What's Different

So I thought I'd make a quick list of things that are different right now during the Corona/COVID pandemic.

• Hoarding: it isn't just an horrific TV show now.  People are buying out supplies in an obscene fashion.  The worst example is a man in KY who bought $17,000 worth of hand sanitizer with the plan to sell it at a huge markup.  No one would buy from him and he was getting death threats.  He ended up donating it all to a couple of churches.
• Toilet Paper - you can't find it anywhere.  People post on FaceBook if they find it somewhere.  It is as mythic as a unicorn.  Same thing with hand sanitizer, paper towels, wipes, and disinfecting alcohol.
• Medical Masks: doctors and hospitals can't keep these in supply.   There was also a recent suggestion that medical masks can be cleaned and re-used.  Every CDC and medical protocol is against this, but it was suggested by the president during a press conference this week.
• Food: here in the US in my lifetime we have literally NEVER had to worry about food.  You just go to the store and have your pick.  Everything is there in abundance.  Now you go to the store and there's no bread, no soup, no frozen vegetables or fruit, no pasta, no pasta sauce, very little cheese... it looks like we're all going to be starring on Chopped soon.  "You have a bruised apple, two hot dogs, half a box of pasta, and a can of corn.  Go make dinner!"
• Avoidance / Social Distancing: this is real.  If you're outside for a walk and someone is approaching one person will cross the street.  We wave or smile, but keep your distance.
• Medical Appointments: no waiting room.  Doctors have you wait in your car, then call the office when you arrive.  When it is your turn to come in a staff member will come to your car to bring you inside.
• Exercise: trainers and instructors are offering free online workouts.  So is LesMills, the YMCA, and other organizations.  We may be shut in, but NO ONE has any excuse for getting out of shape during quarantine.
• Amazon: we have all become accustomed to getting online delivery of nearly anything.  And if you have Prime it typically arrives within 1-2 days... sometimes the same day!  Now some orders are coming in a week, or even a month.  Many things that were easy to order before simply aren't available.
• Family time: like it or lump it, we're all spending a lot of time at home with one another.
• Jokes: we are all making an obscene amount of bad jokes about homeschooling, being housebound, quarantine, politicans... you name it, anything is fair game.  This puts some things into historical perspective... like why on earth they'd make up a children's rhyme/song about the Plague (Ring Around the Rosie).  We humans deal with crappy situations by laughing at the horror.
• Background noise: there's a lot less of it.  Fewer planes overhead, and waaaaay less traffic on the roads.
• Mother Nature Strikes Back: in places like Venice where the canals have been notoriously murky and polluted, the enforced quarantine is having a major impact.  The canals are crystal clear and you can see fish swimming around in them.  Dolphins are back.  The smog over China has decreased.  There's an joke going around that Mother Nature had enough and sent all the humans to our rooms to think about things for a while.  There's some truth there.
• Stupidity: college students, who apparently think they're immortal, ignored all warnings about social distancing and went to Florida on spring break.  They congretated on the beaches with reckless abandon, just as they have done in years past.  And now they're coming down with COVID left and right.  I'm seeing photos of senior citizens in Florida doing much the same, acting like they're impervious when they're actually in a high risk category.  You know things are bad when you see a teenager lecturing her grandmother on a FB post, telling grandma to stop hanging out on the beach and in restaurants with her friends, and that she should STAY HOME. 
• Jerks: yeah, there are these too.  There are some head politicians (aka our President) who are calling this the Chinese Virus.  That's not the case... this is a global pandemic, with a real name.  But because of this immature name calling there are now Asian people who are being beaten up on sight.  Yes, the morons who are acting violently like this are a problem and would have done something stupid anyway, but it horrifies me that our "leader" is deliberately doing things to incite hate.  We try and teach our kids that being a bully isn't helpful, and calling people names is wrong... why can't an adult man do the same?  There's people who are going out because they don't care who else they might infect.  And people who are trying to profit off the lack of supplies.
• Kindness: I've seen people recommending that grocery stores offer special hours where only seniors and high-risk people can shop.  The hope being that there will be fewer people in the stores so their risk of exposure will be lower.  Many stores took this idea and ran with it, and are having a special Senior Hour on select days.  I've seen people offering to run errands or share supplies with neighbors.

It isn't all bad, but it isn't all good either.