Holy shit this has been a year and we’re not even done with March yet.
We are on Day 10 of self-mandated quarantine. Arkansas still hasn’t issued any stay at home orders but since we don’t have any practical reason to be out and about we decided to begin isolating ourselves early.
We stocked up on groceries and put our extra freezer in the garage to good use. By the time we did our shopping run a lot of things were sold out but I think we have everything we need for at least a few weeks. It was quite surreal to see so many shelves completely empty. Who knew that toilet paper would be the number one thing humans valued the most during a pandemic.
This might be the first time that I feel truly grateful for living in Northwest Arkansas. While the stores are struggling to keep enough stock we are not suffering like big cities are all over the world. If you go early enough in the day you can find everything you need. During times like these it’s easy to get swept along with the panic and start hoarding but we have resisted the temptation.
Life at home has been pretty boring. While we don’t usually go out a lot it’s frustrating to not have the option to do anything except for walks around the neighbourhood. The weather is really nice so I can’t complain about the walks, and it’s heartening to see how many cars are parked in driveways. I think Arkansans have overall been very proactive during this pandemic.
Addam has been keeping himself busy with work and has set up a pretty unique work-from-home space in the living room. He brought his hammock home from his office and spends many hours laying in it with his computer propped up on a stand. When he’s not doing that he’s knocking out meetings in his radio shack (the spare bedroom).
Meanwhile I spend a lot of time cleaning and attempting (terribly so far) to sew masks to help with the global shortage. These masks are not N95 so can’t be used by the nurses and doctors caring for COVID-19 patients but can be worn by patients to help spread to others around them.
I actually successfully passed two rounds of interviews and signed a contract to start a new job right before all of this pandemic stuff escalated. Unfortunately the company has decided that they can’t onboard me while this is going on (they’re a traditional, non-remote working company) and so I’m in limbo waiting to start this new position.
I’m obsessed with watching the daily press conferences being held by state and world leaders. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is passionate and informative, whilst updates from President Trump are a sad shit show of propaganda and misinformation. Our own Governor Asa Hutchinson was quick to close the schools and shut down in-restaurant dining as well as other businesses. But I think most of the credit has to go to the businesses who quickly moved to remote work to protect their employees.
Australia meanwhile has embarrassed itself with their inaction and their cases of COVID-19 are escalating beyond control. I expect they’ll be on lockdown very soon.
I think the worst part of all of this has been Andrew and Bec’s wedding getting postponed. Never in a million years would I have thought we’d live through a time when weddings were being cancelled because of a pandemic. I felt so sorry for them after organizing everything so meticulously and of course, just wanting to be married after so many years together. They have rescheduled for September and I really hope that the world is done with Coronavirus by then!
We still haven’t received refunds for our flights yet because millions of travellers are in the same situation. It’s really scary to think about the borders being closed, and the airlines suspending flights between countries through the end of June. At this point if anything bad happened to any of my family members in Australia I wouldn’t be able to go there. But I can’t think about that too much because it’s upsetting.
Here’s a few pictures of the cats enjoying their quarantined life:
