...and they got me on lock dowwwwwwn!

I have a theory that for every situation in life, classic Hip-Hop music has a reference. Today's proof comes courtesy of Cypress Hill. I'm in one of six contiguous counties in the state of California, USA, covering approximately 7 million inhabitants, now operating under "shelter in place orders" from local governments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Technically we're not on full "lockdown" like some parts of the world. We're still legally allowed to exit our homes without explicit permission, but we're not allowed to gather in groups larger than 10 or with people from outside our own households, and we're not supposed to travel by foot, scooter, bicycle, or car to any place we don't absolutely need to. All "non-essential" establishments have been ordered closed including some municipal offices and all schools.

You may have seen news reports about people stockpiling toilet paper in recent weeks. These reports are accurate. Panic buying has occurred en masse, and in my region in particular there was a tremendous surge in this behavior just yesterday when our own change of status was widely announced and broadcast as an emergency alert notification on all of our phones. I topped up my own household's non- and slowly-perishable food supplies late last week, and already then there were about a half-dozen aisles completely stripped of all products. I got the last three packets of instant rice off one lonely shelf. Days later, some entire stores are all but empty. Amazon will be out of some commodities for weeks.

Everyone among my close & extended family & friends appears safe & healthy for the moment, but tensions are high and uncertainty & unease are palpable in the air. Nobody has any idea how long this will last or how bad it will get. While South Korea has given the world a clinic on pandemic response & "flattening the curve," many other places, including the mighty US, have been slow on the draw & prioritized minimizing public panic & bad early PR over taking care of serious business.

For me this is a first-in-a-lifetime experience. I remember the days of peak Ebola and got inoculated for H1N1, but coronavirus is hitting harder and closer to home & heart than either. With so many people stuck at home and looking for some good news or a positive escape, I should ideally be making more content than ever. Unfortunately there's not enough of me available to oblige. I've done my share of news reading, stock-taking, protocol-generating, and social circle debating, all of which takes time as well as mental energy. I also suffered a couple bouts of insomnia over the past week that knocked me down a notch. Boo.

I'll certainly do as much as I can to be normal for all of you, though, while maintaining proper care for myself and loved ones. I hope you all will do your parts as well to comply with common sense precautions, to avoid picking up or spreading this nasty little bug. There's plenty of unbiased, fact-based info out there about how respiratory tract viruses spread and how to minimize exposure through basic & easy hygienic practices & courtesies. Don't be patient 31.