When you live in an area like mine, you have to have a certain tolerance for wild life in the road. Early morning or late evening it is not all that uncommon to see black-tailed deer out for a stroll. We are near enough to several parks that raccoons and possums are not a rarity. I don’t mind the animals, they are doing what animals so – out, about, seeking food, shelter or companionship.

The two legged kind, on the other hand, I have little tolerance for. This is Berkeley where, apparently people firmly believe they are entitled. This is a city. There are actually sidewalks. Many of them in my neighborhood have actually been replaced over the last five years. During daylight hours, no one should have any problems seeing the sidewalk.

So please explain to me the reason, other than total obliviousness, why all these people think it is perfectly fine to walk, jog, or run in the middle of the road? The speed limits here are not high, which gives any of us who happen to be driving, enough time to avoid the idiots. But why do they think that it is ok to run in the road.

If it was only an early morning problem, I might be able to understand it. All the emphasis on energy savings means that we have few street lights. Seeing your footing in the middle of the block might prove a bit more challenging. But if you are going to be out in the road at 0Dark30, please, please, please leave your fashion worries at home. There is absolutely nothing wrong with reflective orange, yellow, or neon green. In fact, it might just save your life. I am not driving all that fast, I know better. But nothing makes me more concerned that a jogger happily wearing black, complete with ball cap and headphones trotting down the middle of the street totally oblivious to anything around him. And yes, I used the pronoun him deliberately. The ratio of men:women seems to be about 5:1.

I can accept the bikers in the road. At least those that actually act like they are driving a vehicle and obeying the road signs. But there are a number of them as well that seem to think that lights, helmets and rules are not relevant to them happily peddling down the road.

And I most definitely think it is a Berkeley issue. Picking Angel up from work this afternoon, we detoured down Telegraph toward Oakland to drop off one of his co-workers. There were pedestrians. They were all on the sidewalk or crossing at corners. There were a few individuals on bike. As we drove closer to Berkeley, I could almost see the Oakland/Berkeley border. The closer we were toward campus, the more idiots in the rood.

And, no, it is not just students. Most of those I take pains to avoid are beyond even the age of graduate students. Nope, entitled “adults” is what most of them are. In fact, the closer we drove toward home, the more walkers, bikers, and dog walkers there were. Only the dog walkers seemed to stay out of the road. I am trying to be glad that plenty of people are trying to get some exercise while actually observing more than a minimum of social distancing.

But please, not down the center of the road. Not on foot. And, for that matter, if you are wobbling up our massive hill on a bicycle, you might just want to ride on the side like most others, or walk your bike up the sidewalk.

As someone wisely pointed out this week, the absence of toilet paper is not solely the result of toilet paper holders.

In the normal way of things, most adults spend at least part of their day out of the house related to employment. Children spend time at school. People go to restaurants, concerts, sporting events. In all of those situations, the toilet paper used is supplied by the location as it is not the custom in the US to supply your own no matter where you are.

Now, with everyone home, those extra 8-12 hours of toilet use – and prime awake time at that – are transferred to the home. This results in the increased use of home toilet paper.

In addition, if you are suffering from seasonal allergies (unfortunately extremely common right now in the Northern Hemisphere) you are also pushing fluids. Or if you are coughing, drinking a lot of fluids improves your health. In any case – this results in more trips to the loo.

If every person who normally buys toilet paper bought just one extra package in a two week period, the shelves would be empty. Well, duh! The shelves are empty! Also of interest is that the commercial supply (restaurants, hotels, convention centers, schools….) is a completely different supply chain than that for the home market. Since most of us don’t want to buy 100-1000 rolls at a time (nor can we even get accounts) it isn’t easy to shift between the systems.

So before you look askance at the person who has bought a package of 12 rolls of toilet paper, they may not be hoarding. In fact, they may be like this household where we buy once for three locations (upstairs, downstairs, Richmond) from one package.

At least that was one thought, not that there aren’t those who have years supply in their garage in case of the apocalypse.

he would be a dead ringer for Santa. Instead, above the round, smiling face which almost disappears into an exuberantly full white beard sits a slouch hat. Black shirt, open sturdy blazer, heavy work boots, and a large silver cross hangs around his neck.

We are standing that 2 meters apart outside Peet’s waiting on our mobile coffee orders. There are several whose faces I recognize, but other than Joe (Berkeley Police and wearing both uniform and name tag) I can’t call anyone by name. Peet’s has adjusted to an 0700 opening time, and mobile ordering only.

Meanwhile, J. gets his coffee, checks in with one of our homeless regulars who sits bundled up in his electric chair, and heads back to his blue van. It doesn’t look like a sleigh. But as part of Night on the Street – Catholic Worker, he has been collecting and delivering meals, sleeping bags, essentials for several decades.

The numbers of ill and deaths are continuing to climb. Part of the challenge for all of us on a daily basis is to remember that cases showing up now are from people infected 2-14 days ago (average 5-6 days) which means that social distancing doesn’t show a drop in new cases until 28 days after restrictions are instituted. In that middle time, everyone who has already been infected has a chance to get sick and spread their joy. To this point, the “average” person landing critically ill in the hospital survives several days in the ICU. So fatalities lag several days behind increased numbers of cases. The better the health system, the longer that lag time is, until the health care system becomes totally overwhelmed. Once it is overwhelmed, the challenges mount. There was a great article in the NYT yesterday discussing triage, priority setting and the burden it places on staff and hospitals, not just on family and patients.

Reality? I would forgo a respirator if it meant that someone younger would have a chance at long term survival. But not everyone of those over 65, 70, 85 would make that choice. Perhaps it is because I feel I am already living on borrowed time and have had the gift of the last two decades and these past couple of years to spend with my family.

But it is Monday – one on-line Zoom class I think is actually not happening this week due to a previously scheduled spring break. Back to my regularly scheduled procrastination and stitching….

on Spruce St

Underneath it all is this almost gargoyle appearing monkey. Dressed differently according to the season, I just noticed this version the other day. Walking down the hill with Miriam and Angel, I took them this route on purpose.