Chapter 1: And So It Begins

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Well, after assigning Megan to write a journal about her daily life through this whole madness we call COVID-19, I decided maybe I should keep one as well. Since I actually enjoy writing, and she’s been fighting me tooth and nail every night to write her entry. I’m trying to make English class fun for her, but nooo. Can’t have any of that.

              Well anyway. I guess it all really started right around my birthday, actually. I think it was maybe a week before people started talking about it, and although some places had begun quarantine/shelter-in-place procedures and/or social distancing, it wasn’t really a thing here yet. We were still able to dine in at Old Chicago on my birthday and really thought nothing of it. However, by Jack’s birthday, just three days later, it was becoming more of a big deal. People were practicing “social distancing” even here, and businesses were beginning to close down. Restaurants hadn’t yet, but within a few days of that they would be closing all restaurants for dine-in. They had already closed the libraries and the park bathrooms, which was inconvenient since we had his birthday party at the nearest park.

              Actually, we originally planned to have his birthday in the clubhouse down the street, but we derped and forgot to pick up the key, and they weren’t in the office the day of his birthday. So we had a last minute venue change to the closest park, and after making the announcement, I read they had closed all park bathrooms. Fortunately, as it turned out, that park’s bathroom hadn’t been closed yet, but I suspect it was the next day.

              Still, life carried on. We had an appointment on the 17^th with my cousin to have our pictures taken professionally. We continued on with that. Got some great pictures, though the wind was pretty strong and a lot of the ones with Ronan’s best smile have my hair flying everywhere. Go figure. But he said he could retouch any we want to order, and on that subject, I forgot I was going to go over them with Steven today to see which ones, how many, and what sizes we wanted. Sorry for the mini-tangent.

              Anyway, they had already closed all restaurants to dine-in business, and were down to just drive through, take out, or delivery. We grabbed some snacks and drinks at Sonic because it’s already drive-up only, so there was really no difference. The kids shared an order of tater tots, I had some mozzarella sticks, and Steven had the totchos. We were beginning to feel like life was changing, but not really too much yet.

              Each day, it seemed like the virus was being talked about more and more. It’s everywhere, and I don’t mean as in everyone has it, I mean everyone is talking about it. Still, I’m not afraid of the virus itself. Honestly all it is is just a super-powered cold that can cause pneumonia if not treated quickly enough. While that’s no fun, sure, it’s really no worse than the seasonal flu or the H1N1 flu from like 11-12 years ago. Yet do we react so drastically to those things? No. So why this?

              We could speculate all day about why, but no one really has the answer. All I know is it’s not the virus that worries me. It’s the idiotic sheeple who buy into the paranoia and fear. Panic buying and hoarding, looting, rioting; society as we know it is beginning to fall apart. All the stores are constantly out of toilet paper, which seems odd because this is a respiratory disease, not a stomach bug. Just goes to show how dumb people can be. For weeks, toilet paper was the only thing being bought up, but finally people started realizing they couldn’t eat it and started hoarding all the dry goods like beans and pasta, as well as eggs, milk, sugar, flour, potatoes, etc. Grocery shopping is more of a nightmare now than ever.

              Events are being cancelled, recreational facilities are closed, it’s Megan’s worst nightmare. Steven and I, of course, being the introverts we are, wouldn’t notice much difference from our daily lives. But we never hear the end of Megan’s whining about the swimming pool being closed or this activity or that activity or the park playgrounds or whatever. And I get it. She’s a kid, but she’s not getting to live the life of one right now. It really isn’t fair to her or any children for that matter. But such is life, I guess.

              On the bright side, gas has never been cheaper (well, not since I can recall, anyway). Golden Gate was charging just $1.73 a gallon yesterday, and it seems like it goes down a little bit every day or two. Not that it does much good, there’s nowhere to go, especially since the shelter-in-place order that took effect on poor Mom’s birthday. (So much for taking her to lunch for her birthday, although we did get take out from Chili’s, but it’s not the same).

              Life is definitely changing, some good, some bad. I still have a job, at least; though they’ve been treating me increasingly poorly. I suspect it’s because they know they can get away with it, as the economy is wrecked and finding a new job is next to impossible. Stock market is low, though, and I’ve invested a little bit from our tax return so hopefully that will help us get back on top when everything returns to normal. I’m considering taking classes for web coding/design and hopefully can find a job in that field. That’s something that has more work-from-home opportunities, so maybe, just maybe I can find something in the midst of all this madness. I haven’t decided for sure yet, though.

              There’s talk of a stimulus package coming, I guess it’s already been voted through. But it’s money coming from the government so you can guarantee they’re going to take their sweet time. Since our landlord forgave everyone’s April rent and we paid ahead the rest of our bills by a month when we got our tax return, I considered just quitting once we got the package. But that only helps us for a month and I have a feeling this nonsense is going to last longer than that, and then what? If I still have no job, we’d be royally screwed. Maternity leave wiped out our savings, so we wouldn’t have that to rely on. I kind of wish they’d just fire me so I could file unemployment while the rate of that pay has gone up. But I’m sure they won’t because it doesn’t benefit them and just costs them more money. I guess in the meantime I just suck it up and hope the toxic chemicals they want me to work with don’t kill me.

              Well, I guess that pretty much brings us to today. I guess I should count myself as lucky to be living through a historic event, but I’m not sure it’s one I want to be a part of. Not anymore than anyone wanted to be a part of the Black Plague, I guess. But at least it’s history and when it’s all over I can say I lived it and have stories to tell my grandkids. Who hopefully will be more appreciative of history than Megan is.