pandemic

self-isolation: twenty-one days in.

• by kerri

Here we are, three weeks in.
I truly meant to update last week but apparently I became very busy while self-isolating, which means as usual, I forgot and/or was uninspired.

I have discovered I need a hobby, I learned this week. Well, other than baking – I am not sure if that is exactly a hobby, because if I do it all the time we have to eat everything and um yes that is a self-isolation problem. Yesterday, I pulled out my Nintendo 2DS again and have spent an ungodly number of hours this weekend playing Pokemon Alpha Sapphire while watching Border Security: Canada’s Front Line. I have so many questions about the agriculture brought in by people, honestly. I’ve also made a pandemic playlist, thus far consisting of:

  • Look Happy, It’s The End of the World — Matthew Good Band
  • One of Them Years — Matthew Good Band
  • Panic Prone — Chevelle
  • Blue Vacation — Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
(That last one, for the many now pandemic-appropriate lyrics. Self-isolating on an island maybe? Little southward politics? Y’know. But at least it’s not super depressing?)

I still, most mornings, am watching Justin Trudeau’s morning press briefing. I am no longer watching the province of Manitoba’s reports because I am staying the hell home anyways and I hear all the statistics later anyways. They are, like everywhere, predicting this week is pivotal. I presume if this week ends up not being pivotal we are just waiting for another one, but I honestly don’t know.
I still feel like, even though Trudeau has been good at instilling hope in these “unprecedented” days, this may still instil more panic as we question our access to medical supplies and I slowly freak out about maintaining long-term access to asthma medications as talk of shortages continues; and I think of this in the context of a hospital certainly being the last place I want to go. And then I try not to think about it.

Monday we had backyard six-feet-away coffee with my grandma. We sanitized the Starbucks cups which is probably unnecessary but you know what? If we are too careful, who cares. (Are we all going to have lasting issues after all this? Yeah, probably.)
 

Wednesday I got the call about my Tuesday doctor’s appointment. “Hi, how are you — good, you’re self isolating?”—it appeared my doctor’s assistant could not ask me quickly enough about my staying home for the past zillionty days. As previously announced, it will now take place by phone. This means I can stay in bed, and answer my phone at 8:30 rather than have to go downtown. Also, maybe this can happen forever because that would be convenient. Although, Steve and I had planned to go to the Canadian Museum For Human Rights after my appointment April 7, and clearly, that is not happening (though you can do a tour on their website. Does not help all the tactile things I wanted to show Steve).

Wednesday (Wednesday? Yes?) we played Jackbox games on Google Hangout with Dean and Jackie and Mary (and my mom and my aunt and I). I’ve also played quite a few games of Ticket to Ride with Dean and Jackie and their friends. Because what else are we supposed to do?

Thursday I made these cookies. Highly recommend.

 
 
 
View this post on Instagram

Day 17. #StayHome. Bake cookies.

A post shared by kerri (@kerriontheprairies) onApr 2, 2020 at 6:51pm PDT

Then I made the fancy internet coffee last night (officially Dalgona coffee or whipped coffee, less officially quarantine coffee and internet coffee). I also may have lost count of days as I previously had this labeled as Day 19, not Day 20, but today definitely should be the 21st day.

I don’t even know anymore, time is an endless circle. I am still in a constant state of disbelief, honestly.

It was pretty good, but very hard to stir. Don’t make it as full as the videos do or the stirring part will be terrible even though it will look nice.

I finally got my final flight of 5 cancelled this week, and got my Airbnb credit. Astounding a month ago we anticipated we’d be in Minneapolis right now. The world was a much different place then, even though this had already all more than begun.

And, I finished my first self-isolation project. After procrastinating since September, I ordered a damn green table cloth and set up my green screen. Which, thank God, because I spent 6.5 hours on Zoom on Thursday, so I had to do something to entertain myself. (Many of these pictures are from playing around with it earlier in the week, save for the top two and the lion from Thursday.)

IMG 8553

So now, to go full-circle, I need a hobby.
Or at least a new self-isolation project. 

Drop me your suggestions in the comments.

Oh also, jump on it early: Kayleen and I have a Youtube channel we’ve done nothing with yet. But we plan to record our successes and failures in making internet recipes while in isolation. So subscribe to Delicious or Disaster (and feel free to send us dessert and/or other recipes, preferably vegetarian for me, thanks.) 
I was going to say maybe that’s my hobby but recall, it may be crazy if baking things is my hobby because we still have Christmas baking in the freezer.

Plans for this week: work more hours as per my new contract (beyond lucky—yay!), clean my personal email inbox, make a Youtube video, don’t lose my mind.
AND ALSO A NEW PIZZA PLACE OPENED IN MY AREA. So, order pizza. 

pandemic

social distancing, self isolation, whatever this is: seven days in/pandemics are distracting.

• by kerri

A professor at the University of Virginia encouraged people to journal their pandemic experience. So, here it is. The new “pandemic” tag. Welcome.

Because yes, this is a thing now. While we are months into the existence of COVID-19, it was declared a pandemic on March 11. On March 13 we had our first 3 cases reported in Manitoba. The province of Manitoba declared a State of Emergency on March 20.

I am at the end of week 1 of social distancing, or not-sick-person self-isolation. Like many with chronic illnesses existing with degrees of immuno-compromise, as a person with severe asthma, I’m staying home. Even if you’re generally healthy with no underlying health conditions, we’re pleading with YOU to #StayHome, too. We aren’t learning our new vocabulary terms “social distancing”, “self isolation” and “self quarantine” for nothin’, here.

Unlike many, my post-pandemic, social distancing, self isolation life is perhaps not too distant from my regular work-from-home, very remotely from my coworkers who also work from home but in BC. Except post-pandemic life is regardless different. I don’t leave the house. I could go for a walk, but like, what if I see a cute dog I want to meet but how the hell do I stay six feet away from their human then? This is a problem of social distancing, and I lose self-control around doggos. Also, because nearly everyone else is social distancing, I’ve already had 2 virtual game nights, spent St. Patrick’s Day watching the Dropkick Murphys play to a camera crew in an empty venue (the 17th was the l went out: I had to get a Shamrock Shake from curbside McDonalds), and got to enjoy Drew Brown doing a basement acoustic concert.

Unlike others who are newly working-from-home and feel they have all this newfound time not lost in their commute, my days are the same except for watching the morning press conference from Justin Trudeau at 10:15 and then the one from the Government of Manitoba around 11 each morning. The pandemic news cycle is exhausting, but try as I might, I can’t avoid looking all damn day even though that’s what I advise others to do. I’m a news junkie and I have been since Donald Trump got elected because WTF? I scroll Facebook like the rest of us do, and read, and validate, and share. I try to share the good news. And I try to share the really good, and funny things arising of people’s social distancing.

Social distancing, self isolation, and self quarantine are making for some really damn good internet, I have to say. Like the sports commentator who no longer has sports to commentate on and instead is commentating on mundane life activities. These people who made a parody of If I Had A Million Dollars about COVID-19. Basically, I have learned this week that pandemics are distracting.

I’ve also been providing random observations, like I do, of the daily Trudeau press conferences. In case you’re reading this far in the future, recall that Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, also known as Justin Trudeau’s wife, has been diagnosed with COVID-19. This means that Justin is also self isolating at a distance in Rideau Cottage. (Justin, are we on a first-name basis? Thanks.) As such, the press briefings are outside.

Here is what I have observed so far. He still has a few days of self-isolation left as far as I can calculate, which means there will probably be some more things to comment on:

  • Friday, 03/20 – When Justin Trudeau has to do a press conference from outside his home due to self isolation, occasionally you hear a crow in the background!
  • Saturday, 03/21 – Justin Trudeau forgot to take out his earphones (Bluetooth) before he left Rideau Cottage. He began his press briefing, and then realized and removed them to put on the podium
  • Sunday, 03/22 – Justin Trudeau has to inform not one, but two reporters calling in by phone that their line is on mute. (There was also some banging during which he expertly paused before answering the reporter’s question, while simultaneously looking like nothing was happening.)
It is now a daily goal to record these odd observations for those who are not tuning in to the press conferences (also for Americans who need a more peaceful and even pandemic press conference experience). As well, I have been “determining” (ie. making up completely) which cabinet ministers are assisting JT with random tasks during his self isolation. So far Patty Hajdu (Health Minister) is wiping down the doorknob after he returns inside, Bill Morneau (Finance Minister) is helping him dye his hair which I cannot give any real rationale for, and when my friend Bill (not Morneau) asked whose job it was to be the crow executioner earlier today, I have assigned this to Joyce Murray, Minister of Digital Government, as the crow is clearly disrupting this process.
On weekdays, I usually watch the press conferences and go about my work life as normal. Archery ended the week before last, so a few days before we were in full on social-distancing mode. The last bus I took, on the way home from archery, had so many sick people on it, I got off two stops early and when I got in my mom’s car she informed me I was not taking the bus again till this was over. That was a Thursday. Friday the 13th was the day that everyone started buying up all the friggen toilet paper here. There was a line down the entire front of Costco waiting to get in (Facebook shows me, anyways). So Saturday the 14th we went to see the shelves. No toilet paper in sight, and that has continued in many stores around the globe.
Which is friggen bananas, in all realty. This is a respiratory virus. What do y’all need all this canned food and toilet paper for? It’s not a GI bug or a snowstorm. Now stores have begun to institute per person limits on many items, and in some cases are engaging in price gouging.
Also Jill in Ottawa spotted a guy with a cart at Dollarama full of rope, tarps and lightbulbs, so 1) I friggen hope he is building a shelter with those supplies and 2) the disconnect between lightbulbs and extreme prepper shelter building in a pandemic is perplexing.
Also speaking of doomsday preppers, I’ve been wondering how these people are doing. They’re surely laughing at the rest of us us (while medical professionals are or will be in desperate need of their masks).
Also I put this rainbow in my window today. I’m not sure if the kids are looking for rainbows or Easter eggs in Winnipeg’s treasure-hunt-social-distancing-go-for-a-walk game but I’ll add the easter egg soon.

Current stats in Manitoba: 11 cases confirmed, 9 probable cases, 0 deaths.
Canada has a total of 1430 cases confirmed, 41 probable cases, and 20 deaths.
STAY HOME.
(You can follow my day-to-day social distancing/self isolation updates on Instagram.)