If you suddenly wake up and don't recognize any of the stars in the sky, everything seems alien and unknown, then that's a good description of planet earth, and the State of Hawaii today. As of now DLNR has closed off all access to the ocean including beaches, harbors, and public shoreline access. Many businesses are closed. Air travel to the islands has been discouraged, and as of next week all arriving passengers including returning residents will have to quarantine for 14 days.
For the past four days or so at my house we've been sheltering in place (I know that's not a good term for this) in order to minimize the odds of somehow contracting COVID19 or worse, giving it to someone else. There are as of today three known cases on the Big Island, all travel related. But since there is no testing until next week we really don't know the extent of the spread, and we are assuming we are all infected for the purposes of minimizing contact and flattening the curve.
This new reality is going to continue to accelerate into the unknown for a while still--that's how exponential functions behave until the delays from mitigating factors allow rates of change to flatten out, then hopefully, go negative.
We are going to be on stay-at-home behavior probably through most of April. The travel quarantine that begins next Thursday will help protect the population from infection originating elsewhere.
The primary mission right now is to protect our community, our Kupuna, and do it in a way that doesn't destroy our humanity. This is why we are not hoarding food or other necessities. Take only what you need leaves something for your neighbors.
So what to do when you are housebound? I remember that Queen Lili'uokalani was housebound in 1985, and that didn't stop her from giving hope to her people. I'm doing some home recordings and videos and posting the to #songsofcomfort as a contribution. Here's a link to one of them.
Stay safe.
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