I (from a distance) join Charmion and himself in working from home (contract web content editor) as a recent retiree in the region around Dallas in North Texas, USA. I was self-isolating before it was a thing after knee replacement surgery in mid-February. I have ventured out a few times to small grocery stores (easier to walk in and less crowded).

Now that the six-foot rule is in place I try not to go out at all because I live (alas) in a Republican (think Trump's party) state, where a lot of them seem to echo their witless leader in thinking that this is "overblown" and a lot of people can't be arsed to keep their distance. And the other day I was surprised at a counter to turn around and find a woman right behind me with her cart. When I pointed to the line on the floor five feet behind her that the store had posted as the waiting place, she wanted to argue that she can measure and blah blah blah. More like her I can do without. I fear members of the dismissive GOP party are going to take a lot of others with them. I don't want to be a victim of such willful ignorance. This is a real disadvantage to having a "populist" president, who is busier being offended by frank questions from reporters and governors who aren't nice to him, who argues that ventilators aren't really needed (he's a doctor now?) and is always keeping his eye on his stock portfolio.

I just ordered a Kindle copy of David Quammen's book Spillover. He's a great science writer, but I missed this one when it came out in 2012.

"[Mr. Quammen] is not just among our best science writers but among our best writers, period." ?Dwight Garner, New York Times

The next big human pandemic?the next disease cataclysm, perhaps on the scale of AIDS or the 1918 influenza?is likely to be caused by a new virus coming to humans from wildlife. Experts call such an event “spillover” and they warn us to brace ourselves. David Quammen has tracked this subject from the jungles of Central Africa, the rooftops of Bangladesh, and the caves of southern China to the laboratories where researchers work in space suits to study lethal viruses. He illuminates the dynamics of Ebola, SARS, bird flu, Lyme disease, and other emerging threats and tells the story of AIDS and its origins as it has never before been told. Spillover reads like a mystery tale, full of mayhem and clues and questions. When the Next Big One arrives, what will it look like? From which innocent host animal will it emerge? Will we be ready?

I will be home reading, along with my online work and putting in a new garden (slowly, because the knee is coming along but isn't 100% yet).