Coronavirus Pandemic Day 159 - There's No Escaping

We took Genius Kid's car to him over the weekend. He's about to change duty stations.

Originally, he was supposed to have leave in between assignments. He planned to fly home and take his car with him to his next assignment. But with the pandemic, no one's allowed off base.

So we drove his car down to Texas with the plan to meet him at the base's visitor center. Guests are not allowed on base right now either. And to top everything off, the night we got to our hotel, we found out GK's sergeant had been exposed to COVID-19, and he may have inadvertently exposed the entire platoon. They were awaiting word on the sergeant's test results.

Then, there was our very careful 1300-mile trip. I had a reusable Halloween grocery bag full of paper towels, tissues, antiseptic wipes, disposable latex gloves, cloth masks, disposable masks, a giant bottle of hand sanitizer, and Ziploc bags for safe disposal of all of the above. And we used everything.

We took meat, cheese and drinks in a cooler for the first day along with granola bars, bananas, nuts, and buns in a Wonder Woman reusable bag. Our couple of stops for gas and a bathroom break were at Pilot Truck Stops along the way. I swear they had the cleanest bathrooms I'd ever seen.

Everyone at our hotels in Memphis and San Angelo took safety precautions seriously, including providing masks and hand sanitizer for guests.

We saw GK for about three minutes, only because his sergeant's test had come back negative that morning, and GK's doesn't face a two-week quarantine. The heart-breaking part is we couldn't do more than first-bump. This may be the last we see him for a couple of years.

This fucking virus sucks, but we all did what we had to in order to prevent exposure. But to play it safe, DH and I are quarantining ourselves for the next two weeks and keeping our fingers crossed. I can't bitch too much. I have books to finish.

Corona Virus Pandemic Day 5

A lot of people are freaking right now. It's not the lack of toilet paper on the shelves. It's the lack of certainty of when this crisis will end.

I get it. I do. I faced this lack of certainty when I was diagnosed with cancer two years ago. Because with every fucking test, the situation became worse. Both my oncologist and I were researching our butts off and came up with a plan we both were comfortable with.

So, I'm taking the COVID-19 shit seriously because I didn't go through all that crap to die of some stupid virus. The first person died in the U.S. the same day I returned from Las Vegas. At that point, it was obvious containment was a lost cause. I've stayed in our apartment since I returned, other than a couple of necessary errands.

So how do we deal with our quarantine?

Well, DH found Pepsi Max, chip dip, and bagels for me when he went out to pick up his prescriptions and fill the gas tank on his car. (He'd filled mine and Genius Kid's earlier in the week.) He keeps my glass filled with ice and Pepsi while I've been catching up on the personal and business administration stuff that had been neglected between my class in Las Vegas and finishing the latest book. He calls his dad daily to make sure he's okay. He's doing what he can to fulfill his role as caretaker. It's his way of self-soothing.

I could be freaking about the lack of sales like so many of my colleagues. Mine died the day I came home from Las Vegas. But I'm not going to. We haven't hit the new "normal" yet. Until we do, there's no way of analyzing the real effects this crisis will have on my business. For now, I'm simply thankful that my readers haven't cancelled their per-orders.

I've had the TV on over the weekend while I've been entering receipts into the accounting software and uploading the 888-555-HERO series on the other retail platforms. Not the news, but Supernatural, Bones, The Harry Potter marathon on the SyFy channel, Star Trek:Beyond, and Scorpion.

Today, I'm jumping on the next book to write. I can't control this virus or anyone's reaction to it, but I can write my stories. That's the best remedy I know.