A friend posted this on FB:

"Sobering thought for the evening, what you did two weeks ago will determine how this virus plays out now."

Here's how I responded:

What I did on March 3rd: self-canceled a conference presentation planned for Mar 7th, which would have included a trip to a bigger city and a hotel stay. I also advocated for everyone on my panel to do the same (one has asthma). We all canceled. And then I stayed home all weekend.

What I did on Mar 9th: advocated to my chair for canceling an on-campus event sponsored by our dept (planned for 3/11) which would bring in a pretty significant number of off-campus visitors who would meet with a pretty significant number of students for an all day event in a not very big space. That event was canceled, no visitors etc.

On March 12th, our university announced that instruction would move online after spring break (which started 3/14)

What I did on Mar 13th: taught my last class, had a meeting with 8-ish people in my dept. That was my last contact with a significant number of people.

What I've been doing since March 14th: practicing social distancing as best I can, recording any trips out of the house. My only contact is Mr. SK. Our only trips out of the house have been 3 shopping trips in a week and a half, and we've tried to be as distant as possible during them. And we are all stocked up now, and so won't be going out again for probably 2-3 weeks.

I guess you could say I was an early adopter. Hopefully it helped some.

Stocking up on groceries for the start of isolation the next day.

Right, that reminds me. Here's what I wasn't doing: buying toilet paper, dish soap or Mr. SK's prescription.

Those were the three things that took us out of the house yesterday, and this.will.be.our.last.shopping.trip.or.else!!! (that's what I told Mr. SK, I think he's on board now!

Ah, one other thing I did, probably three weeks ago now, at this point. I talked my 75 y/o mother out of several planned events out (an organ recital, a musical, a trip to church) and talked her into canceling hosting a dinner for friends she'd planned on. I'm pretty sure that was the week of March 2nd. She called me Debbie Downer! But I got her to agree!

I also remember saying "if we could contact someone in Italy, what do you think they would say? They would say they wish they could go back in time two weeks ago and stay home. That's what we should be doing now, staying home." My family is Italian-American and I think this had a pretty big impact on her. I had also starting canceling my own social events (and that conference, which was the first thing), so that also had some sway.

I think it's really good that I got her to do that. She is very social and always has all these events she goes to. Oh, and she lives in Illinois btw (tho not in WTG's neighborhood), where there was a big jump in cases recently.

I honestly do not remember what I was doing two weeks ago.

I guess I started working from home on Thursday the 5th. I had to go to a meeting on the 6th, but worked from home the rest of the day. By that point two or three employees of my company had been diagnosed. But it's a huge company. There were probably several more at that point, but testing was hard to come by (still is).

I remember I had to go to the office on Thursday the 12th to scan some receipts for my travel expense report and I had a doctor appointment in the afternoon. So by two weeks ago, we were already in hunker-down mode. Costco was out of TP. I was stocking up on a few other things we might need to hold us for a couple weeks. I should have bought pasta, but I've been able to find some at other stores.

So, tomorrow will be three weeks of working from home. We haven't gone nutzo yet, but we may be drifting in that direction.

It's kinda been a blur.

We started getting prepared on March 2nd, when the third case in Illinois was diagnosed in our town.

We are retired and homebodies to begin with, so staying home hasn't been a very big deal at all.

For some reason, while I think what is going on both from a public health and a financial perspective is pretty momentous, I'm not really feeling stressed. I have no idea why; I usually totally freak out about stuff like this.

My neighbors (the ones who drove two and a half hours and back to Oshkosh) are going crazy. They did spend some quality time yesterday donating blood, though.

Two weeks ago I was still in my classroom with my kiddos. Our last school day was two days later. Since then I have literally had no contact with anyone. My husband has gone out for groceries twice.

I bought a bunch of non-perishable and canned groceries around thay time.
Then I drove to Tucson where Bob has done some stocking of groceries.

Two weeks ago I was up and getting ready for our first two Coronavirus tests. We had been in self quarantine since Monday night. I had stocked the pantry at least a week (maybe more) prior.

I've been home by myself for two weeks, except for two trips to the grocery store. If I look back three weeks, I had three [orchestra] rehearsals and a concert in Boston and two meals in restaurants with friends - that seems like a lifetime ago.

This is what I was doing two weeks ago:

Mt. Lemmon

Sabino Canyon

Sabino Creek

Seems like a lifetime ago ...

Gorgeous pic P*D!!

Also, Jodi, I don’t know how you feel about the passage of time, but I remember reading about you waiting for the tests, and now that seems like a million years ago! I hope you and Steve are doing ok this morning.

We are doing ok. Still a fever for me, though low - 99 - but made it hard to sleep. Steve’s up and cooking breakfast - he’s still wiped out and suffering some side effects of the medicine and the virus - GI issues, plus a really awful tinny taste in his mouth. But no fever since 2 days ago. So that’s great. His last doses of medication were yesterday, so hopefully the side effects will go away soon. Still waiting to hear how they are gong to handle letting us out of quarantine - nobody seems to be on the same page with this. I’ve heard everything from 7 days without fever, to 72 hours and one or two negative tests. (Obviously they won’t retest me, since I just tested negative again).

Speaking of 2 weeks, I posted this on FB March 7th (2 weeks and 5 days ago):

quote:

Something else to think about....
Italy is locking down Lombardy, home to 10MM people. It’s their main industrial region and includes Milano.

2 weeks ago they had 9 known cases.

Take this seriously if you’re not already. This country will look quite different in 2 weeks time.

Over three weeks ago Rachel quit going to the city and we canceled trips to Boston, DC, and Paris.

Two weeks ago we had pulled the boy out of school already.

We did one more grocery store visit and one quick orthodontist visit the next day.

Isolated since.