Life in the Time of Coronavirus, 4/19/20

Longing for Normal Times

Five Weeks in Quarantine and Counting
Over five weeks at home now.  This past week, it rained off and on a few of the days, but we also had some very nice sunny days. After working out, I like to sit in the sun in our backyard. It lifts the spirits and provides a good dose of Vitamin D.  We can see the Pacific from the yard. It's so tempting to look at that beauty and want to be there. We're not able to go to the beaches yet, so we stay put, admiring the beauty from 1 1/2 miles up the hill.

This coming week, our weather will be absolutely gorgeous, in the 70's and 80's.  We know that many folks will not be able to sit things out in their homes and will most certainly venture out.  It is human nature to want to enjoy nature and to socialize. We yearn to have our lives back to normal.  We want to do what we want to do, as we've always done.  But we really do need to temper our feelings right now, for our own good and the good of others.  We'll have our days in the sun and we'll enjoy them even more than we ever did.  Let's be patient and see this through. We've come too far to mess it up now.

Fruits of Our Garden
Our orange and lemon trees bear fruit year round. We make fresh orange juice for breakfast a few times each week, and I use lemons in my cooking regularly.  We also have a grapefruit tree, which bears fruit seasonally. Right now, it has blossoms, promising fruit in the near future.  Our artichokes are ready and they are huge.  We had two tonight with our dinner.  Delicious!  Our mandarin orange tree has many blossoms and not-yet mature fruit. We're excited for the yield this year, as we didn't get much fruit from it last year.  We grew up in Michigan, so we never take it for granted that we can just walk outside and pick citrus from our own trees here in California.  Soon, our passion fruit, figs and pomegranates will have blossoms and then fruit.  More good healthy food to enjoy, right from our yard.

Bounty from Our Yard

Deliveries Have Become a Highlight
Before I go on, I want to thank all of the warehouse, shipping and delivery people that are working overtime and possibly in unsafe conditions to bring goods to our homes.  They help us #staysafe and stocked with what we need to #stayhome. Thank you forever!

Yes, it has come to this -- we are excited to hear the mail and delivery trucks arrive at our house.  This week, we received items from CVS, Vital Choice (superb wild-caught seafood and other organics), Farm Fresh to You (fresh produce), and Thrive Market (organic and healthy). We're pleased with all of our purchases, and making some of the best-ever recipes.

So true!
(Credit: https://kekememes.uk/)

The Dogs Have Become Our Entertainment
In our home, I think we are all attached at the hip -- Darrell and me and our five dogs.  It is true. Dogs love this quarantine at home thing. The pack is tighter than ever.  They follow me around all day. I can't even go into the bathroom without at least one of them coming to check on me.  They are going to be absolutely lost when we start going back out for errands and dinners.

Masters at Begging for Food and Treats

They say that dogs know us better than we know them because they watch us all of the time, knowing exactly how to push our buttons to get what they want (mainly treats).  Well I'm onto their tricks now because I'm watching them all of the time, and I am learning how to push their buttons. (But I'm still a sucker for giving them treats.)

Things that are Good
So many people are doing so many good things that are uplifting and restore hope and faith.  People are doing clever fundraising for excellent causes, concerts and performances from their homes, donating their time and money even though they aren't feeling secure themselves, and most are staying at home and only going out for essentials.  None of us were ever prepared for such times, and I'm proud to see that we are supporting each other as much as we can from afar.

There is so Much Good in Us

Things that are Concerning
We had a very tense few days last week when our healthcare provider messed up on our paperwork and said that we no longer were covered.  Can you imagine? Really? Right now? Never ever in our lives have we been without health insurance. I hardly slept last weekend, waiting for Monday morning, to call for the twentieth time to get things resolved.  This last time, I reached a very kind and helpful customer service representative who was able to get us reinstated on the spot. Thank God!  As I was thanking her profusely, she said that she understood my concern because she is expecting her first child in July and is very afraid.  Bless her and her baby.

While we are faced with the tragedy of losing thousands of people, we are doing a good job of flattening the COVID 19 curve.  But many people are getting ancy and down-right outraged, and they've been protesting and demonstrating in the streets because they want to be back out in society and they want to go back to work.

The Virus is Straining Our Society in so Many Ways

Understood. But what will the consequences of their behaviors be.  They could spike the curve back up again with their actions. All that we've done may be lost. I hope that this doesn't bring worse to an already dire situation.

We Don't Want to go Backward and Face Even More of This Suffering

Our economy is sliding into the most dreaded scenario of all -- another great depression.  A few stimulus checks will not save us. I trust that there are intelligent people out there working on this multifaceted problematic situation, trying to bring us back to somewhat normal lives, as we sit in our homes, helplessly watching it all happen.

How Do We Go Forward?
It's true that we don't know what we have until it's gone.  Now more than ever, we know how much we want our lives to be ours again.

Personally, I think that we have at least 1-2 more very critical months to get through. If we're going to open up some places, we need to test, test, test. I believe that the government should mail test kits to our homes to have us test every 14-30 days. The virus free and those past the virus can be deployed to safely work and socialize together. Those exposed and/or infected can quarantine until they test out.  Seems like the only way until we have a vaccine, which is looking like six months to a year out.

Test, test, test

Stay Strong
I know that we're all fearful and anxious about our fate.  Please hold fast. Stay strong. Give of yourself to help others. Stay positive. Stay safe.

Wishing you peace.

Peace to You