Social distancing Day 2: Friday, March 13, 2020
I am already seeing a trend that I am getting more done at home than usual.
By the time my first day of social distancing was over, I had gotten work done on the car, worked in the yard, worked out and straightened up around the house. Add to that three hours or studying to update my computer skills.
On Day 2 there is more yard work and more studying in the computer study guide (for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8).
By the end of my second day I had finished off a biography of Sam Houston – a book I started the previous day while waiting for the service on my car.
Driving by the grocery store around lunch time, I didn’t see any empty parking places. I don’t think you can buy groceries and do social distancing at the same time.
On Twitter and Instagram, I am seeing photos of stores with no toilet paper, no soap and no bottled water. At the moment I’m not sure what the connection is with bottled water.
I saw an advisory suggesting being in any groups of more than 10 people is a bad idea. That rules out just about any restaurant.
I always knew I was the kind of person who never spent much time sitting around the house. The fact that I have suddenly become the kind of person who SHOULD spend my time around the house for the foreseeable future is already getting old.
Yet on my second day I am looking at months of this.
On the other hand, I am also extremely grateful that I am not one of the people stuck in a small room on a cruise ship or in a quarantine facility. At the very least, I can walk outside and wander around my yard.
I never was one to enjoy doing yard work. Now being in the yard seems like a welcome break.
And most of the stuff on TV is crap.
Social distancing Day 1: Thursday, March 12, 2020
I am trying to look normal to anyone who might see me.
Very few people are likely to see me.
And very little about today feels normal.
It is my first day of attempting social distancing.
My car needs servicing and I have to deal with that at some point. I get up what for me is early, fill up at the nearest gas station and drive to the Ford dealership just after 8 a.m. I’m out a little after 11 a.m.
In my three hours there, a few other people are waiting. We are all sitting at least a few feet away from each other.
From there it’s on to the grocery store. Lots of people are buying lots of toilet paper, among other things. Looks like everybody is stocking up. I guess I’m a little caught up in things. I get a small package of six rolls of TP.
I’m now at the time of day when I would typically be lunching at one of several sports bar and grill type places. Instead, I’m at home getting some things done. I mow the front yard.
Next is what passes for a workout at this stage in my life – closing in on 58 years old and obviously overweight. I spend about 20 minutes with dumbells doing do basic stuff.
Then its lunch. Tacos to go, eaten at home.
It’s 1:30 p.m. Done eating. Sitting at home.
It’s becoming more and more apparent how different things feel as it looks like I am facing a life as a semi-hermit in the middle of a city of more than a million people.
And there isn’t the luxury of sports to kill time. Between last night and today, college and pro basketball have shut down. I haven’t seen official word yet, but it seems certain the same is in store for pro baseball.
I told me sister in a text message that within a month my yard will probably be the neatest it has ever been and my house will probably been the cleanest it has ever been. I was trying to be funny. That was two hours ago and it seems less funny by the minute.
And six hours into what I guess is my new normal, none of this strangeness even includes getting sick. That is something I may very well have to face sometime in the coming months.
1:45 p.m. Central Time.
Update: Major League Baseball announced this afternoon that the start of the season will be delayed at least two weeks.