You’ve been warned and I’m sorry but these thoughts have been percolating for about the last 24 hours and I’ve gotta get ’em out. I’ll *try* to leave the Orange Baboon out of it for once. We’ll see if I succeed.

Open up the country? Open up the Great Lake State? Open up the rural areas of the Great Lake State? You know, those areas where there aren’t (yet) high enough numbers of sick people to overwhelm our wonderful but small out-state hospitals. Y’all can do all the opening up you want. *I* will not be participating in any of it. Store, restaurant, whatever. I won’t be there. Not until there is science-backed data that indicates we are finished with COVID. Right now, we have more questions than answers. Who and what to believe? I trust very little information from any news sources at this time. I think there are a *lot* of other people out there who agree with me. (Disclaimer: The Great Lake State is not opening soon. We have #ThatWomanInMichigan for guv!)

That doesn’t mean I won’t participate in keeping the economy going. I can and I will. But I will continue to find contact-less ways of consuming. That’s the only safe way to do business during this difficult period of time and a lot of businesses, at least here on The Planet Ann Arbor, are finding creative ways to serve their customers without contact.

If we open non-essential businesses, not only does it put patroons patrons [lol, what is a patroon anyway?] at risk, it puts the employees in a terrible position. I think *everyone* is afraid to go to their workplaces at this time. Do I risk getting sick? Will I get laid off if I try to take time off? Should I quit? What if I’m a salon worker? Do I know how to keep me and my customers safe? Is it even possible without hospital grade personal protective equipment? And many hospitals are scrambling to get PPE so how can a salon worker get it?

This will annoy some of my “five” regular readers (likely including my quarantine isolation pardner) but I think we need to strongly consider some kind of taxpayer-funded relief for people who can’t work at this time. I got really annoyed (but stayed out of it) when a facebook/high school friend who has always had a reputation for high intelligence complained that people receiving $2000 a month (or whatever) to sit on their you-know-whats wouldn’t ever want to go back to work. I DISAGREE! Yes, there are always some people out there looking for a handout and some employed people have a better work ethic than others. But I think most people are happier working and making their own money. This is a devastating situation but it is TEMPORARY. Although how temporary it is will depend on how vigilant we are about stopping the spread. Opening up non-essential businesses does not seem like it will help. And guess what? $2000 a month is hardly a King’s Ransom.

The sign is at my next-door neighbors’ house. As medical interns, they are themselves essential employees. At the moment, through low-key Gladys Kravitz style spying, I am pretty sure the wife isn’t going to work. They have a baby and I think she is staying home so they don’t inadvertently transmit to the nanny or vice versa.

I am staying home for my neighbors and all of the other essential workers.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2020 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.