Quarantine Journals - COVID-19

It occurs to me that we are living through a historical event here, unprecedented like anything I have ever seen, and so perhaps I should take a moment to share that in your journals so that you may look back from your adulthood and remember/read about when you lived through the Coronavirus / COVID - 19.  

To be honest, the beginning of it all is a blur for us. On March 1st, I caught yet another  one of the many upper respiratory viruses that comes with having a young child in elementary school.  We have all been sick pretty much non-stop since December/January, but the last round had me at the DR office on 2/22 because my cough had gotten so bad that it kept me up night after night hacking away.  They sent me home with an inhaler.  This is about when we started hearing reports of Coronavirus in China.  They were trying to contain it, but had gotten off to a rocky start. People were getting racist about avoiding Asians, but for the most part, live continued on as per usual.

My cough didn't make great improvements, so that Sunday when I got sick again, it hit me pretty hard.  COVID-19 was now taking down Spain, Italy, so many countries were being devastated by the spread, but Trump told everyone here it was a hoax by the Democrats, and no one was taking it seriously. I spent the entire spring break very sick, and on Wednesday ended up going into the Urgent Care.  I am sure you are picking up on why things were so blurry now... I was diagnosed with a bad case of pneumonia.  They gave me an abx shot, a steroid shot, a breathing treatment, and sent me home with two more abx and a nebulizer.  It wasn't until today, 3/18, that I started feeling human again.

The day I went to urgent care is when things were starting to really get serious around here.  There was a case or two in Texas, in Dallas, and people were starting to pay attention. No major changes to anything had yet been made.  People were rolling their eyes at people in masks and making fun of the hoarders who had pretty much taken out the toilet paper supply nation-wide within a day. I was terrified to go into Urgent Care. I wore one of the masks we bought in 2019 to combat flu exposure, and every re-entry into the house was a change-clothes take--a-shower ordeal.

Within the next couple of days, they had announced that school would be postponed the week after Spring Break. I was relieved.  School would be our biggest germ exposure, and it seemed impossible to keep anyone healthy if Penny was there.  Within a matter of days, school had been extended again, this time not to start until 4/3. All of Dallas was shut down. Tarranty County, however, refused to do much of anything.  On the brink of huge weekend events, they finally took action and shut some down, but really, the stupidity was Texas wide.  The houston rodeo was canceled while people were setting up, and so they hosted a BTHO (beat the hell out of) Coronavirus, complete with TShirts and marketing marketing, right next door in Bryan. Hundreds and thousands of people refused to be protected by the spreading virus and just redirected their dumb butts over to Bryan to expose themselves and then later, everyone they would come in contact. 

It is 3/18 now. Dallas is closed. Most business, restaurants, bars, everything is shutting down. People are losing their jobs.  But Tarranty County carries on, lots of people still saying this is all hoax or THEY are not high risk so who cares.  The first man to die of covid-19 died today, in Arlington, and his blood is on their hands.  He's in a nursing home too.  This is potentially devastating if anyone else has been contaminated. 

Italy and Spain have been shut down. Videos of people singing from their windows are spreading all over online.  The death toll is unbelievable.  Still FOX news insists until just recently that it is all a hoax. People are about to start dropping like flies, and that could have been prevented if anyone, including the president, had acted sooner and more aggressively.

The entire nation is getting self quarantined.  Families are home trying to figure out what to do.  Authors, musicians, experts of all kinds are posting videos of themselves or their animals or reading books or making paintings or whatever you can imagine, trying to help distract the home-bound and help people feel connected.

When I ask Penny what has been most memorable so far, she says 

"Well. I like that we got to see birds on the camera." (live cam at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. 

"I didn't like that for one day Daddy had to work for the entire day."

Richard has still been intermittently going into work. He was here all week last week because I was too sick to do anything.  He went back on Monday, to get stuff together for a bid due, and he is back at work today to do payroll.  He is now our only link to the outside world, so here is hoping he can make sure that it doesn't result in germs coming home. My lungs are still infected and not well, and may not be for quite some time.  COVID-19 could devastate my body, and I am scared.

The grocery stores have been out of food almost entirely for a week.  Yesterday, I ordered groceries for my dad and sent them to his house using Instacart. That night we ordered ours as well. Everything is coming from online orders. I hope it is enough to keep us safe.