We are now officially through our first week in self isolation. Last Friday morning I did a big grocery shopping trip to get enough food to hopefully get us through two weeks. Since then we have had no direct contact with anyone. We have seen neighbors from across the street and through the fence, but we have made sure to keep our minimum 6 foot distance. Life as we knew it has changed dramatically in the past few weeks and doesn't show any signs of returning to normalcy any time soon.
The U.S. started getting news of a new virus, Corona virus (Covid-19) in early January. It was localized to China but before long new cases started cropping up throughout the world. By the end of February it had made it to the United States and quickly started making people in Seattle and California sick and dying. At this time our family had been hit hard by a respiratory virus. Claire began with runny/stuffy nose, cough, and fever and ended up also getting a severe ear infection that required antibiotics. A few days after Claire began showing symptoms Owen started with a fever as well. He also had a very runny nose and cough but even as the cough began to wane his fever would not go away. We took him to the pediatrician multiple times over a 3 week period, tested him for numerous infections with blood tests, a chest x-ray, viral panel, and even abdominal ultrasound, to no avail. As of now, almost one full month after the start of his fever we still don't know what is causing it. Thankfully it has gone down and he has a pretty normal amount of energy and appetite, but it still is not completely gone. But now that we are in the age of a full blown pandemic, getting any additional testing or even a dr visit feels like more of a risk than a benefit. So we wait, wait and hope that whatever is causing his temperature to stay elevated will subside on it's own.
As of this Monday, all schools in the state of Utah are closed. We have been thrown into makeshift homeschooling in an attempt to reduce the spread of Covid-19. As of today we have 112 cases but since the availability of testing has been almost impossible, the actual numbers are likely much higher. The number of cases in the US are now at over 18,000 and the number of worldwide deaths are 11,000. In Italy alone, in the past 24 hours there were 627 Covid-19 dealths. It is unimaginable what the world is facing right now. We are all being asked to do social distancing. We are being told to not be in groups of more than 10 people and to keep a 6 foot distance when in any group. Schools, government offices, stores, theatres, libraries, rec centers, museums, campgrounds, and zoos are all closed. Restaurants are closed to public seating and only allow take out or delivery. Grocery stores (especially warehouse stores like Costco) are almost completely emptied out. It is virtually impossible to purchase toilet paper, paper towels, hand sanitizer, or any pantry staple (flour, peanut butter, eggs).
Tuesday was St. Patty's day. We celebrated by putting cut out paper shamrocks in the window for anyone walking by to see. The kids and I went for a walk around the neighborhood at lucnchtime to look for shamrocks on the windows of our neighbors. That night Owen decided that he was going to be a leprechaun and make a mess in our family room. After Claire went to bed, Jake and I want into our room and Owen turned into a leprechaun, turning over chairs, throwing our shoes around the room, hiding snacks, and making a general mess. The next morning, Wednesday the 18th as I was sitting in bed, reading the news, the house started shaking. It started soft as it sometimes does when a big truck is driving down our street, but very soon the shaking got much more intense and I knew that it was definitely not a truck. At this point I heard Claire screaming from upstairs and I flew out of the bed, running up the stairs to get the kids. All the while the house is shaking like it were a boat out in a violently stormy sea. As I made it upstairs I grabbed both kids and yelled to get downstairs and outside. Jake met me at the stairs and helped Owen down and I carried Claire down and out into the backyard. Looking back, I honestly don't know how we all made it down the stairs without falling. Thankfully we all made it outside safely and put chairs out in the middle of the grass, away from anything that might fall. Since it had rained the night before and it was very cold, after the shaking had stopped I ran inside to get blankets, jackets, and my bra. For some reason I felt like it was super important to get my bra. Whatever. I called our neighbor asking if they had felt it too and if they were ok. I then called my parents to check on them and they said that according to the news it had been a 5.7 earthquake. There was an aftershock a little less than an hour later of 4.6 We stayed outside for quite awhile, worried to go back in the house in case of another large aftershock. But after a while we decided to would be ok to go back in. There were numerous small aftershocks but not another large one until just after 1 pm. Another 4.6. Feeling quite panicked we all rushed outside again and waited it out for a while. Thankfully there were no fatalities or even injuries and our house faired fine. As far as we know at this point there was no damage to our house or anyone in our family.
As for now, I'm off to bed, hoping and praying that we've experienced the last of the earthquakes and that we can be happy and healthy as a family and as a world. Goodnight.
