CQ: Day 1: Big Crash

March 16, 2020 NEWSPAPER HEADLINES & GRAPH: There are 4,300 cases of Coronavirus in the U.S. NOTE: This was the big crash, but it wasn't the last. My "two-week" work-at-home policy instituted was extended to at least 6 weeks (as of this writing). The Penn State closure for "three weeks" mentioned below would later be extended for two months, ending the Spring semester at Spring Break.

Blog: So... The Dow Jones $DJIA just fell almost 3,000 points, or 13 percent, the #2 DAILY percentage crash in history, further than the 1929 crash. Only 1987 was worse. It was surreal to watch on television.

And just after the crash, I did something I never thought I'd do. I gathered up my belongings and left work, without a return date. It was weird. I think I said, "see you on the other side" on my way out.

We were told to work at home starting Monday, but my wife is not feeling well so we're starting tomorrow, Friday. I stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home, to get a couple week's worth of groceries, just in case things got bad. Nobody was really panicking, but I was wary.

I filled the car up with gas and got some cash just in case. The local paper in the checkout told about the closure of Penn State.

*NOTE: This is part of my series "Coronavirus Quarantine" about my family's (and the world's) experience with COVID-19 during the stay-at-home orders and self isolation of Spring 2020. You can read all the blogs in reverse sequence by clicking here. Blogs before April 2020 were written after the fact, but the thoughts and photos are from the publish date indicated. For reference, a graph of cases and news interest in the U.S., and newspaper headlines from each blog publish date are included in each entry.