Charlie

Although I appreciate your intention, the queen is a political figure despite her careful attempt to always appear non-partisan. Anyone who has constitutional power within a government is by definition a political figure, as the automatic comparison/contrast here with the other heads of state makes clear.

I don't know any dog walkers, but I do know a pair of dog boarders, and their business has come to a dead stop.

And has he been back in touch?

Only for the right person...I meant reason!

I have never been able to sleep on my stomach, but I have always had sinus problems, and when they seem particularly bad, I often flip over to my stomach long enough to breathe comfortably again.

California is one of the few states that already has border control checkpoints on all major highways entering the state from other states, but positioning a checkpoint on every road along its enormously long border on the north and east would be difficult.

The first cases were in China. The first cases on the west coast were connected to people who had been in Wuhan. I think most Americans do think spatially, and the east coast is still a long way from the west coast, so folks in New York and DC thought about the flow of disease as a trans-Pacific problem. The first tests of the strains of the virus now seem to show that the initial infections in New York/New Jersey were brought across the Atlantic from Europe, not directly from China. The first US bans were on flights from China (most of which land in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle). It took a lot longer for the US to start banning flights from Europe, even though the disease was already established there. That probably explains part of the reason why New York, rather than Los Angeles as people might have expected, exploded into the major hotspot in the US. The reason why there are so many cases in group housing for the elderly, like nursing homes and assisted living, is that most of the staff in such facilities are very poorly paid; they come to work when they are sick because they don't get paid sick leave, and they often work extra shifts in more than one facility, because it is the only way they can make ends meet. The same is true for in-home caregivers, who are frequently untrained and don't have the same kind of supervision as someone in a managed care facility. My house cleaner, who is self-employed, has also done gigs as an in-home care-giver for sick and elderly people, even though she has no training for it, and will probably do so again now that she is losing many of her house-cleaning jobs. I have given her a paid holiday for the duration, because I know she needs the income, but I don't want her possibly bringing the virus into my home.

Average temps in PS have not been reliable this year. March was ten degrees below normal. Here it is April, and we are still in the 60s.

The Public Health Officer in Riverside county, CA, has now ordered that no gatherings of any number of people can take place except for members of a family residing in the same place. You can't get much more restrictive than that. Also, everyone must wear some kind of face covering in public; it's no long just a recommendation.

My spouse and I both had appointments this month for cleaning at the dentist. Today I got a call saying the appts must be rescheduled. The earliest I could get for my spouse is in July, and for me it's the 1st of September. I'll be flossing and brushing assiduously this summer. My spouse also has an appt in two weeks with the neurologist who monitors his Alzheimer's. I wonder how they will handle that. I don't know whether telemed will work.

I have two friends at high risk who are doing the same procedure.

Brilliant!

This morning my Stater's even had toilet paper! It has been very well stocked with almost everything for the past week, and they have redesigned the layout so that the aisles are wider and there is more open floor space. They will let us bring our own bags, but they won't pack them for us.

I am paying my cleaning lady to stay home. I am not going to do my own cleaning at the same time.

I believe I read somewhere that a doctor gets a much smaller payment for a telemedicine appointment than an office visit that covers the same subject, but gets even less or nothing for a phone call.

Starting last week, every market I have been to in Palm Springs requires people who bring their own reusable bags to bag their own purchases on tables set aside for that purpose, so the checkers don't have to touch those bags. However, if the checkers bag the purchases in the store's bags, then the customer is taking home the bags that the checkers have touched. It feels like we are going around in circles.

I suggested it, but I suspect that financial reimbursement for telemedicine is better; he probably doesn't get paid for a phone call.

A good friend stays here in Palm Springs for the winter, while her husband lives all year in the mountains in Utah. I asked if she planned to return to be with him in this trying time, and she said, "Are you kidding? There are still two feet of snow on the ground up there!"

Now that would be a scary project for me!

I had my first telemedicine appointment last week on Facetime, which worked pretty well. It was a follow-up with an allergist to go over results of tests done in the office on March 2nd, so there really was no need to actually be "seen" by the doctor (though I don't mind "seeing" him, because he is so cute).

Remember, this is California. Bicycles are considered an important part of the transportation system (almost every town in CA has designated bike lanes for commuters), so bike shops are specifically listed as an essential business, just like auto repair shops. The bike shop allows only one person at a time to come in, and customers must wait 6 ft apart on a line outside. There was a pretty long line outside of people with bikes that needed new tires, broken chains, etc.

I discovered when I was young that one of the best ways to feel in control of your life is to write about it, which is why I have kept a daily narrative journal for close to a half century. It is not only helpful for us to learn what you are experiencing, but also helpful for yourself. It will also be a resource for you to go back to read in future years. I still sometimes re-read my journals from the 1980s, where I can see my own experience of the first years of the AIDS epidemic from the perspective of having lived through them. Years from now, it can also be a resource for future generations who will not have experienced it. Please keep writing as beautifully as you have here.

Two finger selfie?

I am sure dentists are also seeing a fall-off in income, since so much of their practice is routine procedures like cleaning and filling, which can't be done with the patient wearing a mask or through telemedicine.