The new normal?

8:20 am - Friday - March 13th - Wittmann, AZ - 52° F, 100% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the southeast......heavy cloud cover, sprinkling right now.....rained most of the night.  Forecast high for today is 60° F with continued rain.  The view this morning......↴

We had rain all night Wednesday night, and it was still raining quite hard Thursday morning.  I guess that is only part of the story, although rain in the desert for three straight days is certainly noteworthy.  The rest of the story is the almost overnight shutting down of the entire world over the Coronavirus, which began in the Wuhan, Hubei Province of China......

......life went from pretty normal to people panic buying toilet paper, hand sanitizer, bottled water, etc.  Virtually all sporting events have been cancelled, or suspended indefinitely around the world.  People are avoiding mass gatherings, freeways are virtually empty, universities have cancelled classes for the last two months of the current semester.  The Summer Olympics in Japan may be cancelled, or postponed.....the 'March Madness' tournament has not been suspended, but cancelled in its entirety.  Life as we know it has changed dramatically for the near term, and we have no idea how long 'near term' means.....one month?  Two months?  Three months?  A year?  

Out here in very rural Wittmann, AZ TLE and I are trying to continue our lives with as much normalcy as is possible.  Here the nearest homes with people are hundreds of yards away.  We are not in daily contact with a lot of people.  We went shopping at the local 'Family Dollar' store instead of driving into Surprise, and the big, crowded stores.  As we suspected, 'Family Dollar' had very few people shopping, we were able to get our favorite toilet paper....true we got the last one of that brand, but there was plenty of toilet paper available.  Some shelves were getting a little thin on stock, but it was not too bad. There was plenty of bottled water (we don't need any), Clorox wipes, and pretty much everything we wanted, or needed.  We did no panic buying, just what we needed.  We were in and out in 15 minutes just as the skies opened up once again.  We will avoid shopping on the weekends, and do the prudent things for people in our age group.....avoiding large groups of people, wash our hands, get plenty of rest, etc.

On the 'trying to be as normal as possible' front I worked on just one project Thursday.....reattaching the old water heater door to cover the opening, and protect as much as possible, the Girard Tankless water heater until the Girard door arrives next week.  I had to cut down the bracket which holds the screen in place, but once that was done it all came together nicely.....

....when I created the plywood frame for the Girard I had to be sure the Girard vent lined up with the screen on the door......came out pretty well, huh?  At any rate, it is now installed, and protecting the Girard from the monsoonal rains we are currently experiencing.....

....the rest of our day was spent relaxing, listening to the thunderous rain on our aluminum roof, with the occasional thunder and lightning show.  

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