Love in the Time of COVID-19

Saturday, April 25, 2020.  “Social distancing”, “we’re in this together”, “flattening the curve” and “shelter-in-place order”.  These and several other phrases are becoming the language of the “new normal” during the pandemic of 2020, and who knows for how much longer.  It’s been almost 2 months since our world began to change in response to the “Corona Virus December 2019”, now better known as COVID 19.  Today there are reports of 199,272 dead worldwide from almost 3 million infected.  In the USA we just went over 50,000 dead from the virus.  This is definitely higher than the worst of the typical flu season which kills about 30,000 in the US.

We are doing our part to stay safe and keep everyone we interact with safe.  We wear our face masks when in public places.  Only go out to the supermarket once a week and to our daily exercise walk through the lonely streets of our neighborhood, Pinecrest.  And we have been at it for over a month.

Lucky for us, we had just sold the bakery that we owned for 8 years on December 31th, so we have not faced the drop in sales and staff reductions that so many small businesses are dealing with.  Nor do we have regular employers that expect us to clock-in or at least work from home.  But we are still feeling the pain for the virus as about 50% of our tenants have already called that they will not have funds to pay their rents.  Some are tenants that have lost their jobs and some are shop owners like a hair salon and a female body waxing business that have been forced to close for almost 2 months.

We are not helping the economy with buying much outside the home.  Our only extra expenses are our Netflix, Hulu and Amazon memberships and an occasional book from Amazon or Abebooks.

We are eating well, sometimes a little more than we need to.  We are exercising every day.  We are keeping busy by reading and writing, organizing old photos and watching movies.  I really should not complaint.  There are others, especially in New York City, that are not only dealing with the economic impact of the virus, but are also dealing with their own health issues or with family members that are sick and even dying. 

On the other hand, after a month and a half of all this healthy living, everybody is ready to go back to where we were 2 months ago.  States are beginning to release the shelter-in-place rules beginning with Georgia and Tennessee which allowed bowling alleys, hair salons and tattoo parlors to open yesterday.  I tend to agree with business owners and folks that are trying to restore some of the normalcy, as long as they follow certain level of common sense.  The few business owners that I’ve seen being interviewed on CNN sound as if they are concerned for their health and their client’s well being, but are also thankful to be able to keep paying their employees for their work.  Everybody is watching.  On the other hand, Mr. Trump seems to be losing any sense of rationality he may have had at some point in his life.  He went as far as suggesting that scientists should test bleach or some other disinfectant as an internal cleanser.  He figures that if it cleans benches and chairs so well, why not human lungs and veins.  I don’t know how his supporters view this but from here it sounds like snake oil salesman or worse.

The toughest challenge for us has been the isolation from family and friends.  Video conferencing and phone calls can only go so far.  We are missing our grandsons dearly even though they live only 8 miles away.  In the last 2 months we have seen them a couple of times and both of those times have been maintaining the 6 feet of separation as shown in the photo above.  How much more will this virus steal from us?  Precious moments taken away to never return.  Children grow up and grandparents grow old.  The gap widens and those precious moments are gone forever.  What is a summer vacation without a trip with the grand-kids?  How long until we can hug them and laugh together?  I hope I can still smile when I read this entry in 6 months or a year from now.  Let's flatten that curve to oblivion!