Home Sheltered

I ventured to town today for the first time in two weeks.  I had some errands to run, including banking, and I did some shopping while out.  I expected to see a lot of masks, gloves, and social distancing, but for the most part people (including store employees) were acting pretty normal.  There were still some empty shelves in Farm & Fleet and Walmart, but I was able to get just about everything I needed.

Since all of our cell phones are tracked, there is a website that shows how much we have reduced our travel activity.  In Illinois, we have reduced activity by 53%.  It's kind of nice knowing there is nothing on the calendar and few places to go, and it almost causes you to forget what day it is.  Seems like this home sheltering stuff would be an introverts dream!

The only social contact for the most part in the last two weeks is with Son#1, D-I-L, and two grandsons.  The oldest grandson has discovered the haymow and that's what he wants to do every time he visits.  So I'm having lots of flashbacks to the days when my brother and I, and then my sons built hay forts, towers, and tunnels in the mow.  I forget how dusty, itchy, and how much work it is.

Our Dining/Living room has been church for the past couple of weeks.  They are experimenting with a video system for services that we are watching.  It still has some kinks in the system but it works.  I'm not sure it's a whole lot better than listening live on AC Central, but it does feel like a greater connection to church.

The old farmers wife lost her oldest Romersberger first cousin last week.  Because of the ten person limit on funerals, and no visitations, we had to listen online to the service.  It was a nice service, but I wish we could have been there in person.

Since our old minivan has 230,000 miles on it, we bought another one  a few weeks ago.  It's five years old, but in good condition and low miles, so it fits our transportation needs.  We will keep the old one as a backup vehicle.  Now we are an empty nester, two minivan family!
The farmyard is muddy and the fields are wet.  So far, spring is starting out a lot like last year.  Too much rain and not enough sun to allow us to get much preparations done.  Mostly, we are working on machinery.

For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
Psalm 61:3

Toilet Paper

The old farmer took his wife out for supper last night and we decided that since we were cleaned up and in town we might as well do a little shopping.  The wife had bought a bundle of toilet paper at the IGA in Mackinaw at noon (no panic there), so we really didn't need any.  At Sam's they were totally out of TP, but people were carting out cases of bottled water.  Fortunately, we have a faucet in our house that produces all the water we want for free.  An employee told me that they got a semi load of TP  in over night, and it was gone within 20 minutes of opening in the morning!  Our next stop was Kroger's, and I felt like we were in a third world country!  Or a Russian grocery store during communism!  The fresh meat counter was empty, the dairy case had no milk in it, and there was no bread, eggs, powdered milk, and of course, no toilet paper. Other shelves were ransacked and picked over.  Menards and hardware stores were out of dust masks, and most don't even stop the virus!

Fear and Panic rather than caution and common sense.

I blame the CDC, followed by the media and politicians.  In this time of e-commerce and home delivery of anything, surely we don't need to keep a three month supply of toilet paper in every home.  If you are quarantined, a delivery service (think UPS, FedEx, Speedee, DoorDash, GrubHub, Schwan's, etc.) or your friends, family, or caretaker can drop off supplies in your yard or driveway as needed.

I'm not trying to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus, and I understand why the cancellations and steps are being taken to drastically slow the spread.  We do not want to overwhelm the health care system.  Limit all international and interstate travel.  Limit social activities.  Isolate communities with confirmed cases from others.  Practice good hygiene and sanitation.  Stop large crowd events, especially ones that draw people from a large area.  Self isolation if you even think you might be getting sick.

But create fear, panic, and hoarding?  No.

In China, where it all started in November, they have 81000 cases with 3200 deaths to date.  China's population is 1.39 billion people.  That makes the overall death rate of .002 %.
In America, 1.25 million people die in car accidents each year.  That's an average of 3287 people killed every day!  With a population of 330 million, that is a .38% overall death rate!  I bet more people were killed this week driving to buy toilet paper than have died in China from Covid-19!

The Ebola outbreak in 1976 had a 40% fatality rate, SARS in 2002 had a 10% fatality rate, and MERS in 2012 had a 34% fatality rate. So far, Covid-19 is less than 4%.  Annually, Influenza kills up to 61,000 people a year in America, and up to 650,000 people globally.  We need to keep everything in perspective.

Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.
Genesis 50:21

Abide thou with me, fear not: for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life: but with me thou shalt be in safeguard.
I Samuel 22:23

Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Psalm 34:11



     

Jimmy Carter

We stopped in Atlanta to visit the Jimmy Carter Presidential Museum on our rainy trip to Florida.  I wasn't a big fan of some of his policies as president, but I always felt that he was one of the most decent, honest, and moral presidents that we have had.

A replica of President Carter's oval office. 

Further down the highway we stopped at the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in Plains, Georgia where President Carter grew up, and where he still lives today.  After stopping at the Plains High School Museum and Visitors Center to watch a film about Jimmy's life, we headed out to see the sights.  We stopped at the Maranatha Baptist Church,  where he still attends church today and still teaches Sunday School.  We toured his boyhood home, farm, and the family's commissary.  In downtown Plains, we visited the Plains Depot where he ran his presidential campaign (it was the only empty building in town that had a bathroom!), saw the old Carter Peanut warehouses, and brother Billy Carter's gas station.

Billy's gas station.

The Maranatha Baptist Church.

Boyhood home and farm.

Downtown Plains.

From rural Georgia, we headed to Suntan Terrace on Nokomis Beach, for a week of R & R.  We had beautiful, warm weather while we were there, and enjoyed our beach walks, sea food, shelling, and shark tooth hunting.  One new activity this year was stopping at the Manatee Viewing Center at Apollo Beach.  There were literally dozens of manatees congregating in the warm waters discharged from the Big Bend Power Station.  For as big and cumbersome as they look, they can move fast when something scares them! 

We decided to take the Alabama route home this trip; it's an hour longer, but saves you from having to drive through Atlanta.  In rural Alabama, we stopped at a couple of roadside stands.  I bought some Buffalo Bob's alligator jerky at one, and the old farmer's wife bought a bonsai tree at another. 
We had a safe uneventful trip home.

And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
Genesis 18:1