Pandemic Prep

Here are the things I did this morning to prepare for potential total isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Read the newspapers
• Made a few eggs and bacon for breakfast
• Vacuumed the crumbs around my chair at the dining table
• FaceTimed with my Dad and his wife
• Mailed a box of birthday presents to my grandbaby ironically marked Imperfect Foods
• Made more sugar water for my hummingbirds
• Watered my grateful plants
• Cooked some green beans
• Watched the rain come down against the BLOC parking structure while listening to the slick sound of tires through the wet streets
• Did some research/planning for upcoming online classes and communications
• Did some stress writing (Is there such a thing? It doesn’t matter. For me there is and congratulations on getting to read it.)

Pretty much like any average Saturday morning (without tech). Usually, if I lean over my balcony, I can see the fairly quotidian life on 9th Street in DTLA. Starbucks clientele meets the Homeless. I wish it weren’t so, but that is my usual view. The last few days through the raindrops. It wasn’t until I walked over to the UPS store to mail my grandbaby’s birthday present that I realized things had shifted.

The doors to the Ralph’s Market were closed, and there was a line of about twenty five people standing outside, down the ramp to the street waiting to be let in to shop, looking miserable. I’ve never seen that before. Well I’ve seen the misery on peoples’ faces in Ralphs. Again, that’s an average event. Who likes to shop? But the halted line sobered me up considerably, and had me doing an internal mental inventory of the food I have in my house.

• Rice, pasta, beans, canned tomatoes
• Eggs
• Vegetables (spinach, broccoli, sweet potatoes, kale, onions, tomatoes)
• Cereal, Milk
• Fruit (won’t get scurvy for a while)
• TP ( have plenty thanks to hints from my colleagues to stock up)

I thought about all the Girl Scout cookies still on the shelf down in my office? What are the hazards of bringing those into my house in a time of stress? Probably significant.

Monday, I go to do my taxes. Some things are not subject to exemptions in pandemic times. Death and Taxes.

Be safe everyone. And let me know if you need to come over for supper. Proper social distancing practiced. 🙂