Thanks, Linda, XOX and Char for listening to my outburst.

I'm doing better today, which translates mostly into keeping myself distracted with books and food.

Yesterday was hard. I got a sore throat and a slight cough. Not normally a big deal. Except now it is.

It's gone today but it was around long enough for me to think through what it would be like to be put in a medically-induced coma, with no idea if you'd come out of it. Or to be told that you have too high a score because of age and underlying conditions to merit one of the scarce ventilators.

Then, I wondered how I would isolate myself from my wife.

Then, what would I do if she got it?

Me getting it I could handle as a logistical exercise in getting my affairs in order and then rolling the dice.

My wife getting it, that would be insupportable. The idea of it paralyses me.

All this is obvious at one level but fear is like pain, our memories don't allow us fully to recall it, so it always gets to bite as if for the first time.

By mid-morning, I knew that sometimes a sore throat is just a sore throat. Fear receded with the slithering whisper the outgoing tide makes on a shale beach and my life went back to its new normal.

Now, I'm looking forward to Saturday's buddy read.

Reply to post #59 (show post):
@Char, from outside the US, Oz's statement doesn't seem surprising. After all, the US chooses to let kids be shot at school rather than stopping Walmart from selling guns as if they were lawnmowers.

There's a new joke bumping around Europe at the moment:

Him: Do you know what borders on insanity?
Me: No, What?
Him: Canada and Mexico.

@Char & Yodamom - what is it with Fox News and their quack celebrity "doctors"? Dr. Phil was on yesterday comparing coronavirus deaths to those caused by automobile accidents, smoking and drowning - and misplacing *several* decimals for those mortality numbers - and saying why shut down for COVID when we don't for all these other kinds of non-infectious causes of death.

Plus, I have to laugh at all these "pro-life" conservatives saying children need to be in school because they depend on them for nutrition, when just a few months ago they were all in favor of shaming the kids whose parents couldn't pay for their hot lunch and wanting to cut the free lunch program funding.

Just caught up with the thread, all my best wishes to everyone affected by this, directly or indirectly.

I live in Italy, and for us the lockdown has lasted six weeks already - in theory it should be lifted in two weeks, and even then the governors of certain regions will decide depending on what the situation will be then.

This week most regions have started opening more "non essential" shops (until last week only markets and pharmacies were allowed), like book stores, electronics and children's clothing retail. Still a far call from being back to normal, but at least there are more places open to get supplies to make life at home less of a pain. And living with my parents, both in their late 60s, it's up to me to go and get groceries.

Being a translator I had no problem with work, as I'm quite used to doing it from home, though with all the families living in my apartment complex the background noise has become a bit of a problem. The stress is an issue too, but so far I can manage it enough.

Thankfully nobody I know has been struck by the disease or even just tested positive, which given the situation is already a lot.

Another quick trip to the grocery store this morning. Mask wearing is now closer to 90%.

@Char -- 100% agree.

I did the weekly shopping today and hubby stayed home with the kids. I didn't have a mask, so I used a folded scarf and tied that around my head to cover my nose and mouth. I also brought and used latex gloves from back when we painted the house before moving in last summer. The number of people wearing masks (customers and workers) was maybe 25-30%. And no one knew how to distance themselves from one another - I wanted to scream at least four men who were following too close. And there was a good amount of kids with their parents out as well. All this while people complain on the local news FB pages (tv and newspaper) about opening up the economy - as our numbers (total cases and deaths) continue to rise rapidly. Our governor signed an extension of the stay at home order; it is now going to May 3rd, with the chance of being extended again. I'm just done with living here - once hubby is retired from the military, we are moving back to California.

@portable magic- Fox news, is never a good thing. I don't think they would know the truth if it bit them on their arses. Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz are attention lusting idiots, no better than Jerry Springer IMHO. They may have had something to offer once upon a time but now they only blow dust into storms. Dr. Phil isn't a Dr anymore :D sounds fair !
Kids, :( I don't know what the answer is but I know the choices being made are not good ones with their health in mind
We've got our food list made to last us 8 days, so we only need to go out to the store once every 8 days. We mask up, and hit the stores, get it done and hid away for another week.We have changed to help make us all better. My neighbors ? Well they go to the store every dang day ! They have people over, had an Easter party all is normal for them. Oh and they loves Trump. :/ Me: mind blown

It's been raining for the past two days, which makes Lockdown feel more oppressive. Apart from escaping into books (Snake & Ladders and Buddy Reads are keeping me sane) I've been relearning dishes I used to cook back when I wasn't spending three to four nights a week in a hotel room.

Yesterday, I made Bread and Butter Pudding.

My mother used to make this to deal with stale bread. She used Condensed Milk (connie onnie we called it -made by Carnation) that came from a can and was sweet to taste. Hers was often a rather discouraging grey colour because she used white bread but it tasted good.

A week ago, I got an order of bread from a specialist baker that I normally buy from at the Farmers' Market. Their breads are dark, malty and dense. They last a long time but some of it was starting to dry out, so I made bread and butter pudding.

I cut the bread into rough thin squares, buttered it on both sides, whisked together golden brown caster sugar and eggs, poured freshly made Bird's custard over the eggs and sugar and mixed them together. Put the buttered bread into a baking tray, sprinkled halved cherries (my wife doesn't like sultanas which are the traditional ingredient between them), poured the mixture over the bread and let it soak for thirty minutes. Then I sprinkled sugar and cinnamon over the top and baked it for half an hour. The result was golden and crisp and the top and moist and rich underneath. It didn't survive the evening and I wondered why it had been so long since I made this simple dish.

Today, i made garlic potatoes: thins slices potato baked in a liquor of milk and butter and lots of cloves of finely chopped garlic with freshly grated parmesan and ground black pepper sprinkled across the top. Now, the whole house smells of garlic, which makes it feel more like home.

I hope that, as we move towards whatever comes next as lockdown is relaxed, I continue to make the time to cook dishes that make us happy.

@Mike that pudding sounds delicious, and a wonderful way to make use of stale bread. I just made French Toast with mine!

I haven't had a very productive start to my weekend, sleeping in, then reading for a little while, and then organizing/reorganizing my library holds queue. I'm having trouble settling on what audiobook I want to start next, so I dug through whatever was available on my Overdrive wish list and decided that now is the time to start getting to know Miss Marple.

One more cup of coffee, then I'm going to start attacking my dirty house with mop and rags and buckets of disinfectant. And Miss Marple to keep me company.

I spent the entire day making masks. BF is treating to carry-out pizza, so I don't have to cook tonight, and that means I should be able to spend at least another hour in the studio at my sewing.

We've had an unusually mild spring, but it looks as if that is coming to an end this week. By Thursday our afternoons will reach into the 90s. That limits the amount of time I can spend in the studio without putting the air conditioning on. Normally I don't put the a/c on more than one or two days during the summer, because with no art shows in the hot months, I really don't have any need to. But if the face masks continue to sell, I can justify the expense even one or two days a week.

Right now, that's pretty much the total of my existence.

HOWEVER, I'm doing some research, and if anyone has any recommendations for some good non-fiction on crime scene analysis, I would love a few!

I've opened the new thread for this week!