US. As I may have mentioned, Oregon is sandwiched between two of the most affected states in the country, so anxiety (and public response) was at a high level. The governor kept up a constant loud demand for test kits, and when a small subset of the requested kits finally arrived, their case count quickly ballooned from 14 to 40. At this point, Minnesota appeared to be about 2 weeks behind Oregon in terms of case count and community spread, but as soon as Minnesota got a couple of thousand test kits they quickly caught up to Oregon's case count. Public gatherings were cancelled at an accelerating rate. NATIONAL SPORTS FRANCHISES cancelled their seasons! The term "social distancing" emerged and the guidance from public health agencies finally got past the minimally useful "wash your hands" and started to address the uncomfortable reality that this is an airborne disease, not norovirus. Italy's health system began to collapse as their case count shot from an already shocking 9,000 to 35,000 WITHIN A WEEK. Restaurants were being shuttered in cities and states all over America, eventually including both Oregon and Minnesota. Schools were closed in Oregon, closely followed by libraries. Two days later, Minnesota followed suit. I cancelled the voting meeting at my house, prompting an online kerfuffle. Minicon was officially postponed. As the week wore on, the CDC kept issuing guidance against gatherings of smaller and smaller sizes, eventually getting down to 10.
Travel restrictions went into effect worldwide, and domestic airlines embarked on a massive set of flight cancellations. I was getting increasingly nervous about United (never the world's most accommodating airline) cancelling my connecting flight home and stranding me in Denver. A week ago, a little domestic travel hadn't seemed especially risky - now it seemed like folly. But as it turned out, it was actually pretty easy and felt less dangerous than a trip to the grocery store, although a little spookier. The Portland airport was a ghost town, feeling a little like that Steven King story. Not only was it nearly empty except for an army of bored TSA personnel, all the shops were shuttered. Denver was a little more alive (fortunately the restaurants were still open. United does not deign to provide food on flights under 3 hours and we were in the middle of 8 hours of travel). But United did not cancel our flight, and managed to get both flights in the air right on time, so I could live with the dearth of sandwiches. The planes were not exactly empty, but we had vacant middle seats between us on both flights, making the trip unusually comfortable.
We arrived home late Tuesday night, and I have not left the house since. We unpacked, inventoried the food supply in the house, and are contemplating the best shopping strategy. Richard likes to shop in the middle of the night (because he likes to do EVERYTHING in the middle of the night) but was stymied when he found out too late that our usual Cub had just changed their hours to close at 10. Huh. I guess everything needs to be researched in advance now.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 10:00 am (UTC)Restaurants here have just formally gone to carryout-or-delivery-only. Not that they were doing well once the campus (UW-Madison) told the students not to return to campus after spring break (which just started).
I'm with Richard about shopping in the wee hours. I got a shock last weekend when I went to the 24-hour store and found that they were CLOSED. I had to go to the 24-hour Walgreen's for milk. The checker there and I couldn't recall the last time that store had closed for anything but Christmas or Thanksgiving. They had just started closing at 9:30 p.m. for restocking (and, I suppose, cleaning) the previous night, with hand-written signs.
Since then, all the bigger grocery stores have reduced their hours -- and reserved some early morning time for people who need to protect their health more than most. The panic buying hasn't stopped, though: the co-op was almost out of the cheaper milk and paper towels by 4 p.m. today.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 02:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-03-20 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-03-21 01:54 am (UTC)