In Quarantine

Boy has the world changed A LOT since the last time I posted in this blog... and it's only been a month! 😬  Due to the rapid spread of Covid-19 (the coronavirus) and the unprecedented global reaction to the virus, life as we knew it is not really... a thing any more.  While I think that caution is best, I also think it's important that people stop panicking -- stop hoarding more than you need, stop fearing certain death, stop spreading rumors that you scrolled past on facebook without fact checking.  This virus is serious -- I admit I was initially one of the "it's basically the flu" people, and I regret my ignorance and insensitivity.  This thing can obviously be deadly.  This thing spreads fast, and you're contagious before you ever show symptoms... and it's possible not to show symptoms at all.  So caution is best.  Stay home as much as you can, pay extra attention to hygiene, and check up on your loved ones in vulnerable groups.

This past week, I've been home from work.  I work in a building with over 1000 other people, and for weeks now the CDC has been recommending not being in groups larger than 50 (and later, larger than 10).  It got to the point that it scared me that we were still expected to come in... I don't work an essential job.  Businesses were already shutting down, and we should have been among those that shut down early.  Instead we stayed open until California's Governor Gavin Newsom called for a statewide lock down.  Work finally shut down at that point.  I'm not able to work from home (because of a few different reasons, but mostly because of my loud dog -- I work in a call center and the customers can't hear a dog in the background when they call), so things may get dicey with money.  My job won't be paying those of us that can't work from home... and they were so ill prepared for this (because they neglected to prepare any in the past few weeks when the writing was on the wall) that even those that have been approved to work from home have been delayed in actually being able to work.  And I don't expect them to be paid for these last few days here.

Everyone is struggling now... I'm depressed that I won't be able to see the Jonas Brothers in concert in Las Vegas, I'm worried for everyone who is off work without pay, I'm even more worried for people who still have to work and risk exposure every day.  I have artist friends who rely on appearances at comic conventions who are going to struggle to make up this lost income for a long time.  Kids are out of school... the class of 2020 isn't getting a prom or a graduation or any other senior year festivities.  I know a composer who has been working on music for years that she will no longer get to perform.

More insidious, of course, and more aggravating than sad is the fact that capitalism is not taking a break.  Poor people don't have access to covid-19 testing but the wealthy and famous can be tested without any reason to even think they've been exposed.  People still have rent and mortgages and car notes and utility bills, but no pay check to cover them. 

This is all so unprecedented.  It's weird.  Maybe we'll go stir crazy, but hopefully we'll all survive... and maybe some positive changes will come of this.

So far I've spent much of my time home these past few days playing Animal Crossing (post to come), but I hope to get more editing work done and read a couple of books too.  Let's all stay home and do whatever we can to bring ourselves some peace.

I hope I see you all on the other side.




PS: For further reading, you can see the Covid-19 posts on my tumblr blog (some of which are lighthearted, because we can all use a laugh, and the rest are informative and interesting), as well as the wikipedia page on the Spanish Flu -- the pandemic humanity survived 100 years ago.