Life in Region 6, and a confession

On Thursday, April 16, Iowa's governor, Kim Reynolds, signed an order regarding the pandemic.

Did she order Iowans to shelter in place, as have many U.S. governors?

Map of states with shelter-in-place orders (gold/orange)
 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-stay-at-home-order.html.

No, she did not.

She's been pretty hesitant to issue a shelter-in-place order, despite the fact that Iowa now has more cases of Covid-19 than Minnesota, to its north, despite Minnesota having 2x the population...(Minnesota has been under a shelter-in-place order for a while, maybe 2 weeks.)

Bruce suspects that, conservative Republican that she is, Reynolds is loathe to upset the Trump-supporting Iowans who are her base. And with Trump irrationally urging people to defy shelter-in-place orders (don't even get me started on that), she's not going to issue one.

Anyway, what Governor Reynolds did do was issue a Proclamation of Disaster Emergency for "Region 6" of Iowa--which includes Cedar Rapids, where we live, and most of the northeastern part of the state. 

Region 6 is the burnt orange section. 

The order is not called "shelter in place," but it does prohibit any gatherings of people from different households and asks that people who leave their homes make "every reasonable effort" to stay 6 feet away from each other.

The proclamation also orders businesses to evaluate whether employees could work from home, and, if not, take "reasonable precautions" to ensure employees health.

I certainly hope Iowans are "reasonable."

I fear this move might be coming too late--during the few days before this order came out, big Covid-19 outbreaks in a couple slaughterhouses (do they call them that anymore?) were reported: almost 200 cases diagnosed at a slaughterhouse in southeast Iowa, and 150 cases diagnosed at a  slaughterhouse in Waterloo. (This paragraph was updated for accuracy 21 April)

Seems like people need to stay away from each other, something you really can't do in a slaughterhouse. By the way, only the Waterloo slaughterhouse is in Region 6.

At our house, we're pretty much sheltering in place already . . . well, mostly.

There are two non-social-distancing pleasures I've allowed myself. And now I'm wondering if maybe I'll need to give them up. 

Throughout this pandemic, I've kept going on occasional walks through the neighborhood with my friend Anne.

Anne and I on a chilly day

Our walks, which we've been doing together for years, are our way of catching up on each other's news while getting some exercise. It's "walk and talk" with an emphasis on talk. Maybe we could wear masks now, and walk six feet apart. I've seen people doing that.

Bruce and I have also continued to enjoy weekend visits with Robbie and Aubrey. Once the Y closed, they've been coming over to do BodyFlow (via video) with me in our basement on Saturdays. They often just stay for lunch, then hang out. I will be very sad to give up those delightful weekend visits.

Robbie and Aubrey looking at skunk cabbage earlier in March. Sometimes we do things outside, which gives me an idea . . . 

Friday, Aubrey, Robbie, and I met at Cedar Lake to look at birds instead. We hope to meet up at Palo Lake Saturday for more birding. We'll try to keep 6' apart.

Robbie, Aubrey, and I saw a pair of blue-winged teal at Cedar Lake. We might be walking far apart, looking at birds outside instead of lunching together.