Life during the COVID-19 pandemic

As of today, Sunday April 5, 2020, more than 1.1 million people worldwide are confirmed to have been infected with the COVID-19 virus and 65,465 have died thus far.  We are by no means out of the woods and actually the expectations are that the situation will worsen significantly before it gets better.  The worst hit in the USA has been New York and even they are expecting numbers to worsen within the next couple of weeks.

A couple of days after I came back from Mexico City as my father was winding down, I came out with a flu out of nothing.  Maybe not sleeping the night before the flight with the expectations that my Dad was not going to wait for me.  Maybe being in an international airport and airplane.  I arrived to Miami feeling well, but two days later I started having chills and body aches.  At the time, the country did not even have enough kits to test its citizens so I thought it would be pointless to head out to a clinic to try to get tested.  I hunkered down, had mild fever for a couple of days, then the cough.  Because it was before the virus had been identified on the East Coast or in Mexico, I didn’t think it was the Corona virus, so I went with that.  Three weeks later I think I made the right call so my job now during the pandemic is to stay healthy and not become a threat to anyone else.

Now in the middle of the pandemic, my wife and I are amongst the lucky ones that don’t have much to worry about.  Our whole family is heeding the warnings and everyone is at their homes.  One son continues to work but we trust he is following the healthcare guidelines and stays out of trouble.  As long as everyone in the family stays healthy, we will just worry about staying healthy and not put ourselves in unnecessary risks.

Our biggest concern right now is for our tenants.  Many of them are losing their jobs and the commercial tenants have been forced to close their doors.  We are expecting that some of them will not have the funds to continue paying their rents, so even we could be affected negatively by all this.  The domino effect will continue to impact us even if we are not directly affected by the virus.

Other than that, we are always reminded that we are amongst the lucky.  No symptoms, no disease, and lots of entertainment to keep us occupied for a month.  I have several computers, an iPad, a TV and lists of things I want to do but don’t usually have the time to do them.  I also live in an area that does not have the density that would require for me to stay locked up at home.  We can walk early in the morning and see very few people which would be easy to keep at a safe distance.   Many in the world don’t have what we have so I am not complaining about our situation.  We are the lucky ones this time around.

In the meantime, my most important job is to stay healthy!  Stay home, wear safety gear when out and about, minimize the need to go out and about, stay 2 meters away from others, and stay sane. 

Let’s embrace ourselves for what we have ahead.