I’ve now been locked in at home with my wife and the cat for 21 days of quarantine. We’re all healthy, hale, and getting along quite well. I dare say we have adapted quite well to being house-bound.
The cat is thrilled, but then she’s been locked in all her life and cowers at the idea of going outside. She won’t even go out on the deck.
After 21 days of self-imposed quarantine, the rest of us would be happy to leave the house and mingle with other people, go out to dinner, see our kids, visit some friends, go to Home Depot, and the garden center. Even I, self-avowed introvert whom my wife says practices social distancing by default, would welcome the opportunity to exchange a few words, smile, may tell a joke, and share a laugh (at which point, I would be ready to leave and my wife to stay another three hours).
But we’re prepared for a few more weeks or even months of staying at home, should it be necessary. And the way things are gong, it may darn well be necessary.
Telemed
I had my first telemed doctors visit today. Not sure why we haven’t been doing this for years. The doctor even “saw” me right on time, which is not always the case for personal visits. Granted, no one weighed me or took my blood pressure, but I’m a big boy and can do that myself.
I’m also using my old Kindle so much now that I have to recharge it almost daily. I generally prefer my desktop and two monitors, but I’m sitting at my desk too much and it aggravates my back. The tablet allows me to assume a much wider range of positions.
Speaking of my bad back, I exercised today and we also went on a walk with my wife. We ran into a neighbor whom I only recognized because of her dog, a handsome fellow that apparently made more of an impression on me than she did. We conversed briefly from about 40 feet away. It was a bit awkward; we are all still working our how to be friendly from a distance.
An About Face on Face Masks
This whole face mask change of heart at the government level is cracking me up. We’ve been bombarded with photos of Chinese wearing face masks since mid-January, but someone decided that wasn’t necessary here. I think this was a calculated false narrative designed to keep consumers from worrying about a lack of masks while preventing them from scooping them up before hospitals and departments of health could do so.
My thinking is that every little bit helps and I can’t help but wonder if we could have slowed the spread even further if 50 percent or more of the country had been wearing masks since mid-February. We’ll never know, but some future congressional investigation will spend millions trying to pin the blame on someone.
Of course, no one had masks, except preppers. I’ve had masks and gloves since Bird Flu was a scare and probably bought more when I was worried about Ebola reaching the U.S. We have both surgical masks and N95s, which I wear to mow that big green often-shaggy area that passes as our lawn. Neither are a perfect fit since I rock a full beard, but if I was still out and about every day, would shave and routinely wear an N95 mask.
I’d like to think that this will be a teachable lesson and when the coronavirus crisis is over, people and governments will stock masks, food, toilet paper and other important supplies, but I’m not counting on it.
Check out this page to get caught up on prior entries in our Quarantine Diary.
