2020 Life Logs, Day 71: COVID-19 Affecting Our Lives
Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 53 degrees, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Hopefully you nor anyone you know and love will get the coronavirus, but today it became clearly evident to me that is going to affect all of our lives whether or not we get the virus. The Governor of Massachusetts declared a state of emergency this morning to further support the state’s response to the virus and that prompted a number of decisions to cancel things. Also, early this morning I found out that the grandchild of a friend woke up with a 102-degree temperature. The grandchild lives near Boston, but the grandparents travel back and forth weekly. Hopefully the temperature has nothing to do with the coronavirus, but for now, anyone with a temperature will give us pause. By the time I took Ollie to his violin lesson this afternoon, I learned from his violin teacher that some colleges in the state that are on spring vacation issued a statement today that students are not to return to campus at the end of vacation. This affects two of her children, and possibly a third. Students will be allowed on campus to pick up any belongings they need, but for now, they will continue their college education at home through online classes. Then when I took Ollie home, I found out from Jed that Falmouth’s All Band Concert set for tonight had been cancelled. I didn’t see Jonah or Sam, but I know they must have been terribly disappointed. As we move forward, there will be many more cancellations and closings. Hopefully these measures will help flatten the spread of this virus, so all of us must follow recommendations and think seriously about socializing in large groups for now. To my knowledge, we have had no active cases here on the Cape, so I am planning to go to a Newcomer’s Shamrock Luncheon at a local Irish pub tomorrow. But if we start to have active cases on the Cape, I’ll seriously assess whether to attend future social gatherings. I heard from Mike and Linda Stuart this morning. These are my good friends that are biking around the world. They were traveling from Florida to Spain on a cruise ship, planning to disembark in Barcelona and then head across northern Italy. In her email, Linda explained that since the borders of Italy are closed, they hopped off the ship a day or so early in Malaga and will spend time biking the southern coast of Spain for now. It is evident that each and every one us, no matter where we are in the world, need to be diligent in making decisions of how to live as safely as possible as the coronavirus continues to spread.
Other than becoming painfully aware of just how deeply the spread of the coronavirus is going to affect all of our lives, I spent my day writing in preparation for my Memoir Writing class tomorrow. And since the All Bands Night was cancelled, I went to play Mah Jongg with my Wednesday night group. And Shadow and I enjoyed our time outside today in the sunshine.
