At first I didn’t plan to write about COVID-19 but with time I’ve come to understand what an impact this virus has made to daily living and future plans. And I’m one of the lucky ones. No one in my family has gotten seriously ill and I have a job I can do at home.
Start of COVID-19 Worries
My sisters and I had planned a cruise for early March and as coronavirus (the other name this virus is known by) spread onto cruise ships and into the United States, we started worrying about what this meant to our vacation.
Although the cruise lines did enact a generous cancellation policy, it came too late for us to take advantage of it. You had to cancel 48 hours in advance yet was announced only 24 hours before our sailing. I was already in Miami and the rest of our group was en route. (I would have cancelled if it came a day earlier!).
Ships were already having problems being denied port stops due to local COVID-19 fears and I was not only worried about getting sick on the ship but to a lesser degree, itinerary changes. As it turns out those fears were unfounded as we made all five port stops as scheduled and had a fantastic time although I watched a lot more news than normal as the virus continued to spread.
Two days before our cruise ended, we learned that Royal Caribbean was suspending cruises for 30 days but our cruise would end normally and it did.
Daily Life Changes
When I got home, I would have needed to stay home for 2 weeks per CDC guidelines, but my work had already moved to work from home effective that first Monday back; March 16th. They’d also suspended business travel for a minimum of 30 days so I didn’t have that worry.
Groceries
Because I’d been gone and my husband doesn’t cook dinners, we needed groceries. I was shocked when grocery shopping for the first time and finding empty shelves everywhere. Fortunately, Steve found a four pack of toilet paper to add to our dwindling supply because Amazon is going to be 5 days late delivering my usual Subscribe and Save order for it.
We’ve made adjustments. Since finding proteins at reasonable prices is a problem I ordered pre-assembled meals from Dream Dinners. This way we get what tastes like a home-made meal after final preparations are made at home and with meats!
Senior hours at grocery stores have also helped to some degree. We have a big list of items needed that we’ll try to snag at Walmart’s senior hour Tuesday morning (starting at 6 am!).
Work
What’s changed with work is that I don’t go into the office at all and am not traveling to customer sites. Otherwise, I have plenty of project work to keep me busy (happily) and we’re preparing for when life starts to return to normal. I’m doing more calls internally than I normally would just to have some connection with other team members.
Social Life
We weren’t big socializers when there isn’t a pandemic going on but of course now nothing is happening. Can’t see my son and daughter-in-law, friends, or book club. Steve ran into our neighbor a couple of days ago and they chatted with a good amount of social distance.
Future Plans
Other than worrying if we’re going to find groceries or get our toilet paper order, we’re thinking about plans we’ve made.
Personal Travel
We were planning to visit the two oldest sons and their families in May and July respectively. The May visit is definitely postponed and we think July probably will be too. Now I have to wait for flight cancellations to happen. I made the May reservations so long ago they’re at risk of losing credit. Hopefully the airline changes the policy.
We also have a Fall trip to Hawaii and I have a November cruise. Not sure what will happen with these but not top of mind. Well, at least until June when the second payment is due for the Hawaii condo we’re renting.
Blog
I do plan to take advantage of this travel-less time and work on blog posts. I’ll finish up posts for last November’s Norwegian Epic transatlantic and March’s Empress of the Seas cruises. I still have some maintenance work to do from importing from an old blog if I run out of vacation posts.
Until the pandemic ends we’ll continue to focus on minimizing contacts and staying healthy. How has COVID-19 impacted your life?
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