Pandemic Pandemonium

To recap:
Ten days ago our city declared a local emergency and it was decided that our school district would cancel all schooling for a month, through the end of Spring Break. Seven days ago my county, along with several others in the San Francisco Bay Area, created a Shelter in Place order, asking people to stay home unless receiving or obtaining essential services. Four days ago the governor of California declared a similar Stay at Home order for the entire state.

Everything is happening very quickly.

I haven't been shopping in eleven days. When I did go last, I went to three different stores in one day to find all of the different supplies I wanted. It was stressful. People were freaking out leading up to the spread of this virus, and the grocery store parking lots were JAM PACKED the day before our local Shelter in Place went into affect. I get it, I do. At the same time, I've been avoiding all stores in hopes that the general pandemonium will subside and I can do semi-normal grocery shopping again, soon. I'm planning on waiting until at least the end of the week before I go into a store again. We are very privileged to have a house with lots of cabinet space for food storage, an extra freezer, and the income to afford buying in bulk and our electricity bills. I'm not going to run out of flour, sugar, powdered milk, or pasta soon, thanks to my years of obedience to the Mormon church's counsel regarding food storage in case of emergencies. I AM going to run out of fresh fruits and vegetables in a few days, and that simply will not be tolerated.

At the time of my last post, my daughter had a fever. It only lasted that evening, she has had a stuffy nose and a bit of a sore throat off and on since then. No cough. We're all doing fine at my house. Maybe we all have Covid-19 and don't know it, but, that could be true for anyone right now. That's why many states all over the nation are following in California's footsteps and asking their residents to stay at home!

I am still full of rage that testing for this virus is not widespread. The wealthy and affluent can magically be tested if they feel fatigued or a bit under the weather. Meanwhile, people are ill with coughs and fevers and told that tests are not available and they should stay at home unless they have labored breathing. We are sending countless healthcare workers to work every single day and expecting them to return home to their families without being tested, despite KNOWING that this virus is transmitted by asymptomatic carriers.

As a society, we are flying blind when it comes to just how many people have this virus and as a result we have self-entitled people waltzing around, ignoring the guidelines for social distancing. I suspect these people don't understand the science behind viral infections and the evidence is not in their faces enough for them to realize the impact of their actions. Sadly, that impact is hitting us harder and harder every day.

The positive number of cases in my county jumped to 112 today.

Stay safe, my friends. Call your friends and family, read a good book, and wash your hands!

Pandemic

I played a board game called Pandemic years ago. That was fun. This is different.

There's a new virus in town.

Novel Corona Virus is causing quite a stir.
Just as a disclaimer: I'm a science nerd. I'm one of the people you know who has actually taken virology classes. I don't exactly remember everything from those classes, but I have retained some of that information and I just want you to know that. Anyhow...

Today is Wednesday. Five days ago, while I was at work on the afternoon of Friday the 13th, my county and my city declared a state of emergency. We learned that our school district was cancelling all school for the next four weeks. I told my lovely boss that I would need a couple of days off work each week in order to be home with my kids during this time. Then, I spent the next few nights not sleeping well, worrying about how my small, local veterinary hospital would keep afloat with all of these changes and with less staff there to help out. I also had a lot of weird anxiety dreams that involved sanitizing doorknobs and washing dirty hands.

Monday rolled around, I went to work as planned and left the kiddos with my incredible, elderly (they don't like me saying that word) parents. Midday more changes were announced. Millions of people in the Bay Area were told to Shelter in Place at their homes starting at midnight. If you need to go out to receive an essential service or provide an essential service, that's okay, as long as you keep six feet apart from everyone while in public. The rest of the time, everyone is expected to stay at home as much as possible. Fun news. It turns out the veterinary medicine is considered an essential service, so I went to work Tuesday. The hubby is working on an apartment building and construction of housing is considered an essential service, so he went to work too. My poor kids got to spend another day with my amazing (sort of elderly) parents.

Today I got to stay home, since my boss lady is understanding. I spent the entire day reading spreadsheets full of assignments and suggested applications that my kids' wonderful teachers emailed to me. I bookmarked a million websites, printed tons of spreadsheets with detailed assignments, logged in to accounts, couldn't log in to accounts, emailed teachers, finally logged in to accounts, and bookmarked those websites too. I also spent absurd amounts of time reading with my son, doing math with my son, checking in on my daughter to make sure she was reading and doing math. We watched shows in Spanish and got exercise and danced and ate healthy meals. And STILL my son didn't do enough writing because getting him to write is like pulling teeth. I even went to the school to pick up a packet (of stuff that is all online so I'm not sure why I had to pick it up!).

It all made me feel tired.

You know who else was tired, and then complained of a dry, sore throat and checked her temperature without me prompting? My 10-year old child. As the afternoon grew later, I could see that look she gets around her eyes that pretty much screams at me, "I don't feel well! I have a fever!" and sure enough, she had a fever. She isn't coughing, but her elevated temperature means that nobody wants her, or anyone who has been near her, anywhere near them. So now I can't go to work tomorrow or leave my house everrrrr agaaaiiiinnnn!!!! (That last bit might be an exaggeration.)

We wash our hands a lot, we have been sanitizing doorknobs, light switches, faucet handles, etc. for a week now. We are taking this social distancing and sheltering in place seriously. The kid probably has a run-of-the-mill cold and not a fancy new viral infection, but we can't know that, so we shall wait, watch, and see.

I called our healthcare's advice nurse line and spoke to a kind, compassionate nurse who explained to me that our county controls the parameters around testing and they are only testing people who:
1. Have symptoms of Covid-19 and have had known contact with someone who is confirmed positive for Covid-19.
2. Are really sick and in the hospital and they can't figure out why, but all of the symptoms point to Covid-19.
3. Are maybe not in the hospital but are sick with symptoms of Covid-19 AND are considered high-risk.

I'm frustrated by my country's medical system and response to this pandemic. If the powers that be are only testing really sick people despite knowing that community spread is happening and that most cases are mild, that is really skewing the numbers and giving us shit data. (I couldn't spell "skewing" and wrote it 700 ways before asking Google for help.) I don't know if we've been in contact with someone who is positive because people are not being widely tested. Also, at least two clients spat on me while talking to me on Friday. That's gross and I just wanted to make sure I included it in this post, because yuck.

I'm annoyed, a little worried, and kind of anxious.

Stay safe, my friends. Cover your mouths and wash your filthy hands.

Lost and Found, But Mostly Lost

I'm worried if I don't write about today I will forget about the little crazinesses that are part of parenting my children and living my life.

Let's start my day off with this morning... very early this morning. I was awoken at 2:30am by my oldest child because she had a bad dream. I let her into my bed, squishing my arm and keeping me awake for a little while longer than I would have liked, before convincing her that she would actually sleep better in her own bed.

Several hours later, the normal morning routine was easy and uneventful until it was time to walk out of the house and I noticed how underdressed that same child was for the Winter weather. We had a verbal battle of what jacket to wear (more on that in a moment) for frosty morning walks to school, and even though it was "uncomfortable" I managed to convince the kid to bundle up. We made it to school just before the bell. I had a few minutes left before I had to get to work, so I decided to investigate the Lost and Found. 

Two and a half weeks ago the kids had their last day of school before Winter Break. Oldest child was wearing her cozy, comfortable jacket (which is the inner layer of the "uncomfortable" one mentioned above) and fuzzy pajamas for a nice day of reading, snacking, and anticipating two entire weeks of no school. She remembers removing her jacket and setting it on the back of her chair, because those pajama pants were hot! When school ended for the day, excitement rushed her out of the classroom and the cozy jacket was left behind. We didn't realize it for several hours, and by that time I told her not to worry. No one would be attending class, no one would take her jacket, and her name and my phone number are written inside, so we'll just get it when school starts again.

Well... Foot, meet mouth. 

Yesterday, their first day back after break, the kid looked and the jacket was nowhere to be found. Not in the classrooms, not in the Lost and Found. Gone. Vanished. Like magic. 

I decided to take matters into my own hands, because I'm Super Mom and the jacket was kind of expensive, AND it is the comfortable inner part of a two-in-one winter freaking coat, and it's the middle of Winter. As I mentioned earlier, I checked Lost and Found. It was pretty much empty. Freakishly empty for a K-8 school full of children who lose items regularly. So I walked to the office, because the office people are nice and know everything. 

Office Lady #1 was super kind. She told me that the custodians were working a few days a week over break and they may have grabbed the coat from the classroom, so she checked another spot in the office where lost items are dropped off. She found zero items. She then told me that the custodians DONATE THE "LOST & FOUND" ITEMS AT THE END OF EACH MONTH. I made a face like I smelled a fart and then asked if they really would have done that DURING Winter Break when kids had no chances to look for their lost items!!!!!!  THEN I shook it off, swallowed my bitterness, remembered it was only a coat, thanked the nice lady and left.

A little bit later I had a genius idea. I called the office and spoke to Nice Office Lady #2 to gather more information. She called me back to let me know that yes, the custodian took a big donation recently. She also confirmed the name of the charity where the items were donated. SCORE! I planned to go there later in the day to find the jacket, buy it back, and save my kid's day!

Work was pleasantly busy and delightfully not understaffed for the first time in nine hundred years. I worked my shift, I went home and did laundry and swept the kitchen. Then I picked up a bunch of kids, dropped off the extras at their house, took my older child to her new art class, deposited some checks at the bank, then went with my younger child on a Quest to the thrift store. 

The jacket wasn't there.

Nice Thrift Store Lady #1 asked Thrift Store Lady #2 if she could help me, but Lady #2 was like, " I don't know anything about where donations come from or what we have back here." as she is sorting through items and tagging them for sale. I decided to butt into their conversation and see if I could peer at their clothing piles or something sensible like that, but I was denied. Apparently the donation center has been slammed with items over the holidays (Good job, residents of my town!!! Way to donate and not throw away!!!) so they really couldn't do much for me. Nice Thrift Store Lady #3 asked for a description of the jacket and encouraged me to come by every few days, or call the store, to see if it turns up. I thanked her and left. 

I felt deflated and irritated. It's only a coat, I can replace it - though not exactly - but what about all of the kids who's families can't afford to get them a new coat every time their well-meaning but thoughtless school custodian donates perfectly good outerwear over a long school holiday!!!???!?!
*sigh*

When I got home again with just enough time for the younger child to unpack his school stuff and change into his martial arts clothes he realized that he didn't have his lunchbox. WE WENT BACK TO SCHOOL TO CHECK THE LOST AND FOUND. AGAIN. Because my entire life revolves around that little rack in the school's multipurpose room like it has the gravitational pull of a black hole, because IT IS ONE. I am officially changing its name to "Lost and Not Found" because we never find anything there. 

By some rare stroke of luck, the lunch room staff or another student actually must have looked at the lunchbox, read the name and classroom number written on it (written there because I AM RESPONSIBLE) and returned it to my kid's class. In addition to being responsible, I am also sensible, so we checked the classroom and were able to retrieve the lunchbox. Huzzah! 

Next, we rushed to karate. Kid got out of the car, I drove away to the grocery store because why not?! I'm clearly some kind of human ping-pong ball/taxi service. I got a few items for dinner from the store, picked up the daughter from art class, picked up the son from karate, then went home.

I am exhausted.
I guess I'll follow up with the thrift store later this week. I'll probably also buy my daughter a replacement jacket, because I am nice and I doubt we'll find the one she lost.

Moral of the story: If you work at a school, don't donate lost items during a freaking holiday. 

Also, MAYBE LOOK INSIDE JACKETS FOR NAMES next time. 

Also, (If you aren't the custodian of my freaking nightmares) If you need someone to follow through and get stuff done, I'm clearly your girl.