"Stay Home, Limit Travel, Save Lives"---Stay-In-Place Order Extended Until May 4th, 2020

The message in the title can be seen on 1-5 electronic reader boards in the greater Seattle-area.  Are local citizens heeding this suggestion, along with Governor Jay Inslee's order to stay in your home and read a good book?  The answer, like most questions addressing human behavior, is yes and no, depending greatly upon time and place.  The Renton Walmart and the Seattle 4th Avenue South CostCo remain crowded with shoppers, with Walmart, for one, finally issuing entrance requirement in an attempt to slow down the maddened, undisciplined mobs packing the aisles.  Seattle's streets and sidewalks themselves are fairly uninhabited, with shops and restaurants remaining closed.  It's on the freeway where you see the people flying down the road in larger numbers---unrestrained 70-80 mph banshees telling you "the hell with the coronavirus! I will do whatever I want regardless of conditions and common sense,"--- reader board warnings mere scenery to crazed minds.

At least here in the State of Washington, there is a theoretical attempt at moderating behavior, while in the States of Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota, their GOP governors have so far refused to issue official statewide "Stay-at-Home" orders.  Like everywhere, response to the virus is mixed, many still not realizing we are in the beginning stages of a new worldwide plague.  Last week I wrote the death toll was over thirty thousand.  It has now surpassed fifty thousand, the pandemic reaching all corners of the earth.  One scary development is the very real possibility that the virus is spread simply by the breath, a sneeze or cough not required to send the virus out of an infected person's lungs.  The wearing of masks are now suggested for everyone though the president says he won't be wearing one.

Here in Seattle, the mayor announced they will not, for the time being, be issuing parking tickets. Too late, as I saw three days ago in the Ballard neighborhood for a row of at least twelve parked cars, all having newly written parking tickets proudly placed upon the windshield. Hopefully all will be dismissed but since this is Seattle, I wouldn't depend upon it, punishment Seattle's unofficial motto, the wagging of the finger saying "you should have known better!"