Corona Letters #5
Dear Fellow Quarantiners,
Here it is Saturday and it's just like every other day of the week. At least in our house. Yesterday, I picked up the Weekend section of our newspaper and I don't think I've ever seen it so paltry on a Friday before. And, to be honest, they didn't list many fun things to do (unless you consider how to avoid getting the coronavirus "fun"). How strange to look at the weekend section of the newspaper and see no ads for concerts, shows, and museum happenings about town.
For me, like for many people, thoughts about our current economy are at times as scary as the pandemic itself. For the foreseeable future our family should be fine. But, who knows down the road? Unfortunately, there are huge groups of people that are being effected by this right now. And, it probably won't get better any time soon for them. My daughter told me yesterday that I need to be more positive. So, my family and I sat down this morning and talked about ways we could help. I know many people are worried about small business owners, as we should be. They are likely to be the hardest hit. Here are some ideas we had while brainstorming:
1. Get take out from local (not chain) restaurants a few times a week
2. Make Care packages for friends buying locally sourced products (i.e. honey and potted plants)
(and leave those care packages on doorsteps and keep a safe distance)
3. Visit local garden shops (most of their wares are outside)
4. Order flowers from local shops (I imagine they will be hurting without local proms, etc)
5. Buy some groceries from small mom and pop shops. (Some of these smaller stores rely on students and local business for their daily trickle of business. That trickle has dried up)
6. Get coffee from local businesses instead of chains
7. Buy gift cards from local businesses even if we aren't currently using them.
Anyway, these were just some of our ideas. Let me know if you have some others. We want to support the local economy as much as we can, while we can. Another important thing we can all do to help the local economy is help out people who normally provide us services, even if we don't need them right now. People that we all use as dog walkers, housecleaners, babysitters, landscapers etc. depend on getting paid for their livelihoods. We can't forget them during these times. We all have to help each other through this.
I think a lot of people, including myself, at times are worried about going out into the world at all. And sometimes, visiting small businesses requires going out. And, I'm not sure what to tell people to do about this fear. It's valid to feel this way and yet we need to go out into the world from time to time. I will say that you shouldn't feel embarrassed to protect yourself in whatever way you feel see necessary. I saw a meme of a woman covered from head to toe in garbage bags and duct tape. Hey, if that's what you need to do to feel safe. Go for it.
"Okay" you ask, "So I can protect myself, but how do I know that the people in the businesses I'm visiting are taking precautions?" I guess you don't. I went to the pizza place the other day and they girl behind the counter was not wearing gloves and neither was anyone else. The counter girl was handling money and not doing anything between customers to disinfect. If I'm being honest it concerned me more than a little bit but did I bring the food home? yes. Did my family consume it? absolutely. I am 100% sure we won't get the virus? Nope. There are no guarantees.
BTW, in case you are wondering, pizza places are doing VERY well during this crisis.
******
In the numbers,
The cases in Massachusetts are climbing, and I there has been one reported death.
Italy is bringing in the military to enforce lockdown because their numbers keep rising even with their efforts to isolate themselves. They had 793 deaths in the last 24 hours. The largest number of deaths in that period in the world so far. Just devastating.
I haven't heard of any more cases in our town, and I don't personally know anyone who has it, but I do now know people who know people who have it, so it's getting closer. It will affect us all in the long run.
*********
On a personal note, yesterday I wrote about the dilemma of whether to have our oldest daughter come home for the day. We ended up having her here for about seven delightful hours where we all kept the proper social distance and we covered all the furniture with sheets to protect them from being "contaminated". It feels so odd to have to behave like this with our own daughter but my mother in law will be returning here soon and we have to take necessary precautions. But, I realize that with all the precautions we took there still are no guarantees.
There just aren't any guarantees.
Take Care! Stay Connected! Stay Virus Free!
Deb
Here it is Saturday and it's just like every other day of the week. At least in our house. Yesterday, I picked up the Weekend section of our newspaper and I don't think I've ever seen it so paltry on a Friday before. And, to be honest, they didn't list many fun things to do (unless you consider how to avoid getting the coronavirus "fun"). How strange to look at the weekend section of the newspaper and see no ads for concerts, shows, and museum happenings about town.
For me, like for many people, thoughts about our current economy are at times as scary as the pandemic itself. For the foreseeable future our family should be fine. But, who knows down the road? Unfortunately, there are huge groups of people that are being effected by this right now. And, it probably won't get better any time soon for them. My daughter told me yesterday that I need to be more positive. So, my family and I sat down this morning and talked about ways we could help. I know many people are worried about small business owners, as we should be. They are likely to be the hardest hit. Here are some ideas we had while brainstorming:
1. Get take out from local (not chain) restaurants a few times a week
2. Make Care packages for friends buying locally sourced products (i.e. honey and potted plants)
(and leave those care packages on doorsteps and keep a safe distance)
3. Visit local garden shops (most of their wares are outside)
4. Order flowers from local shops (I imagine they will be hurting without local proms, etc)
5. Buy some groceries from small mom and pop shops. (Some of these smaller stores rely on students and local business for their daily trickle of business. That trickle has dried up)
6. Get coffee from local businesses instead of chains
7. Buy gift cards from local businesses even if we aren't currently using them.
Anyway, these were just some of our ideas. Let me know if you have some others. We want to support the local economy as much as we can, while we can. Another important thing we can all do to help the local economy is help out people who normally provide us services, even if we don't need them right now. People that we all use as dog walkers, housecleaners, babysitters, landscapers etc. depend on getting paid for their livelihoods. We can't forget them during these times. We all have to help each other through this.
I think a lot of people, including myself, at times are worried about going out into the world at all. And sometimes, visiting small businesses requires going out. And, I'm not sure what to tell people to do about this fear. It's valid to feel this way and yet we need to go out into the world from time to time. I will say that you shouldn't feel embarrassed to protect yourself in whatever way you feel see necessary. I saw a meme of a woman covered from head to toe in garbage bags and duct tape. Hey, if that's what you need to do to feel safe. Go for it.
"Okay" you ask, "So I can protect myself, but how do I know that the people in the businesses I'm visiting are taking precautions?" I guess you don't. I went to the pizza place the other day and they girl behind the counter was not wearing gloves and neither was anyone else. The counter girl was handling money and not doing anything between customers to disinfect. If I'm being honest it concerned me more than a little bit but did I bring the food home? yes. Did my family consume it? absolutely. I am 100% sure we won't get the virus? Nope. There are no guarantees.
BTW, in case you are wondering, pizza places are doing VERY well during this crisis.
******
In the numbers,
The cases in Massachusetts are climbing, and I there has been one reported death.
Italy is bringing in the military to enforce lockdown because their numbers keep rising even with their efforts to isolate themselves. They had 793 deaths in the last 24 hours. The largest number of deaths in that period in the world so far. Just devastating.
I haven't heard of any more cases in our town, and I don't personally know anyone who has it, but I do now know people who know people who have it, so it's getting closer. It will affect us all in the long run.
*********
On a personal note, yesterday I wrote about the dilemma of whether to have our oldest daughter come home for the day. We ended up having her here for about seven delightful hours where we all kept the proper social distance and we covered all the furniture with sheets to protect them from being "contaminated". It feels so odd to have to behave like this with our own daughter but my mother in law will be returning here soon and we have to take necessary precautions. But, I realize that with all the precautions we took there still are no guarantees.
There just aren't any guarantees.
Take Care! Stay Connected! Stay Virus Free!
Deb
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