CoronaQuarantine, Day 11
Usually with Monday's DLU comes a pretty long update on the goings-on of my weekend. Not this time: I did very little worth writing about, since we can't go out or visit friends.
That said, I did feel slightly less "quarantined" over the weekend than I had the previous few days, as I did get out for a bit longer. On Saturday, while Shobhit was working, I walked to the office. I still have to go in at least twice a week to drop off my reconciled back door receiving discrepancy reports, and then pick up the next stack of them. So I did that on Saturday, walking there just to get some air and some exercise. I did create a wide berth around every person I passed, and in some cases even crossed the street when it appeared to be feasible.
Surprisingly large groups of people were congregated at Victor Steinbrueck Park as I passed there just after Pike Place Market. Many of them clearly homeless, and I heard at least one of them with a hacking cough. What are you going to do? Stay the hell away from them, in my case.
Two people in Accounting were working at the office when I got there: Thao, and John O, who I could have sworn had just retired. Either he just hasn’t yet or he's helping out for a while. I ran into Thao in the kitchen—not literally; I kept my distance—and said hi. I made myself the "London Fog" tea latte I usually allow myself at the office on Fridays since I've had to miss it. I also swiped two mini peanut butter cups from the candy jar at the front desk, a small sample candy bar from the pantry, and a maybe 1/3 full Chips Ahoy! packet of cookies left out in the kitchen from the day before. So long, suckers! Oh, I also printed out a page of my calendar, thanks to being able to send it from my laptop even from home (that thankfully prevented me from having to bring the laptop all the way with me too, just to do that), and did the exchange of receiving paperwork.
I walked from there back downtown to Target, where I got some refill handsoap and a couple household cleaning products. After that all my stuff was too heavy for walking the rest of the way so I took the bus the rest of the way home up the hill. Buses are only allowing passengers to board via the back door, which seems smart for the drivers' sakes.
As for yesterday, I spent probably roughly around the same amount of time out of the house—just this time with Shobhit, as he called out of work from his scheduled 12-5 shift at Total Wine & More because he was coughing really quite a lot in the morning (which settled down dramatically once he just took some NyQuil), and we went out and did our grocery shopping. And, to get everything we wanted (and all the prices Shobhit wanted), we went to five separate stores to do it: Costco on 4th Avenue; PCC Columbia City; Trader Joe's in Ballard; PCC Ballard; and PCC Fremont.
The three PCCs were so we could get everything I wanted on my list, and no store had all of the items. There was a lot of empty space on shelves, so it was not that much of a surprise how many new items I had to immediate-batch to stores while working this morning. We didn't even buy anything at the Columbia City store, as they did not even have the brand of cat food we like to get, and at that point we gave up and just returned the few products we had picked up back to the shelves. When we got to Ballard, Shobhit suggested going over there to get the heavy whipping cream called for by the macaroni and cheese recipe I want to make, as it would be way cheaper than at PCC. They were limiting the number of people inside the store and we had to wait in line outside, which only took maybe five minutes. And of course while inside, Shobhit found like two or three other items to get, including asparagus and . . . I don't remember what else. Who cares?
Ballard PCC, which is only a blocks away from Trader Joe's—you basically go through a walkway and then cross the street in the middle of a block to walk between the two—was not all that busy, and they did have the cat food we wanted. The store is too new to have the brand of frozen pizza I like (Tandoor Chef) because it will apparently be discontinued soon, and although Columbia City had three units left of Field Roast veggie burger patties, Ballard was sold out. I was going to write off those two items, but Shobhit then suggested even dropping by the Fremont store to see if they sell the focaccia bread he really wanted (he saw the bread being used for ready made sandwiches in the Deli, and neither Columbia City nor Ballard was selling it in the bread aisle . . . but, Fremont was!). So, once at Fremont, we were both able to get the items we both still wanted. It's just that it took three PCCs to get there.
We hadn't even gotten much at Costco either. Just cough syrup and maple syrup, and a gruyere cheese. After stopping at five grocery stores, though, we came home with plenty groceries in bags.
We really haven't been doing any of the takeout options at restaurants that are otherwise closed. And with no options for going out otherwise, right now we're basically just effectively saving money. Even for possible "emergency mortgage payment," a temporary item in my budget, just in case Washington State does do a "shelter in place" order and Shobhit has to do without shifts for some weeks. Our governor has really been resisting having to do that, but it really depends on the compliance of the public in social distancing and where the numbers in transmission rates go from here. So far as I can tell, things are plenty bad here so far, but other places like New York are dealing with much worse outbreaks because they did not shut otherwise down more businesses as early as we did. So, time will tell. Every day the story is a little different, things are changing so rapidly.
Oh! And how could I nearly forget—I had my "virtual Happy Hour" with Laney on Friday evening. We hung out for about an hour and a half via Skype, and although it almost certainly would have been at the very least two hours at an actual bar, it was still really nice and we had no shortage of things to talk about. Of course nearly all our talk was coronavirus-related, but what else could we expect? I did tell her a little more about the trip to Australia, as she requested.
Shobhit had his own drink and came to say hi, but otherwise just went back out to the living room to watch TV. Jessica is living with Laney, and so she sat on her end to say hi too, but I did not give her a social review point for this as she only said hi and did not otherwise hang out; she was preparing dinner, which was part of why Laney had to hang up when she did because it was ready. Shobhit was complaining yesterday that he won't get a Social Review point just for going shopping—shopping has never counted as "socializing"—and tried to argue that hanging out via Skype with Laney should not count either. But, he was just being willfully obtuse and as I said to him, I am done explaining this to him over and over. Even before a global pandemic, on the rare occasion that I hung out with anyone for an extended period via Skype or FaceTime, they got a Social Review point for that. It is clearly a form of socializing, the next-best thing to "in person" when not otherwise possible, and a clear step up in "social" behavior from a regular phone call. This is not rocket science, or even complicated.
Well, kind of out of nowhere, Shobhit finally developed a sudden obsession with getting tested for COVID-19.
Not quite out of nowhere, I guess. He was convinced the Columbia City store was "totally infested," even though in all likelihood it was just some dust in a busy grocery store exacerbating a cold cough he already had. I have been taking my temperature twice daily, and Shobhit's only every few days, but he wanted his taken yesterday and today. The readings have consistently been between 96° and 97° degrees or so, he he's been absolutely convinced those were too low and that the digital thermometer was not calibrated correctly.
He keeps asking me to feel his forehead. "Do I have a fever?" He's been slightly warm there but pretty clearly not running a fever. Still, I think today he basically convinced himself he does have a fever, and even though he did go into work—where he has been wearing a face mask because of his cough—he decided to leave early and go to Virginia Mason to see if he could get tested. It has been widely reported that widespread testing is unavailable though, and he'd really need to be exhibiting symptoms (or have close contact with a person known to be infected) before he could get a test. The hospitals are overwhelmed enough already, and they want you to contact your doctor first if you have any concerns.
He still went to Virginia Mason. They just took his temperature. This was after I already sent Danielle, who is a nurse, a screenshot of our logged temperatures to ask if they looked normal and she said they do; Shobhit's reading at Virginia Mason was still in line with our home thermometer readings, I forget what it was but it was within the vicinity of 97.5°—still lower than 98°, and finally convinced him that our home thermometer is working correctly. He has no fever and no other symptoms, just the lingering cough from his cold.
He already had tomorrow scheduled off anyway, and today has decided to take sick hours since they have enough coverage of management at the store without him. Apparently he has something like 70 hours of sick pay that will expire soon anyway, so what the hell, why not? They want us to stay home if it's possible anyway. Maybe he can rest and hope his cough mellows out a little by the time his next shift is scheduled on Wednesday. Or, he could wind up taking the whole week off. We'll see.
At least his sudden obsession has wound down again. Danielle seemed to think he was having panic attacks and told me to tell him to take deep breaths. It wasn't quite as dramatic as that but it's still relevant that he should not spend so much time worrying. Shobhit is uptight by default o a good day and stress, as we all know, just makes your immune system more vulnerable. Shobhit finally sat down and just sent Dr. Auerbach an email to ask if there was any way to get a test. I rather doubt it, but at least he's sending in a written inquiry instead of trying to go right back to the hospital again.
I go back and forth between thinking he's fine, and wondering whether he or I are currently asymptomatic carriers. The general advice right now is to behave as though you are sick—which is why we can't have friends visit. Shobhit was trying to suggest yesterday that Sachin come over and I resisted that right quick. "He's lonely," Shobhit said. Lots of people are! And it sucks. But hanging out with friends is not the thing to be doing right now, no matter how well we feel.
I'm just incredibly lucky that I even have the option to work from home right now. God knows how long it will have to be this way. This is just the start of my second week of it.
[posted 1:10 pm]