April ... Come She Will ... Bringing Hell

     . . . . April bringing hell come she will.

Did a 7 AM morning trip to the supermarket.  Tipped check-out $40.

Some things I didn't look at, like baking item, so don't know how that was, or soup / stock shelves because I wasn't going for that today. All dairy goods available. Paper goods. Personal hygiene items very depleted, and certain brands not there.  Juices, and so on, ample.  Got coffee filters*, but didn't check on coffee or tea -- forgot, as I never have bought mine there, but at a dedicated business. But I go now to one place only, once a week. Produce available all right, but kind of messy. Baked goods ... not what one is used to, but who is fussed about that now?

At that hour the homeless and desperate were wandering about looking for anything they could get.  No masks or gloves of course. What else are they supposed to do?

The real problem?  The young prosperous assholes!  Running! NO DISTANCE.  In their extraordinarily expensive running kit they hurtled down -- as a couple --  the narrow stairs of our apartment building -- not stopping to let us finish descending --and move 6 feet out of their way. 

Runners filled, I mean really filled, the sidewalks and the streets.  They are huffing and puffing their respiratory particles into the air, leaving long trails behind them. 

Last night, a downstairs neighbor returned from vacation, had over some people to drink beer. 

There is no frackin' way NYC is going to flatten the curve or even reopen, as long as this kind of behavior is not prohibited with enforcement.  This is here in the epicenter of the epicenter. As of today 1000 have died. The models being built by the feds think it's not impossible at all nearly a quarter million will die here in the USA. Yet, they ponder: should everybody wear masks and observe physical distancing and social isolation?

 https://gothamist.com/news/coronavirus-updates-nyc-surpasses-1000-deaths-cdc-masks  

I made a package for across the hall mentally ill, and immune compromised, neighbor, of yams, baking potatoes, milk, eggs, bread, cheese, plus a container of the really delicious lentil stew I made yesterday (if I say myself!)  -- and some masks and latex gloves. She has SNAP and so on, but she can't go out, due to mental illness and the other conditions.  Her drive to survive though is maybe the strongest I've ever seen in anyone. I think she has someone bringing her things, but I'm not sure.

BIL / SIL -- licensed physicians -- sent a medical emergency kit they'd made up for their employees by Fed Ex.  It arrived while groceries were being disinfected. The cardboard box is sitting outside the door.  Won't bring it in for 12 hours, I guess.

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* El V feels he's got about two months of coffee on hand, due to all the coffee beans that are gifted to us regularly in Cuba and Puerto Rico.  What he really needs though, is a stove top espresso coffee maker. Darling B, who doesn't drink coffee, says his sister left one at his place, so he'll give to el V.