Supplies in Demand due to COVID-19

I had heard that the governor was going to shut down non-essential businesses. This motivated me to make that trip to the home garden center. Picked up the paper bags that the county requires us to use to dispose of yard clippings. Got some weed-n-feed to take care of that colorless grass in the front yard. I also picked up bug killer and weed killer.

Momoko went grocery shopping. The only item I needed her to get was soft soap. We were running low. After I came home and was about to unload my supplies, Momoko said she could not find soft soap. She only checked the grocery store. The governor's orders were going to be in effect soon. So she needed me to come along to go look for the soap refill.

We tried Walgreens. No soft soap. We tried one CVS as the kids tried another. No soft soap. Then I recalled the last time I was searching for toilet paper when there was a run on it. Walmart was the only option back then. We dropped by. They did had soft soap. Just no huge refill bottles. We piled up a bunch of small soft soap dispensers. They were all scented. But hey. Scented small bottles are better than nothing.

Vacation Plans Change due to Coronavirus

We had scheduled to visit Momoko's dad for spring break. Had the time off, airplane tickets, and everything. Now the Coronavirus has hit. Momoko's dad did not want us to catch the virus on the plane and pass it to him. Reading between the lines, he thought we should postpone our flight.

Yesterday our state declared that schools will be closed for the next two weeks. Most likely they will cancel spring break to make up for the time off due to the coronavirus. I asked my boss if I could change my vacation plans. There was some negotiating. But my boss agreed.

So now Momoko and I might just take a right to the shore. We love having a hotel room facing the beach. The waves are very calming. The water is too cold to go near. But just being on the shore is medicinal. Rooms are relatively reasonable this early in the season. They cost a couple times higher in the summer.

Bright Side to Coronavirus

I got a lot of work due this week. Unfortunately my boss at my company scheduled a long in-person meeting today. I was supposed to go downtown at attend this meeting in person. I told my team leader about this. Another guy I work with on my team had his own meeting to attend this morning. The result is that we can't work together until tomorrow. Oops. Delays.

This morning I got a break. Due to Coronavirus fears, we have the option to do a video call into the meeting. That means I get to stay home and skip all the traffic and time it takes to go downtown. I used this time to get a head start on my next task, which is due in two days. Ah. Finally catching a break here.

In other news, I have had problems logging into my virtual workstation at work. This has been a pain. The problem was further compounded by my account for logging into that machine being scheduled to be deleted. Go figure. An administrator rebooted my virtual machine. Seems like I can log into it now. If I could only get them to stop the deletion of my account, I might be good to go.

Going to see Amateur Hockey

We got invited to watch Momoko and Kit Kat's coworker play a hockey game. Kit Kat got a ride to the rink with her boyfriend. Another coworker from school came to pick up Little Kat. Momoko and I drove together. We arrived at 9:00pm, when we thought the game was going to start.

There were two rinks at the location. One was for general skating. And the other was an NFL style hockey rink. We waited in the lobby for the prior hockey game to end. The snack bar seemed to close right at 9:00pm. So we just missed it.

After the prior game ended, we headed to the stands next to the opponent's team. We watched as a Zamboni smoothed out the ice. There was a heater above our heads, blowing down warm air. The seat were made of plastic, so they were not too cold. There were not too comfortable though. A glass shield was directly in front of us, with fine netting up higher.

The guy playing had his wife and brother join us in the crowd. He seemed to be the one to do face offs when he was in the game. There were frequent player substitutions. Both teams had a player in the penalty box at different times. The teams seem well matched. The opposing team got ahead by the end, and our guy's team took our the goalie for maximum offensive players.