PANDEMIC 2020

PANDEMIC – I kick myself every now and then just to convince myself that COVID-19 IS A REAL PANDEMIC. I sure am getting tired of being part of a major historical event.  Why couldn’t all of this just have remained in the domain of science fiction? Staying in place is what we are doing right now, which means we are not doing much of anything.

With so much being written about the Covid-19, my first reaction was not to write anything at all. Everyone has been overwhelmed with information, commentaries, press conferences, and jokes about it. However, since I write this blog primarily for myself, I felt compelled to Blog.

WASH, WASH, WASH YOUR HANDS – I’ve washed my hands so often that they are getting chapped. Placed right next to my soap is hand lotion.

SHORTAGES – PARTICULARLY OF TOILET PAPER, PAPER TOWEL, FACE MASKS AND HAND SANITIZER   Fortunately, shortly before leaving on our trip to California on March 1^st, we paid a visit to COSTCO and purchased plenty of toilet paper, tissue, and paper towel. What I didn’t purchase was hand sanitizer or face masks.  As a result, one of the most exciting things to happen to me in the past few weeks has been being able to purchase 2 small vials of hand sanitizer from Trader Joe’s.

SOCIAL DISTANCING — STAY 6 FEET APART or should it be more? Whenever our neighbor sees Dan and I heading out on a walk, he shouts a warning for us to keep our distance from others.  He points out, once again, how we fall into the category of being more vulnerable (since we are over 65 years old). We weren’t accustomed to thinking of ourselves as being elderly, but we sure do now.

Usually the socially distancing thing works out fine. Most walkers are on the same page as we are. However, I have noticed that in our local park, groups of young adults don’t think the rule applies to them since they are invulnerable. I sure hope that is true.

As for Dan and me (and many of our friends) we must accept the fact that COVID-19 is more dangerous for us. Even worse is the fact that due to a shortage of equipment such as ventilators, we are also being viewed as expendable. That is not something that anyone our age wants to spend too much time thinking about.

MASKS – Do they do any good or not? I’m still not sure. At first, we were told they didn’t do much good and that they should be reserved for the use by medical personnel. I think they discouraged us simply because there weren’t enough masks to go around.  First responders needed them more than the public.  Now the authorities are saying we should wear them when out in public.

People are getting very creative in making their own masks.  There is a Facebook page with my Uncle Dick wearing a yarmulke converted into a mask.  Other people have put diapers and sanitary napkins to good use. Most are simply sewing their own with colorful fabrics.  I made several masks for us using an old t-shirt and shoelaces.

GLOVES — Whether they help or not is even more unclear than whether to wear face masks.

SOCIAL MEDIA — I have used social media before, but nothing like I do now. I had never relied on it for entertainment, communication, exercise, game playing, meetings etc.  I still prefer face-to-face meetings, but it was cool when through using the application ZOOM, we were able to see and communicate with most of my first cousins and many of their adult children all at the same time. Our family members live throughout the U.S. from California to New York, yet for about 60 minutes we were visiting each other in the comfort of our own homes.

ONLINE LEARNING AND MEETINGS–   Dan teaches his John Carroll University class via ZOOM three times a week. Jonathan and Dana work from their kitchen table in their  Manhattan apartment.  My grandchildren do several hours of online learning from their home in Los Angeles. My book club met for the second time online where we enjoyed conversation and a glass of wine.  The glass of wine is critical to the entire experience.

I also wonder what impact staying in place will have on the way we live, work and learn in the future. For example, is my wine drinking at home going to become a new habit?  After seeing how one can work from home why would anyone want to go back to long commutes to the office? Will we ever go back to shaking hands? How about hugging and kissing friends and family?

SHOPPING – We’ve tried to avoid going shopping and gave Instacart a try for our groceries. It turned out OK, but my Diet Coke turned into Coke Zero Vanilla.  My three-zucchini turned into 2 zucchini and a cucumber.  No apricots.  No chocolate.  Nothing compares with doing it for yourself, but home delivery services are becoming much more entrenched in how we shop.

Grocery stores (and other retailers) have instituted safeguards such as lines on the ground indicating where you should stand, staggered registers, disinfected grocery carts, established shopping hours for seniors only and a limited number of patrons in the store at any one time. How long will these measures remain in place?  I hope they remain until an effective vaccine is developed.

DINING OUT – Technically none of us can do that anymore, however, Dan and I did picnic on Cosmic Dave subs the other day. We have also ordered take-out Chinese food from Ho Wah’s. I have always cooked most of our meals at home, but lately it has been getting a little monotonous. I’m glad we can change things up a bit every now and then by ordering take-out, therefore, helping ourselves as well as supporting our local restaurants.

EXERCISE— Since all gyms are closed, the internet has been a great source of a wide spectrum of workouts including aerobics, yoga, Zumba, etc.  Granted I don’t work out nearly as hard as I did at the gym, but it is much better than doing nothing. Dan and I are also taking lots and lots of walks.  Now that the weather is getting nicer, we are logging in substantial miles.

It is amazing how many people are outside.  There are kids riding bikes and scooters, making chalk drawings on driveways and sidewalks, playing basketball, skateboarding, etc.  Parents are outside talking with neighbors across the street, walking dogs, and pushing kids in strollers.  It almost looks like it did in the 1950’s, except most people are keeping a distance from each other.

I really enjoy seeing everyone outside, but it does mean lots of zig zagging in order to keep the correct social distance from others.  We have even had a few social occasions where we sat in lawn chairs on a friend’s driveway and chatted.

MAKING PLANS – There is no making of plans, and to me this is the most difficult part of staying in place. We Facetime, Zoom, and Skype with our children and grandchildren, but when will we be able to hug them again? We had also planned a fantastic trip to Northern Italy for this October. There isn’t much likelihood of our going, especially with talk about the virus having a resurgence in the Fall.

SUMMER – The joys of summer will be quite muted this year. No camp for kids? No fireworks?  No swimming pools open? Museums closed? No concerts? No Baseball? No picnics? At least we can still visit our parks—I hope.

GAS PRICES– Gas prices are low, low, low, but there is no where to go. (that rhymed in case you missed it).  A single tank of gas can last for months.  We just paid $1.40 per gallon. Our neighbor paid $1.09 at COSTCO.  We recently leased a new Subaru Outback. The salesperson has called at least twice asking how we like our car. I told her that I think we like it very much, but we’ve haven’t had the chance to drive it anywhere.

PASSING THE TIME – It is amazing to me how most days pass by quickly with my having accomplished absolutely nothing. Dan and I have made some inroads in cleaning out our attic and other parts of the house, but one can only spend so much time doing that. Below is basic list of how we spend our time:

• Cleaning
• Cooking
• Reading
• Clearing out emails
• Selling things on eBay
• Talking on the phone
• Taking walks when weather allows
• Watching TV in the evenings (Too much of that, we are running out of programs to watch on Netflix.)
• Playing the piano
• Contemplating the future
• Exercising to Silver Sneaker classes on my computer
• Waiting for a tax refund from the State so we can pay IRS this summer.
• Visiting friends by sitting in each other’s driveways 6 feet apart. Hopefully, we can do more of this as the weather improves.
• Playing games
• Doing puzzles
• Working in the yard

THE END—Our President wants to start opening the economy as of May 1^st regardless of what medical experts might say. I realize that we cannot remain in shutdown mode indefinitely, but a vaccine is at least a year away. We also still do not know how to properly treat the illness. Safeguards must be put in place or the virus could come roaring back. Only time will tell how this drama unfolds.

In the meantime:

EVERYONE PLEASE STAY SAFE!!!