So, I fret, sitting here in the middle of another rainy east Texas morning.
This week we went from sunny warm days to cooler evenings to now another storm of heavy rain and thunder.
The last few days have been challenging even though the weather was lovely. I sat here perplexed and honestly not in a very good mood.
Work was ok. We had a nice dinner of chicken thighs, potatoes, and veggies. I even made Weight Watcher oatmeal cookies and used butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips and was quite pleased with the results. But, I couldn't shake this feeling of uncertainty and stress of life as we know it. It is day 53 of being sheltered in place, and I am having a harder time as of late.
I think it is a combination of challenges, but at the heart of my angst is I feel a bit out of control of my life. OK, I feel a great deal of lack of control as decisions are being made for me that I have little input on. Want to go out to eat? can't safely. Want to go to Savannah and take a look at a cute property and walk on the beach? really can't. Want to go sit at the Silver Grizzly and get coffee? can't. Want to go buy socks, we could go to Target but the whole idea of sheltering in place is to stay in place. So, we got up early to get DaisyBelle out before the rain and my first reaction was this just makes the day ahead longer.
So, I know at the core, this inability to control or at least believe I control my life is causing my anxiety or stress. I am working which is good, but we all have an uncertainty of work or honestly we should. I actually came up with an idea for work around 3 AM and so at least things are moving somewhat. But, as many may know, I like to be in control of my destiny, and in this time none of us really are in control of what and how this virus will impact our lives.
I don't believe the economy post-pandemic will look like the one prior. In an economy driven by consumer demand, their demands will change and hopefully for the better. As an example, travel will be more local, international travel will take years to come back and dare I say huge planes filled with hundreds of people don't sound any more appealing to me these days than a large cruise ship. There is a great article on why you see now mosquitos at DisneyWorld ( https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/548281/reason-why-there-are-no-mosquitoes-in-disney-world ). Do you think Disney will come up with a similar strategy for viruses? If not how do they get to a large enough number of visitors to make opening the parks back up a safe and profitable adventure. I think travel will be closer to when I was a kid. Air travel more for business and vacations will be getting in a car and going somewhere. Car travel, in a pandemic, seems safer to me whether that is true or not.
I sit here as the rains keep coming down, and I fret over the numbers of people who still believe this is a conspiracy as over 70,000 Americans have died from the virus. That most cases on the east coast are traceable back to Europe makes all of the China scare seem more out of place and honestly distracted us from earlier screenings that could have slowed down or reduced the number of people in this country who have contracted the virus.
These same people want the states to just open back up the economy and services as they were before. To the point of protesting and being violent. When all of the news shows that many if not most of the cases of the Coronavirus are not known. They announced mobile testing here in Longview, finally. But only if you have symptoms.
It can take up to 14 days to have symptoms and guess what a large number of carriers of the virus don't have symptoms at all and aren't being counted. ( https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/04/13/831883560/can-a-coronavirus-patient-who-isnt-showing-symptoms-infect-others ).
One other point, the idea that most of us will just survive this virus and be immune is like suggesting we don't need the flu vaccines anymore because most people survive the flu. But, the recovery from the flu can take weeks when severe, and we choose to get vaccinated cause we don't what to be sick and some do prevent others from dying from the flu.
The recovery time for the Coronavirus is much longer, and it dawns on me that we really don't know the long term health effect of this virus on people that recovered but suffered kidney, lung, and heart issues in their recovery. Doesn't it make the most sense to slow this virus down and do as much as we can to protect as many as possible from getting sick?
By the way, according to limited research in NY, old for people with the virus being admitted to the hospital is 51 and over.
It bothers me that we have a president who still either doesn't care or doesn't understand the seriousness of this virus. When you see him at a plant that makes masks and he chooses to wear goggles and no mask it has to boggle one's mind. In a normal time this would make me laugh. But, his valet was just confirmed with the virus and you can tell that all the people with him were not wearing a mask including his daughter. The odds that none of them will have contracted this virus must be low, and the only person scarier than Trump in the Whitehouse is Pence.
The hurry to open the economy will accelerate people getting sick. So far it seems consumers in many parts of the country seem to be more cautious than their own government.
As the rains come down at least I don't think east Texas has to worry about a drought. We have had plenty of rain, but there are still those watering their plants and yard.
So, it is Friday.. yes I feel a bit out of control of life and dare I say I don't handle that too well. I have ordered on eBay a Wii U so I can play some wacky tennis and get frustrations out on that instead of family and pets, but it is not due to arrive till Monday. So keep an eye out for me on Facebook.
I hope you all have a pleasant and content weekend! We have a Zoom wine tasting happy hour to attend tomorrow and maybe lasagna to cook on Sunday! Hopefully, more sunshine as well.
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