Day 7-Settling In

randy | March 19, 2020, 12:09 p.m.

Settling In

Thursday, March 19th, 2020

My daughter is devastated. Her Prom is postponed indefinitely. They haven't canceled it, but most all other Spring-related school items have been canceled.

I am learning the difference between suspended, postponed, and canceled. MLS has postponed the season but other sports are canceled. The reality isn' that these things are happening but rather how my life and my family's life revolved around some of these activities. No more plopping on the couch to catch a soccer game or some random other sport. We are in the middle of re-watching the BBC's Sherlock Holmes. Since there are only 13 episodes over the 4 seasons, we are intentionally NOT binge-watching. We watched one episode last night and went to bed early.

I went for a long walk yesterday evening and found myself about 3.5 miles down the road after an hour of walking. The roads weren't deserted but more like a typical Sunday evening, on a Thursday. The only place that had what looked to be normal was the local pub. Everywhere else was closed or displayed limited customer traffic.

As we are settling into this new normal, I have also realized that once this passes, I want to make sure I am more intentional about being social going forward. I have noticed in my office, conversation levels have dropped off. Also, I woke up this morning noting how many people I would normally see in day-to-day activities that I have not heard from. I am going to make a point of reaching out via Text or Call just to "reach out and touch someone"...Anyone remember that tagline?

Yesterday was the first day we were able to completely stayed in quarantine. No one went shopping or otherwise interact with anyone else. One silver lining to this: my wallet is loving the lack of incidental purchases. Now, my kids are intent on spending money somewhere somehow but I told them to we are placing just one Amazon order this week so consider carefully before placing anything in the cart. I am not making any friends w/ my kids but that is okay.

Italy just announced they have suffered more COVID19 fatalities than China. That says alot about the state of medicine and the response in Italy with a population of 60M compared to China with 1,500M.

Enough bad news. Today, it was a beautiful 78 degress and sunny. We ordered takeout from a local restaurant to help out a little and to keep the food supply we have. It is looking like this is going to be more like 4+ weeks instead of the two weeks everyone originally thought.

Spoke with my mom and sister. They seem to be holding up well. My mother is definitely a potential at-risk COVID19...victim with her age and respiratory issues. I will check in from time to time although I am not sure there is anything I can really do for them. That's reassuring.