Tomorrow is my 41st birthday and it’s been six month since the start of the Pandemic so i thought i would spend some time writing things down to what has happened so far just as a reminder to my future self and to anyone who may still be reading my blog.
It was probably late January, or early February where i started to read articles about a flu hitting China on reddit. There were postings of people dying on the street, which was causing the whole country to lock down and basically hide from the virus. Reports starting flowing that it originated in a wet market in the city of Wuhan, and it was serious enough that the Chinese government was trying to cover up what was happening inside their borders. Every article that came out really started to read like World War Z minus the zombies but all of the deaths.
By the end of February the “flu” also known as Covid-19 or the Corona Virus had entered Europe, including Italy where my mom and uncle were about to head to for a holiday. My mom was worried, as the virus seemed to affect the older generation the hardest, and she did the right thing to cancel her trip the day before they were suppose to leave.
March comes, and the virus had spread to New York City, and Seattle but Los Angeles was still on the “safe” for the time being. This week i made a to stop by Costco to pick up our regular supply of paper goods, and noticed while walking in every cart was filled with toilet paper, paper towels, and water. That was the first sense that it might have arrived to Los Angeles, so just in case i picked up a pack of water to go along with my other normal shopping supplies.
March 6th to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary Joy and I we celebrated at Disneyland, but we were worried enough to load up our pockets with hand sanitizer, and still felt safe enough to be around other people.
March 11th Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz came down with the virus, and the game got called off, which creates a domino effect cancelling additional games around the country. What makes it worse is that the day before he joked around with reporters touching all the microphones and tables after a post game interview. That same day news comes out that Tom Hanks and his wife contracted the virus in Australia, and the whole country took notice.
Friday March 13th Alice’s school shuts down due to the virus, and enacts a virtual learning academy, and we also pull Leela out of Preschool the same day.
Saturday March 14th we had a birthday party to attend where initially we were slightly hesitant to be around our friends but a few drinks in we hung out like there was nothing to worry about. Who knew that a week after my trip to Costco there would be a complete run of all the paper goods from every conceivable store. I had a conversation with Steve who works at St. Joseph hospitals who recommended to start wearing masks when going out.
The grocery store was starting to look scarier each time i went out shopping, as people started hoarding food once the paper goods sold out. Stores started enacted a maximum occupancy, a maximum count for certain food staples like rice, pasta and dairy, and the stores setup a special shopping hour for at-risk shopping time for senior citizens.
March 25 Mayor Garcetti announce a ‘safer at home’ order, which officially shuts down the entire city.
to be continued …
