This gave me chills.

From a daily regional newsletter:

“This is the first day of Wisconsin being under a shelter in place order. Restriction of movement like this is one of the big guns that has to be used in a pandemic. Think of it as a real life appearance in a low-grade slasher movie and being told there’s a killer on the other side of the door, so just sit tight for awhile and don’t make things worse.

“And yet, just like every other low-grade slasher movie, there’s always the one guy who says after 10 minutes, “I can’t take it anymore,” opens the door and runs outside, exposing more people to danger.

“This time around, that one guy lives in a nice white house where sheltering in place should be easy. He can tweet to his heart’s content from the Lincoln Bedroom rather than cram 10 people around a podium as a contagion rages silently from host to host.

“The lesson here is don’t be the freaked out guy in the low-grade slasher movie. Be the hero… by merely sitting on your tuchus and binge watching a few things… right after we check the headlines… which include an overnight deal to provide help to Americans and the business world.”

“Bill Gates — who now leads a global health foundation — rebuked Trump’s approach in an interview: ‘There really is no middle ground, and it’s very tough to say to people,“Hey, keep going to restaurants, go buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner.” ‘ ”

Got kids that are going stir-crazy? Here is some help from Minnesota Public Radio.

Our days here at Chez Kat™ are not significantly different than before except that I have more time — no in-person meetings, no annual dinner to help plan, fewer Zoom meetings and webinars.

Last week when shit got serious I found myself reading and knitting during the day — for years I only read in bed at night and I only knit while watching TV in the evening. Those were big changes for me, made at a time when everything in the world seemed crazy. But I have since reverted to my previous habits after the crazy became the new normal.

I might even get some long-postponed projects done, like cleaning and organizing my home office. That process has started. I emptied out a pile of boxes — hello Goodwill! —  and used the space for a 2-drawer filing cabinet. Next is to move out the printer stand beside the new file cabinet and replace it with two more cabinets like the first one. Those have been sitting empty for ::counts on fingers:: at least ten years. Smokey had plans for them that never came to fruition. The printer stand will go into the laundry/craft room to replace the third filing cabinet that currently has the little beverage refrigerator on it. Having the three filing cabinets in my office will allow me to empty and remove the five (5!) plastic file totes currently occupying a large portion of the floor. They are past treasurer files for the congressional district Dems, the county Dems, and M, who ran for the our seat in Congress in 2018. There is also a rolling file rack that has this year’s congressional and county Dems treasurer files, plus treasurer files for the Friends of the Library. (I resigned from the library board of trustees and the Friends last month; finally admitted that I was over-committed and needed to back away from something. So those FotL files will go away… just as soon as the #saferathome statewide order is suspended, and the new treasurer and I can go to the bank.)

Once the office is reconfigured I will make an effort to clear at least part of my desk so I can do our taxes. There is a pile of knitting 🧶 books that I weeded from my collection that I plan to sell — cheaply! — on the blog and on Instagram. Stay tuned.

I am kind of excited about this project. It fits with what the counselors and shrinks are saying: find a project that interests you — learn a new language, paint your kitchen, organize your garage — and use this time to accomplish it. It’s good for one’s mental health!

And now I shall do some laundry. I haven’t actually caught up completely since I was sick back in mid-February…