Day 17 of “life in the time of corona(virus)”
We are spending a ridiculous amount of time inside. Not that I want to do anything inside—we have a list of house projects that we have put off for literally years (clean the basement, go through the files in the home office) and now I know why. These projects are so enervating that even if there all that there is to do I don’t want to do them.
Watching Governor Cuomo’s daily briefing at around 11 AM is the highlight of the day. He looks more presidential every minute.
I find myself wondering when this all really began for us—the first person who was diagnosed in Westchester as an attorney in New Rochelle, on March 3rd.
So let’s count that as the beginning. We had the house cleaned that day, I had lunch with a friend at a restaurant in Tarrytown, that was a “normal” day.
The next day I attended the Women’s Circle at my church-another normal day. In fact that entire week was normal: Adult Ed on Thursday, Anne’s art class Thursday afternoon.
A quick trip to Suburban Wines on Thursday to stock up on wine.
Friday I went to the gym for a massage. We skipped chair yoga—we were just starting to become concerned about being in enclosed spaces with lots of people.
Saturday was a normal day.
And then things got sort of weird.
Sunday I went to church, attended the Sunday morning Adult Ed, and went home.
We were supposed to go to a Purim party on Sunday evening March 8. I had a conflict—I was meeting with our church youth groups Sunday evening, a session on mindfulness that was planned months ago.
Our Purim party was cancelled. The host had a heart transplant in April and it was too risky for him to have so many guests. This was an expected cancellation.
And then....
The Purim Spiel at synagogue was cancelled. The synagogue had been closed because children of a friend of New Rochelle’s attorney attended the Westchester Torah Academy, a school we were hosting at shul. The academy was closed and so was the synagogue. So we knew that Monday evening we weren’t going out.
And we skipped our water arthritis class. Being in the gym didn’t seem like a great idea. We were just trying to get our heads around the fact that we are in the “vulnerable “ group—two 72 year old women shouldn’t be careless.
Tuesday the 10th we were supposed to meet with our financial advisor from TIAA. All of TIAA’s offices were closed to allow for deep cleaning. Okay, we had a phone call.
Meantime we were starting to get a bit concerned about food. Anne ordered some outrageous number of cases of cat food, “just in case,” but we were supposed to leave on March 24 for an 11 day trip to the Southwest. We weren’t doing much shopping.
Tuesday morning we went shopping. The stores were fine, we could get what we wanted. Except for hand sanitizer and sanitizing soap.
Wednesday the 11th we skipped chair yoga—neither of us wanted to be in a small yoga studio with 15 other people.
I went to my Bible study Wednesday evening, and also ran the Adult Ed on Thursday morning. Thursday we were celebrating the 90th birthday of one of our class members.
Anne skipped her afternoon art class-again, a small studio with six other people seemed risky.
I started to hear about “social distancing.” Hmm....six feet away from others, avoid crowds. This is getting serious.
We had an emergency Hudson River Presbytery Council meeting by Zoom on Thursday afternoon. We decided to suggest that congregations not meet in person but figure out how to worship virtually.
Later that week the Archdiocese of New York cancelled all masses in the ten counties that make up the Archdiocese.
So all of Sunday’s plans were cancelled. No Commissioned Ruling Elder seminar. No Anne telling her story at StoryBoom. No “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” at church.
Now it’s basically “all Zoom all the time.” With the exception of Sunday church, which is Facebook Live.
Beginning Saturday March 14th we became shut-ins. And I guess we’ll be this way for awhile. Stay tuned!
And this is “life in the time of corona(virus)” with apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_the_Time_of_Cholera
Watching Governor Cuomo’s daily briefing at around 11 AM is the highlight of the day. He looks more presidential every minute.
I find myself wondering when this all really began for us—the first person who was diagnosed in Westchester as an attorney in New Rochelle, on March 3rd.
So let’s count that as the beginning. We had the house cleaned that day, I had lunch with a friend at a restaurant in Tarrytown, that was a “normal” day.
The next day I attended the Women’s Circle at my church-another normal day. In fact that entire week was normal: Adult Ed on Thursday, Anne’s art class Thursday afternoon.
A quick trip to Suburban Wines on Thursday to stock up on wine.
Friday I went to the gym for a massage. We skipped chair yoga—we were just starting to become concerned about being in enclosed spaces with lots of people.
Saturday was a normal day.
And then things got sort of weird.
Sunday I went to church, attended the Sunday morning Adult Ed, and went home.
We were supposed to go to a Purim party on Sunday evening March 8. I had a conflict—I was meeting with our church youth groups Sunday evening, a session on mindfulness that was planned months ago.
Our Purim party was cancelled. The host had a heart transplant in April and it was too risky for him to have so many guests. This was an expected cancellation.
And then....
The Purim Spiel at synagogue was cancelled. The synagogue had been closed because children of a friend of New Rochelle’s attorney attended the Westchester Torah Academy, a school we were hosting at shul. The academy was closed and so was the synagogue. So we knew that Monday evening we weren’t going out.
And we skipped our water arthritis class. Being in the gym didn’t seem like a great idea. We were just trying to get our heads around the fact that we are in the “vulnerable “ group—two 72 year old women shouldn’t be careless.
Tuesday the 10th we were supposed to meet with our financial advisor from TIAA. All of TIAA’s offices were closed to allow for deep cleaning. Okay, we had a phone call.
Meantime we were starting to get a bit concerned about food. Anne ordered some outrageous number of cases of cat food, “just in case,” but we were supposed to leave on March 24 for an 11 day trip to the Southwest. We weren’t doing much shopping.
Tuesday morning we went shopping. The stores were fine, we could get what we wanted. Except for hand sanitizer and sanitizing soap.
Wednesday the 11th we skipped chair yoga—neither of us wanted to be in a small yoga studio with 15 other people.
I went to my Bible study Wednesday evening, and also ran the Adult Ed on Thursday morning. Thursday we were celebrating the 90th birthday of one of our class members.
Anne skipped her afternoon art class-again, a small studio with six other people seemed risky.
I started to hear about “social distancing.” Hmm....six feet away from others, avoid crowds. This is getting serious.
We had an emergency Hudson River Presbytery Council meeting by Zoom on Thursday afternoon. We decided to suggest that congregations not meet in person but figure out how to worship virtually.
Later that week the Archdiocese of New York cancelled all masses in the ten counties that make up the Archdiocese.
So all of Sunday’s plans were cancelled. No Commissioned Ruling Elder seminar. No Anne telling her story at StoryBoom. No “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” at church.
Now it’s basically “all Zoom all the time.” With the exception of Sunday church, which is Facebook Live.
Beginning Saturday March 14th we became shut-ins. And I guess we’ll be this way for awhile. Stay tuned!
And this is “life in the time of corona(virus)” with apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_the_Time_of_Cholera
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