The View from the Hermitage, Day 3

The University of Virginia has effectively shut down for now. Were I still working there, I would not have been affected given that I already worked from home. Now, though,

To be clear, those who must report for work will have to do so.  Those who can work remotely will have to do so. 

It appears I was ahead of the times. 

Previously, students were encouraged to go home but had the option of staying on Grounds (UVA does not have a "campus;" it has "Grounds." Now, though, students

must make plans to leave by Friday, March 20, unless they meet one of the following criteria: 1) international students who are unable to secure travel to return home; 2) persons for whom their on-Grounds residence is their only home (including graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff for whom their on-Grounds residence is their permanent address); or 3) students for whom traveling home would present a severe health or safety risk.  

Graduation has also been cancelled, which will please some students and parents and likely displease more. Younger son "walked the Lawn" (or went through the formal graduation bit), while older son did not. I must admit that going to see younger son walk (and we did not actually see him until later, at the departmental ceremony at which he received his diploma) was enough for me. I went through the formal graduation ceremony at the undergraduate level (not at UVA) but passed on it at for my master's and doctorate. My doctoral supervisor left UVA a week after my orals; he had told me that had he stayed here, I would have been walking.

Because I have not been out much at all, I have not seen directly how local life has changed. There was less traffic yesterday when I went for my mammogram, but that could also have been due to UVA students moving home and K-12 schools not operating. My neighbors appear still to be working. I have seen a grocery store clerk and the owner of a computer services firm heading out to their respective jobs. The owner of a construction firm has also been out and about. We actually have several houses here with family member(s) who already worked from home.

I'm not sure how many eating establishments are still open and how many are closed or only serving take-out. We live several miles outside town so I don't know if any of the meal delivery services would come here. I'm not craving restaurant food, though. I'm instead enjoying making meals here and being able to eat them with the husband who has no gym to visit on his way home from work. Normally, I'm hungry for dinner before he gets home, so we eat separately.

I checked the various news sources on my phone first thing this morning. "First thing" was earlier than hoped for thanks to not sleeping at all well. I've looked at some updates as they appear on my phone. I may turn on CNN as I'm getting dinner out. The angel on one shoulder wants to be informed while the devil on the other insists that no news is good news. It is good, I suppose, that the news is so easily obtained should I want to pursue it. In the days of the Spanish flu pandemic, news did not come quickly. If I want to know how a family member or friend is, all I need to do is phone. Total aside here, but I just realized that there have been far fewer junk mail calls yesterday and today than last week or the week before. Maybe the spam-callers aren't filling the cheek-to-jowl phone banks, but keeping a social distance from each other and giving all of us a break.

Boredom? Not for me, anyway. I have enough fiber supplies to last for more that=n a few months. I think I'll go back to my studio and work on the bag below.