CONTENTS
3/25/2020 7 PM
Come Together To Help
Whatcom Confirmed Cases: 66
State Launches Web Form To Clarify “Essential” Businesses
Goods Nursery And Produce And Goods Local Brews
Handyman For Critical Needs
Elder Care Co-Op Seeks Workers
Fl!p’s Pix For Music
Musician’s Internet Jamming Programs?
Local Musicians Teaching Online
Editor’s Corner
Emails Will Continue
COME TOGETHER TO HELP
It’s time to come together block by block to help our neighbors. It will be good if every one of us has someone next door who is checking in with us daily, and that we are checking on them as well. And for every block, someone, or even better, everyone, can make sure that no one gets left out.
The first step is to safely connect. Internet, text and phone connections first. Figure out who’s missing and leave a sticky note on their gate, window or door. (First before writing and delivering, wash your hands.) You might even get down to knocking on their front door and then immediately moving back 8 feet. We’ll call it 8 feet because many people underestimate 6 feet. Eight feet is standard ceiling height. You can still talk just fine at that distance.
Some folks stick a piece of colored paper that says OK in their window, and then move it to a new location every day so their neighbors can tell they’re still OK.
Get together a list of everybody on your block, and share with everybody on your block, including back door neighbors if you know them. Now you have a tiny phone book! And a big enough circle of support that you can meet many needs. Your next-door neighbor may not have a spare roll of TP, but somebody on your block almost certainly does!
As you do this, I would love to hear from you that you’re working on it, and how it’s going. I really would!
WHATCOM CONFIRMED CASES
As of today at 5:30 PM, Wednesday March 25, we have 66 confirmed cases, and 2 deaths.
GOOD SITES TO CHECK DAILY
STATE LAUNCHES WEB FORM TO CLARIFY “ESSENTIAL” BUSINESSES
This is for now a two-week closure, and state officials will be evaluating the situation as we move through the expected increase in numbers of people testing positive for COVID-19. In response to widely-circulated rumors, state officials also want to be clear that no one needs to be registered on any list, and no one needs a letter or pass of any kind to continue moving about, conducting essential business and activities. Visit the portal’s Spread the facts page.
GOODS NURSERY AND PRODUCE AND GOODS LOCAL BREWS
Goods Nursery and Produce is open with all your gardening essentials. We have local honey, Joe’s veggie and strawberry starts, herbs, pansies, compost and more! We are sanitizing all surfaces, enforcing social distancing among shoppers and disinfecting constantly. Cory is there daily from 9-4PM.
Goods Local Brews is offering a growler exchange. Bring in your own growler and we will exchange it with a clean, sanitized one with a new cap. Check in with Cory from 9-4PM at the produce stand and he can fill your growler for you. Thank you all for your continued support through this very difficult time. We look forward to when we can open our doors again to the community. Stay safe and healthy!
HANDYMAN FOR CRITICAL NEEDS
Zeke and I were scheduled to get a bunch of little projects done around the house in one big burst. The highly skilled handyman we had chosen had to cancel because of the emergency order. We agree that Zeke and I are elders at risk and our projects are non-urgent. Mark is remaining open on a very limited basis, for hire because he still needs his income. He and Ginger wrote me that, “It’s our intent to honor the spirit of the order while also meeting the urgent needs of homeowners whose projects may be essential for emergency, structural, or safety purposes.” So here’s a personal shout-out to
Ginger and Mark Falcone
360-739-5881
ELDER CARE CO-OP SEEKS WORKERS
Looking for work? We are currently hiring CNA/HCA ALL shifts available
Join Circle of Life Caregiver Cooperative
a worker-owned cooperative respected in Whatcom County for over a decade.
http://www.circleoflife.coop/
What makes our worker-owned cooperative different:
*Our caregivers have part ownership in our cooperative agency.
*Our caregivers have a strong voice in many business decisions.
*Our caregivers have created a work environment where each member feels valued and respected.
At Circle of Life Caregiver Cooperative we offer:
*Flexible scheduling
*Job stability
*A connection within our community of caregivers
*Empowerment of our caregivers through teamwork and ownership of the business
$15.25 hour after 3 months
Become a member of our Co-op family! call 360-647-1537
FL!P’S PIX FOR MUSIC
MUSICIAN’S INTERNET JAMMING PROGRAMS?
If you know of effective programs to help musicians jam over the internet, I would love to run those here! I know some friends sent me suggestions last week, but they got buried in the avalanche. If you’d be kind enough to send them again, I would be grateful.
LOCAL MUSICIANS TEACHING ONLINE
All our local performing musicians lost their income, and it is not yet clear to me if they will be able to claim unemployment. Let me know if you know. Many of them also teach lessons, and are figuring out how to do so over the internet. I’ll be glad to post a list of such music teachers. Send me a very short blurb with contact info. Thanks!
EDITOR’S CORNER
EMAILS WILL CONTINUE
My tech buddies to the rescue! You don’t have to do anything. They are just going to help me shift over to a new platform, and you’ll still get the same emails, except there may be some photos here and there. You will get duplicate emails for just a few more days while we make the transition. For tech-savvy folks, you can just click a link to go to the blog site, where there is a cool map of local businesses, with what’s open, and what hours. We would love your help with a form you can fill in to add businesses or tell everyone about what they have in stock on a particular day. Business owners are also welcome to click on the form and speak for themselves. And there will be another form for creating posting requests that will make it easier for me to edit and format. Everything still comes straight to me (except map stuff, which Carol Brach is taking over for me, bless her heart!). And for the folks who just want email, just email me back like you always have. Simple. And we’ll see if we can’t get an unsubscribe button onto everything if case you want to opt out. I don’t want to annoy anybody ever (except back when I was a kid, my beloved siblings from time to time…)
Love/Fl!p