A lot can happen in a week.  For one thing, one of my best friends is now in the process of recovering from a tornado.  (Wish I were 20 years younger and 5 hours closer, so I could help clear the debris in his lot.)  And now, for good measure, COVID-19 is working its way through our Several States.  Schools are being closed, large gatherings are being banned, college and professional sports are suspending their schedules.  We are hunkering down.

It is as if the effects of climate change (or name-your-favorite-apocalypse) have all been condensed into a one-month debacle of unpreparedness.  Nor was I prepared.  It was only March 3 (yes, I looked again at the date in disbelief) that I had bought airline tickets for us to visit our daughter’s family in the Cleveland area.  Airline tickets and a hotel reservation and a rental car, all of which we have now decided to undo.

Though I tried to refrain from panic — I even tried watching the PBS NewsHour to lower my blood pressure — in the end, I surrendered to the ominous reality of this pandemic.  What finally convinced me to reverse course was the thought that, whatever my efforts to protect myself, my travels could make me an unwitting vector of the coronavirus to my grandchildren.  That was not a risk that their grandfather was willing to take.

So, sadly, due to the non-contained virus, we will not be visiting my daughter next week. And my daughter, a public-school teacher, will not have classes for the next three weeks for the same reason.  After that, who knows?  And who knows what will happen to my April plans to visit my friend in Colorado, or my train trip through the Rockies to take in the springtime beauty, or my ticket to see The Fab Four (Beatles tribute band) in Denver?  Who knows?

Who knows is the question of the moment.  Who knows how many vulnerable people will unknowingly pick up the virus from infected people, because the infected people have not been tested?  Who knows how many people will be out of work because the economy is depressed because of all the people staying home?  Who knows how many vital supplies (food, medicines, maybe even money) will be hard to come by, due to disruptions in the supply chains?

If who knows gets asked enough times, one eventually runs out of answers.

Maybe I will feel more humorous next week and post something cheerful and entertaining. Who knows?  I don’t.  Until then, stay calm and stay safe.