Saturday, March 14, 2020

Social Distancing Journal, Day One

So guys, here we are, a global pandemic. Crazy, right? Peyton actually has quite a few friends in Hong Kong, so we've been hearing about their struggles for literally weeks and weeks. So many times I said "wow, I can't even imagine". Schools were closed, for two weeks, and then two more, and then two more. And now we're here. I know everyone is treating this differently. But, I don't subscribe to the "I'm young, relatively healthy, I'll be fine." theory. Like, oh yea, I will be. But what about the people who aren't? So, I'm trying to be responsible and we're all going to stay in as much as possible. I get it. I had Disney plans on Thursday (before they even announced it was closing), Peyton was scheduled to go on a cruise April 4-11, which has since been canceled; Asa and I were supposed to go to see Cort and Holly in two weeks (we're canceling on airline tickets), Calib and I were hoping to go see March Madness here in Tampa before they announced they were doing it without fans, and then not at all. Calib, Asa, and Hayden all have tickets to Wrestlemania. It hasn't been cancelled (or hopefully postponed) yet, but I'm sure that's coming. None of this is fun. But, we all are in this together, so we all have to make the best of it. 

Anyway, while we do that, I thought I'd try and update a little about our "Social Distancing" practices. 

On Wednesday I went out to Costco just to get some things. We were low on toilet paper, and dog food. And when I arrived, I knew right away it wasn't business as usual. There were way more people there at lunch time on a Wednesday, there was a line for carts, and a sign limiting lots of things. 


Besides toilet paper, and various other cleaning items, there was still plenty of food on the shelves, but the back up shelves that are usually full were empty, so my trip just to pick up a few things turned into a massive trip to stock up. People game me weird looks with my full cart, but I have three teenagers and Asa to feed if we're stuck here all day everyday. Do you know how much food that means I need? My mom hasn't been here in over a month, the freezer was dangerously empty for a pandemic situation. Some asiles were really hard to navigate, while some were completely clear. But, the whole "global pandemic" was announced while I was at the store though, so things just got crazier from there. We had to go back to Costco because of a tire on the Fit, and things had gotten significantly worse. 


But even on Wednesday they were out of handsoap and I bought the last two bags of our dog food they had. We were almost out and we go through a bag every two weeks, so I thought I better snatch up the extra bag while I could. No toilet paper though, and we were down to our last few rolls. 


Luckily Peyton and I found some at Publix. There weren't a lot of the big packages left, we got some of the last few- but there were plenty of smaller packages. We also stocked up on stuff for the garage pantry. 


Oh, and poor Etta has been having a rough time lately. Thursday night an ambulance and fire truck went down our street, which doesn't happen often since we live on an eventual dead end. But, it took her a couple days to recover. 

Yesterday we all went out to early vote at the library. Florida's primary is on Tuesday, and our idiot governor (who just today admitted we have "community transmitted" cases, and keeps dropping the "new" cases in the middle of the night, and waited forever to do anything about schools) insists "elections are happening" on Tuesday. But, whatever, we've done our civic duty. We also maxed out our libary card with books, in case we can't (or shouldn't) go for awhile. 


Right after we got home on Friday, Calib, who has been on Spring Break, got a notification his in-person classes would have another week of Spring Break before switching to all online for the rest of the semester. I fear Calib won't fully learn what a terrible idea it was to schedule an 8 am math class, but oh well. Today I told Asa "I guess we can erase Calib's schedule on the dry erase board".  Peyton hasd his classes online anyway, specifically because he was supposed to be going on that cruise. 


Our busy schedule for the next couple weeks just got a lot less busy. We can't cancel Asa's birthday though! Luckily, he just likes to stay in for his birthday anyway. 


Today I worked on organizing all of our supplies. The garage pantry usually has some stuff in it, but it's a little more full these days. 


I also made Asa one more planter box for some big tomato plants we bought. Usually we get the little guys and wait till they grow, but we found some that were already growing cherry tomatoes, and I thought that it would be good idea so we'd have our our fresh produce going. 


Not that we don't have a lot growing right now. But thewhole right side of the fence is lined with planter boxes now. 


Our neighbor did pay us a visit to give us a plant to attract some bees, and I took my bird bath and did the thing with rocks to give them a nice place to drink from. Gotta help the pollinators guy. Especially in times like these. 


 Now, today is pi day. And usually we would go to Blaze to get our $3.14 pizzas. But, that draws a lot of crowds, and so I was prepared to add it to the growing list of things we'll be missing over the next couple of weeks. But, luckily, Blaze realized this and loaded a reward for everyone in the app to redeem their $3.14 pizza anytime between now and the end of the year. Thanks, Blaze! Instead, I made Naan Bread Pizzas for dinner to celebrate. 

And I thought ahead enough to get a couple of pies for pie day at Publix on Thursday before things got really, really out of hand. 


Speaking of companies doing awesome things, are you guys all aware Disney put Frozen II on Disney plus months ahead of schedule just to make this whole staying home thing just a little easier on people? Thanks Disney (who is also extending our annual passes out however many days they end up being closed). Controlling what you can, when things feel out of control, thanks Olaf! 


My new book arrived, too. So I have that to keep me busy. It's amazing! 


And the boys played some basketball just to get outside a bit. It's getting hot during the day, but the evenings are lovely, warm with a light breeze. I'm sad I'm missing Disney during the last few weeks we have left before it gets really hot, but what are you going to do. 


Most popular "hurricane snacks": String Cheese, Yogurt, leftover Chinese from the last time we'll go out for while. 
Toilet paper supply: Abundant
Current binge wathing obession: The Morning Show
Most popular game: Stardew Valley
Boredness scale 1 to 10: 1. We're doing great. But, it's been a day, so if we weren't doing great, that'd be alarming. 

Days Down: 1
Days Remianing: Undetermined.  





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