Quoting Barry Martin to Nancy Backus on 14-Apr-2020 10:35 <=-

Continuing....

<COVID-19>

Very few if any places are totally unaffected now....

Unfortunately yes. The Iowa Governor extended school closures through
April 30th; locally the school boards are trying to keep high school
seniors' graduations on schedule ==> won't have the ceremony but at
least the diploma.

Our schools are closed at least until April 29th, too... kids are
doing distance learning and being home-schooled, too... And the
colleges are doing things all online, too...

I'm half-expecting another extension until mid-May -- at least here in
the Midwest; New York/East Coast might be able to start reopening
around the first of May just because that area had it earlier than here.

At this point there still is no decision on whether or not schools will
reopen before the end of the school year... Although we do seem to be
coming on the downward side of the curve now, there's no way to know
whether it will be a quick drop or a flatter/longer one... and the last
thing we want is for things to suddenly spike upwards again...

The news has a chart of number of instances by county. Scott, Clinton
and Muscatine counties (me, north of here, south of here) are the
highest -- yeah, we're also the most populous (in this part of Iowa)
-- of course we're going to have the most COVID-19 cases! To me would make more sense if also showed percentage.

That could be a useful tool... especially for an informed comparison...

Nothing's been said but I wonder about what's going on with upcoming
freshman college classes: the colleges and universities are closed.

Maybe the colleges just don't know what to plan for the fall...
it's so much a wait-and-see now....

That and the summer sessions! As you indicated, too early to tell.

And just last night, when I was talking on the phone with a friend, she
looked up what the status of colleges opening in the fall in our area
was... generally they all were still in the wait and see mode...

And when in-person classes do begin will cause a mixing of people, not only locally but the U.S. and internationally -- we have three colleges
/ universities with a significant international student body. I'd
guess a cursory medical check for flights but for those travelling by car....

Our major ones also have a significant international student body as
well... I don't know if all the international students went home, or if
they stayed put here... most are in apartments, not in the dorms... Of
course, distance learning can be done from anywhere in the world now
pretty much....

True.... Grocery stores becoming the new 'in' spot to gather and see
people! I'm thinking it's national but here the Target (Super Target,
with grocery) is limiting to 60 people inside at a time, Home Depot
limiting to 100. What's sort of funny is here the Target is much
larger than the Home Depot (excluding Garden Center) so the numbers
should be reversed.

Not sure if the big box stores here are limiting how many inside the
store at a time, as I've not been anywhere near them, but so far
Wegmans hasn't limited, though they have now posted signs saying that
they reserve the right to do so if they feel it necessary... It's more
just encouraging the 6' away from each other and otherwise maintaining
distance from anyone... I'm not seeing so much of the stores being a
place for gathering, but then it is being actively discouraged...

Here also more encouragement to stay in place, only going out when necessary. I've been told Schnuck's grocery store (chain
headquartered in St. Louis) is restricting to 60 customers at a time.
I haven't heard of restictions at the other grocery stores (including Hy-Vee). Hy-Vee did put directional arrows on the(ir brand new!) floor
to sort of direct a flow of traffic to help keep people 6' apart.

No one-way aisles here, at least not yet... just the one-way in and out
of the store.... and a lot of the "stuff in the aisles" to catch your
attention has been moved out of the aisles to make them wider... They
expect the carts to help maintain the distancing...

...Another thing to add a bit of confusion to my shopping while the
store is remodelling! Now I need to go down the Baby Food and Pet Food aisles!! (Um, that's plural: they're two distinct areas!)

I'd think so... <G> At least the baby food/baby items has a separate
section of the store here that I can just ignore... ;)

Back to the hoarders. I'm thinking they've calmed down some also,
though Hy-Vee did have quarts of orange juice at 99› (limit two) in the
Wednesday ads (print, TV, digital) and they were out Thursday morning.

Maybe they weren't able to get all the stock in that they'd ordered....

A strong possibility too. LIS, I wasn't going to make a big deal out
of it; maybe in regular times see about getting a raincheck but
currently all rainchecks are suspended. Also I'm not going to make a special trip if told "we're expecting a truck tomorrow".

I wouldn't make a special trip, either... some things can be foregone
for a while if necessary... ;)

Then off to get gas before my points expired. No coffee-flavoured
M&Ms yet but the lady who is more in charge and originally said she'd
try to order said she and the supplier were still looking. :)

It does make me wonder if they were indeed a test-market item... ;)
But even if they were, they could be back, as a NEW item, introduced
more widely.... ;)

Possibly! Or another limited version in conjuction with Starbucks!

That would likely only be available at Starbucks... or as a
mail-in premium.... :)

Hy-Vee now has an in-store Starbucks.

In that case, it definitely would be a mail-in premium... have to drink
x cups of special Starbucks drinks to get the coffee M&Ms... oh, and
probably you have to upload a picture of your receipts to some website
in order to qualify.... ;)

ttyl neb

... **FLASH** Energizer bunny arrested, charged with battery.

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