In which living at the center of the plague-zone feels a little...weird

Greetings from the Plague Zone

Plague-doctor:  it's gonna be the hot costume for Hallowe'en this year

At home on the farm, things are peaceful.  The birds are beginning to return after winter sojourns, the ground is almost ready to plant.

Moonset this week was pretty.  Photo was taken around 7:30 on Monday morning

At the libraries where I work, things seem serene enough...from the outside.

The cherry trees are blooming, always a welcome sign of spring

Inside the building, it's another world.

Hard to believe that two months ago I'd never heard the phrase "social distancing."

We are near the epicenter of the Washington State outbreak--Life Care Center in Kirkland is literally less than 10 miles from one of my library buildings.

In the chart below, you can see a big blue blob.  That's where I work.
There's a slightly-less big grey blob.  That's where I live. 

This graphic is 5 days out of date. Today there are 328 confirmed cases in King County,
and 133 in Snohomish County, Testing is still not nearly sufficient
to tell us how common the virus actually is.

The chart was pulled from this analysis, which I highly recommend for clarity and concise summing-up of what the pandemic means for us right now, and in the near future.

I should have invested in Purell.

The library's circulating collection of puppets is, by definition, a bit ooky.  I brought the whole gang of them home for a nice long wash in Lysol detergent at Santa's Sanitizing Spa for Stuffies and Puppets.

Jim set up a "choir loft" for puppets to air-dry by the woodstove.

We are not travelling at all, not even up to Bellingham to visit my folks--they live in a seniors-only apartment complex, and the last thing I want is to touch the elevator button in their building and possibly expose some vulnerable person to this virus.

Gallows humor is common around here.  We make jokes about bumping elbows (or just waving our elbows at each other from a distance, yes this is a real thing), and we trade "hand-washing songs."

Also common in my region:  nerds

UPDATE

They've closed the whole library system

The expectation is that library staff will report to work for "normal-ish" shifts, although the administrators are a little vague on what we're going to do there, since the vast majority of our jobs is dealing with people.

We can answer reference questions via the phone, of course.  Those questions will consist of :

• 95%  "Are you open?"
• 4 %   "Where can I get help with my taxes?"
• 1%     That one guy who needs to know stuff like Captain James T. Kirk's middle name*

 Since yesterday was my day off, I went riding.  That usually makes things much better...except that Fee startled and spooked and I actually fell off for the first time in 5+ years.  Ow.

She didn't spook at all this weird logging equipment.  She spooked at a duck.

I rode back (the long way) to the trailhead and hit the pain meds when I got home, having proved once again that the ground does not get softer after birthday #55.  Sigh.

Stay tuned for updates.  If you are in an area that is lightly affected by Covid-19 so far, count your blessings.

And wash your hands, please!

Self-quarantining is an excellent time to re-watch Labyrinth

*Tiberius