The Pandemic Life

[osprey_archer]

As of today the library where I work has announced that it will be closed for the next three weeks, which I feel is as good as sign as any that it's time to hunker down and start making use of my stockpile. (I believe the idea is that it's okay to go out for walks; the point is to avoid other people, not the entire outdoors, am I right?)

On my way home from work today I did one last grocery run, and found Trader Joe's fairly well stripped: no eggs, almost no butter, and the only berries I could find were "golden berries," otherwise known as cape gooseberries, which helped me not at all because I've never heard of those either. But of course I bought them anyway.

Except for eggs, I think we're pretty well stocked - and even with the eggs, it's not like we're about to experience an eggpocalypse; there are nine left, I just decided that it wasn't a good idea to use three of them making lime curd this weekend.

I also checked out ten books at the library today (on top of the ten books I already had out) and I have an AMPLE list of anime to watch, plus plans to learn how to bake bread (purchased more cinnamon in preparation for more cinnamon rolls), and of course I could get some writing done...

I feel a little bit like I've been preparing for a hurricane, and now the wind is picking up, and there's nothing to do but wait and see what happens.

Comments

[asakiyume]

Cape gooseberries are a wonderful fruit that we discovered in Colombia, where they're called uchua, and where we stayed, the cook made something somewhere between a compote and a jam out of them that you could pour on toast. I **love** them. But they're also super expensive in this country (not there--there I bought a whole bag of them and ate them all before boarding our plane, since I doubted they'd let me take them into America).

I think you can definitely go outside. Tomorrow I'm hosting a draw-on-the-sidewalk get-together for neighborhood families to try to beat the coronavirus blues... just all families need to sit six feet apart from each other... I'll post how it goes.

I feel sometimes very anxious and sad, and then other times I get distracted. It's like a hurricane, but one that lasts for weeks :(

[kore]

I feel like, in the short term, T and I will probably be okay -- we have chronic health conditions but not in the danger zones, same thing re age, and so on. But the long term effects on society are really scary to think about, and some of the short-range ones too, like WTF is going to happen if this sweeps through the prison and homeless populations.

[asakiyume]

As I say to my other friends with risk factors, get someone else to do your shopping for you :(

And yeah, re: prisons and homeless population. And what happens when we enter hurricane and wildfire season, and people get displaced. But sufficient unto the day is the evil therein; worry about that when it happens, I guess....

[kore]

I have sky high anxiety so we got most of our shopping done early! I'm sure all the things we forgot to get will be revealed, but at least we have extra prescription meds, coffee, biscotti, tea, garlic, catfood, the essentials....

Yeah I just hope nothing ELSE goes horribly wrong, re natural disasters, in the next couple of weeks. Just get through it one day at a time I suppose.

[osprey_archer]

I only bought a small box, but I may try to make a tiny compote out of them. Or skygiants suggested a clafoutis, which I'd like to try if I can get more eggs. Although with so few berries, it might end up being a one-egg clafoutis anyway? Perhaps worth trying regardless of the egg replenishment situation.

I keep telling over the people I know who are at risk like I'm working through a strand of worry beads. My parents are older, but mostly in good health. My brother is an ER nurse, but he's young and in good health, so if he catches it he'll probably be okay. Ditto my friend who works as a hospital nurse...

But overall I think this is one of those times where it's fine and probably even salutary to get distracted, as long as you don't get so distracted you forget to wash your hands.

[kore]

I think going outside is fine, as long as you're not around groups of other people, and you might want to be careful with those so-called 'high touch surfaces' -- doorknobs, door handles, push bars and so on. We wash our hands after coming inside before doing anything else (helps that the bathroom is right by the front door), too.

[osprey_archer]

I'm trying to get in the habit of washing my hands when I come in, but the force of prior habit is strongly against it. Still, it's going better than my attempts to stop touching my face, which it turns out I do ALL THE TIME.

[kore]

I honestly had to kind of give up being SO AWARE of touching my face, because it really increases my anxiety and OCD (having OCD during this is a picnic of nothing but ants). I figure the most important things to protect are my eyes, nose and mouth, and if I go out and am careful about touching elevator buttons and door handles and don't rub my face while I'm outside, and wash my hands immediately when I come in, that is good enough. But I don't go out that much at all, so....

[skygiants]

I feel like I made a really good clafoutis with cape gooseberries at one point, though that may not be a viable option until the eggs are restocked ... anyway they are also tasty just to eat!

(My understanding is that going outside is totally fine as long as you stay a healthy distance away from any outside companions, and my dad the infectious disease doctor concurs!)

[osprey_archer]

I have never made a clafoutis! It would have to be a v. tiny clafoutis because I only bought a small box of the berries, but as it happens I do have a very tiny glass pie pan, so this would be doable... if we can get more eggs.

If not, compote is always an option. I stocked LOTS of sugar.

[silverusagi]

So, how does that work, if you don't mind me asking? Do you just not get paid for three weeks, or are they paying you to stay home?

[osprey_archer]

They're paying us. I'm hoping that the federal government will come up with some way more generally to pay people to stay home, but currently the Senate looks like it's going to sit on anything that might be remotely useful.

[kore]

I cannot believe Congress stayed working to pass that bill past midnight, and McConnell was like "oh yeah, gotta get that done, Pelosi sucks, I'll need to carefully review the House version" and toodled off for the weekend. Cannot. Believe it. I didn't think my opinion of him could get any worse.

[ancientreader]

Honest to God, any time you think the Rethuglicans have dug their way down to the most contemptible possible behavior, they dig deeper. My mantra for some time now has been that throughout my life, when apparent disaster has struck, it's not been as terrible as I expected it to be. Until now: Cheetolini's regime has been worse than my worst nightmare.

[silverusagi]

Better than what my library is doing. We're closed to the public, be WE still have to go in. Mainly, I think that they can't STAND the idea of paying people to stay home.

[osprey_archer]

What on earth are they having you do? Have they decided that a pandemic is the perfect time to reorder the collection or something?

[silverusagi]

I don't know! We were going to be doing delivery of holds to the curb when people called, but even that might be off the table now? We can weed stuff and plan stuff, but I can't imagine doing weeks of that! It's so bizarre to go to a building that's closed when our entire job is public interaction.

[rachelmanija]

Walks are totally fine. Just avoid humans.

[osprey_archer]

I feel that we should all get the human version of cat bells to warn each other off. It might not be very practical, but it could be very cute.

[thisbluespirit]

Good luck! ♥

[osprey_archer]

Hopefully all will be well!

[lilysea]

(I believe the idea is that it's okay to go out for walks; the point is to avoid other people, not the entire outdoors, am I right?)

Walks are fine as long as you stay away from other people and stay away from enclosed spaces like pedestrian underpasses/pedestrian tunnels [the virus can survive in their air for three hours]

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/487110-tests-indicate-coronavirus-can-survive-in-the-air

[osprey_archer]

Well, there aren't any pedestrian underpasses or tunnels near my house, so I should be all right on that account.

[ancientreader]

I hope you find some eggs with which to stress-bake clafoutis or whatever else comes to mind! -- assuming that you find baking a pleasant pastime, of course.

It's hard not to flip out. Depending on which authoritative source I look at, I either am or am not high-risk (on account of age). My best friend is immune compromised and my MIL, who is a pain in the ass but not a terrible person, is 93 so if she gets it her goose is probably cooked, and she's a thousand miles away so we won't be able to go to the funeral. Wind myself up, wind myself down. Oh well, we have a whole lot of unread books in this house.

[osprey_archer]

We did find some eggs! And then Julie attempted to stack the egg cartons in the fridge door, and the one on top fell out and we lost three eggs :(, so this is my PSA for today: don't stack egg cartons in the fridge door, it will only end in sadness.

I keep telling myself "sufficient unto each day is the evil thereof," but all the same I find myself going over the risk factors of everyone that I know. Clearly stress-baking is a more productive pastime, though.