Life in a Pandemic

 Maybe I don't really want to remember the odd routines of life during this Covid pandemic. But I am motivated to record them and hope they become a thing of the past. Some changes will last. And getting back to "normal" may take a long time. We have been told there will be no church choir rehearsals until there is a vaccine. We just returned from our weekly Saturday trip to McCaffrey's--the Princeton grocery store that we use most often. We wore our masks but the aisles are no longer marked one way only. We can bring our reusable bags now but we made a mistake by putting them down on the conveyer belt. That must spread germs. We pack those bags ourselves. Jim reminded me that at least the shelves are full now. A few months ago, there were empty places--no toilet paper,canned beans, spray cleaners. As soon as we get into the car, we use hand sanitizer.

  We didn't have any doctor's appointments this week. But when we have had them, we fill out a form ahead of time saying that we are symptom-free and haven't been out of state or exposed to someone with Covid. Jim had one incident when he marked that he had been to Pennsylvania and the assistant smirked at him and said Pennsylvania was not international travel. He rightly pointed out that it asked for domestic travel as well. When we arrive, we call in and stay in the car until we are told to enter. Our temperature is taken and then we walk into an empty waiting room or are ushered into an exam room right away. The doctor is in full PPE--personal protective equipment. Jim and I have both had a few telemedicine appointments for routine chats.

 
Jim spent three full days this week participating in a conference originating in Poland. He had said he didn't want to travel there, but when the conference was held as a Zoom meeting, he did his part. He read a paper, chaired a session, and gave some summary remarks. It was too much time in front of a screen and his eyes suffered. He learned to discipline himself to looking away from the screen often. In the future there probably will be meeting in person and some live streaming from home. This will enable more participants, especially young scholars, who can't afford to travel or don't have travel funds.

  And then there's that word--asynchronous--which our dear granddaughter Ruth at age 9 used in her phone conversation with me this week. It rolled off her tongue far better than it does mine! She has half days of in person school and then afternoons and Fridays asynchronous education.

  We have been able to see Jeff and Susan andtheir family by sharing meals on their deck. How will we celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas? That is all very uncertain. Laura has suggested taking Covid tests which she and Michael have done in preparation for a few events. Maybe that will be an option so that we know we will not infect anyone else.

  Yesterday we watched the video of a funeral of our friend from years ago-Harvey Stob. His wife sent us a link to the tape and a slide show of photos. It was good to be able to see these but how strange to see a masked family and to know that one of their sons couldn't even be at his dad's funeral because he had been exposed to Covid. The funeral was in their Grand Rapids church and was limited to 50 participants with no singing and no food served.

  Today we will watch Notre Dame play its first away game--in Pittsburgh. The last three games were at home in ND Stadium to a sparse crowd of students and players' families. What an economic hardship this is for the city of South Bend. I think of the busy times at Martin's Supermarket on Saturday game days and realize that all that is over for now.

Tomorrow we will go to church sitting on the couch in our pajamas. We are getting too accustomed to this informal way of worshipping. I have done a few Wednesday evening choir "gatherings"--the word used instead of rehearsals.

 

We treat ourselves to one take-out meal a week. The only times we have eaten at a restaurant were on our trip to the Hudson River Valley and our anniversary dinner at the Ruth Chris's tent. How long will this continue? Probably through the winter when there is greater danger of infection when we are all indoors. There is the promise of vaccines in early 2021 but we will not be eager to be first until they are proven effective.