It’s been two weeks now. Like the rest of the country and most of the world, we are staying home as much as possible, only venturing out for essential services. A lot has changed but a lot feels the same. These past two weeks feel longer than most. Here‘s what happened recently:
- 37,612 people globally have died from Covid-19 (as of today), with 784,716 confirmed cases
- 3,128 people have died in the USA, but 162,835 cases have been confirmed
- 4 people have died in RI with 408 confirmed cases
- Travel from New York State into Massachusetts or RI will land you in “voluntary” 14-day quarantine
- Social-distancing measures in this country will extend until the end of April
- Hospitals are worried they will not have enough beds or enough ventilators. Ford is supposed to start making more, but it takes time to get the right tooling in place and the copyright and patent laws mean they need to have a partner who owns the design and technology. They may not be able to make the fast enough, even though Trump has tried to order them to do it
- Trump thought that Easter might be the turning point when this can be over (April 17), but that’s been blown out of the water. Easter is instead being projected as the time in which cases will peak
- A 2-trillion — yes, trillion — dollar relief bill has moved through the Congress. Only a few people have raised eyebrows at how we might be able to pay for all this
- The Olympics have been postponed until summer of next year
- The country of India — over a billion people — is being locked down forcibly. 1,251 confirmed coronavirus cases and 32 deaths have occurred
- The economy has stalled. In most states, stories considered non-essential have been asked to close. Restaurants have been doing take-out only if anything. Some have closed. A lot of people are out of work — 3.3 million have filed for unemployment in the country, with 1 in 15 people in RI
- Grocery stores have been forced to admit only a certain number of people per square foot. I went to Stop-n-Shop today and there was not a line outside, but the parking lot seemed full. People inside were asked to stay away and the lines were spaced pretty far apart
- Things the store was out of — Ramen, frozen vegetables, low on bread, Eggo waffles. It was better than last week
In local family news, Vivian is doing more with Google classroom and is stressed out about it. Some teachers have lower expectations for kids that are just now learning how to use the Chromebook, Google Docs, Google Slides, and Zoom. Others have really high expectations and expect the kids to be doing grade-level work as if they had full-time teacher’s assistants at home. Hey, so, they do, sort of. With Colette, it takes Beth a lot of work to keep Vivian on task and Coco occupied so she doesn’t bust in.
I moved my office upstairs this weekend for a change of pace. I need to get up and move more than five feet in any direction these days. Oomph is maintained pretty well. We have seen only one or two clients fall off or projects fail to start. We still have been getting some new leads.
It could be so much worse. I could be laid off. I could be sick. Beth could be sick. My parents could get it. Her parents. I could have had some travel plans that are cancelled and non-reimbursable. I could… it could be worse. Right now we are just dealing with normal strangeness about this new life — alone together. Feeling very alone even though we are together.