UPDATED

March 17, 2020, Tuesday

Update: As of midnight this past night, we're under the six-county "shelter in place" regulation. It's a legal mandate, and people who disobey can be arrested, fined, and even jailed. However, law enforcement is prepared to first explain things to anyone who is disobeying, and resort to arrest only if someone is blatantly and repeatedly breaking the rules. 

It was interesting to read the entire text of the hastily written regulation. There was an attempt to define "essential services" that are exempt from the ban. There are still a lot of questions about borderline situations. But for us, it means that we stay in our house unless we need to go out for food or medical care. It's OK to take a walk if we stay at least six feet away from anyone else. And it's OK to go out in a car. So I kept a doctor's appointment this morning. It was both my annual physical and my pre-op exam. I'm good to go for another year, and good to have a knee replacement. 

Update: When I came home, I learned that my knee replacement surgery has been cancelled (as I had suspected it would be.) I may hear directly from the surgeon later today.

Normally the Safeway supermarkets are open 24 hours a day. We knew that several grocery stores had reduced their opening hours, and checked the web. Safeway posted that they would be closed 12:00am--5:00am. Don tried to go shopping last night, but the store had actually closed a 10:00pm. He went out this morning at 6:00am, and waited an hour in line to check out. 

Update: Now we learn that the stores will be open for an even shorter time. What's on the web is not always up to date. Apparently they need time to clean and re-stock. If people would only stop hoarding . . .

I phoned my cleaning lady and asked her not to come tomorrow. But I also said I'd pay her the normal fee. She thanked me and said to put the money under the door mat and she'd pick it up. From the way she reacted I think some of her other clients are also paying her even though she's not cleaning. That's good to hear. Don and I are thinking of other ways to help other people in our orbit who won't have an income during the shut-down.