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.

Not to promote panic, but if you are interested in the coronavirus status in your area, there is a map/app for that.  I googled coronavirus map and came across this interactive live update site (left) by Johns Hopkins, which is sobering and speaks for itself.

I encountered my first face-masked shopper two days ago, in an Asheville supermarket.  Then today, in our local Walmart, I saw a person wearing gloves to drive his shopping cart (55 degrees outside) and noticed others with hands firmly stuffed in their pockets.

According to the above-referenced site, Asheville is a several-hour drive from the nearest reported coronavirus victims (Atlanta, Raleigh, Nashville).

I have travel plans for a March weekend and an April weekend and I intend to keep them.  I will be as careful as I need to be without giving up living.

[Update 3/1/2020: Polls from Jan. 1 – Mar. 1 for the top six candidates are included.]

For the past few weeks, I have been preparing U.S. electoral maps that show how the top Democratic presidential candidates would fare against Donald Trump, if the election were held today and assuming the most recent polls are predictive of the outcome.  The purpose of this feature is to show the relative strength of the candidates, as a guide for your voting.  Super Tuesday primaries may determine whether this is the last edition of this feature.

I prepare these maps from the most recent polls from each state, using RealClearPolitics and 538 as my sources.  I ignore polls from 2019, as well as partisan and low-quality polls, as rated by 538.  Orange (!) denotes states where Trump leads the Democratic challenger and blue where the Democrat is ahead; gray denotes a tie; and blank means there are no recent head-to-head polls for that candidate.  Pale colors represent one percent leads.

As always, the swing states deserving your attention are Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Virginia.  Oddly, there are no Ohio matchup polls as yet.

This is the first week that I have included matchup maps for Klobuchar and Bloomberg.   Klobuchar seems to be staying in the race in hopes of winning Minnesota on Tuesday.  Bloomberg seems to be in the race to see how desperate we really are.

Not to put my thumb on the scales but here is where I stand:  I’m partial to Klobuchar yet I’d like to vote for Warren but I think I have to vote for Biden.

2020 POLLS (TO MARCH 1)