Shelter-in-Place Day 2

Today Governor Gavin Newsom called for all Californians to shelter in place - stay home and avoid going out as much as possible. This is from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:

The governor earlier in the day asked the president to deploy a U.S. Navy medical ship to help expand the state’s medical capacity and warned that if drastic measures are not taken, more than half of California’s residents could contract the new coronavirus.

(!)

The number of deaths recorded world-wide has exceeded 10,000 and Italy reports more deaths than China reported. There are those who question the numbers from China.

Today I left the house three times: to take S. to work, to get rat traps and copper tape to keep slugs from the new vegetable garden, and then to pick up S. from work.  I spent as much time as I could gardening and writing. Both beehives are doing well and I was serenaded by buzzing while I worked.

N. has gone to stay with A. at his father's for a while. His father is high-risk, so there may be little back-and-forthing. But we know where to reach her if we need to.

It's dark now, and in the backyard, D's live trap just caught not one but two rats. I hate killing anything when there is so much death around right now anyway, but I'm also more determined than ever to protect plants that we need to make food from the plague of rats that invades our back yard every night. We see four or five scatter every time we turn on the light on the chicken coop between 7pm and 9pm.

I'm not at the point of buying guns or ammo, nor do I think I would ever be - although I have heard that sales have sky-rocketed. I feel a very long way away from that sense of survivalism or martial law - but it's no longer so far outside the realm of possibility. Planting veggies is my version of feeling self-sufficient.

Yesterday I learned that a friend had to euthanize her dog. Much more significantly, today I heard of the death of a previous coworker. I can't quite process that bit of news yet. I knew him well and he seemed too young to die, even though I heard he'd been ill lately, and I hadn't seen him since I left my last job. I'm feeling so sad for his former wife and his three kids, who must be between 20 and 25 now. Too young to lose a father, especially in the middle of all of this.