Sitting and Waiting

This very well may be a bit of a downer post, so let us begin with beauty for balance, shall we?

Oh my friends, what an incredible turn of events in the last ten or so days. Since I wrote this post,  it is not just the stock market in free fall, it is almost life itself as we've all known it. The most astonishing thing about it, unlike a natural weather event, this is an invisible enemy that is touching everyone's lives. Southerners know how to do hurricane prep and the aftermath which while neither are fun, the mess is manageable for the most part. Midwesterners do tornados, same misery, but at least they have experience. This virus, well what will it topple in its wake?  Business as usual is what has toppled so far. Sadly there have been deaths and we can expect more.

Anyone know why they have taken to calling it Covid-19 now, rather than Coronavirus?

Our family, while still healthy has been impacted already. Firstly, let me clarify Matt and Tom's situation--they actually had a mostly easy time getting home, shopped for food, and on their final day, drove extra miles the last day to see the Grand Canyon. The excellent news is that although their trip was shortened, they packed a lot into the days they had!

Speaking of shopping, let's have a look at what I found two days ago at 10 in the morning.

The previous day they had no hand wipes, however, now they do, but are using a greeter handing them out because people were either stealing them, or using way too many. On a personal note, I've never used hand sanitizer in my life, nor do I have wipes except for glass cleaning wipes. Well, because there is such a shortage we still had neither, so I opened the lid to the wipes, poured in loads of alcohol and some hand soap and shook it up. Better than nothing, or so I hope!

What else did I find?

So, very little bread and hardly any dairy.

If you look on the top shelf you will find colored hard boiled eggs, but fresh ones were not to be found. The same holds true with this frozen vegetable case,

the lunch meat,

and very little fresh meat, including no chicken, pork, or ham.

That would be expensive beef on the left and jars of sauerkraut on the right in place of pork and sausages.

The lines were not crazy long, but that may be because folks had already done their panic shopping, or there just wasn't enough to buy.

Looking at this photo, I kind of have to laugh at the Little Debbie advertisement---if only it were so easy--unwrap a smile.

As I stood before the empty frozen vegetable cases, I spoke to a Publix employee trying to buy her own groceries, asking if the cases were full when the store opened two hours earlier. Yup.  Maybe you have not done any panic shopping, and they say it really isn't necessary, yet who really knows what things will be like in two weeks. Then too, in Orlando where most of the local economy relies on tourism, there may be folks buying while they still have money. With Disney, Sea World, Universal, and every other theme park closed, not to mention movie theaters, very limited dining options, and now the malls closing, times are soon to be very, very tough for many Orlandoans. Nancy, having just returned to Atlanta learned this morning that her store is closing for the foreseeable future. In our home, the refrigerator has never been so packed.

On our way to the library, which by the way was closing that night, we did pop into Clemmons, my go-to place for produce and it was a wondrous sight.

All the bins were filled with beautiful fruits and vegetables that never looked so good!

Of course the cashier told me that we had arrived on the quietest day in a week, so perhaps they get super low as well.

Now that Matt and Tom are safely in London, soon to be working exclusively from their home, my worry is for David and Bill who work in the financial sector. There are two kinds of folks right now, those who check their fortunes slipping away every day, and those who choose not to look. The two of them have no choice but to look at the carnage and I needn't tell you how hard that is to do and keep your spirits on the upside. David, more so than Bill, has been through this once before in 2008 on the night of his rehearsal dinner. The market closed the lowest in history percentage wise at 4 in the afternoon and he walked from his Park Avenue office over to Rollins College for the rehearsal with a heavy heart. Eventually everything sorted out, but it was not pretty then, and it sure won't be this time.

Fallon told me this morning that there is an infected person on her unit at the hospital. Since she's been studying for her Nurse Practitioners license, she's cut her hours which presumably means her exposure will be limited. Then again, if things get bad, will they insist she work more? Hard to know just yet.

Don't we all wish we were a bird that could just fly away from all this mess?

 Or maybe an otter family that stays in the water most of the time?

On a lighter note, have you filled in your census form yet? I wonder how many categories there were fifty years ago?

Already I am sick to death of all the finger pointing regarding the current world situation; seems to me we should be past all that and moving toward solutions, not playing the blame game. Of course, it must be noted that I'm an optimist, and nor do I like conflict, so I am bound to feel that way. Perhaps it makes others feel better to have someone to blame and criticize. Who knows, but what I'm looking for, instead of editorializing, are the facts and the facts alone.

Right about now there's only one thing I know for sure and that is the sun and the moon will still rise,

something that we can all agree on

The truth is, I cannot believe I am writing any of this. Two weeks ago, it seemed impossible, but here we are, sitting and waiting, for either our entire economy to crash, or to become sick, two very unappealing options, as I'm sure you would agree.

your friend,

Gail