March 27 Corona Virus
March 27, 2020 Corona Virus
Days are passing one into another. Today is Friday. A typical day for me has been getting up as late as possible to avoid thinking about things since I know all I'm going to do is to think about things. I turn on the tv and work on a puzzle, watching MSNBC as look for pieces to fit. Wren comes down and uses the treadmill. Willow comes down much later, still with a full brace on her leg. She settles on the couch next to me, looking at Tik Toks all day while I watch the news. I don't sit there the whole day, but I keep the TV on. All day long. It's often muted, but on in case I catch a glimpse of something I might want to see. Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York, has a daily press conference. I never used to like him although I knew little about him. He just seemed like an entitled tough know it all white guy who happened to be governor because his father was Mario Cuomo. I have come to have a different opinion in these last few weeks. He is doing the job the president should be doing but can't because of his mental illness that nobody really talks about, but is so painfully obvious. Andrew Cuomo speaks truth to us. He is worried. He is really worried. People are dying in his state every day. People are dying in this country every day. There was one reported death on March 1. Yesterday there were 1,195 deaths. Today there are 1,588. And we are just in the beginning phases of this. China seems to be doing better, but there is now more and more reason to believe that have not given true numbers. We'll have to see. Italy has hundreds dying every day. Their entire country is in lockdown. We are still doing it piecemeal here. Our state is now saying children won't go back to school until May 4th, but there is an undercurrent of disbelief that that will even happen.
School ended for me on March 12th, for the girls on March 13th, a Friday. I went to the store on Thursday after school to start to stock up, then on Saturday morning for a little bit more. There was no social distancing happening then. Wren went to her last day of work on Saturday, although she didn't know it at the time. I went back into school on Monday, March 16th, just to get some books. I didn't stay. That was my last day anywhere else but the car or home. Or the walks I take on some days.
Now we are told to social distance with people, and to not gather in groups of more than 10. Parks have been closed down because people aren't doing the social distancing they need to do to discourage transmission. Even outside if I pass a person I should stay 6 feet from them. All non essential business have closed down. David is working from home. We are all home. Restaurants can still deliver, or you can go pick up, but no more eating there.
We have not been back to a grocery store since March 14th. There are so many stories of people buying out toilet paper, bleach, wipes, rubbing alcohol. It is truly a problem, even with food. There is enough of everything, or there would be if people would stop hoarding. I wonder if we will run out of toilet paper at some point and I've been thinking of alternatives.
I walked with Alison one day last week, but have even stopped doing that because I worry that the girls will want to do the same with their friends and will forget to social distance. I don't want them to say that I'm doing it so they should be able to do it too.
Our own governor is on tv every day with updates. Now if someone comes back into Massachusetts from another state they are supposed to self quarantine for 14 days.
I feel like we have almost hit 14 days of being at home, and that will mean none of us are positive. I've wondered if the girls might be positive since symptoms are often either non existent or very slight in kids.
We have been told that this virus is particularly dangerous for older people and for those who are compromised in some way, like heart disease, or lung disease, or diabetes. But then we hear stories of younger seemingly healthy people getting very ill.
The point of social distancing and staying home is more to mitigate the illness so that everyone doesn't get sick at once and need to be at the hospital because we won't have the proper equipment or enough beds. But people aren't taking it seriously. Beaches in Florida were crowded just last week for Spring Break. Crowds of people were just in DC for the cherry blossoms. But it's worth remembering the point of social distancing because everything feels so dystopian that sometimes I forget and think it's because if you get it you will get very sick. But most people don't get very sick. It's just that if we continue to spread it too many will get too sick at once. And older people or compromised people will more likely die.
They don't know yet if people will build up an immunity if they become positive. And if they do, they don't know yet how long it will last.
The president lies and says awful things every day. Today he implied that he wasn't interested in helping Michigan because he didn't like the governor there. He accuses reporters of being 'nasty' when they ask him honest questions he doesn't want to answer. He is incapable of caring about any of this. He speaks every day too, but talks about the great job he and his task force are doing, and how we need to get back to work, and nobody knew this was going to happen- he was handed a broken system and he has done amazing things. He is a sick man. He is not the leader we ever needed and is certainly not the one this country needs now.
And yet every day our family is together. We have gone on walks together. We spend long stretches of time just being together downstairs. Even when we are all on our own devices we are together.
I will try to keep writing about this- the writing isn't good, it won't be edited, but I feel like it's important because I won't remember a lot of it. It's the scariest thing I've lived through, I think. Scary isn't quite the word. I'm not sure what to call it. Things seem really bad, and it is going to get worse, and it's hard to know what the future is going to look like. But at the same time it feels like we will get through it, and maybe get to a better place in the end. I worry that people I love could get very sick, and maybe could die, but I don't think that will happen, at least not with my family and Mike and Laurie. And Olav and Jeanne. I think we are all being smart about what we need to do right now. Stay home. Wash hands often and for 20 seconds each time. Social distance. Don't touch our faces. This too will end. I do believe that. I just don't know when. But this could change. It's all a little uncertain.
Days are passing one into another. Today is Friday. A typical day for me has been getting up as late as possible to avoid thinking about things since I know all I'm going to do is to think about things. I turn on the tv and work on a puzzle, watching MSNBC as look for pieces to fit. Wren comes down and uses the treadmill. Willow comes down much later, still with a full brace on her leg. She settles on the couch next to me, looking at Tik Toks all day while I watch the news. I don't sit there the whole day, but I keep the TV on. All day long. It's often muted, but on in case I catch a glimpse of something I might want to see. Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York, has a daily press conference. I never used to like him although I knew little about him. He just seemed like an entitled tough know it all white guy who happened to be governor because his father was Mario Cuomo. I have come to have a different opinion in these last few weeks. He is doing the job the president should be doing but can't because of his mental illness that nobody really talks about, but is so painfully obvious. Andrew Cuomo speaks truth to us. He is worried. He is really worried. People are dying in his state every day. People are dying in this country every day. There was one reported death on March 1. Yesterday there were 1,195 deaths. Today there are 1,588. And we are just in the beginning phases of this. China seems to be doing better, but there is now more and more reason to believe that have not given true numbers. We'll have to see. Italy has hundreds dying every day. Their entire country is in lockdown. We are still doing it piecemeal here. Our state is now saying children won't go back to school until May 4th, but there is an undercurrent of disbelief that that will even happen.
School ended for me on March 12th, for the girls on March 13th, a Friday. I went to the store on Thursday after school to start to stock up, then on Saturday morning for a little bit more. There was no social distancing happening then. Wren went to her last day of work on Saturday, although she didn't know it at the time. I went back into school on Monday, March 16th, just to get some books. I didn't stay. That was my last day anywhere else but the car or home. Or the walks I take on some days.
Now we are told to social distance with people, and to not gather in groups of more than 10. Parks have been closed down because people aren't doing the social distancing they need to do to discourage transmission. Even outside if I pass a person I should stay 6 feet from them. All non essential business have closed down. David is working from home. We are all home. Restaurants can still deliver, or you can go pick up, but no more eating there.
We have not been back to a grocery store since March 14th. There are so many stories of people buying out toilet paper, bleach, wipes, rubbing alcohol. It is truly a problem, even with food. There is enough of everything, or there would be if people would stop hoarding. I wonder if we will run out of toilet paper at some point and I've been thinking of alternatives.
I walked with Alison one day last week, but have even stopped doing that because I worry that the girls will want to do the same with their friends and will forget to social distance. I don't want them to say that I'm doing it so they should be able to do it too.
Our own governor is on tv every day with updates. Now if someone comes back into Massachusetts from another state they are supposed to self quarantine for 14 days.
I feel like we have almost hit 14 days of being at home, and that will mean none of us are positive. I've wondered if the girls might be positive since symptoms are often either non existent or very slight in kids.
We have been told that this virus is particularly dangerous for older people and for those who are compromised in some way, like heart disease, or lung disease, or diabetes. But then we hear stories of younger seemingly healthy people getting very ill.
The point of social distancing and staying home is more to mitigate the illness so that everyone doesn't get sick at once and need to be at the hospital because we won't have the proper equipment or enough beds. But people aren't taking it seriously. Beaches in Florida were crowded just last week for Spring Break. Crowds of people were just in DC for the cherry blossoms. But it's worth remembering the point of social distancing because everything feels so dystopian that sometimes I forget and think it's because if you get it you will get very sick. But most people don't get very sick. It's just that if we continue to spread it too many will get too sick at once. And older people or compromised people will more likely die.
They don't know yet if people will build up an immunity if they become positive. And if they do, they don't know yet how long it will last.
The president lies and says awful things every day. Today he implied that he wasn't interested in helping Michigan because he didn't like the governor there. He accuses reporters of being 'nasty' when they ask him honest questions he doesn't want to answer. He is incapable of caring about any of this. He speaks every day too, but talks about the great job he and his task force are doing, and how we need to get back to work, and nobody knew this was going to happen- he was handed a broken system and he has done amazing things. He is a sick man. He is not the leader we ever needed and is certainly not the one this country needs now.
And yet every day our family is together. We have gone on walks together. We spend long stretches of time just being together downstairs. Even when we are all on our own devices we are together.
I will try to keep writing about this- the writing isn't good, it won't be edited, but I feel like it's important because I won't remember a lot of it. It's the scariest thing I've lived through, I think. Scary isn't quite the word. I'm not sure what to call it. Things seem really bad, and it is going to get worse, and it's hard to know what the future is going to look like. But at the same time it feels like we will get through it, and maybe get to a better place in the end. I worry that people I love could get very sick, and maybe could die, but I don't think that will happen, at least not with my family and Mike and Laurie. And Olav and Jeanne. I think we are all being smart about what we need to do right now. Stay home. Wash hands often and for 20 seconds each time. Social distance. Don't touch our faces. This too will end. I do believe that. I just don't know when. But this could change. It's all a little uncertain.
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