NOTES ON OUR PANDEMIC RESPONSE

We had a dip into winter over the weekend with a little snow over Saturday night. It’s warming up again now but all danger of frost isn’t past.

Here we are in the midst of emergency response to pandemic, and while I’m sure caution should be practiced, it’s just so hard to stay home. We aren’t sick. We know no one who is sick. The novel virus has yet to be identified in our community. But here we are at home, trying not to go anywhere public. Of course, since I’m a homebody, I don’t really want to go anywhere except to JoAnn’s and the grocery store, but I would like to feel that I can go to those places.

We went to the grocery store again yesterday – “just topping off,” as Mike put it – and I felt guilty for going.

Probably most of us were taught to wash our hands among our first lessons.  “Nothing has done as much for world health as washing the hands,” my Mother was the first to tell me, and of course, that's a well-publicized fact. At first, I was no good at it. It was boring to stand there rubbing and twisting my hands with soap and water, so I would cut the process short and dry my hands on my towel. Because I wasn’t thorough – and evidently I was also into some very dirty activities – my dirty towel told Mother that I wasn’t getting my hands clean. “Kathy!” she called from the bathroom, “come here! Just look at your towel!” Can’t you just hear her?

To tell you the truth, I don’t think I became a meticulous hand washer until I had my first baby. Having children in the home will make a believer out of you. So glad I don't have to worry about children in today’s environment, but then, we always worry about the children.

How about disinfecting? I gave the bathroom counter a good cleaning the other day – something I don’t do often enough. I used my Clorox Kitchen Cleaner only later to discover Clorox Bathroom Cleaner stored in the bathroom. I didn’t even know what cleaning products I had on hand, so today I researched my cupboards and placed disinfectants on counters where we can reach them. It’s tough to take disinfecting seriously since it’s (mostly) just the two of us here. We laughed this morning when I insisted Mike move six feet away from me at our yoga class.

Yes, we went to yoga. The group agreed to keep meeting until further notice. That may come sooner than we think, whether it seems necessary or not. And Mike's visits to retirement / nursing facilities have been cancelled.

“Some people call me elderly,” said Mike. “I don’t think of myself as elderly.” And neither do I.

In other news, Mike bought a 2002 Dodge Ram from a used car dealership in Weiser last Friday (March 13). As luck would have it, the dealer had plans to visit family in this area and delivered it to us. We haven’t driven it much, but so far, it seems good. Because the driver’s seat is worn while the passenger seat is in good shape, we think it was probably a one-man vehicle. It has seen use but has only 108,000 miles on it. Perhaps it was someone’s farm truck. Perhaps it still is. KW