I did it again. Late Open Thread. I am giving myself permission to fail, and as such am fine with this. I have another good week at work, and then may get my hours reduced. Hope the unemployment is good if that comes. My landlord is still flexible and I will definitely be good on that for a while.

Wash your hands right now.

Sorry! The days are kind of blending together and I can’t write this on my commute. Go wash your hands right now.

Are you holding up? Are you going a bit stir crazy? I am. Living Downtown, you can take a walk and try social distancing, but not everyone is cooperating. Or nobody knows what 6 feet is. Seriously give me some more room.

And also, wash your hands.

Dear Senator Murray,

I am writing to thank you for your leadership in this difficult time. Specifically, I want to thank you for pushing for sick leave protections for all workers. I know that it has not passed yet, but I hope that you will keep pushing. We need to be in this together by staying apart.

Thank you,

Carl Ballard

(For the rest of you, wash your hands right now.)

I am very grateful that Seattle has suspended evictions for the time being. It’s not a system that can go on indefinitely, but God almighty it’s needed now. My building posted notices about working with people to pay rent. They should keep that up after the virus is over.

How is the social distancing going? I didn’t leave my apartment over the weekend except to do laundry. There aren’t many machines, and they’re all packed into a row with the laundry on one side and the dryer on the other. So there’s usually a bit of jostling. But it was all very polite and one person at a time keeping our distance. I don’t like it, but I guess it’s the next few months at least.

I have switched from being a politics person to going all in on hand washing. For goodness sake, wash your hands. Right now. If there are other people around, have them wash their hands, or if they’re young, wash their hands for them. Get them all sudsed up. Make sure to get the back. In between your fingers.

It’s too close to call the Presidential primary Washington. Usually I have some idea about who is going to win. The later ballots typically break for the more liberal candidate. But the remaining ballots to count are from it being a 2 person race, and a lot of the ballots that have been counted were cast when there more people running. So who knows?

In any case, please wash your hands right now.

Get your ballot postmarked or dropped off by tomorrow if you want it to count. Make sure that you mark the party or it won’t count. And use a sponge instead of licking it closed.

Also, too: Wash your hands right now.

I feel like a lot of the wash you hands messages are geared to children. And I get it: Teach the people who can most easily develop lifetime habits. And maybe they can teach their parents things.

That’s good, but for adults: Wash your fucking hands. Are you near a sink? Wash them now. Are you somewhere that you can’t wash your hands? Make a plan for the next time you can wash your hands, and then go do it. Also, to men and other users of the men’s room specifically, wash your hands after using the urinal. Even if you hadn’t literally just touched your penis, it’s still a good idea.

If you’re like me, yesterday’s vote was pretty rough (and if not, congrats). I will, of course, support the Democratic nominee whole heartedly. And not just because President Trump is a garbage nightmare, but because it is a million things that the President does that will be better under Biden than any Republican. And obviously the House and Senate are also important, so work on that if you can.

As the coronavirus spreads, but I keep taking public transportation, I keep thinking about the grossest things that I have seen. People coughing or sneezing on to their hands and then grabbing the post or the strap. Food strewn about. Mystery liquid or scents.

So I’m glad to see that Metro is as in it as they can be. There are a lot of people who are doing a lot to keep us as healthy as possible right now. Even though I often times can’t see them, I will try to give them the same types of consideration as the memory of things that have grossed me out over the years.

If you work in Washington State, you have sick leave protection. And if you work in Seattle, the laws are stronger. With the new coronavirus going around, it’s pretty important to take sick leave if you need it, but even with the regular getting sick, it’s a good idea to take your sick leave.

Every Presidency a lot happens. And so a lot is on the ballot. Big stuff, little stuff. Obviously, we’re focused on a potential global pandemic today.

But! Recently the NLRB passed a rule to make easier for a franchise to fire workers in retaliation for union organizing. It is now on the individual franchisee rather than the larger franchise. A million of these smaller decisions — boards, court cases you never heard of — are on the ballot.

The stock market has taken a tumble this morning. And so, it’s as good a time as any to remind you that stocks are not the economy. You could be doing well or not. Collectively, one tumble in the market due to a disease isn’t employment or wages. So some spooked investors are spooked. But we should continue to deal with homelessness and wages and job security and empowering unions because those matter more than the rise and fall of the DJIA on any particular day.