Month: July 2020

My Quarantine Life: Week 20

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My johnny jump ups I planted last year came back this year. I put some in a flower pot.

Reusable shopping bags, loyalty cards, quarters for Aldi carts … these are all items I do not currently need. I removed the bags from the car and brought them inside. I took the store loyalty tags off my keychain as well as the Aldi quarter holder. I will not be going to a store for the foreseeable future. I have not been to a store in almost 5 months.  I only get things if people bring them to me, or they can be delivered. I now have boxes to break down and put out with my recycling. The reusable bags are not needed.

This is the new normal in the pandemic.

I have a box of “work stuff” in my kitchen near the door. I was expecting to return to the office this summer and just load the box in the car. Now that my quarantine has been extended until January, that idea goes out the window. Yet I cannot bring myself to do anything about the box. I am using things inside of it as I work from home. I just don’t want to admit it myself that I still have to work from home, so I refuse to unpack the box. I strongly dislike working from home. 

Quarantine is not fun anymore. If I am honest, the fun factor wore off back in April when people I know started dying. However, this is the new way of life.

There is an article in the local newspaper today about how all of our local businesses are working remotely right now. I am very, very happy to know that this truly is the new normal and that I am not the only one in this situation. I am also very happy that working from home is a safe option. I am not ready to die yet. 

There has been little news out of Congress this week on how they are going to help all of us. All I know is that no one agrees on anything. They do seem to agree on giving us all another $1,200 payment. It would be nice if they could just approve the $1,200 payment all by itself and then go back to bickering over the other aspects of “relief.” Unfortunately, these things tend to come as packages, so they have to agree on the package before we get another $1,200. 

The ultimate answer to this situation would be to institute Universal Basic Income for all Americans. But of course, that is too “European” for the good ol’ USA. So we will all just suffer and die out. At least the United States is good for showing the rest of the world what NOT to do in a pandemic. 

The library is ending curbside service and is moving to traditional “you have to go to the library and go inside” service. I will not be able to get any more items from the library. I am actually okay with that. The past few books I got, I was not able to get through because they were just too depressing for the times we are living in now. 

I am back to reading through the books I already have in my house. I am completely fine with that. I have two bags full of books to read right now. Some of these books I have not read in years, so they are nice to revisit. 

On the plus side, I am very happy to be home safe with my cats. I do have people that check on me every once in a while. 

I am alive and well. I am so happy to be alive. I am also praying that Jesus comes very, very soon.

Life is very hard right now. But I am so happy to be with my cats. 

 

My Quarantine Life: Week 19

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This bird visited our feeder recently. The front part is primarily all red, and the back is black and white.

Cases of COVID-19 have doubled in my county in the past 2 weeks. We now have more COVID cases this month than we had in the 3 months we were in “lockdown” combined. People continue to just go where they want and do what they want and no one wears a mask. I have yet to see a single person wearing a mask on the rare times I get to leave my house.

A few weeks ago, I said that my goal was to live until my next birthday in March. Given the current circumstances, my goal is to live long enough to see Christmas. We are all either going to end up dead or unemployed.

This week, a 6th person I know has died. I have now known 6 people who have died since April. I have never had 6 people I know die in one year before, let alone in a 4 month time frame.

People I know who can go to stores tell me that shelves are still empty in places and that there are limits on certain items. For me, nothing has changed. There are still food shortages in the allergy community. Many items I cannot get at all because they are not there. When I am able to get food, I am paying 3x or 4x more than before the pandemic.

I am very happy that I get this time to be home with my cats. I try to keep things as normal for them as possible so that they do not know we are in the middle of a global crisis. The only thing that is different for them is that I am pretty much home all the time. I am not sure if that is setting off alarm bells for them or if they are just enjoying it. 

I can say that if I do die, these months home with my cats are the happiest of my life. I love spending time with them. 

That said, I am so sick of this pandemic and wish it would just end. 

I am hoping to be able to get some relaxation this weekend. I have now been working 14+ days straight without a day off because people seem to think “working from home” means “available all the time.” Even when I tell people it is my day off, they say “but I just need …” and continue talking. If anyone calls me this weekend, I am going to hang up on them. Fair warning. 

I am extremely grateful to still have a job, but I am really over this “working from home” shit. 

Being in quarantine when everyone else is running around makes me feel forgotten. Instead of calling me for work and yelling at me about pandemic related issues I cannot control, it would be nice if someone would just call to ask “how are you?”

The hard part is, I do not have much to talk about right now since I am still in quarantine. My big excitement of the day is when a new, unknown bird visits my bird feeder.

We are all living in our private hells right now.

Stay safe, be kind, and please wear a mask. 

My Quarantine Life: Week 18

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This was at my doctor’s appointment yesterday. It was my first human contact in over 120 days.

Isolation Log was supposed to be a fun Star Trek spoof. Except isolation isn’t fun. This entire COVID-19 situation is not fun. 

Yesterday, I saw my primary doctor for a check-up on my “health conditions.” It was the first time in over 120 days I had been touched by another human. Due to the virus and my health conditions, my quarantine has been extended until at least January 2021. Quarantine is my new normal. It’s time to adjust.

There was a TV commercial long ago about buying the world a coke (as in coca-cola soda pop). We are beyond that now. What the world needs is a hug. Even if the world doesn’t need a hug, I do. I may ask the doctor to hug me at my appointment in January. 

Quarantine is the new normal for the foreseeable future, so instead of isolation logs, we can chronicle my quarantine life. I am still not supposed to go to the grocery store, the pharmacy, or pretty much anyplace where there are other humans in the same building as me. This is mostly because there are cases locally of COVID-19 travelling through HVAC systems and infecting people even when they are “distanced” from each other. 

I am not supposed to ride in a vehicle with another person I have not quarantined with (actually that piece of advice applies to everyone, not just me) the doctor told me. 

The good news is, in addition to curbside “touchless” pickup being okay for me, I am now also “approved” for outdoor socializing. I actually have already done this twice prior to the doctor giving me the okay because it seemed safe to me. I can socialize with other people outdoors as long as everyone wears a mask and maintains the 6 feet of distance. I have not been approved for “indoor” socializing yet. Anyone who comes near me anywhere is supposed to wear a mask.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of this. Even though I am okay at home and very happy to be home, I still really want a hug. I miss humans. 

The goal is to take one day at a time and to remain as safe as possible. My biggest challenges are food and work. As long as I can take care of those two things, then I am fine. 

Speaking of food, we still have huge food shortages in the food allergy community. There is also price gouging. I used to spend $4 for my allergy friendly flour. The same package is now $21. I have lost almost 10 pounds due to the food shortages because it has been hard trying to get food when all of the shelves are bare. Since I weigh less than 100, I don’t really have 10 pounds to spare.

Hopefully someone somewhere will figure out the problems with the food supply so that the food shortages end. If I am able to live long enough to see my next birthday (in March), I really want pizza. We will see if that happens. Pizza is one of the things I have not been able to get due to the food shortages. 

So, my quarantine has been extended and it is time to adjust to life with this as the new normal. Quarantine life is not a temporary thing. Even if the virus ends and my quarantine ends in January, I will have lived this life for almost a year by that point. It is time to get used to it. 

Welcome to my quarantine life.