Okay...my plan here is to "catch up" to today, and then every day, write just a little bit on what we're doing, what's going on. Honestly, there won't be that much because...well, we're mostly staying at home. But this is a unique time, and I don't want to completely forget it.
So, to catch up a little bit.
I've always been interested in epidemics. A while back when "bird flu" was a big thing, I purchased some masks and gloves, and occasionally checked out some forums online on that topic.
So, when I heard about an epidemic in Wuhan, China, I paid attention. I found some forums on Reddit where it was discussed (Coronavirus, China_flu, Wuhan_flu) (in order, going from most censored to least censored). And I got pretty obsessive about following this, far earlier than most people were ever aware of the problem. I spent many, many hours going through online coronavirus forums. Like - much of the day.
What really worried me is seeing the videos that were coming out of Wuhan. Apparently for a short while, censorship in China was relaxed, and you could see videos of people, fallen over, in the street. Or crowding and yelling in hospital waiting rooms. Then Wuhan was completely and utterly shut down, and people were being welded into their apartments. All visible on videos, online. One video that really freaked me out was of people standing in a line waiting to pick up food from bags on the ground. And they were standing about 20 feet apart, so the line spread way off in the distance! Seeing this kind of thing - how seriously people took it - is what really freaked me out.
I prepped. February 18 and 24, we did 2 big grocery trips to Winco, where we bought lots. I'm talking 50 pound bags of sugar and flour, 25 pound bags of steel cut oats, dried beans, old fashioned oats, and so on. The only thing I'm not sure that we'll use is the dried beans - we're just not in the habit of using the. But flour, sugar, oats, etc - we'll definitely use that.
In early and mid February, I began looking in stores for masks, and hand sanitizer. Masks were gone almost everywhere, except at a Walmart in Chehalis they had some painting/sanding type masks, and then at an independent hardware store in Renton, McLendon's, they had a whole rack of different types at the front of the store. Alcohol based hand sanitizer stuck around a little longer, but it too was gone from most stores very quickly.
On Feb. 23rd, I bought a 4 pack of Amazon brand hand sanitizer. Shortly after I bought it, it went out of stock, and you could get on a mailing list to get notified when it came back into stock. Just out of curiosity, I got on the mailing list to get the notifications. Three times (March 1, 2, and 4) I got email, saying that it was available again. And three times, as soon as I clicked on it, it was out of stock again.
Monday, March 2, 2020 - The first day that I kept the kids home from school. The previous Saturday, I had kept Kenny home from his job at Target. He was happy to do it, probably because I had been talking about the coronavirus so much that I freaked him out as well. We did go out and have dinner at a friend's house, but I was very nervous and stressed about it.
Friday, March 5th, 2020 - I think this was the first day that most of the local large tech companies had work-at-home policies. Facebook, Microsoft, Expedia, etc. Amazon was at most a day later than the others, even though they're in general very big on NOT working from home.
Tuesday, March 10, 2020 - I emailed the school superintendent, asking that the schools be closed. I kept the kids home from school the whole week.
Friday, March 13, 2020 - Bellevue School district is officially closed.
Monday, March 23, 2020 - This week there's been some "optional" learning opportunities through the school, mornings from 9 to 11. It seems to basically mean that many/most teachers are having online classes via tools like Microsoft Teams, or have videos to be viewed. Kenny's chemistry teacher offered an optional "experiment" (pretty simple, involving making a paper boat move in a bowl of water with soap). The kids were encouraged to take a video of themselves doing the experiment, and post it online. Kenny's attitude was "It's optional, so I won't do it", but I told him he had to. So he did.
Wednesday, March 25, 2020 - I believe this was the first day of the official "stay at home" requirements, where only mandatory trips are to be taken, and only essential businesses are to be open.
No comments:
Post a Comment