Social distancing.

We are back to zero cases. The person that had it was a worker from out of town.He was sent back to his home town.

The bad news is that the seniors residence my mother-in-law lives in had a worker that has it. It is located in the city a few hours away. We got the call yesterday. The worker worked on the same floor as my m-inlaw lives on. She is in her midnineties and weak as a kitten.

Not good. Most of our deaths are in senior homes. They are the hot spots of our pandemic.

Nope, it's a bad situation. A month or so ago, I was reading about the passengers on a cruise ship, that was quarantined at sea, all of the deaths were folks over 70 years old. I remember there were 10 people that died and the average age of the passengers was 58 years old.

The one nurse I mentioned above, she works at a nursing home. We've been pretty much locked down here for 5 or 6 weeks now. Her and her coworkers are there today, doing their job. I'm sure about all of them have needed to get gas and groceries. So they're out in the public a little bit. Otherwise, I'm sure most of them go to work and then home.

The headline in yesterday's Inter Mountain newspaper, from Elkins, WV. was about nursing homes. Governor, Justice ordered all nursing home residents and staff to be tested for the virus, that just happened Friday.

I was running short on time the other day, but I wanted to give you this observation. Here at the store I work with the public everyday, I'll tell you back when we first went into a lockdown, people's mood changed.

This is hard to describe, but folks were quiet and shy. Anxious, concerned, worried and maybe a little bit scared. I agree that the media hyped the story. Politics too. And then I had folks here at the store that were just flat out paranoid. I had an older lady here one day, she acted like she was afraid of her own shadow.

The other day they closed our town parks, I thought that was stupid. Our town parks aren't crowded, it's not like there are 150 people sitting in the bleachers watching a T-ball game now. It'll be just a handful of folks walking the trail or playing with their kids. Just to get some fresh air and a little bit of exercise. People don't like change and all that stuff adds stress. If you're stressed enough, then it's going to mess with your head.

My opinion, folks are starting to lighten up, but still cautious. I'll open up the store in an hour, and I'll go around first thing with bleach water again. And try to keep my distance. That's about all I can do.

I went to our little Mom and Pop grocery yesterday. A town of about 100 people, 20 miles from the nearest city. First time I left home in two weeks. I wondered how serious they would be. They had a sign on the door “No more than three customers at a time.” The only person in the store was the clerk and she didn’t have a mask on (I did) but she stayed away from me. Even waited for me to back off from the counter while she rang up my purchase, although she did hand me my change.

Miz Joyce and I are pretty conscientious about this. I took that change and laid it on the console of the truck. All I bought was some beer. When I got home, Joyce opened the doors for me, then I tore the top off the beer crate. Then I washed my hands thoroughly and took the bottles from the inside of the case and put them in the refrigerator.

The truck and the change will sit untouched in the garage for at least three days. That is the upper limit on how long that virus can survive without a host. Time I get back to the truck, and the change, it will be decontaminated.

About 2 weeks ago a guy from the health department stopped by and gave us a handful of face masks. I wasn't here at the time. From what rumors I've been hearing, the big store on the other end of town put up a plexi-glass barrier, between the cashiers and their customers.

Talking about money, it's filthy. When I first read Hal's comment, I'd only been here at the store for 2 hours and had already had 2 or 3 folks pay for their stuff with change. Quarters, Dimes, Nickles and all. I don't remember for sure, but yesterday I went through 2 or 3 bundles of one dollar bills. Not sure how many rolls of quarters? Some days we use a bunch of change, one dollar bills and other days I'll accumulate change and small bills. It varies from the first of the month to the end of the month.

I worked alone yesterday for 13 hours, I'll have in 10 hours today. Another 2 hours to go, it's been a good day. Not sure, I think there at one time I had 6 or 7 in the store at one time, but I try to get folks in and out as quick as I can.

I started this message 2 hours ago. I'm about ready to lock her down. I'll open up at 8 am tomorrow, that's not long off.

I thought that the virus could live up to 8 days on copper and stainless steel? 24 hrs. on cardboard? There are charts out there.

Cash is useless here. Stores will not take it. You must pay with plastic. Some stores will break down your purchase so that you can use your Paypass and not have to punch in a PIN.Some stores also have plexiglass barriers between the customer and the client.

When my wife gets back from shopping she washes EVERYTHING. Bananas, oranges EVERYTHING. Then refrigerated food goes into the fridge downstairs. She will bring it up in a few days. Any box food was in gets tossed outside and I burn it. Her boots stay in the basement. Once she comes upstairs all her clothes go in the wash and she hops in the shower. She wears gloves while she is in town and uses disinfectant every time she gets back in her car. Most stores have an employee with a disinfectant at the door that you must use before entering.

Still zero cases in town.

I'll clarify my comment above about face masks. The health department sent us a little pack of masks. Me and the girls that work here are not using them. I've read where a face mask is good, and I've read where they are bad.

We have customers that are wearing a mask and even some with gloves, but most people come in the same as they did 6 months ago.

They put out new guidelines, so yesterday the girls strung up clear plastic shower curtains across the store's counter top. They've got it hanging a foot or so above the counter. It looks like crap and I really don't like it, but I'll put up with it. For now anyway.

But we have no restrictions on using cash money. If I'd quit accepting cash, that would really hurt my business. You see, we didn't start taking plastic money until 10 years ago or so? Before then, everything was either cash or check. More and more folks are using plastic these days, in a way I still prefer cash. In another way I prefer plastic.

Three hours on copper. Copper salts are very toxic. They once used copper salts for making treated lumber, but I think they decided it was even too toxic for that. Three days on stainless steel under laboratory conditions. Bombard it with a little fresh air and a little humidity and it won't last that long. Cardboard is supposed to be 24 hours maximum. When we buy things in cardboard, we just let them set for a couple of days, then put them away. We do wash off fresh fruit. That virus isn't really any tougher than any other flu virus. Mother Nature sees to it these things don't get out of hand.

I was out social distancing for a little bit yesterday. First chance I've had to turkey hunt, very windy and it was 25* F. at daylight.




I'll give you an update on the shower curtain, sneeze guard here at the store: It sucks!

The girls put it up Monday evening, I opened the store Tuesday morning at 8 am, and was on the phone with Cumberland Glass before 8:30 am. The man first gave me a quote of $435 for what I needed. That was 1/4" laminated glass, if I picked it up and built the frame, was planning on suspending it from the ceiling. He called me back, said his dimensions were off, and gave me a new quote of $325.

Still kicking it around, but we're not going to work behind wrinkled up shower curtains. There is just so much reflection, from both sides. The over head lights and it's really bad on my side when the sun is bright outside. It'll mess with your eyes and that's not good.

Plexiglass is expensive too, but cheaper than what I priced. Looking at it like this, if we're going to be boxed in for 6 months or more, just as well do it one time and be done with it.

Delivery guys said some of the other stores have plexiglass with a piece of foam pipe insulation covering the edges, so folks won't get cut or scratched. Gotta have it up high enough for tall items, but what do you do with the grocery bag thing? If I bag it on my side, the customer needs to be able to reach it too. It's just a pain.

I'll call the man at the glass place again in the morning. Thinking that maybe they'd build a frame, sort of like a glass door for a bathtub/shower. Something like that might be ok? We'll see.