I was driving the guv around this morning – to the post office, the bank, and then to Amy’s Country Kitchen. I was not allowed to get out of the car and go inside anywhere. But the guv agreed I could get out of the car and take a photo of her buying some coffee for me and a cornbread muffin for her.

Governor Wulf nixed our going into the market for daily papers for the Mansion. We are filling our quota of small risks today.

We are going to Jean’s Place around noon so I can pay them for the luncheon feast they’re making for the residents tomorrow – and perhaps get to say hello from a distance.

This week and next, the guv says we are under the tightest restrictions because the virus is peaking in New York State, I’m fine with it. I have two governors to listen to.

There is something liberating with turning decisions over to higher powers, this is what it must feel like to worship a God, yes?

And I have to tell those of you who see Maria as a sweet and endearing little thing, she is very pleased to be called “guv,” she smiles every time I say it.

This morning, I’m negotiating with Clark’s Pizza for lunch for the Mansion aides and residents on Friday.

I got a check for $250 today from a very nice man who stipulated that the money be used for Easter Dinner at the Mansion. I returned the check with a note thanking him but explaining that I can’t take donations earmarked for something as specific like that.

Holidays are not good days for dinners, there’s a skeletal staff on duty, many residents are out with their families (maybe not this year) and not everyone there celebrates the same holidays.

(I do welcome donations for Mansion lunches during this crisis – they seem to run about $250 to feed 50 people, the residents, and the aides. If you wish you can earmark contributions for that via Paypal, [email protected] or by check, Jon Katz, Lunches, P.O. Box 250, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.)

I’m surprised at how much these surprise lunches mean to the residents, they love the change, the sense of being known, the change in routines, and they love the food. Jean’s is delivering three big and beautiful pies with their lasagna lunch tomorrow. That’s why I’m breaking my total isolation a bit, to go and pay them.

But the governor will be going into Jean’s, not me, and she has plenty of soap and sanitizing liquid on hand. I might sneak in and get a photo, I don’t want to abandon Jean’s right now. So I’m following instructions.

I will keep my distance and wash my hands with soap and my favorite sanitizing lotion, I got it from China for $7 a bottle (the bottle is about 3 inches high.)

It was good to see Amy, even from a fair. Her cold weather dining hut is closed, she is offering take-out from her wagon.

The cattle auction is closed, so it will be a quiet day for her. But she is hanging in there.

No complaints, Amy is farm tough. She yelled out to me to be careful and safe.