The day passed with little exciting happening. Solid work day, pretty good kids, decent weather. Little dog is still sick, pooping all over, but that’s all that seemed bad today.

There are some exciting events going on at work. New problem to solve, with information and discussion between a bunch of different people. That was a nice change from the usual, keep things going, make little changes, and try not to break anything, that we’ve been doing recently. We’ve got some work stoppage, reasonable, for stability sake, as we figure out this work-from-home and other unprecedented times stuff. It leaves a grimace on our faces, as we’re not allowed to move forward as fast as we’d like. So the new problem was a nice distraction.

The US has burst into first place with confirmed COVID-19 cases. Looking at the few sites, like world meters or the Johns Hopkins map, the US is in a strong lead. China, the origin, seems to have stabilized. It makes me wonder if they’re reporting accurately. The stats don’t indicate how many tests have been done, and we’ll probably never know the number of unconfirmed but recovered cases that happen. This makes some of the stats tricky to muse.

Stats aside, the US government seems to be doing a lot of supportive things. Today they announced financial aid for individuals and families, and loans for smaller businesses to keep their payroll going; loans they don’t have to pay back if they keep their staff complete. They also talked about shifts they’re making to ensure that school kids continue to get meals, even if they can’t collect them at their schools any more, with partnerships for delivery and manufacture with the likes of Panera. That’s pretty groovy.

It also made me consider how messed-up our economy is if so many people are collapsing after just a couple of weeks. I recall in my early adult and college days not having enough cash to buy enough food for every day. Usually I’d eat a meal or two a day, often out of scraps or left-overs from other days, or weird concoctions made from cupboard staples, or offerings at work or school. But if I had been forced to stop working for a few weeks, it wouldn’t have gotten worse. Maybe at the end of the month, which I get we’re fast approaching, if we had to pay rent with a missing paycheck. Maybe if I’d been less careful and continued to spend while socially distancing, or maybe I wouldn’t have when I was younger and indestructible.

Still, if so many businesses are so close to collapse, and so many people aren’t sure that they’ll be able to recover, after just a week or two (as we hit day 11), what does that say about the state of our affairs. I could see some people having this problem, but the bits of news and articles I see on-line make it seem like this is the norm, not the exception.

I get that we’ve been fortunate to have gotten past that part in our lives. Good careers, combined with living in the same house for nearly 20 years, so our mortgage is a tiny portion of our income, has allowed us to develop generous savings. I get that we’re not the normal, especially for how long we could last if we did have payroll interruptions. Maybe I’m getting woke to the real state of finances in the country. I’ll keep musing.

Tomorrow’s supposed to rain, which might suck. The wife’s planning on making a grocery run and delivering supplies to her shut-in father. He lives alone in a remote area, with distant neighbors, and probably hasn’t interacted with another person for like a month. He wasn’t aware there was a pandemic on until just a few days ago. He mentioned needing a grocery run, so the wife said “stay home, we’ll bring you supplies, stay healthy.” Still to be seen if she takes a companion, or leaves me with the kids.

The rain might suck for that, too.

Except the dog, everyone is healthy.