When the Price is Right

6 weeks have passed since the State of Maine began shutting down due to the Corona Virus. The state is in complete stay-at-home lock up now, and I think that all of us Mainiacs are coping quite well. As of yesterday, the number of cases of Covid-19 in the state was at 875, with 35 deaths. I know this because I not only check the Worldometers Covid stats website each morning when I first wake up, I also listen to the briefings, whenever possible (which being stuck at home is ALWAYS), of our state CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah.

Dr. Shah totally lacks charisma. That being said, he is the most compelling speaker of this time that I have seen. Well Andrew Cuomo does a really good job too, but I don’t live in New York, I live up here in Western Maine. My little village of Cornish has not been overcome with cases of Covid, in fact I don’t know anyone who has it. I don’t think I even know anyone who knows anyone who has it. We are far removed from “the front lines”.

That doesn’t mean we aren’t also paying the price for the pandemic. All of the restaurants in town are serving take out only, all of the salons, dog groomers, tattoo parlors, antique stores, florist, stationary shop, toy store and inn are closed. The hardware store is doing curbside pickup, and the grocery store has implemented a new shopping pattern that I liken to an adult game of “Red Light Green Light” and confuses the…