So..., earlier this week, the delivery and truck drivers apparently got the, "Be VERY Afraid" memo.
Getting your oil tank, (for home heating), filled up is suddenly a bigger challenge than simply placing an order. -Now it is apparently necessary to have your debating skills sharpened in order to convince the phone rep that yes, you really do need to heat your house. One guy had to invoke his, "Old Mother Living At Home" card in order to convinced the oil company to take his money. -It seems the drivers just don't feel safe venturing out into the virus soaked apocalypse landscape. -And let me be clear; we're talking about a job where you park your tanker truck on the road and then run a hose to the side of a customer's house. You don't even have to be home in order to receive an order! Other than, 'Forest Ranger', I'm having a hard time thinking of a more socially insulated job -where you can perform your duties without compromise and still suffer practically zero risk of random human contact. Maybe, 'Astronaut'?
And yet, they've been frightened into wiggling deeper into their covid-safe hidey holes. You now have to plead and cajole in order to keep your furnace fed. Or at least that's what I've seen so far. I'm getting my cue cards ready for when the needle on the tank at my house hits the low mark.
And speaking of fuel... The last gas station I visited has seen better days. Their normal shelf stocks were eroded down to about a quarter their normal capacity, -like I was living in some socialist third world economy, (which I probably will be soon). I nodded at the sad shelves and demanded, "What's going on? Did the world run out of snack food?"
I was rewarded for my flippancy: "There's this thing called a 'coronavirus'. Maybe you've heard about it?"
Cute.
But it turns out product distributors were having a hard time getting their delivery guys to go on the road. -Now that job I can see as having a higher risk of random human contact; a convenience store certainly sees more foot traffic than the oil pipe around the side of my house, but for goodness sake! Come on, guys; you're not hand-delivering Twinkies to grubby grade schoolers. They shut down all the schools.
Here's the one I find particularly troubling: Farmers, especially during harvest times, often rely on folks who travel in from other countries for cash labor. Migrant workers. -A practice which struck me as peculiar when I first left the city and encountered it. But that's Western economics for you; Summer jobs where you have to sweat and bend a lot are not well favored among the local youth, (or really anybody, if we're being honest), especially given that there are competing service jobs where knowing the local language and maintaining a mall-suitable wardrobe are valued skills. It's hard to keep your shirts pressed when you're living in a tent and your mom isn't available to drive you to the job site. Thing is.., you can't get migrant workers to migrate when there's a pandemic-sensitive border in the way. Not during these trying and difficult times, anyhow. -But somebody has to bring in all those fruit and vegetables, and I can't see the vegans doing it. You need to eat real food if you're going to survive farm work! And anyway, they're all busy pouring coffee, -or would be if the cafes were still open.
With local service businesses shuttered and farms desperate for workers, I wonder if we'll see a shift to healthy, outdoor work for our kids? Maybe that'll be a good thing in the long run?
And finally...
Is it just me, or do I sound suspiciously like an old grouchy Republican in this post?
Hm.
Whatever. Get off my lawn.
They also asked him why more restaurants in the city aren't being shut down (hinting that it would be the right thing to do) and he replied that he had 'heard they were going to try to do that' over Easter in Stockholm.
who are participating and making an impact. We are the spearhead of The Wave and nothing can stop us. BRAVO 
to all who are celebrating it.
