I wonder what you will remember from this time. Hopefully, it will be just that things became inconvenient. But.... it's scary, as there have already been thousands of deaths around the world (especially in China and Italy). While spending time at the Wyoming Cemetery helping Dad when he was the caretaker, visiting graves or listening to the Memorial Day program have you looked at the grave markers closely? There are a number of deaths of young women from 1917-18, during the last major epidemic which was fatal to many pregnant women. Your great grandfather Joseph Zeller's first wife died during this influenza while expecting their first baby. He later married your great grandmother Mary Lee Rowe (they had 3 daughters - our Aunts Mary and Margaret, and your grandmother Elizabeth).
Steve and I have both been responsible for "Business Continuation Planning" at work, in my case for about 10 years. In larger companies, it's generally expected that a Plan exists for business interruptions such as buildings being inaccessible, system failures and employees being unable to get to work. Prudential established a pandemic plan years ago, which included creating scenarios and having team "exercises" to talk about & plan for how they would handle situations when employees & their family members are sick. The scenarios would often include 2 waves of infections, separated over several months (an alarming thought). One main feature of the Plan is for employees to avoid working in close physical proximity where germs could be spread - and preferably, to work from home.
Due at least partially to having limited testing capabilities, infections are spreading in the U.S. Two hot spots are in & around Seattle, WA and New Rochelle, NY (right outside NYC). This week there's been significant escalation in efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus. The rate of serious complications like pneumonia and death is much higher for those over 60 years old and with pre-existing health conditions. However, it seems like others especially young people can have mild cases - but can still spread the infection through coughing/sneezing, even before they have symptoms (and perhaps it is spreading from people that have no symptoms at all). This is a very serious development.
So what's going on now? On Friday, Governor Wolf announced that public schools would close for at least two weeks. Earlier in the week, colleges and universities began announcing plans to discontinue in-person classes and (attempt to) switch to on-line classes. Alex, yours at Misericordia will start on Wednesday. Over the past week, the NBA cancelled the rest of its season, MLB is delaying the start of its season, and conferences & meetings of all kinds are being called off. Understandably but to Rob's disappointment, the 2020 Key Club District Convention (D-Con) scheduled in State College this weekend was cancelled. Some churches have wisely cancelled services, like the West Pittston Methodist Church down our street. Nursing homes are limiting visitors. (I hate to think about what could happen in prisons.) Prudential where I work imposed travel restrictions and starting next week is having as many employees as possible transition to working at home.
What have we done about it? Realizing this could be a very serious situation, about a month ago Steve and I replaced our deep freezer that's in the basement (the previous one stopped working in January, which was especially unfortunate because a large batch of tagliarini that I made for Alex's birthday was lost - Next time, Alex, you must take home your home-made birthday presents on the night of your party!). We then shopped at Sam's Club, Walmart, Gerrity's and Price Chopper to get enough food etc. for about 2 weeks. And got more over-the-counter medicines. Alex, you texted me a few days ago that you & Taylor got extra stuff. Here's one of Steve's purchases:
What else is going on? Yesterday, I got a new office chair at Staples to use for working in your old room, Alex. Everyone who didn't plan ahead has been shopping-crazy over the past few days. The items that are gone or hard-to-keep-on-the-shelves seem to be hand sanitizer, bottled water (Why??? Tap water is usually fine and shouldn't be affected), toilet paper, paper towel, meats, bread, tomato sauce/pasta, canned goods and in some places produce. There are limits to the number of certain items that can be purchased. At Gerrity's in West Pittston, all the checkout lanes have been open for several days.
What are we doing differently? Washing hands frequently, using hand sanitizer after going out, using napkins to open doors in public places, and thinking at least twice about going to restaurants (Agolino's has put away its salt & pepper shakers and condiment bottles in favor of individual size packets, and we heard is now steaming its laminated menus).
What hasn't changed? Rob is still closely following politics, including the Democratic debates (last night Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders had a debate without a live audience). And today Rob and I had learner's permit driving time, going around in the green Altima for the first time - out Wyoming Ave, over into Luzerne, then home on the Back Road. Yes, it has leather seats and a sun roof (though not crank windows)! Income tax filings are being prepared. Steve still says "Shedlocks!!" on any evening or weekend when someone else's car is parked in front of our house. Aunt Julie and Mark are taking care of their new puppies (who they bravely took with them for a week of vacation in Florida) - Blue aka "Pumpkin" and Leila. Spring is arriving - including mourning doves, robins, and daffodil shoots. And Rambo and Jean Luc are in their usual routines, as indicated below. We're happy that, after a visit to the Plains Animal Hospital, Chloe recovered from a nasty UTI a couple weeks ago.
We will all be very careful - hopefully careful enough - and keep encouraging our family & friends to be careful too.
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