The Odyssey Begins

I want to start off with a disclaimer -- some people think that because of who is included in my family unit that I have some special or inside knowledge about local healthcare facilities and what’s happening. Well, I don’t. Anything I learn comes from the same places as the rest of you – the newspaper, local and national television and radio or Social Media. Just like those with whom I live don’t know the inner workings of my law office, I have no idea what’s happening in healthcare. The rules are very specific and there is no “sharing” of information. In normal times, neither of us wants to talk about work in our off time, anyhow.

So back in early January, E, who is adept at monitoring Twitter and assortment of other social media, insisted that I find the password to my Twitter (which I had never used) and at least become halfway proficient with it. He’d embraced it fully and was getting lots of information from healthcare providers in China and other countries about this new coronavirus that seemed to be much worse than anything that had been seen in a while. Even back then, there were rumblings that this could become a pandemic.

Note that back in January 2020, healthcare providers in China and around the world were beginning to sit up and take note that this new bug could be something substantial. It is interesting that our own leaders either were caught off guard, were in denial or were intentionally deceptive about the coming tidal wave of a plague about to overtake us.

Of course, some, like NC’s Congressional Representative Richard Burr took notice enough to (a) warn big donors that this could be problematic and (b) sell off about $1.7 million in stocks before everybody else took a bath as the market crashed.

In our house, as in many others, I’m sure, there is a division of duties based on what each of the parties is either good at, which one despises it the least or who lost the argument. In this regard, logistics normally fall to me.

I get the oil changed in the cars and see that they are repaired. I notice which faucets are dripping, what gutter has come loose and what doorknob is going to come off and lock someone in the bathroom at an inopportune time. I’m also in charge of groceries and provisions.

For those that are interested, E deals with technology – both repair and replacement – seeing that the bills are paid online and on time and talking me in off the ledge when something is frustrating me (usually technology). It’s a solid system that has served us for over two decades now, and neither is inclined to change it. He also has a very strong sixth sense and perceives when we ought to pay attention to something and when it isn’t such a big deal, and he (and I) have learned to pay attention to that gut feeling whenever it happens. This was one of those times.

I’m not a “Prepper” in the sense that I have a bug-out bag available at all times, 15 semi-automatic weapons and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. We do not have cases of MRE’s stacked in the closet in case of zombie apocalypse. I did learn from my grandmothers, though, the advantages of a well provisioned freezer and pantry. Nothing like they had, of course – there is no cellar full of home canned goods and the freezer is limited to that which comes attached to the refrigerator – but most of the time we could ride out your average blizzard or hurricane in North Carolina without having to alter our palates too much.

This, though, seemed to be something to listen to, so I went to the grocery store to get something beyond “bread and milk”. Not to hoard, mind you – but to make sure that we had what we would normally use in a couple of weeks on hand if we couldn’t get to the store as normal.

The problem is that unlike for my Grandma B – the “grocery store” was 15 miles of dirt road each direction – the grocery store for us is roughly a quarter mile away. I’ve gone to the store 3 times in a single meal before. It’s not at all unusual to say, “I have to go to the store and figure out what we are having for dinner”. Shopping to buy a “bill of groceries” like I grew up with is not our norm, and to be honest, calling in an order for delivery or take-out is probably our most dominant meal plan.

Planning extended meals and menus is harder than it looks and requires a level of planning that’s not in my nature – I’m more of a “pick off the menu in front of you” instead of a “What do you want for dinner next Thursday”?

Something about the situation, though, seemed to warrant not only advanced planning, but actual implementation of some type of plan, just in case.

Assignment #2 – Something a bit easier. Towels and linens are sometimes a mess. They don’t stack up very well, and when you pull one out they all come so it’s easy to end up wadding them back into the closet / drawer. What’s your organizational system? Any good ideas here?

Everyone needs to be held accountable, so like a 5th grade teacher, I’m asking for your homework. Where’s the evidence that you’ve cleaned out the kitchen junk drawer (you only have to do one – but you get extra credit if you have multiples and attacked them all. Let’s see those before and after pics in the comments!

Incidentally, those of you who live in a house that looks like Martha Stewart’s crew maintains it daily – post your pictures, too. Give us something to which we can aspire!

On the Corner at 8th – Revisited -- Pandemic

These are strange times in which we live. That’s not news to anyone who is sitting at home in their pajamas and bunny slippers at 10:00 a.m. on a random Thursday drinking coffee from a chipped mug that they got at a professional conference 3 years ago when they would usually be in “office attire” and participating in their employment.

The world began changing for lots of us in mid-February, 2020, and since then many of us have realized that the ski slope we are on isn’t those little green circles of the bunny slope but is instead a couple of double black diamonds and we seem to have lost at least one of our poles (not to mention that most of us don’t know how to ski)!

So while things are moving at a bit of a slower pace, I’ve decided to once again try my hand at blogging. At first, I was going to start a new blog but coming up with a name wasn’t working – it can’t be too flip but I also don’t want to be entirely morose despite the gravity of the situation we all find ourselves in. In the end, I’m just going to try to pick up my old blog – “On the Corner at 8th” and move forward with it.

So we all start a new chapter of our lives. Not one that most of us anticipated, and probably not one that most of us wanted. My goal here is to look at a bit of history / interesting factoids about disease generally and the Covid19 virus specifically and maybe help put things in perspective a bit as well as provide some perspective on how society is suddenly changing.

Nobody should kid themselves – this is going to be BAD. This could crumble the economy not only in the US but around the world in a way equivalent to the Great Depression in 1929 and through the decade following, and believe it or not, we are not set up to address those issues presented as well now as we were then. Anybody who tries to argue this is a hoax or made up by the media is a fool and will be publicly called out as such, although I’ll try to keep that at a minimum.

I want to try one communal project with this – we all have lots of time on our hands while we are home on lockdown, and if most of you are like me, there are literally dozens of little projects around the house that I’m going to take care of, “ . . . when I get around to it”. Well, now’s that time, so I’ll pick one project every day or so that ought to take no more than 30 minutes to complete and suggest that we all do it together. Please send your suggestions, too, since it is entirely possible that we could run out of projects before we run out of plague days.

Today’s project – Go to your kitchen and open the “junk drawer”. Don’t try to deny it, everyone has some version of this. It’s full of all kinds of stuff – pliers, a screwdriver, about 15 half-used bottles of hand sanitizer, random screws from projects long forgotten and at least a dozen ballpoint pens pilfered from a variety of businesses, none of which write. We don’t need most of it. We kept it “. . . just in case” and, well, “just in case” isn’t going to happen. It is time to participate in “Swedish Death Cleaning” (more on that later) so clean out the drawer. Throw out all the superfluous stuff – not just move it to another drawer or the closet or something, but THROW IT OUT. See how much better you feel being able to open that drawer when you need something that is stored there? Send before and after pics. Share your progress.