I am personally in my home most of the time, rapidly going stir-crazy. Governor Abbott closed down all non-essential businesses on Wednesday, so everything is closed except things like drive-through restaurants and take out. I regarded it as a big adventure to drive down to McKinney, which is 45 minutes away, to pick up a huge order of Chinese food for the whole family.

Is everybody else all right?

Nan

Hi Nan,

I'm doing well. I'm a homebody and an introvert by nature, so the stay-at-home part of all of this isn't fazing me in the slightest. Because a months-long bout of bronchitis permanently compromised my lungs a few years ago, I am being a bit over-the-top careful about not only social distancing, but also having a "decontamination" area for mail, etc. In short, I have turned into Mr. Monk and am well on the way to becoming his brother. (For anyone who hasn't watched the show "Monk," the title character was a germophobe and had OCD. He was higher functioning than his brother though; his brother was agoraphobic to the extent that he hadn't left his house in years.) Aside from walks in my neighbourhood and driving my car a few miles every fortnight or so to keep it in good shape, I haven't left my home since March 11th.

So far, the extra precautions seem to be working.

I'm using my extra free time to catch up on the household cleaning, decluttering, and maintenance that had gone by the wayside for many years while I had been raising my son. Although I still have a lot left to do, my home is already looking better than it had for a couple of decades. I am also spending far more time than usual communicating with family and friends. (Thank God for the Internet and the ability to have VoIP phone calls, Zoom meetings, etc..)

Because I am now retired and have a pension, I neither have to worry about job-related exposure nor where my next paycheck is coming from.

All in all, I consider myself quite fortunate.

Be well,
Lynn

Well, at 72, I'm in the higher risk group, and I have to add mild asthma, due to dust mite allergy to that, so I'm being careful, too. Chuck is 77 now, so he's being just as careful as I am.

I'm trying to work on another addition to the Dagger series, but I seem to have a monumental case of writer's block, so it's slow going. Chuck and I are both retired, and we're in Texas, as well, instead of California. Grayson County, where I live so far has only 7 known active cases of coronavirus, but as we all know, that can change quickly. They're (so far) all over in Denison, so I hope they won't get to my little town 20 miles away. We don't really have much to draw tourists, so I'm crossing my fingers.

One little bit of family good news -- I'm about to be a grandma for the 10th time. My oldest son and his 2nd wife decided to have a baby before it's too late for her (she's 32) and they're due to have a little boy in July. This will be her first and his fourth -- his kids by his first wife, two girls and a boy, are all grown. This will be our 5th grandson.

Congratulations in advance! You definitely have something to look forward to. That is exciting news.

May CoVID-19 stay far away from you and yours.

Be well,
Lynn

Thanks. I hope everybody else on the boards is doing all right and being careful.

At the moment here in Sydney we’ve been ordered to stay home unless it’s for work or essential business. However, if you can work from home we have been advised to do so. I work with doctors in private practice so I’m considered ‘essential’ and need to go in, but have been extra vigilant as I’m a severe asthmatic. Lucky for me though I work with specialists and so not on the front line as they are in a GP’s (general practitioner’s) office or the hospital, but our public hospitals here in Sydney have been closed for only absolutely critical surgeries only. Hoping that we can beat this especially as we are about to get into the cold and flu season.

Stay safe everyone!

Hi Crazy_Babe,

Please do what you need to to stay as safe as you can, yourself. And thank you for your contribution to the well-being of others. In my book, you count as one of the real-life heroes.

Be well,
Lynn

I went to my GP a week ago, and everyone in the office was wearing a mask. There was a sign on the door that said "Stay in your car and we'll call you when we have a room ready for you." The only ones who touched me (wearing gloves, of course) were the doctor and the lab tech, who immediately discarded them when we were done.

I also went to my urologist and we bumped elbows when he entered the exam room. We also kept as far away from each other as possible the whole time.

My most recent dental and post-transplant clinic appointments were both postponed. The dentist will call me in a couple of months (maybe), and the liver clinic (appointment postponed because it's located inside the hospital) will watch my regular labs for abnormalities. My wife and I are both home-bound, but like others on the boards we weren't exactly social animals before the quarantine. One of us usually goes out to get lunch and bring it back, and we still have our back and front yards to maintain, so we're not getting cabin fever. I'm not supposed to mow because the mowers kick up all kinds of dust and allergens and pathogens from the ground, so I take care of whacking the weeds.

Long story short, we're doing well. The kids and grandkids are okay so far, too. And all of them will be thrilled to get the stimulus money when it finally arrives.

Y'all stay well. I'd call this world-wide paranoia if the threat weren't so very real and so very deadly, especially to folks in high-risk categories.

MO JUST declared a Stay-At-Home order for the state (as of midnight sunday/monday). The kids are getting the hang of the routine and I've made a major effort to send images and such to their teachers of what they have done that might be of interest to them. May try to do a drive around today for one of the last times because I won't be able to do Pokemon Go in a while (we have one stop in walkign distance, but no gyms). I'm REALLY looking forward to the day that they will allow distance-based battles (although I will miss going to the spots to do it). No sickness in my house, but a friend of mine has "a virus" (no clue on whether it's not Co-Vid, just was able to test for strep but not the rest as she "doesn't fit the guidelines" put out by the state (nevermind that it has become community spread.) Prayers for my friend and her family, please, as her son is only a year out from his last chemo treatment and has a known heart condition.

Thank you Lynn!

Hi, Crazy_Babe,

I echo Lynn's thank you for what you are doing. I'm a retired RN, but my license is in California, so I'm of no use in Texas, outside of the fact that at 72 I'm at a higher risk.

We're all kind of grounded right now, since last Wednesday. I'm my brother's guardian, and we can't even take him bowling on Saturdays until we're past the worst of this thing. Here's hoping for a vaccine as soon as possible for everybody's sake!

Stay safe and take care of yourself.

Nan

I've been at home with these restrictions for a week now. I have had an extremely mild flu-like condition going on, no idea what it is. Definitely not eligible for any kind of testing. I am unemployed, healthy adult, and live alone. Another week and this should be gone. Normally I wouldn't even think about it but this looming situation makes everything gloomy.

We are told to avoid meeting people and keep 2 m distance outdoors (bit ridiculous... have you seen the meme of Finns at the bus stop?). No gatherings. Schools and daycares are partially closed. Bars and restaurants are closed, only pick-up food is available. Work at home if you can. Avoid shopping and going to places. Wash your hands.

I have not spoken to a person face to face for a week. I have made two phone calls. I hang around a chatroom. I say hello to a neighbour but I don't call that speaking to a person.

So my life should roll along like it did before. Fill in job applications (just received a rejection letter), walk the dog (it is not forbidden), train the dog (the little I can do alone at home), do personal art projects (I need inspiration) and clean the home (I hate cleaning).

Our death toll is 25. It is rising slowly but may or will burst one day.

I was so naive and whatever. I could never have imagined, say, at Christmas or even February, that so soon, we live in a situation where special laws are utilized and a county is isolated from the rest of the country and so many other things going crazy. Those laws haven't been in use here since World War II.

Hi Nan!

17 days of Stay at Home here so far. No traffic jams any more. They just started everyone wear a mask voluntarily. 95 % of people are wearing one.

Still hanging in here, here in CT. We're on Day...I think it's 24? 25? Of Quarantine. It's all blending together. We're figuring out the home school thing. The teachers sent a Google Doc home each day with work and embedded links, which makes it easy. It takes us about 2-3 hours to complete. Sometimes I let the girls have WAY more than the 20 minutes of reading and/or math if they're into it. Thankfully, it's only 1st grade, so I'm not trying to teach something like x=y+13. But Common Core makes no sense to me. Is it so hard to memorize that 9+5 = 14? Do we need to make it 10+4 instead? Insanity.

We're doing as much online ordering of essentials as we can. Instacart was awesome when we got that delivery last weekend. No delivery times when I checked just now (I should have done it earlier today but got distracted) but I'm hoping things are open when I check tomorrow. I'm severely asthmatic and diabetic, so I'm very unwilling to leave the house to shop right now. We did buy bandanas to make makeshift masks if we do have to go out. Small measure of comfort. We've had takeout only once in the last 3 weeks and it was both glorious and terrifying.

Our town is at 34 cases, and a population of 30,000ish. I think one or two people from the town have died from it, not sure of the numbers off hand as I try not to obsessively check. My cousin (younger, in his 20s) thinks he has/had it. All the symptoms but didn't meet the requirements for testing, as far as I know. He's feeling a lot better now - he felt ill at the very beginning of all of this, when NYC first started to skyrocket in cases.

The worst part (aside from the kids going stir crazy and constant worries about reliable grocery delivery) is my husband's grandma. She's 102 and took a turn for the worse, not eating or drinking for days twice now in 2 weeks. My inlaws saw her today and she's definitely dying - staring without recognizing anyone/anything, super frail and skeletal, etc. Her round-the-clock aides are prepared for the inevitable BUT when it happens, it really will suck because we won't be able to say goodbye. We won't be able to have the funeral she wanted/deserves. Even IF funeral homes were allowing wakes with all the family members, there is zero chance we could risk going to NYC right now. Not only am I asthmatic, but one of our girls is too.

Other than that, we're doing our best to stay as sane as possible. There's been a lot more acting out from the kids lately. It's hard but I also can't blame them. We're all a little stir crazy, even when the weather has been sunny enough to go out into the backyard. (SO much rain in CT lately!)

Please, stay safe, my friends!

Farmerbabe and I are doing well. I am still working and I'm grateful for all that we have and the situation we are in. None of our family has been affected yet, though we know two people in Oakland County who probably have the virus.

Farmerbabe has been waiting all winter and looking forward to working for a friend's gardening business again. It was supposed to start around the 1st of May but there's no telling when or if things will happen now.

Work-wise I'm just dealing with pebbles in the shoes.... I work for an automotive supplier and somehow, through an unfathomable process, automotive was designated "essential". Two weeks ago one of our IT people found out he had been exposed through his family. The company emptied out the building and did a thorough cleaning. Even though we are "strongly encouraged" to work from home I've had to go to my office about half the time and only one trip was needed. There are a couple of things going on regarding my company and the virus but since I want to keep my job I'll just say that around here Dilbert is a documentary.

On the positive side, when things calm down a bit I am looking forward to being on the board more.

Everyone please be careful.

My husband's grandma passed today (April 5) around noon our time, in her sleep. It's been rough on the kids - there were a lot of "we never got to say goodbye" tears today. They did get to Facetime with her about 2 weeks ago, while she was still lucid enough to recognize them. But not being able to have the wake/church funeral she wanted really bothers us. My husband is angry that we're so helpless. We can't do anything from another state to help his parents as they deal with all of this. We couldn't go say goodbye. We can't go to the burial. It's beyond frustrating.

On the upside, my pantry/kitchen is slowly getting more organized. I've cleaned out a lot of stuff and rearranged things to make them easier to find. Hoping to finish this week and then tackle other rooms, including trying to get the kids to organize their toys better. (Every time I make a bin just for Barbies or toy cars or Disney Princesses, it lasts about 32 seconds before the twinadoes wreck it.) Hoping to clean out older stuff they no longer play with to donate to the local thrift store once things open back up again.

Deadly Chakram,

I can only imagine how difficult this time must be for you. I know it doesn't help now, but perhaps you could have a wake for your grandma-in-law on the one-year anniversary of her death? Maybe just knowing that you could do something like that might provide some small comfort.

I hear what you are saying about your pantry/kitchen. While my home still has a long way to go until it is as clean and organized as I would like, it it nevertheless now cleaner and neater than it has been in almost two decades.

Be well,
Lynn

Thanks, Lynn. I'm hoping we can set up some kind of memorial/family get together once this is all over. My husband likes the idea, so we'll see. Just have to ride this out safely first.

Isn't such a mental relief to finally get around to cleaning, even if it's as small as getting a counter top organized? I feel like my house has been a disaster zone since my girls were born 6 1/2 years ago. I'm literally celebrating a single clean counter in my kitchen.

LOL. I know what you mean about celebrating the small victories, and I find that I do feel more peaceful in an uncluttered room. (Incidentally, I love the "twinadoes" portmanteau.)

Hi all I am mostly doing just fine. At the beginning of all this, I distracted myself with books and cleaning and ignored the situation altogether as we are not a social family and it was spring break - perfectly normal. And then Monday of last week came up and, unable to ignore it any longer, I broke down completely and sobbed most of the day because being a teacher right now is really hard. Apparently, I wasn't the only one, and the district called a "pause" and rethought what they would do with this extended closure (that even though they haven't declared it yet, looks to be the rest of the school year). They came to what I feel is a reasonable conclusion that, while it still leaves me feeling like I can't do the job I was destined to do, will allow students (and me) to focus on their needs first and school second. Instead of continuing with school business as usual, I am now working closely every day with students who had not yet demonstrated learning and one day a week providing learning opportunities for the rest of my students. This is much better for me, because I am also a parent and have my younger kids to teach through all of this as well.

I had wanted to use writing as a good distraction as well, but I am finding it hard to do so. Apparently, I have too many ideas floating around in my head and can't get my brain to focus on just one long enough to make any decisions or write anything substantial. I have one story I wrote quite a lot on (for NaNo, so a lot a lot) that I think I'm going to scrap (hide it from myself, I can't bring myself to just delete it) and start over from scratch. (That being said, if anyone is interested in being a sounding board for some of these ideas, let me know. I also have an original fiction in the works I could use a sounding board for as well.)

I hope that as time passes, I will stop randomly breaking down into uncontrollable tears, but am grateful that only happens every few days and I can easily convince myself it is already summer break in between. If only the weather would warm up.

JellyS2,

Virtual hugs from Delaware. You seem like a truly passionate teacher, and your students are lucky to have you. It sounds like you are doing everything you can for your students. Be sure to take some time to be good to yourself, as well.

Be well,
Lynn

Haha, I wish I could say I coined the term....but I stole it from a Twin Parent page on Facebook. Still, it is the MOST accurate description I've seen for young twins, no matter what mix (b/b, g/b, g/g) they are.

I am doing well. I have to go grocery shopping tomorrow which I hate to do, but I will don my mask and out I will go. I hope everyone is doing well with all this madness.

Life is still crowded for me. I'm still pretty much house bound except for shopping trips and picking up my brother's prescriptions. I'm his guardian, so I have to be on top of that.

Tomorrow, I'm going to be forced to drive down to Plano, which is an hour away from me, for a one year checkup. I was surprised when I thought about it how much that disturbed me. Plano is in Collin County, which has a much higher rate of COVID infections than good old Grayson County where I live. We're up to 13, still a good 20 miles away for the closest one. Still the doctor screens everybody before letting them in his office so it's probably pretty safe. My masks won't arrive until about the 20th so I'll just have to be very careful about "social distancing."

Your story about your twins is funny, Chackram. It brings back some memories. My twins, however, are now 32 years old; one is a sergeant in the Army down in El Paso, and the other is in Syracuse, New York.

Everybody try hard to stay safe, please. I can't afford to lose any friends.

Nan

Amen to that. None of us can.

It is my deepest hope that everyone stays safe and well.

Yes. Be well everyone!

No COVID issues here but 2020 been long. My husband, 2 year old and I were in a car accident where we hit a cow and totaled our truck in June. Then the Oregon fires came within 4 miles of my in-laws farm and were forced to evacuate. We had to house 4 pigs, 4 goats, 50 chickens, 3 dogs, a cat and 4 extra people at my house for a week. While they were out they were robbed and the house was trashed. Shortly after returning my MIL had a heart attack and ended up with a triple bypass. While she was recovering I ended up in the ER for a tachycardia issue I’ve been dealing with since I was 19 and it was the final straw and I went and got the ablation. The same week I was told my whole department was being let go and outsourced to Mexico where they’re importing Indians to fill the positions to bypass the halting of H1B visas. But thankfully nobody has been sick.

Hi Chickberry,

Wow. You really did have a rough 2020. I hope 2021 proves to be much better for you and your in-laws.

Be well,
Lynn

Thought I'd drop in with another thought from the author of xkcd.com. This isn't the only strip about the pandemic/lockdown/quarantine, but it's the latest. This guy is really smart and witty - occasionally uses inappropriate (to my gentle sensitivities, anyway) humor and vocabulary, but I've not found any strip to be judgemental or condescending to anyone or any group. This one is good for a chuckle.

My wife and I got our first Pfizer shots last weekend - second doses coming the second weekend of April. Neither of us has had any symptoms, nor did either of us have any reaction to the first shot. Anecdotal evidence, I know, but it's all I have to go on.

Y'all stay safe and well!

Vaccine appointment for the 5th for my wife and I.

Hi DCarson,

Congratulations. I just had my first dose today; I'm scheduled for my second exactly three weeks after my first. (Same time of day, even.)

Aside from a slightly sore vaccination site, so far, so good. Of course, I hear that the more pronounced side effects tend to occur after the second dose for people who have not had COVID.

I don't think I have ever in my life been as happy to feel a needle go into my arm.

Good luck with your vaccines.

Congrats, dcarson! My first shot is scheduled for 4/6! My husband got his through work, and gets his second shot 4/8. I literally screamed with joy once I got off the phone. (My doctor's office is running a clinic, so I was also very happy to not have to go through the VAMS system here in the US.)

Between scheduling that and getting Twin B through surgery, the relief was SO REAL. (She broke her elbow falling off our playscape's monkey bars and had to get 3 pins in it plus a cast. She'll be good as new in 3 weeks and has been SO brave.) Never a dull moment here!

I'd like to suggest the strategy in this website.

Covid link

Do you agree?