The governor finally decided to close all of the schools in Washington state. I don't think our district would have if it hadn't been taken out of their hands. I am glad it was done. If states who didn't even have any deaths were closing them, why my state, with the highest death toll in the country, took so long is beyond me.

We now have 2 cases in my county and 568 cases in the state. There have been 37 deaths. There has been a homeless man who left quarantine before he got his test results, robbed a store, and got on a bus. Apparently the security guard couldn't stop him. There was only one. Not enough resources were given to that quarantine site.

The library closes on Monday until the end of April, so DH is going to try to get over there tomorrow, turn in the books that we are done with, and check out some more. I'll give him a list of the author's I am interested in. I think they closed the library because they figured that was where parents would dump their kids all day if the schools were closed, which is not okay in regular circumstances, but especially now.

The YMCA is closing down its care program for a month. So far our gym hasn't closed, but they are wiping down machines every hour with bleach as well as shower handles, faucet handles, locker handles, and blow dryers. They have also quit selling snacks and water bottles out of their little fridge because they can't stop people from touching more than they are buying.

We are going to postpone our vacation until September. I am worried about if we go into quarantine and we are away from home and they introduce check points and won't let us travel back and we'd have no place to stay and not a lot of extra money to pay for a hotel. That is kind of the paranoid part of my brain, but guess, what? The paranoid part of my brain has been right so far on everything, so it isn't helping very much to try to call it out.

I think I've read too many books of apocalyptic fiction. Because my mind jumps to people without a place to go being put into FEMA camps and martial law as a possible future scenario. But New York has called out the National Guard and that is one step below martial law, so maybe it isn't paranoid at all.

It really depends on how fast it goes from social distancing, to soft quarantine, to hard quarantine. Look how fast it went in Italy. Look at what China did. Look at Iran. I am trying really hard to not let my mind run away with me, but you don't see what it is like here. You don't feel the tension.

For instance, yesterday there were only two checkers at the store who were for over 15 items and one lane was studiously being ignored. I looked into the short lane and saw it was the lady who likes to lick her fingers and touch her face while she checks your groceries and also licks her fingers to count out any cash change. And I was like, "Nope."

A manager came out and tried to direct people into her lane and we all were refusing to go, with variations of I'll wait. And there was a lot of tension. He was getting a little frustrated that no one wanted to move and finally someone said, "That woman is constantly licking her fingers and handling the food, the money, her face, her hair, and rubbing her eyes. It's gross and it is dangerous right now." And everyone nodded and agreed.

We were talking in line afterwards but apparently no one has reported this, but we all avoid her because of it. Plus she is really slow to check as well, but it is mostly the grossness. The manager quit bugging us then, but he didn't look happy. He also didn't go and talk to the cashier. Hopefully, he actually does.

If you sneeze or cough in the store everyone gives you worried looks and moves quite a ways away. You hear, "It's just allergies," a lot. People are pulling up their shirts over their faces to cough and sneeze so it doesn't have room to go anywhere. I haven't seen masks yet, but I expect to any day now. I am seeing a lot of people who normally are out and about with their kids not taking them places and the park parking lots are deserted when you drive by them.

People seem to have such a wariness about them, like we are all living just waiting for the hammer to drop. And maybe we are. Every day just brings more and more stress as this thing progresses. There is not a lot of chit chat going on between strangers like there used to be, unless something happens (like that manager trying to get us to go into the licky lady's lane). It's changing. It's not oppressive yet, but it is so far from the same that it is like we moved to a place where people aren't automatically pretty friendly. So far there is no open hostility.

I hope this is over soon. I just want it to be the end of April now and hopefully see the back end of this.

I'm coughing again, started last night. Headache. Chest tightness. And my temperature is starting to go up. Yeah, there's that, too.