Saturday, March 14, 2020

Living through the COVID apocalypse...





"If you have a bunker, and it is looking a bit stocked right now, consider yourself lucky. However, if you and your spouse both work, and have kids in school, these might not be lucky times ahead. If schools get furloughed for a month or so, and your job does not allow you to work from home, then what?" 



By now we all have stories to tell how nut-so things are becoming. There is nothing I could report here that would shock anyone. All I can say is this - Y2K was a slowing moving panic for stocking up, Heck, we had many months of warnings by the sooth sayers on how bad things could be. 9/11 - different story. We did not know if the attacks were just starting, if we were going suffer under some kind of NBC attack, or what. Still, as crazy as that time was, it was nothing like right now.

Late yesterday afternoon, we decided that for the first time in a very long time, we were going to have Chinese food for diner. It was my job to run down and pick it up. Before I left, my wife was going through some lamentations that with ALL the shopping we had done, we neglected to buy any ground beef. And our supply in our freezer was dwindling fast. So as a surprise, I would run into Cub real fast, buy a chub or two, and then pick up the Chinese food and head home. Bad plan.

The first warning bell should have gone off when I pulled into a very full Cub parking lot. I did find a parking space and went inside. It was like a food fight. Mayhem. I made my way through maddening crowds to the meat section. Holy picked over Batman! I had never seen it like that, not even before Thanksgiving or Christmas. I did manage to find a few one pound chubs of ground beef. On sale? Not hardly. I don't think I have ever paid more for ground beef. 

By now we all know that not only is the country in a state of emergency, but so are many of the states - including ours. What does that mean? Our crazy times are about to get crazier. My belief is that "social distancing" will become the norm for a while. And how will that work with people riding buses, trains, kids sitting in schools? It won't. I think we are just at the start of living in the long list of do's and don'ts. I would not be surprised to see this state, or even the entire nation for that matter, shut itself down. Like Italy and Ireland? Maybe.

If you have a bunker, and it is looking a bit stocked right now, consider yourself lucky. However, if you and your spouse both work, and have kids in school, these might not be lucky times ahead. If schools get furloughed for a month or so, and your job does not allow you to work from home, then what? Sure, some have grandparents to lean on, but many do not. As strange as our days have been up to now, they could get a whole lot stranger before Easter. 

If because of work, you had to wait until this weekend to shop, good luck with that. Wear your body armor and bring an extra cup of grace with you. I know we will all get through this, and hopefully, be stronger for the experience of doing so. The is the Bird, coming to you from the Bird's Bunker, saying roger and out.

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