Pandemic

Reading the memoirs of others is always best when they are talking about historical events that the author lived through.  The current coronavirus pandemic certainly seems to qualify, so here I am back blogging again.  (I also hope to be able to look back and remind myself what it was like, many years down the line.)

Marjorie and I have now been working from home for about six weeks, and are (for the most part) following social distancing guidelines laid down by the scientists (which is a much sounder way to go than the ones laid down by the government).  Local businesses are mostly shut down, except for groceries, food deliveries, and the post office.  Currently we're allowed an outing per day, for exercise, and as Hamish gets two walks a day, that means we walk him in shifts.  As I also want to go for runs, I grab him at the end of my runs for a cool down walk (he's too slow and distracted to take with me).  We have a beautiful local park (Milton Country Park) that we frequent, though we try to time it to avoid the crowds.  Most people are good about using it, but there are still too many people wanting to picnic, socialize, linger on park benches, etc., and there is little enforcement of the lockdown rules.

We're trying to do just a big grocery shop every couple of weeks to minimize exposure, and have only gotten food delivered a couple of times (leaving good tips).  We're probably doing a bit much online shopping, but we're at least trying to buy from independent businesses and put a little something back into the economy.  We know we're lucky that we could both keep our jobs and work from home.

So trips and plans have all been put on hold, but things are fine mostly -- just a bit boring, at least as long as we're not thinking about what could happen.  We're worried about everybody we know and love, and how tragic things could become.  We're worried about getting it ourselves -- it's such a weird virus and no one seems safe from it.

It's kind of hard to imagine how we're going to come out of this, barring some sort of vaccine.  Things will open up again at some point but Marjorie and I and most people we talk to have no plans to go rushing back to the pub the day the government says we can.  We at least aren't seeing the sort of idiotic protests that are happening in the States about it all being a hoax or conspiracy to take away rights.  And we're happy to have a national health service and coordinated response from the government, even if they've been bled dry in recent years.  We're just hoping we won't need it.