cold, white and fluffy

April 17, 2020

It’s been cold most of the week, which is not normal around here, and there have been a couple of days with snow flurries. Nothing measurable here, but if you headed a little further west, they got a pretty dusting. There were a couple of days with temps in or near the 60’s. We had a freeze warning last night and as of right now, it is 42 degrees. I don’t think we actually got a freeze, but it was possible. I usually have my house plants out by now, the tarps are down off the deck, and the hummingbird feeders are out. None of that has happened! I had to bring my one plant – my ivy – back inside. It was on the deck…

I wanted to use this time to update how the coronavirus is affecting us locally. You can read the last post, from last Friday here – Strange Times. I have included the differences between last week and now, below.

Maryland has just mandated that citizens wear face masks/coverings when out in public, all the time. (Before, it was a personal decision.) It went into affect yesterday. My boyfriend has finally gotten back to work – at least for today. He’s a roofer and most of his work is in the D.C. area. So, even though they will be working outside, him and his work buddy will be wearing bandanas.

As of 4pm, yesterday…

total world cases: 2,173,432
total world deaths: 147,337
total confirmed cases in the U.S.: 632,548 (+173,383)* (on FoxNews live tv, they’re reporting 671,425 U.S. cases and 33, 286 U.S. deaths… )
total U.S. deaths: 31,071 (+14,501)*
total confirmed cases in Maryland: 10,784; +752 last 24 hours; + 3,816 since last Friday
total confirmed deaths in Maryland: 392; +43 last 24 hours; + 221 since last Friday
total negative results in Maryland: 48,059; +2,328 last 24 hours; +10,579 since last Friday
total hospitalizations in Maryland: 2,451; +220 last 24 hours; +1038 since last Friday
released from isolation in Maryland: 736; +129 last 24 hours; +339 since last Friday
Frederick County, MD: 497 cases, 22 deaths; +208 cases; + 13 deaths since last Friday
Prince George’s County has the highest number with 2,722 (+1,006)* cases and 70 (+28)* deaths
Garrett County has the fewest cases with 4 (+0) and 0 (+0) deaths
Pennsylvania has 26,490 (+6,511)* reported cases
West Virginia has 718 (+195)* reported cases
Delaware has 2,014 (+805)* reported cases
Virginia has 6,889 (+2380)* reported cases
Washington D.C. has 2197 (+674)* reported cases
*(###) are weeks difference
info is from the CDC

The numbers aren’t as bad as they were predicting here in the great United States…but I think the social distancing worked. And shutting down travel. Some states are shutting down interstate (for example travel between Pennsylvania and Maryland) travel…but not everywhere.
Some people are really upset, which is understandable…in some states they’ve banned certain sales, which I don’t get. You can’t buy paint, or baby products (car seats and the such), plant seeds, guns and/or ammo (if you can find, they’ve price gauged to make it almost impossible to afford)…those are just a few things I can think of at the moment. Here in Maryland, such measures haven’t taken affect yet. We only go shopping once a week, and only buy what we need to get by or what we’re about to run out of. Toilet paper is still a hard find, as is Lysol, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, and hand sanitizer. Oh, and some states are releasing prisoners…and not just the non-violent ones. They say it’s to control the virus, but I don’t buy it!

I get that most of these items can be bought online…but I still don’t think I would trust buying a car seat for my baby, or a crib, online. If it’s damaged? I’d rather go to the store…

Hope you have a great day!
Thanks for stopping by!!
take care
stay safe
much love