Blogging, getting outside, and looking at swag

Today, Google posted this image.  When I scrolled over it, these words appeared:

Stay Home.  Save Lives : Help Stop Coronavirus

Look at the letters.  The first G is reading a book.  The two Os are making music, one singing and the other playing the guitar.  The second G is talking on a cellphone with the final E, and the L between them is exercising with two weights.  Thanks, Google.  What are YOU doing to keep busy and/or entertain yourself?

GETTING OUTSIDE

At 2:00, the temps here in St. Louis reached 73, so I opened the windows for Clawdia (and me).  She jumped up on the windowsill to look down at the budding trees below our windows, and I went to shower (finally, in mid-afternoon) so I could take her out for a breath of fresh air and a walk in the grass.

DR. FAUCI SWAG

No, really!  You can now buy Dr. Anthony Fauci swag, like mugs, socks, fan club buttons, lawn signs, candles, cushions, and tee-shirts.  Fauci is now saying he doesn't know why the United States hasn’t instituted a nation-wide stay-at-home order amid the spread of COVID-19.

VIRUS ECONOMICS

"Virus economics" is a term I heard today, uttered by Austan Goolsbee on CNN.  He's an economics professor, who says (I'm paraphrasing), "We have to fix the virus problem before we can fix the economics problem."  I don't have to tell you how many people have suddenly lost their jobs because we're staying home and not shopping and traveling and meeting in large groups.  We are all either feeling lost in the middle of so many changes or feeling that lots of folks around us THINK they are experts.  Let's listen to the experts.

CONNECTING

The lobby in my building is now COMPLETELY empty, unlike the day I discovered the "shocking" almost-empty lobby a couple of weeks ago and took a photo.  Instead of two chairs and a few table, there are no pieces of furniture at all except the little table with hand sanitizer and a lamp on it.

So now we call each other.  My neighbor Faye came home from the hospital Wednesday, so I called her yesterday and talked for almost half an hour.  Tiny, Susan, and Pamela called me, and I called to wish David and Sharon a happy anniversary yesterday.  I read what a neighbor has written on her Beverly's Notebook blog (she's not as wordy as I am), and showed Helen how to solve the visual puzzle I'd posted (click the link to do it yourself or read the comments for the long, convulated way to get the right answer).

I've been in touch with several people on Facebook and by texting, like Rosy and Lauree, who sent pictures of her cats.  While I was typing this, I got a text from Sharon down the hall:

"Fresh cornbread outside your door."

And it was still warm!  I ate it immediately, with a glass of good cold milk.  Clawdia thought I should share, until I put a crumb in front of her and she changed her mind.  She was trying to take a bite (or maybe just sniff) before she noticed the camera aimed at her.