(no subject)

I didn't get anything posted yesterday, but I've got a good excuse for that. I didn't get enough sleep the night before, and after a big meal of half-price Domino's pizza, I went to bed for a nap around 5. Woke up just after midnight. I guess I must have really needed the sleep.

Had a nice video phone call with my parents. They were lucky enough to have stocked up on groceries (and, indeed, TP, more or less by accident) before the catastrophe hit. (And only one of them even actually uses much TP anymore; there's a bidet for the benefit of my one-armed Mom.) There are a couple of things they're low on, but they might make a point of getting in to a nearby Wal-Mart for the elderly-shoppers hour at the 6 a.m. start of business to get them. If they're going to have to go to a store, I suppose going at an hour restricted to the elderly when almost nobody would be there anyway would be the best time for it.

Wrote a couple more pieces for TeleRead—one about Barnes & Noble's possibility of layoffs, and another piece looking at Corona's potential impact on movie theaters. Definitely a societal sea change we're going through.

I continue to be disgusted at how politically polarized the crisis has become. Republican local governments are being slow to act and rightists in general are pooh-poohing the disease and thinking that we're overreacting. I can't help thinking that these right-side antics are going to lead to more people getting killed unnecessarily. And that's not even getting into how Republicans want to use this to help out big business, rather than individual people. I can only hope that it redounds against the right once this is all over.

Oh well. Should probably nap before work tomorrow (today) and try to get sleep back on schedule.

My tweets

• Sun, 13:24: Corona could hit movie theaters harder than bookstores https://t.co/3xWjytKgNf https://t.co/jBLse8JPUz
• Mon, 01:44: Words to live and keep your sanity by. https://t.co/sWV5VhEcnf
• Mon, 05:14: I didn't get anything posted yesterday, but I've got a good excuse for that. I didn't get enough sleep the night https://t.co/x0Ew3lkAlE

There's no place like stay-at-home

Indiana is under a stay-at-home order starting Wednesday, and going through at least April 6. It's good that they finally got around to making it mandatory rather than merely a suggestion. Of course, you'll still be permitted to go to necessary places like grocery stores and the like, and to work if you work at an "essential" business, but "non-essential" businesses are closing for the duration. The article lists doctor's offices and medical facilities as among essentials. Health insurance isn't listed, but I'm pretty sure it's essential, too. Which means I get to continue working, for all that I work from home anyway. That makes me one of the luckiest ones. And who knows; if I'd gotten a tech writing job like I wanted, I probably wouldn't be considered "essential" and would be stuck at home unsalaried for the duration.

I have to say, I'm especially proud of the work I'm doing now. Granted that the American health care system is messed up, and health insurance companies are likely a big part of the problem, I'm still helping my company process health care requests as quickly and efficiently as I can, and that kind of thing is vital now when that system is just about to be taxed to the limit.