Sunday, March 29, 2020

Surviving Locally in a Time of Crisis

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The West Plains, Missouri, City Council met in a special session on Friday afternoon and approved a  stay-at-home measure that is to run from yesterday (Saturday) until April 15th.  More than 700 local businesses, individuals, and families sat in on the session through internet hook-ups.

This is a Republican area in the Reagan mold - one that is suspicious of any government policy that places controls on what people can and cannot do - so there is grumbling and people talking about ways to get around this assault on their god-given rights to spread whatever disease they want to.   Thankfully, cooler heads are prevailing - at least for the time being.

(I saw on the internet yesterday that former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is angry that more mayors aren't encouraging their citizens to buy guns.  Lots of NRA dollars have flowed through Huckabee's pockets over the years since he gave up preaching and turned to graft on a grander scale.)

I live about a half-mile beyond the city limits, so I presumably can leave my driveway without some twenty-year-old law enforcement officer pulling me over to watch him flex his authority, but even so, with the city in a virtual lockdown, there wouldn't be much reason to go out anyway.

Yesterday, before the new rule (emergency ordinance?) went into effect I made a hurried trip to the bank to deposit a couple of checks at a drive-through window.  I also withdrew a small amount of cash just in case the preppers are right and the government closes all of the banks and gives their money to Greenpeace.

Over the past few days I also made one trip to Walgreens where I tried to get ahead on all of my prescriptions - and came close to achieving that goal.  I made one quick trip to Aldi's where I purchased the 12-can limit of cat food and a brown paper bag to carry the cat food home in.

And, in an effort to maintain a positive outlook, I also made a trip to the feed store and placed an order for baby chicks - which should arrive April 28th.  If I can keep the little birds healthy and safe until they are big enough to work the yard, they should help keep down the chiggers and ticks this summer.  (One angry little tick made a valiant effort to put me underground last summer!)

I guess when you boil it all down, a lot what we do in life is actually about survival.  The city uses ordinances, Huckabee uses guns, and I use chickens!

And through it all the grass keeps growing.  I will begin mowing this week!

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