Things to do during the coronavirus shutdown

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This whole shutdown of almost everything has led me to consider things to do while we shuffle through the next several weeks of quarantining here in Port Ludlow/Jefferson County. Here are a few things I have actually done or heard about people doing the past week.

You can review the latest issue of Sports Illustrated you received by mail. It provides a series of articles on who and how you might have enjoyed this year’s professional baseball season. You can learn to avoid shaking hands or hugging your friends when you meet them at the convenience store. You will be surprised at the number of people at Costco, even though they know they should be staying home and “self-quarantining.” I really didn’t go but I have heard.

You realize you should have invested much more heavily in Netflix stock as you spend more time watching movies at home rather than trundling down to Silverdale, Poulsbo or Port Townsend to the theater. Then you realize that an even better stock bet was Amazon as you order almost everything from them! You check with your internet provider to increase the speed of your service since all the neighbors are online the same time you are. You realize many small businesses in the area will suffer in this shutdown so you order takeout from the local restaurants. Ferino’s, here we come! Get used to watching the classic NCAA tournament basketball games from 1994 on ESPN. OOOH, ESPN may be a business model in trouble.

Forget about going to the library and finding a John Grisham book to while away the hours. Buy it from Amazon. (I told you about that stock!)

Even though your grandchildren are in Seattle and are the sole reason you moved 2,000 miles from Kansas City, Missouri, forget about seeing them for some time except on FaceTime or Zoom or whatever. Don’t be too sad that the fancy dinner on the 28th at the Washington Athletic Club with the president of Wabash College got canceled. You were only going to the dinner to fill an evening while BJ was enjoying some fun and sun in Florida with her sisters and a couple of elderly high school friends. Yep, that trip got canceled. Heck, they join a lot of us in that wonderful class of folks known these days as being most vulnerable, most at risk, OLD. She is not going to Florida now so we will be enjoying another evening together scanning the Netflix lineup of movies. You actually look forward to getting the bills from PUD since it is confirmation that somebody knows you are still here. Baloney, the bills will arrive even after you are gone. You celebrated Pi Day last Saturday with a pie you baked at home even though you could get one at Fred Meyer for $3.14. You need to figure out how to prepare your federal income tax return yourself since the free AARP Tax Service is shut down! Now there is something that could chew up some time at home.

My friends, by all accounts the next couple of months appear to be something we have to go through very carefully. Some say we might be overreacting but under-reacting might have some consequences we would prefer to avoid. An abundance of caution is well-advised. If you want to have empathy for someone, please consider this columnist. After all, how does one write about Life in Ludlow when there is nothing going on?

Love a curmudgeon, unless they have the virus, and have a great week!

(Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive and Port Ludlow royality.)