By Harry Keller
Former ETCJ Science Editor
& President of SmartScience

Toilet paper can now be had, and I ordered a dozen rolls in case that situation changes.

Apr 15, 2020 at 12:48 PM: My worst fears are realized as I read that the number of grocery-store workers dying from COVID-19 has risen from four, as I wrote previously, to over 40. Everyone should be considerate of these people who are literally risking their lives so that you can have food and critical supplies at this stressful time. Wear a face mask or bandana to avoid spreading the virus that you may unknowingly have. You can transmit it when you are merely talking. You can infect others with just a few spoken words. They may go on to infect still others, and some will die. 

We received another delivery of much-needed groceries yesterday. The delivery person was masked and gloved. I thanked him from a distance. His tip was already handled electronically. Cash is suspect these days because it, too, can carry the virus. Yesterday, I made raspberry jam from an old bag of frozen raspberries. It came out well even though it was not very sweet. Today, I made some chapati, an easily made flatbread. A griddle cooks it instead of an oven. We have lots of rice, bulghur, and quinoa and plenty of frozen vegetables along with massive amounts of oatmeal and miscellaneous other stuff.

Toilet paper can now be had, and I ordered a dozen rolls in case that situation changes. We will continue to hunker down here until the weekend when a trip to the mountains will allow us to continue building a dry-stack stone wall on the front boundary and check up on our potential garden. It snowed lots recently, but our cellular security camera shows us that it is almost all melted. Once again, I will use a nitrile glove on my right hand to fill up our car with gas for the 96-mile trip to our modest lot. We won’t see anyone within 100 feet except at the gas station.

I will use a nitrile glove on my right hand to fill up our car with gas for the 96-mile trip to our modest lot.

Our business keeps us very busy now that we are offering our service for free. The backlog of work keeps piling up. For this reason, I have to cut this note short and return to making the best online science lesson/labs that I can imagine. It is a work of imagination and creation.