"Breakin' the Law!"

Obligatory .gif from my misspent (relative: I was in my 20s when these guys were considered the harbinger of the end of civilization) youth

Late in the day Wednesday, I got a text from the quilting lady. My quilt that I took in on my LAST trip out (Feb. 29) was almost done and I could come get it and pay for it.


Yeah.

The quilt shop is in Texas, it's currently closed for customers (they do online sales, which I HOPE keeps them afloat, they are a nice shop).

And I admit, perhaps part of my low level discomfort/dread yesterday was: "Do I go and get my quilt? Or do I just offer over the phone to pay for it now and get it when this is all over, with the thought that 'yeah, maybe she goes out of business and it's that much harder to get my quilt,' or do I try to arrange for her to entrust it to the US Mail? Or do I just drive down there and maybe get asked the modern equivalent of "papers, please" by some overzealous agent of a local government, or told I must quarantine strictly (no grocery runs even) for 14 days upon returning?"

This is because a big part of my personality is Rule-Following Nerd and being told "NO UNNECESSARY TRIPS" means I interpret it as "You are bad and wrong if you go out for ANYTHING other than food essentials" but....I also wanted my quilt. So I felt uncomfortable about it at first but decided to do it after texting the quilting lady because she seemed deeply unconcerned that I might come to her shop and get my quilt so I figured, okay, that's how I do it. (I absolutely wanted to pay her now, no matter what: I assume she needs the funds and I currently HAVE the funds*). So I grabbed my mask and the gloves and hand sanitizer Anita sent me, and set off.

(*Though now, with news that the Feds are sending some money universities' ways, maybe my job is a tiny bit more secure than I once worried about. And I also found out yesterday that the ink is safely dry on our newest colleague's contract - in fact, the person she is replacing in my department is now our VPAA, and I am wondering if Teresa shepherded the paperwork through knowing that having the offer rescinded now in a retrenchment would be bad, not only for "optics," but also for the department's ability to function)

MUCH less traffic on the roads. There were very few single-passenger cars; most of the traffic was big-rigs or commercial trucks (like from electrical contractors or HVAC places).

Driving into Texas, the big billboard that they show messages on was saying "LOUISIANA TRAVELERS MUST QUARANTINE" and I had heard on the news that was a thing but it's uncomfortable to actually see it. (I guess they were afraid people might come up through Texarkana, through southern Oklahoma, and "sneak" into Texas? I don't know). And yeah, parts of Louisiana have terribly high rates of infection (Though that may be largely due to it spreading through nursing homes?) but I admit I was surprised Texas wasn't also telling all other travelers into it to quarantine (though perhaps that's coming).

Anyway, it felt kind of....ominous.

Got into Denison, pulled up across from the shop. Called her, she said to come on up to the front door.

Put on my mask and gloves. I know it looks a bit much but I want to be careful and I wanted to protect her as much as myself - it's been a week since that guy coughed in my vicinity at the Pruett's and it's almost 100% sure I'm safe, but...if I'm not...I'd hate to take down the quilting lady too. I told her when I came in it was because of my asthma I was being extra careful and she made a comment about pollen being high also, so I guess she wasn't offended.

And she was scrupulous to not get within 6' of me while we did the transaction - I set my credit card down, she picked it up and ran it, then set it back with the bag with my quilt and receipt. We talked a little bit - about 8' apart, but it was good to talk to another human for a bit - and I set off for home.

She did say she had a lot of work; apparently she has a number of tops stacked up to do, and also made some comment about "a lot of people are staying home and piecing" so I don't know if that means she is still accepting tops. But I hope they stay in business....I know they sell online and maybe when I am ready to order a bit again I order from them.

Here is the quilt. Yes, it's Asian-themed fabrics; the backing is called China Girls. Ironic, given that the current virus had its apparent first outbreak in China. (Though now they are saying phylogenetic analysis says the form of it so abundant in New York was brought in from Europe, so perhaps the pattern of transmission was China ---> Europe ---> East Coast US. I don't know about the West Coast cases; I think one of those was an American who came back from China). And also sadly ironic in that I know a lot of Asian-American people are taking abuse for it. Guys, it's a VIRUS. No human being (other than maybe a psychopath) wants people to be sick. And a lot of the Asian people taking abuse are small-businesspeople, who are taking a hit comparable to any other small businessperson in this....and of course a lot of the Chinese people here (at least: some my dad knew) are here BECAUSE of their objections to how the Chinese government runs things....







I still have to bind it, of course. It's third in the queue now - I need to handsew down the binding on the Chalet quilt, and put the binding on the big big pastel quilt, and then this - I will probably use the scraps of the backing fabric for the binding on this; I don't know that I have any remaining bits of the Japanese-themed fabric from the front.

I've also decided to take the rest of the afternoon off - I recorded a couple lectures this morning and will do more tomorrow - but maybe this is the time to start that handsewing on the one binding. I do need to motivate myself to do some of the projects I always said I wanted to do "when I had time"