Covid Contemplations (part 1)

I was in Mexico City visiting my parents when I started hearing about coronavirus. And toilet paper shortages in the US...

I am originally from Mexico City, but have lived in the US for the past 20 years, now residing in San Diego, California, with my husband and my 2 boys (11 and 14 years old). I flew back from CDMX to SD on March 7th, just to realize that what was a non event in Mexico (yet), was already a huge deal in the US. I had barely enough time to get up to speed before schools closed on March 13th (they will not reopen until the next school year, if at all). My last day of work was March 14th (I teach Pilates. As of today, June 2nd, all gyms are still closed). I had a brief meltdown over toilet paper until I realized I had enough. My boys will probably be using the last covid roll in 2032.

There is so much to say about how things are. How they were. How they have changed. How they will be... Some things bother me. Others don’t. Some are superficial and others have deeper roots... I will just throw my ideas out there, randomly...

Life: instead of worrying, I have focused on enjoying this simple life. I went from being a part time single parent (hubby used to travel a lot), going at 350 km/h, always giving 130%, chronically tired, to a more normal person (“normal” is debatable, though), with a more natural rhythm. No more alarm clock at 5:15am. No more running on tight and rigid schedules.

Colorful Colorado

Welcome to Colorful Colorado! I live in the Denver metro area, which has had the majority of Colorado’s 20,000 plus cases. The state has had over a thousand deaths. We were an early hot spot, thanks to our internationally renowned ski slopes. The high country had it worse at first, but most of the cases are now in the metro areas around Denver and Colorado Springs, where my parents live. Our governor, Jared Polis, acted pretty quickly to get the outbreak under control. Our statewide stay at home order started March 26th, though several counties were ahead of him. Governor Polis lifted the Stay at Home order on April 27th for a Safer at Home program. This lifted the restrictions on some business, while still leaving strict social distancing orders in place. Restaurants and bars are still not open here for anything other than take-away. And gyms, theatres, and other social places are still closed.

Greetings from Kentucky!

Hello from the United States – remote western Kentucky to be exact. I live on the shores of Kentucky Lake and I’m thankful that the dreaded Coronavirus has not hit our area too badly yet. Our entire county has about 32,000 residents and so far we only have 12 documented cases here.  I consider us lucky. That is not to say we haven’t been cautious – we wear masks and gloves any time we go out in public. My mom lives in Chicago and she happened to be here visiting me when the virus hit, so we decided it would be better for her to stay with me and ride this out.  So far her 2 week visit has turned into 8 weeks. I think we made a wise decision.

My son is a dietitian and his wife is a nurse, and they both work in major hospitals in the Chicago area. Both of their units have been turned into Coronavirus units and they are dealing with it on the front lines so to speak, on a daily basis. The population of Cook County where they are located is just over 5 million and so far there have been almost 19,000 confirmed cases there. My son’s daily work commute normally takes him over half an hour on a major expressway in bumper to bumper traffic. Last week he told me that there was only one other car driving down the road at the same time for as far as he could see. That is unheard of for Chicago!