For Posterities Sake
Starting in late fall of 2019 my friend started talking to me about a virus in China that she was following in the news. In January 2020 she told me to start taking precautionary measures to prevent getting the coronavirus, things like washing our hands more and using hand sanitizer. In February she told me to stock up on non perishable food, bleach and toilet paper. I bought some extra flour and a few other non perishables but didn’t really think we needed toilet paper as the coronavirus didn’t seem to require large toilet paper usage- bad move.
In early March I started to really take precautionary measures seriously to avoid contracting Covid. I remember being at a photo shoot for my daughter and telling the team that I wasn’t comfortable hugging or shaking hands. I made them elbow bump me instead. They all thought I was crazy but went along with it. The next week the entire country went into lockdown to limit the spread of the virus.
Toilet paper sold out. Everything cleaning related was sold out at local grocery stores within a week. My family was slightly better prepared than most people as I’d at least been aware of the situation for months. I think my family handled the entire lockdown better than most because we had an early awareness and realistic idea of what would happen next. We also live in a safe suburb with a backyard and plenty of outdoor space. During strict lockdown we did fancy dinner Friday to break up the monotony. We fostered a shelter dog and eventually adopted her.
We formed a quarantine pod with our neighbors and spent lockdown sitting together in the backyard and eventually spending time in each other’s homes doing puzzles, crafts and dinners. The teens started venturing out to the Whataburger drive thru at 11 pm to get honey butter chicken biscuits. It became a regular tradition and something to look forward to. The drive thru became a socially distant social spot for the teens in our little city.
Covid helped us to slow down, grow closer with our neighbors and become a lot more comfortable with change. Covid taught us to adapt.
