March 24, 2020

So here we are,

Together, but…

No hugs.

We have to meet this way because we’re practicing social distancing. Sheltering in place. Voluntarily under house arrest.

There are exceptions, obviously. You could have found me while checking your phone and prowling the aisles at Walmart, looking for some basic household necessities.

That shelf is probably empty, but you are getting exercise.

For everyone else at home…

You’re likely reading this on your phone. Maybe a laptop or iPad.

Me?

I’m writing this blog, as I’ll now do every day, from a makeshift office in the living room – PC in my lap, feet stretched out on a large square coffee table.

Used to keep a couple of novels with meaningful sounding titles in that spot, but since there are no visitors to impress, the only book I can see at the moment is a little collection of cat poems called, “I Could Pee on This.”

Oh, and there’s also a large array of fake sunflowers, just to make things look brighter.

It’s just me and Sammie the World’s Greatest Cat, who fortunately has the manners to use her litter box.

She’s strictly an indoor girl (except when we sit out on the deck in summertime), and today I’m a little happier about that, after reading an article about coyotes now roaming among developed areas.

They’re here.

Apparently, they eat our garbage and our…

Cats.

My partner Melissa is 1,600 miles away in a suburb of Kansas City, washing her hands 300 times per day and sending her son out on every errand.

Melissa is an all-out germophobe, which I suppose is healthy, but she has a slightly unnatural fear of this annoying coronavirus. She reads endlessly about it – along with various other diseases.

I’m afraid she’s found some literature on the Black Death, and I need to convince her again that we’ve slipped safely out of the 14th century.

Ah, maybe I typed the word “safely” in some haste.

After all, we’re gathering like this because of COVID-19, which seems to be racing across America.

We’re staying at home to halt the spread, which might succeed.

Partly.

There’s a cost, though, because businesses are closing and people are out of work.

If everyone quits fighting in Congress, supposedly the government will throw $2 trillion into the economy to keep us ticking over.

I don’t know.

I’m confused by a lot of this, like, wouldn’t $2 trillion have gotten a lot of testing kits and medical equipment into the system a couple of months ago?

See, I’m not sure what to think.

Some expert said today that the economy has been put into a medically induced coma, but no one is quite so sure what it will be like when it’s revived.

But that’s a worry for another day.

Tonight, I need to make a wee hours run to our local Super 1 store, which is open 24 hours a day, bless ‘em.

Oh, if you want to add something to this blog – any thought, any day – that would be great. Whatever you think might pull us closer again, since we all must be kind of nervous these days.

My email address is scameron@cdapress.com.

I’ll be here, seven days a week, until…well, until we can get a meal in a restaurant, I guess. I suppose that would be one kind of all-clear signal.

See you tomorrow, OK?

Now say good-bye to everyone, Sammie.

***

Press columnist Steve Cameron is stuck at home like so many other people in North Idaho. Steve will be writing a daily blog for our website, with the hope of keeping us all a little closer together until we’ve fought our way through this pandemic.