CANCELED!
Chances are you are like me. Sitting back, watching the world react to the coronavirus epidemic.
Watching it spread. New cases popping up every day.
Is there a true reason to be concerned? On one side we are told more people die, and have died, from the flu this season. The people most affected by the coronavirus are the elderly or those with respiratory concerns. But as the media documents new cases, even new presumptive cases, the fear of the coronavirus runs rampant.
In our house, I am the one taking the virus seriously. Well, more seriously than the rest of the family. The kids wash their hands when they come home. From anywhere. Iâd love to think they are washing their hands throughout the day, but Iâm thinking thatâs probably a long shot with my crew.
Bob, on the other hand, is completely annoyed by the virus. Media hype, unnecessary, overblown. I donât think heâd go so far to lick his own hand in protest, but heâs not going to over wash probably either.
Yesterday was the first day I felt the virus. It was in my area. My day was being affected. Not in a big way – just little nuances.
Schools in the area closed for deep cleaning due to various students coming into contact with a Doctor in the city who later tested positive for the virus.
At the gym, I could tell who the âNervous Nelliesâ were and who were the âCalm Cats.â The size of the class much smaller than normal.
My trip to the store to get jugs of water for an upcoming trip led me to empty shelves. The store was empty. No people. No jugs of water. No toilet paper either.
My email is LOADED with messages about what the different organizations and stores in my area are doing to help keep their institutions clean.
My kids are in three different schools, yet I know the plan for each should a person have direct or even indirect contact with a coronavirus case.
The University closest to me has stopped classes for the semester. All learning to be continued online only.
Canceled, canceled, canceled events â I see notices of events canceled all over the country, all to be rescheduled when the virus blows over.
All canceled, except one.
Catelynâs soccer tournament this weekend. In Virginia.
With the kidâs busy schedules, Bob and I found ourselves in a âRock, Paper, Scissorsâ battle. Who was going to take care of what child(children) in which weekend long event. Iâm not sure if I won or I lost, but Catelyn, Declan and I are preparing for a trip to Virginia for a soccer tournament.
As you can imagine, this trip comes with a fair amount of planning. One, because it’s in my nature, and two, both kids will benefit if they know what to expect.Â
Four soccer games, spread out. One team dinner out. Those are the big things Declan had to understand and accept. I need to pack the tools to get him through. Thankfully, my focus will be on getting Declan through that team dinner since it is WAY out of my comfort zone too.
Around games I had planned to take him to the hotel pool, while Catelyn hung with her team. Declan was also excited for a possible excursion over to Mount Vernon. Now, Iâm not so sure either is a good idea. I read to stop the spreading of any germs, it is being recommended that teams no longer shake hands after games. I wonder if Cateâs team will follow those rules too. I hope so.
Sitting at a computer or on my phone anymore is dangerous. Coronavirus is all I see, and now, even though there are no actual cases in my immediate area, it feels as if the virus is all around me. Yet the other half of the world is still out there. In a time when half the world is telling you to stay home, the other half unaffected by the hype are holding soccer tournaments in Virginia.
There is one email I havenât gotten. One notifying me the soccer tournament has been canceled which I would appreciate for a ton of reasons. But, since it hasnât, we are soldiering on. The kids are excited for their weekend. My bags will be loaded with hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes. Iâll be an avid fan of all handwashing. I still need to find a place to get my jugs of water. And in silent protest to the craze of toilet paper buying, I left the store yesterday with paper towels. Maybe a subliminal message to keep on washing our hands.
What on Earth is this fascination with toilet paper, I wonder?
I read an article that is has to do with “sense of control” which I think is silly. At the very start I heard some woman give an interview and she was asked, “why do you recommend stocking up on toilet paper?” And she laughed and said that it would be the thing everything forgot to stock up on if we all stayed in seclusion for two weeks. I think she had something to do with this.
đ¤Łđ I’m exactly the same. It even crosses country borders, which makes it even more amazing. A universal instinctive drive to stock up on toilet paper? And pasta but not rice? đ¤
I’ve always been perplexed by runs on bread and milk before hurricanes. I don’t live in those areas and wonder why milk instead of water??? I’m thinking those are the same people causing the run on TP, which would make sense for some emergencies… any where stores are completely closed (mega quake; tornado; flood)… but not a virus. (Watch me be wrong)
This is different. People may be forced to self isolate for weeks so as not to infect the weak, elderly and those that are high risk. Being prepared for a fortnight is common sense.
đ. They undoubtedly will be the same people! Lol. Yes, milk over water is a bit strange. What are you gunna do with bread and milk? Haha. With a few more ingredients you could make bread pudding, which would be a genuinely good survival food.
I’ve asked several people “WHY milk and bread” but no one really seems to know. Tradition, I guess.
Urgh. I can’t understand doing things without knowing why! đ¤Śââď¸ My teachers and parents hated me lol.
I was watching a sumo match from the spring basho and there was no audience…. seems kind of pointless without and audience… Just two fat guys with a grudge…
I know – it’s weird. Everyone is in hiding.
Hahaha!
Yes, it’s all very polarised isn’t it? I blame the lack of trust in the media, and the constant over-hyping of everything, or in the very best case only reporting bad news and not good news. It’s so irresponsible and dangerous. There’s plenty of good news about Coronavirus out there to be found, along with the bad. One of these days, China’s going to get to 0 active cases the day after the media reports ‘100k cases’, and everyone will go ‘WTF’. They’re down to 16,000 now, but I do expect the last cases will be harder to eradicate. Most of the time, case numbers go up because testing is going up, especially in USA at the moment given how far behind with testing they are.
I’m actually having the opposite experience to youâ I don’t come in contact with many people during the week, and the ones I do are barely mentioning it. I’m almost already self-isolated haha, and if I don’t choose to read the news I barely even know about it. One of the 6 UK deaths actually happened in a hospital just a few streets from me. I don’t use social media, so there’s that whole side of it removed. I dread to think what that is like at the moment!
I’m the same as you about the panic-buyingâ just doing everything as normal, sitting back watching lots of other people go mad!
The panic-buying here seems to be a muuch smaller scale than over there or China actually. The only thing that I’ve seen run out is hand soap and gel, everything else is still stocked.
Same here. Weâve had to resort to making our own antibacterial hand wash: https://myhomefarm.co.uk/make-your-own-anti-viral-cleaning-solution-and-disinfectant
đ.
Thanks for the instructions!
Isopropyl alcohol sounds like it’ll be useful for me for a bunch of different things, actually. I used to use it clean telescope eyepieces ages ago!
Yep, just sitting back and trying to stay away from the hype. Still have to find my jugs of water somewhere today.
It’s crazy. There’s the media, there’s the schools, organizations and stores sending all these emails, there’s friends posting about it or sharing “Oh my gosh!” posts. It’s overwhelming. I just need to walk away from it all because it is messing with my mind.
A bunch of semi-local events (Coachella, etc) have been postponed to October but I keep thinking that’s an odd choice as Oct is also flu season, with the possibility of another round of corona.
Ha. I guess I’m one of those people flooding your media devices with CV. I hope I hold the honor of being first! Mount Vernon: I’d go for it. The actual group you’ll be with is small, maybe 10 or 15 people. You can’t touch anything inside so you don’t need to worry about that. My favorite part of Mount Vernon was the gardens which will probably be pretty barren still which is a shame. Sophie has a rugby game this weekend (also in Virginia) luckily she isn’t part of the scrum.
You know what, I think you were the first đ But yours were totally tame. Now, it is coming at me from all sides. And over the top. Right now they are trying to determine if Bobby will be able to finish out the playoffs in one of his basketball leagues as the school district has banned any outsiders – but the players are all students of the school. And, I guess the bigger notion, there are no cases of the virus here. But the threat is HUGE in our town. Not in Virginia, I guess though. Thanks! He was really excited to go to Mount Vernon – made sitting through soccer games and an uncomfortable dinner worthwhile. I didn’t want to take that from him. Good to know it’s not something to worry about!
If a kootie is gonna enter our house, Ben is gonna bring it. Basic hygiene is still being worked onđ I haven’t heard of it hitting San Diego (closest BIG city to me) yet, sođ¤ˇđźââď¸ All the stores are stocked and life goes on as usual here.
Yikes! Good luck this weekendđ I hope it all goes wellđ¤Maybe a gas station or truck stop for the water? 7-11?
I got the water (another store was only half picked over in that department) but when I went for the disinfecting wipes to wipe down anything and everything we could come in contact with – whole shelves just empty. It’s crazy!
Here’s hoping you guys stay in the clear!
I had to stop watching the news. I calculated that the % of Chinese citizens who got corona was o.oo5%. Five one-thousanths of 1 percent! It’s in my city (3 confirmed, 12 pending, as of yesterday) but I am not at all concerned. Nor stock piling goods.
For your sanity, I hope your soccer event gets canceled!
Thank you! Me too. Socialization is already not my thing and with everything else canceling around us, why not this too? Makes sense to me.
Hi, first of all as a mother to an autistic kid I want to tell you that you are doing a great job. You really inspire me to push further my boundaries to help my child. And coming to the coronavirus situation is more or less same here as well in Belgium but toilet papers are not affected đ. We are facing shortage of hand sanitizers and masks. But fear and panic is on at par with your area. Hope things get better soon. Nice read it was.
Thank you! Hope things get better for your area too!
I donât remember SARS being like this in 2003. I think social media and the 24 hour news cycle today, in contrast, that feeds into the anxiety. I think it is definitely not something to take lightly but at the same to also stay calm and pragmatically cautious about. Sorry to hear about all the cancellations in your area. I could see that happening in my part of the world soon. Itâs escalating quite quickly here.
I agree – I had to look at a graph for this to make sense. Why was our reaction to this virus so drastic and different than with the swine flu and SARS? It showed that this virus is more contagious and affecting more people. That helped because it didn’t make sense to me. Stay well!
Good luck for the weekend. Here everything is still open. Footy with crowds. Concerts still on. Virtually all schools open. The government is saying that the virus does not survive long out in the open. But across in Europe itâs a different view. Hope you get your water and still manage to have a good time and you survive the socialising. Sneeze a couple of times that should keep people from talking to you.
I think you are right to take it seriously. I am appalled that the USA does not have sufficient test kits.If there were enough we could know the true number of people infected. Also Covid 19 is 10 times more lethal than the annual flu. Yes it is the elderly and immune compromised that have fallen the most but there are also people not so elderly who have died. I have been speaking with our son in England about it and with friends at home in Canada and they all take the situation very seriously. And why not. What is to loose by taking precautions?
I agree. I was also looking at a graph that showed the cases of COVID 19 compared to the swine flu and SARS wondering why our response to this one is so different. And you are right – it is more lethal and more contagious. I wish they would cancel this trip as a necessary precaution. It’s not worth it right now.
My daughter is the marketing manager for an AHL team and they were heading to the playoff which is pretty exciting. But now their season has been suspended as of today.
Now we are confinated two weeks at least. We can’t go out.
Same here! Hopefully it slows down all the infection rates.
Great read!
Thank you!