Week 3 of my captivity

Good day to you, robust reader. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I'm writing this from the comfort of home in Palo Alto. Perhaps more surprisingly, we've hardly left the building this week. The Bay Area has been under a "shelter in place" order for two weeks now, with an additional week of work-from-home before that. You could say we're getting used to these four walls.

Life continues with a surprising level of normality in these unprecedented times. Our local farmer's market is still running, and we've no problems shopping. As well as "takeout Thursday", where we hope to support local businesses by eating their delicious wares, I've now initiated "milkshake Friday" - which I think is fairly self-explanatory.

One thing's for certain: we won't be short of coffee. As well as buying various different coffees from local shops, I ordered some from my local artisan supplier of choice, Verve Coffee Roasters. Because of delays in delivery I bought some more locally... then my order turned up anyway. Hmm, how long can you survive on a diet of coffee beans alone?

The coffee shelf is well stocked

So what else are we doing? Well, mostly work I have to say. Helen's going all out on the beading, with all of her volunteer and extra-curricular stuff shut down. We're also considering a funky re-recording of the amazing Daisy Cottage Cheese advert which I'm sure you'll all love. Now apparently, only Daisy Cottage cheese will do; what for, I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps it's used as a Polyfilla substitute. Reports that Daisy Cottage Cheese is somehow effective in treating COVID-19 are as yet unconfirmed by independent, peer-reviewed studies, but we're working on it.

Perhaps this week's best news is that I owe the US tax authorities slightly less than I thought I did. The rules here are massively complex, requiring some degree of compromise between what I pay in the UK, what I pay the Federal Government, and what I pay the State Government. Rules for residency also vary, so quite frankly I'm not sure where I was resident in 2019. At least the Solomon-esque wisdom applied to the spending of Federal funds gives me the warm fuzzies.

So, who knows how long this will last? The initial lockdown in the Bay Area was supposed to be 3 weeks, but at this point I'm fairly sure we're looking at a couple of months. We are safe and well, and I still have a job which I can do without too much interruption - so there is plenty for us to be thankful for.