Wow. What a turn the world can take in just a few days. Where do I even begin? Is that how I start every other blog post, where do I begin? I might...
Last weekend I went to the dance convention with Clare. A few days earlier we had heard there was a confirmed case of COVID 19 in Santa Clara County (just across the bay) and that person had contacted the illness through community spread, not by traveling or being in direct contact with a person who had traveled to countries where the illness is. At the convention, I had a lot of conversations with worried moms. We talked about hand washing, not touching our faces, and keeping bottles of hand sanitizer at the ready. I wasn't worried about getting the illness but I was worried that everyone else was worried.
Monday morning dawned and I knew we needed toilet paper. We were down to our last six-pack from our usual Costco pack and I wanted to get to the store for a regular run. I had a workout class and several Marco Polo conversations with my friends, Anne and Ashley. They convinced me to stock up on a few essentials in addition to toilet paper while I was at Costco. Not a problem, since it is the beginning of the month and there were staples I needed to replenish anyway. While I walked around Costco, it was busy but not as busy as it is on a Saturday, I noticed what other people were putting in their cart: 15 packages of canned chicken, a package of every canned good in the store, Lysol, Clorox, and any kind of disinfecting cleaner the store had. You could tell, people were shopping in a way that was unusual and driven by panic. Everyone had a case of toilet paper in their cart...everyone. I grabbed one toilet paper...and then grabbed another because the panic got to me too. The rest of my shopping was really just regular food we were going to eat over the next few weeks: goldfish, cereal, brownie mix, Diet Coke, milk, eggs, bread, fruit, etc. Nothing that felt too crazy. I checked out and made my way to the receipt checkpoint. The receipt guy had his hand out ready for the receipt and his marker ready for the swipe. I said, "Oh man, your like the boss of a pit crew, ready to get people moving along." He stopped in his tracks and put his hand on my shoulder. I corrected: "You're a pit boss at a post-apocalyptic Costco?" He looked me in the eye and asked if I had been there the day before on Sunday? No. He said he worked open and when he got there an hour before open, the line was over 700 people long to get into the building. It snaked more than halfway around the outside of the building! He said it was all people for toilet paper. Madness!
The next day I made a trip to the regular grocery store after planning a few meals for the next week or so. The grocery store was also busy but not so many people buying canned goods and panic supplies. I had to make one more trip to Costco on Friday when a friend told me they had toilet paper back in stock. You see, on my Monday run, they only had Charmin brand and it was almost $10 more than the store brand I usually buy. I wanted the store brand and to save the money! So I was going to return my Charmin and swap for store brand. Alas, when I got to the toilet paper section...it was completely empty! I also needed tissues as it is the start of allergy season over here and we are just about out. No luck on that one. Another employee told me the same story of people lined up around the block to get in at open.
Over the course of the week, I talked with friends and neighbors about what was happening around the world and now arriving in our neighborhoods. This COVID 19 was shutting down cities and people were panicking. Meanwhile, all of us were totally baffled by messages coming from the government. There is a list of single sentences Donald Trump has said from his various speeches and public addresses and it is a head-scratcher for sure. Also as the week progresses different life events got canceled. It was recommended any groups of over 300 should be canceled. Sports were canceled, from kid-level to professional level. Church was canceled. Proxy temple work was canceled. Talking with friends on the east coast, their schools were canceled. The world was shutting down to try and slow the spread of COVID 19.
By Thursday morning, I felt confident we had all the stuff we would need to be safe and comfortable at home. I wanted our school district to cancel things. In fact, I was starting to get worried that they were going to wait a week or more and by the time they did cancel I would be low on supplies again and out of luck if I needed to shop. I kind of had a panic freak out on Clare when she and a friend drank almost a gallon of milk in one day. As Thursday went on, one announcement after another kept rolling in. More things were canceled and it seemed to get more and more serious by the hour.
Friday was tense, I decided to keep Wyatt home from school and sent the other kids. Clare's play was scheduled for Friday morning, which happened, but parents weren't allowed to attend. We went the day through and heard the school board was holding an emergency meeting to decide what to do. By 4:00 we knew they were closing the school for a month (including a week of spring break). They are going to try and get online/distance learning up and running in the next couple of days.
I feel like we are prepared and don't need to be afraid of being safe and comfortable in our home for a few weeks. However, I am so worried about the economic impact this is going to have. Will is beside himself with worry about the economy. I don't know what to do. I think it is going to be important to keep some distance for a few weeks. I think this illness is serious and contagious! I think if we don't have to be out...we shouldn't. However, I also know we have a world to run and contribute to and staying home might result in more damage down the road.
Saturday we spent the day at home together watching movies and dancing in the kitchen. Will and I ventured out to the grocery store to try and get more milk. The milk was gone but there was plenty of other food. It was interesting to see what had been ransacked (broccoli, carrots, and bagged salad in the produce department. Canned goods of all kinds, ramen noodles, rice, milk, and bread. Frozen vegetables) and what had been untouched (every other kind of produce, especially organic. Pasta, baking supplies, candy, dried beans, soup mixes, nuts, cereal, peanut butter and jelly, ice cream and frozen pies). It was interesting for sure.
Sunday was lovely actually. Since we knew church was canceled and we had been given permission to have the sacrament at home we were ready. Will and Wyatt blessed and passed the sacrament. Clare put together little programs along with a little table and a picture of the temple. Adell planned the Come Follow Me lesson. All of it was lovely. It was actually the first time I've ever had the sacrament outside of a formal chapel setting. I loved it so much. We spent the rest of the Sunday together as a family. At the end of the day, we watched an old movie called Its a Mad, Mad, Mad World. It was long (2 hours) but funny and everyone watched the whole thing. There were so many good laughs. It was a great end to a few scary days. Now to see how the world reacts to social distancing and other measures to try and slow COVID 19.
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