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We knew it was coming: yesterday about an hour after work, at 5:30, our state governor, Jay Inslee, announced a two-week "stay at home" order for everyone except for "essential" work force. Inslee did this actually well after several other states already had, long enough to face criticism for it (especially after images of crowds of morons at Alki Beach last Saturday went viral), and honestly, if our federal government had any sensible leadership running it whatsoever, such a mandate would have been issued nationwide already. It's precisely because of this piecemeal response going state by state that this COVID-19 pandemic is going to last way longer in this country than it ever should have.

And already people on the far right are idiotically arguing that just sacrificing some of our population is what we need to salvage the economy. As if the economy would just keep running as normal if our entire health system buckles from being overburdened. These fucking morons.

I was in the middle of making a wonderful baked macaroni and cheese for dinner when the press conference occurred. Shobhit was so convinced Total Wine & More would be deemed "non-essential" and have to close, he insisted I leave with him in the middle of all this to make an emergency liquor run. We were low on vodka and rum! And I did want to get these things, but had Shobhit had given me any time even to think about these things, I could have argued that if absolutely necessary we could get them at, say QFC. More expensive there, sure, but grocery stores aren't going to close (lucky me, considering my own job).

At least I did not have the macaroni in the oven yet. I had it otherwise all prepped, and in the end it was fine; we just got dinner about an hour later than I wanted. But, we got there and apparently because they do sell grocery products, even Total Wine will stay open. Shobhit is still waiting to hear whether Big 5 is likely to close. Sporting goods hardly seems "essential," but who knows? They sell one or two snack food (or protein bars and the like) items too, so who knows!

Shobhit has been earing a face mask because of his cough. Except he kept pulling the mask down to cough into his elbow. And in the car I noticed his mask was still pulled below his nose. When I said something he said putting it above his nose, his breathing fogs up his glasses and he can't see. Well, he truly might as well not wear the mask at all then. One of his coworkers, someone he clearly likes, said something to him at Total Wine when we were there too. He gave her the same excuse and she said, "Well you might as well not wear the mask, it's pointless then," she said. Shobhit found a computer repair shop today—he's finally looking into getting it fixed after spilling water all over it during out flight from Sydney to San Francisco, two weeks ago—and this time at least, he made sure to put his contacts in so he can put the mask on properly. And after literally years of resisting this kind of electronic convenience because he is convinced it's insecure, today he finally downloaded his bank's app so he could deposit a check electronically instead of going out to a bank. He's still going out today, both for the computer repair diagnostic and to get his oil filter changed, but any reduction in being out and around other people is a good thing.

We weren't sure if computer repair places would be deemed "essential." Reading our state's pretty complex list of what qualifies, it appears this would. I mean, if everyone who can do so is being asked to work from home, then we'd want the services available that we need to keep communications grids running, right?

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So, we got our "essential" replacement jugs of vodka and rum, and Shobhit drove home, me feeling irritated by being put through added stress unnecessarily . . . and then I came home and made myself a hot chocolate with rum in it. I felt better! I mean, I never get a buzz from a single cocktail, but I felt better all the same. And, I put the macaroni into the oven and baked for half an hour, and it came out super delicious. I can't remember the last time I made baked macaroni and cheese. It may have been one of Shobhit's and my first dates, when I had him over for dinner and that was what I made—but I did not really season it and he immediately reached for salt and pepper. I felt bad about it not being good enough for him, but I had no idea I was facing a lifetime of him literally never feeling any food has enough pepper or particularly enough salt in it. Last night, though, I put plenty of both in the cheese sauce to begin with, and then even more on the bowl of it I dished for him. And he had no complaints, and even complimented me on it.

Also for this one, I added several vegetables and some veggie sausage, also very much enhancing the flavor. I was not nearly as good a cook as even I have become, back in 2004.

I finally got Shobhit to put his endless news programs on hold and we then watched the first of three episodes I recently realized we still had left of The New Pope on HBO. Episode 7 was, I was pleased to discover, the best of the season thus far. Having "the young pope" as played by Jude Law finally wake up from his coma really made a difference.

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So, with the exception of semi-irritating interruptions by Shobhit when he's not working (today was already a scheduled day off), I'm sort of getting used to this new reality, a week and a half or so later. I'm still listening to pop culture podcasts, the one focused on movies talking a lot about the impact on the industry while all movie theaters are closed, and what kind of options there are for movie lovers to see movies that would otherwise currently be in theaters. I'm kind of between a rock and a hard place as far as all that goes, as I was paying a very cost-effective monthly fee for my AMC Theaters subscription—and as far as I know, I still am; I'm not going to go out of my way to make them lose even more money when I am still fully capable of keeping that line item in my budget.

Studios are offering some current-release movies streaming, but at twenty dollars a pop. I was paying about $4 more than that per month to see as many as three movies as week. I'm not that desperate. I suppose the one truly silver lining on the movie front is that this time of year I wouldn't be missing out on the greatest selection of movie releases anyway. The release schedule for the rest of the year after theaters finally reopen is going to be very interesting and unusual, though. In the meantime, when I'm not working or cooking, I just pass my time either watching stuff streaming or captioning Australia trip photos whenever I have the chance. I only managed to caption one photo yesterday, as with Shobhit home I don't have as much spare time. Maybe I can make a bit more time for it after work today.

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[posted 12:32 pm]