It was back in January that I first wrote about coronavirus. A lot has changed in seven months, the world has changed in seven months. Closed borders, stay at home orders, essential or non-essential businesses, masks and social distancing are all part of the daily conversation, now and for the months to come.

As New York sees cases going down, states like Florida, Texas and California cases are rising everyday. Most people thought that the summer season would wipe out coronavirus with the hot, humid weather. Obviously this is not the case as the hottest states are having the most cases.

So now the talk amongst Governors is shutting things down again. That makes about as much sense as an ostrich putting its head in the sand. Stay at home orders sound great, but who gets to stay at home.

Can a farmer stay at home? Well technically he or she can, if it is a small family farm, but the mega-farms that actually feed this country employ hundreds of people. Can the truckers stay home? If they did this country would fall into anarchy within weeks.

Imagine no food in any grocery store in the country, no Amazon, UPS or Fed-Ex packages. And what about those grocery store employees, do they get to stay at home? This country needs to stay open so that we can support each other. Why can big box stores stay open that have hundreds of people through their doors everyday and a barber cannot.

As soon as my barber opened back up I made an appointment, as my hair was a little shaggy, but also I wanted to support a local business that was forced to close.

We were lucky enough to be deemed essential and able to stay open this year, but many local businesses were not that lucky. Now that those businesses are back open, they should not be forced to close again. Area farmers have been busier than ever this year and, if you have been to any of the counties' many farmers' markets you will see why.

Many people are opting for local fresh produce, meats and treats over the supermarkets as they want more social distance. Staying at home is not an option for these farmers as this is their livelihood. Now just imagine if they were told to stay at home and don't sell any of their products, as crazy as that sounds.

Remember seeing the story in the news about the dairy farmers dumping milk? The news only gave part of the story, the real reason for the farmers dumping milk was the fact that the milk processors had no cartons or jugs to put the milk in.

As part of the stay at home order, the manufacturing plants that make the cartons and plastic jugs shut down for weeks, before anyone realized that they were just as essential as the farmer.

“Stay at home” makes a nice sound bite for politicians and the media, but it is not practical in the real world that we all still live in.