One or more misty moisty mornings

[hrj]

The six core Bay Area counties (including mine) are now under a “shelter in place” order. “People in the six counties will still be able to go shopping for items such as food and household supplies, and seek medical care. They will be able to go outside for walks or exercise as long as they keep six feet away from anyone they don’t already live with.” Though there’s some ambiguity because elsewhere the article says “In the six Bay Area counties, non-essential gatherings of any size are now banned, along with non-essential travel “on foot, bicycle, scooter, automobile or public transit.”” which suggests that “go outside for exercise” has tenuous status. Presumably some more detailed guidance will be forthcoming. Or not.

I’ll see what the tree guy thinks about it. We can get the work done without close contact, but it will depend on how he’s interpreting things regarding his crew. It'll be his call.

Today I had the first signs of getting twitchy about the isolation. Part of it was the combination of a lack of general chatter from the co-workers online, plus some annoyingly irrelevant requests from my QA reviewer on one of my investigations, which ordinarily I could have worked off via an informal bitch session.

But the rain let up enough that I could do a lunchtime bike ride, and now that the workday is over, I can get in some yard work. Then I've assigned myself taking notes from one chapter of Halberstam's Female Masculinity for the LHMP, then starting to declutter the computer desk (the one I never use for actual computer work because it's too cluttered). I should assign myself some fiction writing as well. Maybe I should make a wall chart and give myself gold stars for categories of tasks.
 

Comments

[hrj]

SDD6: temperature 98.0. Picked up a breakfast bagel at House of Bagels on Salvio St, but I guess that’s the last of trying to support local businesses with take-out? See comment about “more detailed guidance”. Lunchtime bike ride on the Contra Costa trail, passed people but no <6ft. I hope I’ll be able to keep doing this but I need to find official guidance about leaving the house for exercise vis-a-vis the "shelter in place" rule.

[brooksmoses]

For what it's worth, Santa Clara County's official order (https://www.sccgov.org/sites/phd/DiseaseInformation/novel-coronavirus/Pages/order-health-officer-031620.aspx) is rather clearer about "go outside for exercise" -- that's basically covered as an "essential" reason to be traveling. I'd guess the text was coordinated among the counties, but I'm not positive about that.

Edit to add: Takeout from restaurants, also allowed as "essential".

(As someone elsewhere said: This is an amazing and rapid show of coordination by multiple Bay Area counties; can we get the Health Directors to work on public transit once we're done with this?)

[zeborah]

The self-isolation orders in New Zealand allow going outside for exercise and mental health, just avoid close physical contact with people.

I guess if the only "outside" is as crowded as a typical Manhattan pavement, it's not a good idea, but if you can stroll along and easily keep 6ft+ from anyone else, I can't see any possible problem.

NZ's thankfully so far well behind the US and some other countries in the high stakes, but I've been doing contingency planning with my team and we're planning at *least* daily video meetings to a) catchup on work stuff that you usually just overhear, and b) on personal stuff to keep social contact up. Even aside from hearing other people's experience from overseas right now (which is helpful) I also remember my experiences when I couldn't work or travel after the earthquakes.

("Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want." --wisdom from SeaQuest DSV that's always stuck with me)

[hrj]

I've checked and am confident that my lunchtime bike ride is included in the allowances. It helps that we have an extensive system of recreation trails.

[hrj]

I'm not all that surprised at the Bay Area (specifically) and California (generally) response, even if some of the speed and coordination seems amazing only by contrast. When you think about some of the quick responses we've managed in the past (I'm still astounded by the various logistics of the Bay Bridge construction), although the circumstances are different, we have a history of pulling together.