Chiff and Fipple Forums

I know I can't afford to buy any instruments at the moment!

On Thursday I was told that my workplace is shutting down for the foreseeable future, so after 30 years I find myself out of work.

But it's St Patrick's Day time! A piper can make a thousand dollars that day. I had numerous gigs lined up with an Irish band, a Pipe Band, and solo.

All but two have cancelled, and one of them is a freebie for my church.

My wife works at a tech firm that's set up to allow people to work from home, and yesterday she began doing that.

My daughter's University sent everybody home. Classes will all be online now.

All concerts, sporting events, church services, and gatherings of any sort involving more than 250 people are now illegal in California.

So I'm sitting at home on the laptop! I could practice, but for what?

My university went to all online and closed the campus. I have a week to figure out how to put all my classes online. No clue how to do that.

Our daughter's school is closed for a month, which probably means effectively for the rest of the year.

My band (gypsy jazz band) probably broke up last night--we have a twice monthly gig at a local wine bar. Two of the people wanted to do the gigs.

Our violinist is in the US Marine band. He said all their gigs had been canceled. One of our guitarists lived through the collapse of Yugoslavia. He said it reminded him of that moment--all the evidence was there but nobody believed and then suddenly people were getting shot in the streets. Those two convinced me and I backed out too. We might lose what was a great regular steady gig for good, and it might turn out to be not as severe as we fear. But man the US government does not inspire confidence at the moment.

I'm hearing of disaster for musicians all over. Tours that are cancelled mid-tour, an entire industry being sent layoff notices (opera), etc. Seattle isn't in total lockdown yet though the stores are full of people getting supplies to last any lockdown. The prevailing wisdom is that we are about 10 days behind Italy. Spain just went on lockdown this morning.

Working at home is normal or me but I do enjoy daily excursions out. This last year I was on somewhat self-imposed isolation after two knee operations so its something I am used to. Its fairly easy to get out to the woods or onto a beach from here and will probably do that frequently. This year with new knees walking is much easier!

Casey

Bravo, Casey!

Glad to hear the new knees are working well, hopefully you'll get to wear them out too.

In just two days confirmed cases in Minnesota jumped from 9 to 21. I suppose if it were the flu this wouldn't seem so remarkable, but the pandemic puts a different focus on things. So far these are all travel-related cases, so we only have official warnings and recommendations yet, and while event and school cancellations are voluntary, they have been practically universal. But as soon as the first community-transmitted case comes up, we can expect actual lockdowns, particularly in the health care sector. Right now you can make visits to care facilities like nursing homes, but you get screened every time, and if you've so much as traveled out of state, they won't let you in even to see loved ones.

I imagine businesses like grocery and convenience stores are facing something of a dilemma for the future.