I’m going to grumble & be crotchety for a brief moment. I just have to get it out of my system, and then I’m going to be filled with hope. Because grumbling & crotchety-ness make things worse, not better. I’m all about making things better. Happier.
Once I accepted the lockdown, the social isolation, I had my freakout (to be honest, I still do at least once a day). Then I got serious about nobody but me and my people. No extra’s. No visits. No playdates, and I’m talking about me! Not my kids. I’ve even stopped going to the store. I have enough. Maybe not for all eternity, but I do for the next several weeks. I may get tired of rice & beans, but I will not starve. I will not leave the house.
My cousin shared a video (see below). It’s a little math-y, a little scary, but it is also full of hope. It’s all about how social distancing can work. And this is where I get grumbly & crotchety. Social distancing is not working. Not yet. The vast majority of my friends, family and neighbors are treating social distancing as vacation.
Coronacation. They even have a word for it!
So many people are hanging out together. At the park. At bars. In private homes. There are playdates happening. All those germs. All those people are still mingling. Those germs are mingling. Infecting people left & right. This virus has plenty of food to grow.
The numbers are growing astronomically, pretty much like the video below. It’s truly frightening. At this rate, without proper social distancing, we will all know someone who gets sick. Who dies. Not necessarily from COVID-19, but from another illness or emergency. Another illness or emergency our health care system couldn’t treat. They had no more room.
The pure selfishness of people still traveling, celebrating milestones, gathering in each others living rooms is filling me with gloom, dispair and anger. I was also angry about the toilet paper hoarding. I jumped right on that bandwagon. And then, that hoarding? All the other hoarding? That gave me hope.
People are hoarding. They are stocking up. They are getting ready to hunker down. Shelter-in-place they call it. It means staying home. Making do with what you have and, more importantly who you have. The people in our home right now, in your home right now, these are our people. Our battle buddies. Together we are going to weather this storm & slow this beast.
All the hoarding means that everyone with enough toilet paper is going to STAY HOME! They are not going to spread a single germ. A single virus. They won’t be a carrier. They won’t pass it to even one more person. They will stay home and let this beast starve. Everyone with all that toilet paper is going to stay home and give us all a chance to beat this beast.
There is hope. There is so much hope.
Toiny, I feel your fear, because it is mine too. How anyone with an iota of commonsense can NOT understand that we HAVE to distance ourselves not only for our good, but good a many around us, are just being downright selfish. The worst part of this is that you may not even know that you are carrying the virus until it manifests itself in some way, but then you have infected 20 more people who will also EACH infect 20 more people. It is really simple to understand and I just pray that the message gets past these people’s peanut brains before it is too late……for ALL of us!!!! Stay safe people…..stay home!!!!
Thanks Toiny, thanks to the toilet paper hoarders, and milk, egg and various other items that were missing from grocery shelves I will have to brave the world tomorrow in search of supplies but assuming I can find some after that I am good. Unfortunately my son still has to go to work and my Hubby’s stupid company sent him on business travel.
I drove 3 hours to stay with my grandchildren while my daughter and her husband went to Punta Cana on vacation. (Children do not listen to mom when they are 50) When the Gov. of Ohio said, “All people 65 or older should only leave their home if absolutely necessary”, my 11 year old granddaughter teared up and said, “Grandma – you need to go home – right now” I put my 19 year old grandson in charge of his two younger siblings and I did just that. Three hours later I was home with my cats feeling much safer. I needed to share that story – thanks for listening and thanks for coming up with ideas to keep us feeling more normal. One more thing – of my 9 grandchildren 6 of them have cell phones. Yesterday I put out challenge #1 in the “Keep Grandma Sane” category. I asked them to text me a picture of themselves or a family member doing anything so that I could scrap a day in their life. I have received all but one – bless them. I will come up with additional challenge ideas. I turn 75 in September – I plan to be there for that event!!!!
Regarding the toilet paper hoarders … one would hope that they are staying home but unfortunately, many of them are not staying home, but are trying to resell the TP at flea markets or on-line! Shameful how they would take advantage of others at this time!!!
My 30 year-old daughter is well, but has decided to isolate herself & has been encouraging us to do the same — I’m proud of her for being proactive! … on the other hand, my 90 year-old mother-in-law (who lives next door) has friends over, sometimes goes to the store (she claims there aren’t many people in the store). She hates being home alone. My vent for the day.
Trying to keep my family healthy, but worried that the virus will accidentally be brought home. As Tracey said … the scariest thing is that someone can be carrying the virus & not having the symptoms yet. So even small gatherings are not a good idea!!
Not a day goes by in this crisis where something doesn’t bring me to tears. Social distancing, while necessary, is destroying my psyche. Working from home is fun when it’s my choice; a misery when it’s not. I had just bought a package of TP from Sam’s Club before the world went crazy.
We have enough toilet paper for 53 days. After that, we’ll be sharing the litterbox with the cat. (Just kidding, but can you imagine the look on the cat’s face?!)
It’s been years since I’ve had time to scrapbook, but I still read the newsletters and stay connected to what’s going on at The Studio. When you took over SAS from Julie O, it gave the site a new energy. I happy when I see the things we started still continuing and I love seeing the new things you come up with. This Scrapping Lockdown is a great idea. It brought me to tears again, but not in a bad way. This is a great idea and a wonderful thing you’re doing to help keep this community sane in an insane time. I just might find the inspiration to scrap this weekend.
We have a localish couple (about 20 miles away) who had been on one of the Princess ships and isolated in the USA for 14 days, came home, was tested next day, found to be Covid 19 positive, BUT they have NO symptoms whatsoever. He said he is an ex coal miner and a cold goes straight to his chest, but he has had nothing nor his wife. So those who go out may be passing it on anyway, thinking they are fine.
As for the toilet paper hoarders, Thanks! – we managed to get some yesterday after going to 2 Supermarkets, and they were just in time!
Enjoy your Lockdown everyone!
x
Toiny, I feel sorry for you and I am very worried about you and my son who lives near Stuttgart. It is dangerous in Germany, because of 4000 March 15, today there are 12,000 infected. In Poland, people are subordinate, even the young and healthy do not leave the house, and there is still an oasis compared to Germany, but everything can change with a sudden jump.
Toiny, watch comedy movies, you can’t allow stress, depression, or fear. Let us hope that this disease will go away as suddenly as it came and we will enjoy the beauty of this spring, this wonderful world for decades to come.
My oldest daughter and her husband went on a little road trip — wine tasting and toilet paper. She was completely out and couldn’t find any in her local stores. The winery they went to is up in the foothills … quite a ways from any city. They stopped at every mom & pop they found along the way. They came home using a different route … still nothing. BUT … they were both getting thirsty and decided to stop at one those gas station stores. Guess what … while checking out, there was a 12 pack of toilet paper sitting on the counter. It seem too good to be true, but she had to ask “is this for sale?” The clerk kind of looked at her like she was crazy and told her “of course.” Guess he hadn’t been keeping up with the news. My daughter literally danced out the door with her find.
Well here in Australia so many people are hoarding stockpiling supermarket goods and leaving none for others or those who really need supply. Hubbs and I have only been buying what we need if everyone did that there would be plenty for everyone. We are fully aware and being careful however I will not let this hideous virus rule my life, we cann’t let it do that to us. I am separated from my families in NZ, we just moved out of our rental as the lease expired and we had planned on moving back to NZ in Jan 2021, all our belongings are in storage and we are in limbo now. We have in the past done house sitting and had enough house sits up until October we were looking good BUT the virus has now put said to that, we have lost 2 very good long house sits (we fully understand why and we are sad for the people who were going to have amazing holidays). Yes we have a caravan very small, no bathroom/toilet in it!!! yes we can manage without power, yes we can get water BUT many of the caravan parks/showgrounds are not taking any new bookings so as of next Friday we have no idea where we will end up!!!!!! I am concerned but each day I get up and just carry on being careful and thinking I am well.
I’ve always been a self reliant person. When blizzards threatened, I made some bread, a pot of soup or chili and brewed a cup of tea. When our friends started talking about the scarcity of toilet paper, I figured “that bread and milk crisis again.” A couple of days later, my dh and I went to the grocery store where everything looked normal until we got to the paper goods aisle. Later the same day dh hears that his brother in law Carroll just ordered 800 rolls of toilet paper from amazon. Any hope that hoarders might stay home is dead wrong. Carroll will be roaming the streets looking for more good things to hoard and to brag how smart he was. And now we’ve got two 4-packs of tp left and the grocery stores are EMPTY! That shows how smart I am. But God bless my husband. He says we can cut up and use the 20 years worth of too-small/old/out-of-date clothing in the back closet which we always meant to toss out but never got around to.
It is pretty scary. Wear a mask and gloves when you go out and stay away from others who are not within your home and you all should be fine and safe from getting this virus. Wash your hands with soap and moderately hot water when you return home. Get your fresh air away from others too and don’t forget to exercise in some way on a daily bases. Remember not to over eat since we are all sitting more then normal and this can add more weight to our bodies which is not good for anyone’s health. And since we are spending more time with our families please don’t forget to give each other space from each other so as not to drive each other crazy. As long as you all follow the guidelines of the medical pros we should all be fine. I do not recommend people listen to those governments who have failed their people by telling their citizens that is just a common cold or the regular flu which kills people too because its not: its 10x worse and its no joke. Stay safe. Hugs to All.