Day 8.

The instructions on the french press are A LIE. Coarse grind and 4 minute steep in barely boiling water, my ass. Regular grind + 15 minutes + full boil gets you a decent cup of coffee. And I made my brother a latte this morning and he said it tasted just like Starbucks.

The purchase of the proper cold brew pitcher seemed a bit silly at the time, but has already proven a good buy as I enjoy my coconut crunch cold brew this morning.

I swear, there is always *something* I need from the market, which is annoying. They’re things that can certainly wait a bit, but ugh, not really being able to go RIGHT NOW is kinda annoying. (I go when the volume is low and I suspect that is not the case on a Saturday morning after a week of homeschooling.) Maybe tonight after 9 or something.

On a potentially positive note, Virginia’s testing has been expanding rapidly, but I am not seeing an associated increase in positives as a percentage of the total tests. I realize it may be far too early, but perhaps trying to stay away from each other is having *some* impact. I mean, I’m not running out and licking anyone’s face, but it’s a small glimmer of hope that I am going to hold on to for the moment.

Our schools closed last Friday at the direction of state government. I still think he did it because my county was dragging their feet on it – they’re very big and I think the Governor was hoping they would close and others would follow. I have heard that my county’s plan was to close *yesterday* – can you imagine an extra week of little kids being carriers?

I think I watched more press briefings from the Governor in the last week than I have in my lifetime. I literally have an alarm set of my phone so I can turn on the 11 AM daily briefing. I am furious that the states are just being left on their own, but glad to see Governors step up and do what they can.

I am still utterly useless. The zombies are here and my big skill is software testing. So I’m throwing money at the service workers in my life and food banks. I don’t know what else I can do.