Covid-19 Quarantine Top Ten

The first coronavirus stay-at-home order in Ohio was issued about five weeks ago and it has changed a lot of things. From the home office in Stow, Ohio, here are the top ten things I’ve experienced because of the quarantine:

10. Did I take a shower yesterday? Or was it the day before? Or was it even longer?

9. I have forgotten how to button a shirt.

8. “Social Distancing” also could refer to my high school years.

7. Hair, hair, hair!!!

6. Need to recharge my phone battery twice a day because I’m using it so much.

5. “TGIF” has been replaced by “TGFN”…Thank God for Netflix.

4. Discovered that I don’t need to wear pants when “Zooming” with my relatives

3. Once this is over, I’m going to need to “flatten the curve” on my gut.

2. I’m spending so much time on my front porch, I’m thinking of taking up whittling. (If you live in the South, you know what that means.)

1. My new best friend is Evan Williams (Bourbon!)

Notes from Quarantine

Like much of the country, Pam, Brian and I are under a stay at home order issued by our state’s governor. As I write this, Ohio’s current order is scheduled to expire on May 1 and Governor Mike DeWine will be announcing new regulations early next week. I have been home for about six weeks since my truncated winter sabbatical in Henderson, NV, and I have been pretty much housebound since then.

I have experience with a health-related quarantine. During the summer of 1952 when I was four years old, our family was quarantined for about a month when I contracted Pertussis, a.k.a., Whooping Cough. I had been vaccinated for this disease, but it was only about 60-70 percent effective back then and I was one of those for whom the vaccine did not work.

In June, my family was spending the day at the swimming pool at the Officers Club at the Army’s Defense Supply Center in Columbus, Ohio. My dad served in the Army during World War II and continued in the reserves after that. So, we could use the facilities at the base that included the club, a golf course and the swimming pool.

I was playing in the pool that day when a kid next to me vomited on me. My mom ordered me out of the pool and my dad took me into the locker room to take a hot, soapy shower.

A few days later, I developed a fever and a horrible cough. The diagnosis of our family doctor was Whooping Cough and my family and I spent the next month in quarantine. I still remember the red notice from the city health department taped to our front door and having to spend the summer inside our non-air conditioned house on the east side of Columbus.

More than 30 years later when Pam and I adopted our son Brian in Honduras, he got sick a couple of days before we were scheduled to bring him home with us. He spent four days in the La Policlinica Hospital in Tegucigalpa before he was well enough to travel home. We had him examined by an infectious disease specialist at Akron Children’s Hospital. Ironically, his diagnosis was Whooping Cough.

This particular stay at home order doesn’t bother me too much. I only leave the house for an occasional drive through the nearby Cuyahoga Valley National Park or a walk on the bike-hike trail that runs behind our house. Because I am at high risk due to my age and chronic asthma, we are lucky that Brian can run errands for us.

This morning, I attended a wedding. Not in person, of course, but I watched a former co-worker of mine get married in a service that was streamed online. The current quarantine regulations limit to 10 the number of people at an event, so the church was pretty empty. I was able to see the wedding online from my favorite living room chair dressed in a t-shirt and sweatpants and sipping a cup of coffee. I must admit it was much more comfortable than dressing up and going to a church and then a reception. Although, it could have been more fun if there was an open bar at the reception!

Another unusual event occurred about two weeks ago on the Saturday before Easter. I heard a siren coming down our street and I looked out the window to see a police cruiser followed by a fire chief’s SUV with a person wearing an Easter Bunny costume sticking out of the sunroof and waving. Then came a Jeep with the Bulldog Mascot of Stow High School in the back waving and another city vehicle with lights flashing at the end of this makeshift parade. It wasn’t the Tournament of Roses parade, but it added a light moment to the day.

My final observation about the coronavirus quarantine is about groceries. When the stay-at-home order first took effect, we sent Brian to the store with a detailed list and he came home with most of what we wanted. Since then, Pam has ordered groceries online for curbside pickup.

The first time a local grocery chain botched our order big time and when Pam and Brian got home from picking up the groceries, she discovered that about half the items were totally wrong. She called the store and they told her to keep the wrong items and she and Brian went back and picked up most of the items that were missing.

The next time, she ordered a long list of items from a larger regional grocery chain and we ended up getting most of what we ordered. Last night, we ordered carryout from a local restaurant and they got the order right and the food was very good.

Meanwhile, my package of six reusable face masks arrived and I am hoping to be able to use them to go a few places when the governor’s revised coronavirus orders take effect next week. I miss spending a couple of hours in a coffee shop with my computer and researching and writing about whatever I want. I’m also look forward to meeting friends for coffee at a restaurant with outside seating or at a park and keeping acceptable social distance while we talk.

Pam and I have agreed that a trip to a vacation spot is probably out of the question this summer, but I hope we can take some interesting day trips where it isn’t too crowded. However, I won’t feel really safe until the scientists develop a vaccine and a treatment to effectively mitigate COVID-19. In the meantime, we’ll have to wait for the next set of directives and see whether officials think the coronavirus numbers are trending downward enough to ease the lockdown.

Even with the inconvenience of the quarantine, we are doing much better than people who who are battling this dreaded disease or have lost their jobs. I think about them and pray for them every day.

I wish all of you good health and hope you can keep your spirits up during these trying times.

We’ll see you next time.

The Lost Summer

As I write this, there are still almost two weeks left in April, but it looks like the summer of 2020 could very well be a lost summer because of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2016, I wrote about nostalgia because I attended the 50-year reunion of my high school graduation class that summer and I experienced a couple of other events that evoked strong memories of my earlier days: https://ccollin48.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-nostalgic-summer.html

My wife Pam and I are conscientiously observing the stay at home directive issued by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine because of our age and my susceptibility to COVID-19 because I have moderate to severe asthma. So, it looks like our special summer could be much less than I expected.

Governor DeWine says some things may open up around May 1, but other things may not open up until later this year or early 2021. As for now, many stores and restaurants are closed with only what the state deems as essential businesses allowed to remain open. And, as the economy reopens, nearly every expert agrees that the last things to reopen will be events that draw large crowds like sporting events and concerts.

For me, this means that it it unlikely that our local baseball team the Akron Rubberducks will play this season. For the last several seasons, a group of friends and I have purchased ticket vouchers for the Double-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. Our group attended about a half dozen games each year at Canal Park in downtown Akron.

We had a lot of fun on these warm summer nights enjoying baseball and each others company. We usually meet for dinner beforehand and then go to the game. The team has a promotion called “Thirsty Thursdays” and 20-ounce draft beers go for $2, so that’s a favorite night for us.

This is the same group of guys that I’ve played poker with once a month for the last 15 years or so and we’ve shelved that too. Most of us are around 70 years old and a couple of the guys also have some health issues, so we are all currently staying home and not gathering together.

The other thing that I will miss is the concerts at Blossom Music Center, the summer home of the world-famous Cleveland Orchestra. For the last 20 years of so, Pam and I have bought season tickets and been to some amazing concerts. Blossom is only about 15 minutes from our house and we enjoy getting carryout food and enjoying it on the lawn before the concerts.

Last summer we enjoyed a concert version of the rock opera “Tommy” featuring the Who’s Roger Daltrey. The season closed with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus performing “Carmina Burana” and I will never forget the prolonged standing ovation at the end of that performance by the crowd of 15,000 spectators.

This summer also was supposed to be full of nostalgia as Pam and I celebrated two milestone events.

This summer is our 50^th wedding anniversary as we were married on August 8, 1970, in North Canton, Ohio. Late last fall and early this year we talked about taking a trip this summer to celebrate to either Europe or the Far East including Japan, China and Thailand. Then, in late February, the emergence of the coronavirus made us temper out plans. Now, the possibility of a major trip this year is extremely remote.

Pam pointed out that if we take this trip in the spring of 2021, that will still be in the 50^th year of our marriage and I hope the coronavirus will be under control by then.

The other major event we looked forward to was Alumni Weekend at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Each year in mid-June Miami invites alumni to return to campus for a weekend of fun events. As graduates of the class of 1970, Pam and I would have been part the 50-year reunion class that is specially honored each year. We were looking forward to seeing some long-time friends from our college days. Miami is a special place for Pam and I because we met there at the end of sophomore year and became what the school calls a “Miami Merger.”

However, we received an email several weeks ago saying that Alumni Weekend has been cancelled this year because of the pandemic.

So, it seems like everything is on hold. Because of our age and my health condition, we don’t want to take any chances. So, we will likely stay very close to home this summer, unless there is a radical change in the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. As the weather improves, I hope we can take some short trips to enjoy the summer weather, but that will depend on the perceived threat of COVID-19.

In the meantime, I hope you stay healthy and stay tuned for more…

The COVID-19 Conundrum

The last few weeks have been among the strangest of my life and I’m sure I’m not alone. As the Coronavirus ravages the health of the world and gazillions of words have been written about it, I thought it might be therapeutic to write about my experiences of the last few weeks. So, to paraphrase the Grateful Dead song, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.”

When I last wrote, I had just returned home from my winter sabbatical in Henderson, NV, a suburb of Las Vegas. The first few weeks of my visit were pretty good as I checked out some spectacular sites like Hoover Dam, Red Rock Canyon and Death Valley. I started taking some non-credit classes at UNLV and getting to know the city.

By late February, I began to get more concerned about the news reports concerning the spread of the Coronavirus throughout the US and the world. After all, Las Vegas is a major tourist destination and an estimated 40 million people from all over the US and many from other countries visit each year. Vegas also hosts hundreds of conventions and trade shows every year.

I was concerned about going out to places that were crowded and getting ill while I was away from home. I decided to leave 17 days early and drive home, even though I had a return flight reservation on Southwest. I figured that between the $450 extra it cost to change my car rental so I could drive it to Ohio and three nights in motels, meals and gas the total would be close to $1,000 and it was. But, I would be alone during the trip avoiding a crowded airplane, airports and restaurants.

The week I got home, Ohio was one of the first states go on virtual lockdown as Governor Mike DeWine ordered schools, restaurants, bars and sporting events to shut down as well as nearly any other activity that would draw more than 10 people at one time.

Because I am over 70 and have a history of asthma and respiratory issues, I am considered to be in the high-risk category for contracting the disease. So, I am spending nearly all of my time at home and missing out on my weekly workouts at my fitness center, coffee or lunches with friends and my monthly poker sessions. I also miss friends I see each week at church.

What’s my daily schedule like now? When I first get up, I make sure to get the coffee pot going or heat up coffee from the previous day. Since neither Pam nor Brian drink it, a pot lasts me two days. Then I go out to the mailbox to get the Akron Beacon Journal. A confession here, first, I still read an old-fashioned newspaper and, second, I usually go out to the mailbox out at the curb in pajama bottoms and a coat.

After my first cup of java (I wonder why that’s a nickname for coffee), I make some breakfast and a second cup of coffee and look at the web and messages on my phone. Then, I try to think about the rest of my day. I might go down to the basement and use my exercycle or do some work with a set of weight bands I own.

In normal times, I would head over to Akron General Lifestyles to work out a couple of days a week, but that facility is closed for who knows how long. On days I don’t exercise, I surf the web on my laptop to get more news or checkup on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. or do some reading.

Right now I am reading “Douglas MacArthur, American Warrior” by Arthur Herman published in 2016. I like historical biographies and this one is an interesting profile that mixes personal details about his life and great details about his wartime actions.

If the weather is nice, I may go for a short walk after lunch or take a drive. My two favorite routes are through the Cuyahoga National Recreation Area or travel east from my house through the farmland in Portage County. Then, it’s time for my afternoon nap of 15-30 minutes—one of the perks of being retired.

A lot of people are binge-watching on Netflix or one of the other streaming services. While I was in Vegas I started watching “Peaky Blinders” on Netflix, the story of gang warfare in Birmingham, England after World War I and into the 1920s. “Peaky Blinders” is extremely violent and contains a lot of references to the Irish and Gypsy origins of the gang in the title. The story follows their battles with other gangs of various ethnic origins and the rise of the Communists in 1920s England.

As a counter point, I started to watch “Cheers” the hit sitcom of the early 1990s and the antithesis of “Peaky.” After I got home, I watched the third season of “Ozark” on Netflix and continued to watch “Cheers.”

When late afternoon approaches, it’s Happy Hour and my current drink of choice is Evan Williams Kentucky bourbon. Occasionally, I’ll have rum and Coke, but “Evan” has become my real Coronavirus friend. In March, according to the Ohio Department of Liquor Control, sales of hard liquor in the state were 50-percent more than for March, 2019. So, a lot of other Ohioans have new “friends” too.

After dinner, Pam and I search for a movie to watch on Netflix or Amazon Prime. She is continuing to teach a beginning accounting course online at the University of Akron, so she sometimes has to work on her class. Like most colleges and universities, UA has gone almost completely online and that has been an adjustment for her.

Fortunately, the textbook she is using is online and it has a lot of tools for assignments and tests. Also, to keep her connected, she went to training with the people I used to work with at UA and learned how to record lectures online that include her voice and her PowerPoint slides.

Meanwhile, I have cleaned up my home office a bit and am contemplating other tasks to use time at home. I want to take another Improvisational acting class, but that will have to wait awhile like a lot of other things. Mostly, I am looking forward to better weather so I can spend more time outside on our deck.

Here’s hoping you stay healthy and safe until we meet again.