March 26th, afternoon

Well, my state goes shelter-in-place from tomorrow night, so I guess things are
getting "real". I haven't left the house in a week and I think we're
well-prepared to ride things out for a few weeks, but, still.

The news has been pretty depressing, unsurprisingly. Dead patients abandoned in
nursing homes in Spain, and hospital rinks being turned into morgues, and
stupid people everywhere one turns. I've tried, you know, not keeping up on
things, but not knowing what's happening is actually worse than knowing,
believe it or not.

Made stir-fry a couple nights ago; various vegetables (and mushrooms) in brown
sauce over rice. Made for nice variety from what is fast becoming the norm of
soups or stews. Made a vegetable stew last night, for example. Onions, carrots,
celery, cabbage, and potatoes, with barley.

A portion of the Amazon Pantry order I placed a long while back showed up. My
roommate was a little skeptical, at first--shampoo is useful, certainly, and
soap, sure, but... trail mix? Candy?

Well, the point of the order (which Amazon estimated would show up this next
week or weekend, but got here, at least in part, a little ahead of schedule)
was to provide a little pick-me-up for us, and in that regard I think it was
(and will be, if the rest arrives) successful. We have plenty of food, and
we're eating three tolerable square, home-cooked, meals a day. Hell, we're
eating healthier, I think, overall, than we were before the coronavirus hit.
What we're not eating is nearly as much, in any sense of the term. The constant
sense of being slightly hungry is ignorable; you get used to it pretty quickly.
We're trying to be thrifty, trying to conserve food, so we're saving leftovers
for breakfast/lunch the next day, rather than having seconds. And we're
actually eating those leftovers, which is excellent. Our food waste is... the
ends of carrots, onion and garlic skins, and banana peels. That's it.

The problem is that we've not been getting nearly as many calories as we're
used to. Admittedly, we're less active, since we're not leaving the house,
but... I kept track of my own calorie intake for two days earlier this week,
and my best estimate is that I came in just above 900 calories per day. We're
both losing weight, which isn't a bad thing. But a little candy and stuff,
rationed out slowly, makes a welcome addition, both for morale and calories--or
more likely, the fat and sugar, which I don't think we're getting a whole lot
of.

I hope you're staying in good spirits--and health--Internet. I fear the worst
is still to come.

Further updates as and when I can.