Virus Blog

Self Quarantine Day 4 & 5

3/16/20 AM

Impossible. What seemed impossible yesterday seems obvious today. There is a long planned party to celebrate a milestone birthday for my brother-in-law planned for next week. There was an email that went out to the 10 participants about whether we should cancel. Most replies were "no way, nothing could keep us away." Today that seems like crazy talk. Eve and I debated whether I needed to change my workout schedule at the gym. I went as usual Wednesday night but agreed I would skip Friday and see how it goes. I fought the idea of skipping altogether as opposed to simply taking precautions as I had been doing. The gym has since announced it will be closing to which my reaction today is "of course."

There is a tapestry of local restrictions with few national ones. The CDC advised eliminating groups of 50 or more while the President and Vice President make no mention of social distancing. The country is going to ground. Europe is sheltering in place. It makes sense.

Kevin came home from the airport. We made him strip down in the garage and disinfected his stuff and him from his travels. We realize that whatever he is carrying inside is the real enemy but we're in this together. As a true millennial he proposed that maybe we try to get the virus and get the inevitable over with. We shouted at him and explained that it's not about us, it's about flattening the curve and protecting our health care system. It felt good to shout. This is frustrating. But we're all in one place and if we go down at least the virus won't leave this house.

My father forwarded an email to his entire list today with mistruths. The virus dies in heat...no, we don't know that for sure. You can self-diagnose by holding your breath for 10 seconds. Sorry, not true.

The stock market is in free fall...trying to figure out what to buy.

3/16/20 PM

Shelter in Place. Ahead of virtually all of the rest of the country, the SF Bay Area became the first region to fully shelter in place. While there are a myriad of exceptions the guidelines expressly require eliminating all trips that aren't required...including non-essential work. Scott called and asked me to drive his PlayStation up to his apartment in the city. They've closed UCSF and told everyone who used the hospital's cafeteria to shelter in place because of a known exposure. Scott is one of those people. I drove him his PlayStation and two gigantic bags of food that should keep him fully sheltered for a week...now we need to buy more food. The bright side was an amazingly fast journey to SF and back in rush hour traffic...round trip in just 90 minutes.

It was nice to get out of the house. I know, I've let every day and yet I appreciated it more today. It was also sunny for the first time in a few days. But tell me why would someone wear a surgical mask in their car with the windows rolled up while they drive around. Maybe the same reason there is a run on bottled water.

We had a contractor at the house today. I hadn't met him until today. He shoved his hand out and introduced himself. I jumped back and said "no hand shaking" probably with a fearful edge to my voice. He gave me a "oh, you are one of those" looks and moved on. People are just big germ dishes....keep me away!

Posted to Facebook: My dog is better at the self-quarantine than I am, but I'm better at social distancing than the dog.

3/17/20

Working. I'm lucky that working from home is only a minor inconvenience. That doesn't mean it's going well. Customers are slow to respond and everyone is incredibly distracted...myself included. Let's hope that it's pace of change that will settle down once "shelter in place" becomes the norm and stops being new.

I've received an email from every CEO whose company I interact with. Uniformly they have little to say:

"We are in constant communication with the CDC." Let's not use "constant" when we mean "regular." Let's hope you aren't wasting the CDC's time. You are a bank!

"We recommend you use our app or shop on line." We're not idiots. This feels more like sales than it's worthy of a note to you.

And what's lacking from all these notes is a sense of community. I sense that we are all in this together. Ok, I have to work. Got to go.

Spoke to my mother. Her husband Harry cut his hand and wanted to go to the emergency room. My mom apparently listened to my rants and forbid him from going to that disease factory. She stopped the bleeding. He lived. No hospitals!

Spoke to my father. He continues to go to work every day. He's paying attention but not demonstrating the rigor that his son thinks is required.

It's our third super Tuesday tonight and I'm not sure if I care.

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