Life during a pandemic

Neighborhood deer, emboldened by a reduction in traffic enjoy lunch near our house

It is our 47th day of sheltering-in-place, but perhaps you’ve been sheltering longer than we have and are ahead of us in figuring out, sometimes day-by-day, how to create some kind of life within pandemic guidelines.

We practiced social distancing, compulsive hand washing, and disinfecting weeks before the official order for Oregonians to isolate because in mid March we traveled to the Un of Washington Medical Center, Seattle for my appointment with a specialist. The Seattle area was hit early and hard by the virus. We were there just days before Washington State locked down. As we wandered the mostly deserted streets, distancing when anyone approached, or sat in mostly deserted restaurants, hand sanitizing anxiously, we imagined what lay ahead for the rest of the US. R and I were happy to return to our small town and began preparing for whatever form of lockdown was coming our way. Of course, that meant a trip to the grocery store and wine shop and then some time thinking about how we would manage.

Forty-seven days in, the free-floating anxiety, mostly, is gone. Each morning, I no longer compulsively paw through the freezer, taking inventory (like someone would steal food from us during the night?). While food shortages exist — who is buying all the gluten-free bread?— we both know we’ll have food. I haven’t been inside a grocery store in more than six weeks, though R has a few times, so we’ve patched together a system of Instacart orders, online shopping, quick grocery stops during deserted hours and —helpful family and friends who let us add our necessities to their lists. We are indebted to these folks.

Gluten free rolls, usually readily available pre-pandemic are nowhere to be found, except online.

How are people managing? In different, various ways, I suspect depending on where they live and how seriously they take the pandemic. In Oregon, we are lucky because we live in a beautiful area and can escape outdoors, at least for a long walk, each day.  Doing so has helped us both remain somewhat settled.

One day a month into sheltering-in-place, we drove the 20 miles or so to The Badlands for a hike on the Ancient Juniper Trail.

Only two other couples were on this wide trail.

Desert flowers brightened the walk

Another day, we visited the Crooked River Wetlands Complex in Prineville.

Beautiful yellow-headed blackbirds in the wetlands

Like so many others, we’ve cooked and cleaned up the kitchen everyday, cleaned out closets, cleaned out the garage, finished most spring cleaning (lots of cleaning!), made masks, read or listened to lots of books, watched shows like Belgravia, Miss Fisher (thank goodness for Acorn TV) and Homeland (we’d already finished Grace and Frankie) and as many documentaries about whales and the ocean as I could find, picked up pine needles in the yard, played too many games of Words with Friends, engaged in curbside, distancing visits with friends, watched birds build their nests, completely unaware of a virus danger, and tried to remain sane, which some  days was damn hard. We haven’t delved into discussions about future travel because…..it feels too soon with so much uncertainty.

And now states are beginning to reopen and reopening brings new anxiety about what might happen and what life will be like.

What’s life like in your community?