I suppose if I were to go back in time and write a science fiction novel I might date it in the year 2020. It has a nice ring to it and I think it's a year that nobody thought would ever actually arrive. But here we are. It came, and other than a bunch of technological advances that we tend to take for granted these days, it came without much incident. As it turns out, the calm stillness with which it arrived was a mere facade. Who knew that 2020, in a few short months, would change the world in a way that has literally never been experienced by mankind?
As I write this, we are in the middle of what can be defined as organized chaos. The bustling world that we are used to being a part of has literally shut down due to a seemingly insignificant mammal that we refer to as a bat. I'll leave the rest of the story there to the experts because it's all very scientific and I don't want to pretend that I am qualified to give any sort of detailed explanation about it. I'll just leave it at "bat". It is interesting to think about how humans usually determine power by money and weaponry but the Covid-19 virus isn't something we can throw these things at and win. That doesn't mean we are completely powerless but definitely more vulnerable than the majority of us had imagined.
It happened gradually. It first came out in the news that there was a new virus we needed to concern ourselves with. I remember kind of rolling my eyes and thinking, "Not again!". I recalled all the other viruses from the past that amounted to very little. Swine flu. Bird flu. SARS. Mad Cow Disease. West Nile. These had all come, instilled fear, and left. I figured the media was hyping it because if they don't have anything to hype, they don't have a job. I also suspected it could be a political scam used to try to get people not to vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming election. I didn't take it too seriously. Then things started happening. Public closures started to spread faster than the virus itself. Church was one of the first thing to be canceled. President Nelson knows some things about medicine and took the World Health Organization seriously. No more church meetings of any sort and nobody would be attending the upcoming General Conference that we'd been told at the previous conference would be different than all others and one we would not soon forget. We knew it was going to be a commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the first vision of Joseph Smith. We didn't know that wasn't the only reason it would be unforgettable. No more church meetings also means no more seminary teaching in person for me. I've had to get trained on how to teach class online. This type of instruction will begin on Monday, March 30th. I am terrible with technology but hopefully I'll get the hang of it soon.
When Disneyland closed down, I knew the government meant business. No public gatherings of over 250 people could be held. Good thing I had gotten my Disney fix on a ladies trip just two weeks prior to them closing. It was fun but we were extremely careful and paranoid. We each had our own bottle of hand sanitizer that we applied after every ride and as often as we could remember to apply it, we did. I remember someone from home calling me as we were in line for Pirates of the Caribbean. When I told him where I was, the first thing out of his mouth was, "You're gonna get the Corona Virus."
Right after these closures, schools got canceled. It had started with after school activities. Eventually kids away at college were told to go home and finish their studies online. Local schools announced that they would not be opening after spring break. All classes would be carried out online for at least a month. Teachers would have to scramble to figure out how to best accommodate students remotely. My daughter Brooklyn is a senior and is very sad that she won't be able to accomplish her goal of lettering in track. She is also worried now that they will not be able to hold a graduation ceremony. She hadn't even wanted to attend until a chance arose that she might not have the option. Funny how we take things for granted and don't appreciate them until they're gone.
With all of the craziness going on, we were unsure about whether or not to carry out our spring break plans to go to Costa Rica last week. On the one hand, the world was shutting down and there was a dangerous virus on the prowl waiting to pounce. But on the other hand, monkeys. I admit that choosing to go to Costa Rica was probably not one of our finest decision making moments. When we were weighing out the pros and cons we decided that the virus was out there and we could get it pretty much anywhere. We also decided to wear extremely uncomfortable heavy duty masks through the airports and on the planes. We used hand sanitizer tirelessly and wiped our surroundings down with lysol every chance we got. I did feel a sense of hostility coming towards us from the many people who chose not to do these things. This sensation was justified as a lady told us exactly what she thought of us and our masks as soon as the plane touched down in LAX. After I explained to her that we had every right to protect ourselves I think some people on that particular plane understood the inappropriateness of what that lady had done and felt a newborn sense of compassion for us. I started receiving warm, knowing smiles. However, on other planes and through the airports, looks of hostility seemed magnified. That is, until we found a mostly vacant hallway with a nice breeze blowing through from the outside. There, we removed our masks and laid down a blanket to play Skipbo. As people walked by and saw us, all they could do was give us a big smile. It was a stark contrast and enlightening to me as I had never known that simply wearing a protective mask would make people so angry. Looking back, I think the masks were just an unwelcome reminder of what was coming and for this reason, made people cranky.
We were mostly secluded once we got to Costa Rica. People had already started hiding away. None of our flights or hotels were full. We were pretty secluded despite visiting national parks and famous beaches. We were the last people to be taken on a zip line tour until further notice. People there were being educated by government workers. You couldn't walk into a restaurant or grocery store without being doused with alcohol. Mid way through our week there, things started shutting down. When they announced that their border would be closing we decided it might be smart to go home early. There was no getting through to the airlines so we ended keeping our original flight schedule. Though we had fun in Costa Rica, the trip was tainted by fear and seemed to last much longer than 1 week. When it finally came to an end, we arrived at the airport to find the line to security was out the door, down the street and around the corner. Multiple security guards and taxi drivers were making videos of us as they drove by. It was unlike anything they'd seen before and they wanted to document the chaos. I'm sure if we looked hard enough, we could find ourselves on youtube standing in the airport lines dawning face masks and madly applying and reapplying hand sanitizer in San Jose, Costa Rica. Luckily, despite stopping to feed the crocodiles along the way and a crazy detour to McDonalds, we still arrived at the airport 3 hours early so the line was no sweat off our backs.
4/2/20
Now that we're home, all the missionaries are being sent back to their home countries. National parks have closed and last night we were awoken by an alarm on our phones that we did not set from the Larimer County Public Health Director stating that we are all ordered to stay home unless seeking medical treatment or getting supplies. We are allowed to go outside but we must stay 6 feet away from other people. New rules and laws about social distancing and self quarantine are developing daily. (Inserted later that day: For example, by the time I finished this writing today, the school had called to inform us it wouldn't be opening again for this academic school year.) I look at my Covid-19 app several times a day to see how many have been reported as infected, how many have died and how many have recovered. Just less than two weeks ago while we were in Costa Rica, there were less than 100,000 cases. Now there are over 1 million. I am always doing the math to see what percentage of lives are being taken out of those infected. Right now it looks to be about 5% but only about 20% have actually recovered so that number isn't accurate. Brooklyn's English teacher's husband just died 2 nights ago. He was 45. John's nephew Parker has been infected. Symptoms are starting to take hold now but he's young so he should be okay.
The night before last we got up the courage to order take out for the first time since arriving home from Costa Rica. We ordered online from Cafe Rio for Taco Tuesday night. We had to wait outside the restaurant for a worker to bring it out to us. We weren't allowed to set foot inside. We expected that. What we didn't expect was the wait. When we arrived, there were people standing outside the door waiting for their food so we knew our food wouldn't come immediately. What we failed to notice was the full parking lot and the people sitting in their cars who were also waiting for their food. Since restaurants have had to cut employment by about 50% they were under staffed and we ended up waiting for our "fast food" order for an hour. We are not likely to do that again any time soon. By the time we got home I wasn't even hungry anymore.
Besides toilet paper and cleaning products, there's been a run on a few other essential items. One of them being eggs. Don't ask me why. Nothing has happened to the chickens. I've never been in want of eggs until now. Of course, I'll consider myself lucky if this is the extent of deprivation I experience. We do have two bantam chickens out back that did their absolute best to cover (bless their chicken hearts) but they fell short. So John and I went to Costco Tuesday night and were given 2 options. We could buy either 12 eggs or 150 eggs. I talked John into going with the 150 option because the less we go to the store the better. We had fun playing Easter bunny (especially fun since Easter is 1 week from Sunday) and leaving eggs on neighbors' doorsteps. I even got to have short conversations with some of them which was a special treat during this time of social distancing. I struck a conversation with one neighbor who has been particularly flippant about this whole quarantine thing. It surprised me because he works in the medical field but I guess he thinks Covid-19 is some sort of conspiracy. As he spoke he kept coming closer and closer to me which is a breach of quarantine etiquette. He told me that he probably has it but, "So what? I''ll get sick and then I'll get better. So what? Life goes on." He said the only people who really need to worry are the elderly and people with preexisting conditions. I told him that I didn't want it because I have Asthma and he said, "Oh. Then I'll back away from you. You're right, you don't want it." Eye roll.
