Pennsylvania

From a Facebook posting:

“Trump Shitshow Summary

I'm going to start here by saying: I honestly won't be surprised if this thing kills us all.

I don't know how it is where you are, but here in the rural redneck Florida Panhandle where I am, this thing is going be like shit through a goose.

This is Matt Gaetz territory. A Southern Baptist church on every corner and country music blaring from every radio. These are hardcore Trump supporters. Trump could spit a virus laden booger in their faces and they'd call it freedom and raise up a cheer.

It's bad here in Florida and it's going to get worse.

We've been bunkered up for 18 days now. We've gone through all the fresh produce, the eggs, the milk, the bread, the snacks, the chocolate. We could probably live on canned goods and the freezer for the next month, but it's going to get worse. Even our idiot president and my idiot governor agree with that. Now. Finally.

So, I reasoned, best to go NOW, before it gets worse and stock up while I can before the risk gets any higher.

Of the people in the house, I'm probably the most ... expendable.

Thus, we decided that I would go, by myself, so as to minimize exposure. I called friends to find out if they needed supplies and got a list. No point in anybody else risking it.

I went to the local military base first.

It's a small training base in the middle of nowhere. They had full security and screening stations set up. Which I was damned glad to see. I didn't have any problem, given that -- as I mentioned -- I've been isolated for the last 18 days. The base commissary was also screening people before being allowed into the store, and provided sanitizing wipes and plastic gloves. The commissary wasn't crowded and I got most of what I needed there.

Most of what I needed. Not all.

So, I had to go to the public grocery store out in town.

And, goddamn, if this actually was The Walking Dead, these booger eating morons would be biting each other in the parking lot just to see how it tastes.

The store was massively crowed. Because NOW, suddenly Trump is talking about 200,000 dead and the Florida governor is suddenly threatening to shut down the state.

I can't get this thing. It'll probably kill me. My health isn't great these days, thank 20 years of military service coming back to haunt me. So, I wore a mask. And long sleeves. And surgical gloves. And I was damned glad I did, because the store was packed shoulder to shoulder. And nobody gave a shit about social distancing. Despite repeated announcements over the store speakers, people crowded into each other, let their kids run wild as usual, coughed with their mouths open, touching their faces, rubbing their eyes, picking their noses. People touching stuff, handling it, putting it back on the shelf. I saw one woman laying over the cart handle, like people suddenly do nowadays, ass sticking out in the aisle. I watched her rest her bottom lip on the handle while she considered her phone.

Because they don't really believe.

I mean, they do, but they don't. Not enough to actually protect themselves and others, to follow the guidelines, to pay attention, to change their habits. Their leaders didn't take it seriously, called it a hoax, and so that's how they regard it.

And thus when this thing comes, these people are going to get sick. Some of them, they're going to die.

And with my luck, they'll probably take me with them.

I got enough supplies to last for a while, hopefully long enough that I don't have to go out again for a few weeks.

Came home and took a shower.”