Grippin'.

It's 10 days out from a Vegas trip*.

I should be in a fevered pitch of final prep, hype and readiness. Instead, I'm gripping because there's a better than strong chance that the town might be shut down when (if) I get there.

Coronavirus.

With a few exceptions I have tried to keep this blog free of politics and the "news of the world". There are plenty of other, far better qualified outlets on the webz for that stuff. This situation, however, is unavoidable. It's leaking and infiltrating into every aspect of life, globally. Yesterday and today, basically all sports have shut down for a minimum of 2 weeks, if not altogether. There will be no NCAA tourney (which was supposed to be going on while I was in town). There will be no hockey, baseball, NBA, and probably the Olympics.

Businesses are shutting down. Disneyland is closed. Many companies that can have its employees work from home, are. My workplace (big 5 Pharma) is still open, but for how long I don't know. If they shut down I will have no income, unless Cheeto man and his Washington cronies can get together to implement paid time off. It seems only a matter of time before I'm dipping into my non-existent savings.

In the midst of all this - Vegas looms. Reports are as of this week shows are shutting down, buffets have closed, some restos have shut down, crowds are sparse. The scope of this thing seems to widen and worsen every day. How long before the resorts all just close up and try to ride this thing out? If there are many more cases popping up in Nevada (probably a given) they will almost certainly have to. Airlines are getting hammered. No reports yet of Allegiant cancelling flights, but if no one's on the planes how much longer can they afford to fly them?

So it seems I have a few scenario-based options coming up, and some may not be options for long.

1) Airlines continue to fly and the resorts stay open, though in a diminished state. I would still go and try to make the best of the trip. As long as casinos are open and bars/restos are too I have no problems with diminished crowds. I'm all for that, actually, so it would probably still be a good, though possibly surreal time.

2) Airlines close down and resorts stay open, I drive to Vegas. My car may or may not survive that. I would certainly have to get a tune up quickly before going and hope it holds together. Then the rest of the trip is as above.

3) Airlines shut down and resorts close. I cancel the trip, get what refunds I can and hope to re-schedule for the future, whenever that would be.

In the current situation that's probably the most prudent course to take, but Vegas-mania often overcomes prudence for me. It would probably be wise to cancel, bank the $2-4K I was going to spend on the trip and ride out the wave of this thing. But I want to go, damn it. So, as it stands, I'm keeping the reservations in place, and will wait as long as I possibly can before being more or less forced to cancel, if it comes to that. I can wait until 72 hours from the trip start to cancel the Delano reservation, and I have a no-cost cancel option with Allegiant.

So it's wait and see and hope, for now.

*possibly.