Last night I emailed my manager at work, asking to work from home for an as-yet-undefined period of time because I truly feel showing up there is an unnecessary risk.

We are a small office, about 9 people, but I see no reason not to leverage modern technology to work remotely. My work as copy editor lends itself to it.

I got the go-ahead this morning; manager let it be known they were working with IT on a solution for others to work from home "in the event" they needed to.

Wow, if ever there was an event, this would be it. Not sure what they're waiting for. Our governor and everyone else is advising "social distancing," and this is what all our clients are already doing, yet for some reason my little employer seems to think this advice doesn't apply to them, even as we're told that someone can be a virus carrier and spread the disease for several days before showing symptoms.

I will be taking a substantial financial hit from working at home since I can only charge for time actually spent working on an assignment. When I'm on site, I charge for the entire time I'm there, regardless of what I'm doing, and there can be long downtime periods I just spend reading news online. So a typical 18-hour week could shrink by half or more. I actually tried to calculate whether I'd be better off if they issued me a temporary layoff. I think it would be a close call, and in any event, if work continues, I'll need to do it. Not really my call.

Now, my only true exposure will be my once weekly grocery shopping trips for my father and myself. I feel uneasy about continuing to see him as I could spread it to him, but I believe that my precautions would make that possibility very low. He is homebound now, and looks forward so much to my visits.

That being said, we won't be visiting a restaurant anytime soon. Being 60, I actually fall into the "high risk" category, along with my father. I guess I will make a meal for us at his place and we can still take a drive somewhere just for fun, but not stop in anywhere!

My county is the hot spot in our state due, no doubt, to our proximity to Westchester County, NY, another hot spot, and New York City.

I am sure the self-imposed isolation will get to me, but perhaps less than most, as I am very self-sufficient and have many things to occupy my time at home.

Unlike Dido, though, I doubt I have several months' worth of groceries, as I rely a lot on fresh produce that can't be stockpiled. I could make do with what I have for a few weeks, probably, but the lack of variety would probably get to me. I did stock up on cat food for Luther. I do hope no further shortages occur at the grocery stores. I noticed when I was at Stop & Shop last Saturday, besides the cleaning supplies, they were only half-stocked in cat food, bread and some fresh produce.

Yesterday I stayed home all day except for 2 outings: a nice, long walk to our historic Main Street, by myself, and a short drive in town to donate some clothing accessories to a woman with a church group collecting for a Sudanese refugee family settling in our area.

The day before, Saturday, I also stayed home all day but I kept busy and did some cooking and yard work. I plan to keep in touch with family, friends, loved ones by FaceTime, email, phone and text, and by yodeling to my neighbors up the hill.

Today I canceled a routine doctor's visit. A few days ago, I had a good conversation with staff at the gym I just joined; they sound very reasonable and I have every expectation they will let people extend their memberships by as many months as they avoid the gym. In the meantime, I'll be working out at home.

I had met with my mason to do a few jobs for me this spring, but given the uncertainty about how long this will last, I think I'd prefer to preserve the liquidity of my cash holdings.

Another huge downturn in the DJIA and they've frozen the market.