Oh JZ, Cindy, Calli... I'm so sorry.

Thank you Trudy. I'm glad your cousin is feeling a little better.

I hope your cousin keeps improving, Hil.

Husband's aunt may not have Covid. I am not even sure she is intubated (which I said earlier). He showed me the family text message, and while his sister said "intubated" she later said the aunt was fighting with everyone, so I suspect she's just on O2 (maybe high flow) and either my s-i-l or someone further down the telephone chain didn't know the difference.

I think the Covid-19 swab is still pending. Now they're talking about aspiration pneumonia. It's difficult when no one in the family can be there.

I guess my son's GF hasn't had her Covid test yet, either. They'll call her tomorrow, and her roommate, who's also a nurse, will take her to drive-thru testing.

Do I need to send you the link?

Yes and thank you for sending it last night. Definitely good for the soul.

I ran out of dog food because my autoship was running late so I texted a neighbor that would surely have plenty. I left a solo cup on his front step with wine in it covered with a plastic bowl. He took the wine, filled the bowl with dog food and left it for me. We agreed to a rain check on hugs.

People are good! Yay good people.

So appreciative to have Buffistas nearby in times of trouble.

Buffistas are good. Even with distance, Buffistas are there for you. Every damn time.

Things are not good here. 

Oh, JZ, I am so sorry.

(which is short for the Hebrew phrase meaning "of blessed memory.")

That is lovely in a time of sad news.

My sister tested negative for flu and there are no COVID tests available so she's presumed positive. She's self-quarantined for two weeks, with a husband, teen twins and three dogs. That's going to go poorly or just not really quarantined. This is why we need tests. And a lot of PPE and so much more.

Sympathies, virtual hugs, and best possible thoughts for all of us.

As a number of musicians whose work I've loved are picked off by COVID-19, and I look at the confirmed cases charts and the exponential curve and the utter incompetence of the Trump administration's response I am starting to grasp how big and horrible this April will be.

When Trump was first elected, his complete incompetence was a bit of a balm. He accomplished nothing in the first year because he's incapable of doing much. But then powerful forces around him exploited his narcissism and he started to remake the Judiciary and SCOTUS and he started putting children in cages. And so it continued.

But now...he's literally going to kill hundreds of thousands of people through not only his incompetence but his greed as Jared sells off PPEs and masks to other countries.

Hundreds of thousands of people. Everybody will lose somebody.

I keep thinking of that stupid SNL skit riffing on Love Actually with Kate McKinnon holding up the cue card that says "He Will Kill Us All."

It is April 1st, and we're about to enter one of the worst months in American history.

I can't stop thinking about Matilda drawing a card for her grandfather and writing a sweet note on the back of it, and not knowing whether he will ever see it, and how I nagged her about FaceTiming him after he got back from his last ill-fated trip but didn't force her to do it, and now it's gnawing at me.

{spilling buckets of love and ~ma all around}

JZ, I am so sorry. Continued ~ma to your house. Calli, I am so sorry. Amy, I am also enraged on your behalf. I hope that Sara is doing well. ~ma to Katie Bee and Hil, too.

(I skimmed more than a bit. So love goes to all of you, these are just the ones I saw).

My sister tested negative for flu and there are no COVID tests available so she's presumed positive. She's self-quarantined for two weeks, with a husband, teen twins and three dogs. That's going to go poorly or just not really quarantined.

Oh man. Hoping for the best for all of them!

JZ, most of what anyone can "do" right now is fret. You want to be taking care of your daughter and your father and right now you - even more than most of us - can not.

I'm sorry you're stranded and unable to be with the people who need you. You always have been, however, so you are. Your heart is with your father and he knows it. He knows your daughter is with him too. Years of love don't dissipate because you're not in the room recharging them. It's an aggregate, not individual opportunities missed or unfulfilled.

My sister tested negative for flu and there are no COVID tests available so she's presumed positive. She's self-quarantined for two weeks, with a husband, teen twins and three dogs. That's going to go poorly or just not really quarantined.

I suppose I have to just believe you that those children are teenagers.

All my love, pwetty.

As Florida starts to get more focus and attention I am somewhat encouraged by our large hospital systems. When I saw my RN aunt a month ago (seems like a year) at a family birthday party we talked about distancing and her hospital's prep. At that time she hadn't seen any real issue with patients arriving, but said they had been discussing prep in meetings and had already locked up PPE and so forth. I saw her hospital's ER manager on television discussing the tent triage facilities they had in the empty parking lots set up because of restricted visitation. This morning I saw one of the Jackson administrators talking about them preparing in January, discussing prep with Wuhan officials at that time. He said over the past couple months they have cleared all elective treatment and are at a record low occupancy at this time. He said they did expect to have critical shortages of equipment and beds, but they have been working for several months to be as prepared as possible.

tl;dr I'm grateful that despite the idiot Governor of our state we do have awesome professionals in the medical environment, and city and county offices.

Speaking of idiots, of course religious services are "essential" and don't have to shut down. Although the counties and cities have been trying to put an end to that crap. Shake hands everyone; God will protect you.

eta: For geographic purposes my aunt is in Hollywood, which is just south of Fort Lauderdale. Jackson is humongous hospital system in Miami.