The Coronaviary

Yesterday was another jam-packed bag of unexpected realizations, quirky revelations, bizarre rumors and wonderful contact with amazing humans … albeit mostly virtually, as this was my first day to model social distancing behavior.

Starting with the bizarre rumor from China via my Chinese neighbor. Chatting on the front lawn, as one does now – at a 6ft distance, she explained to me how “sad” she is about the tension between her and her sister back home. They have been arguing over Skype about whether the US army was responsible for originally introducing the virus into China. Her family in China is not to be persuaded otherwise. I guess we all look for scapegoats. I missed that Tweet. This one was new to me.

Then there was the article in the paper about a local yoga studio “shifting from cleaners with all-natural ingredients to full chlorine and other bacteria-killing chemicals”. I’ve always had my suspicions about these natural cleaners.  What a difference “actual” cleaners can make. That made me crack up — less surprising.

Anyone else notice the drop in email traffic? My futile whack-a-mole efforts to unsubscribe from various annoying vendors have been eclipsed by a new superpower. After the first wave of closure announcements, cancellations and COVID-19 response memorandums these irritations have gone dormant. It’s eerily quiet out there. I thought I’d be grateful, but I’m alarmed. It feels like the ship is going down. Is this a canary in the coalmine I hadn’t foreseen?

Is everyone glued to the TV, or streaming Netflix or still out hunting for more toilet paper?

I think they must be on ZOOM trying to maintain some sense of normalcy and connections. I can see from this graph of XOM vs ZOOM that I should have sold my ExxonMobil stock on January 31st and put all that money into Zoom. Who knew.

I would have expected more action in the web-universe at large, rather than buried in conference calls. Even Facebook is less prolific than I would have expected. Sure, there are plenty of pictures of empty grocery store shelves, musings about TP and requests for the 3rd or 16th picture on your phone, plus all the usual humdrum, but that’s about it. A couple of notable exceptions are shout outs to Drs. Shannon Westin and Jason Westin who hosted a Facebook Live event last night where I learned several answers to questions that were new to me – thanks, you guys rock. And don’t miss Erin Dangler’s daily uplifting exercise class in her home – also on Facebook Live (give yesterday’s class a try).

If you’re still with me …. I know this is long – sorry.

I can’t leave this post today without mentioning the elderly. I keep hearing about the “elderly“. I know who this group is – and it’s not my group. They are more grey, more frail, more old, more in my future. We are informed that they are at higher risk for getting sick from the corona-virus, and then in turn at higher risk of dying from the virus. I think of my dad in his 80s and other dear friends already in that decade, or rapidly approaching it. I’m sad and fearful for them.

I do not think of myself, when I hear the elderly classification. I am not that old, not that frail, and … well, ok, I am that grey, I guess, but still …

So when I hear the young doctor on the radio describing these so called elderly as people 60 and over, I’m almost insulted. When did that happen to me and how did I suddenly get lumped into that group without my say-so? I’m not even on Medicare yet – at least give me that!

I’m having to face my fears on more levels that I had expected. Piling one thing on top of another. And now I find out that I’m elderly. Too much for one day.

Talk  tomorrow …