April 19, 2020

Just another Sunday but more relaxed than previous week. Somehow I’ve gotten into the rhythm of daily life where there’s not much competing priorities outside of home. My pace is becoming much more laissez faire. Late pancake brunch and then a venture out to the Farmer’s Market.

I wasn’t able to order any poultry for the hubby at Costco so I thought of going to the Sunday market and try my luck. The regular meat guy was there and a whole chicken was available. It was the most expensive – farmed-raised, antibiotic-free – whole chicken I’ve ever purchased in my life! Nevertheless, I decided to get it to 1) support the local farmers and 2) ensure we have protein in stock.

The supply is getting less because the big farms are also having problems with production due to the nature of the process – manual labor in very close quarters. I just heard that one of the biggest fresh pork producers in the country had to shut down because of many CoVid19 diagnoses amongst its workers. Tyson, a major chicken supplier, suffering the same. Note that majority of these essential workers getting sick are mostly immigrants needing to work to earn a living. A very sad reality in this pandemic. Somehow, too, I’m glad for the animals. For a few days, they get to live. I’m now almost vegan but hubby is still on the fence, hence the need for some meat protein.

After the market, I also dropped by our neighborhood grocer to get some grapefruit and parsley. There was a line but it wasn’t too crowded so I patiently waited. I silently chastised myself though. It wasn’t really worth the risk given that their aisles are too narrow and the chances of physically bumping into other shoppers were high. Don’t think I will want to do that sometime soon.

Highlight of my day was my FaceTime with my sister. We try to talk every couple of weeks. I did mention she’s one of the vulnerable so we haven’t seen each other in person for weeks now. I’m glad for technology at least for allowing us the opportunity to talk and virtually see each other. After my mom died, she’s my go to person for some tete-a-tete. I’m thankful to see she’s slowly becoming her normal self again despite the odds. We can talk for hours. I long for the day that I can hug her again. I also miss our happy hours together!

April 20, 2020

Monday…but for the first time in many years, I’ve been having no blues when it’s Monday. It’s nice feeling for a change. No pressure to get up early, no pressure to get ready for work, no pressure to fight the traffic, no pressure to be somewhere at a certain time. For this, I’m ok to be working from home!

The one thing I miss though is the banter on Mondays at work with my colleagues on how each of our weekends went and the things we did, boring or not. Now, we all know we were nowhere and we just talk on the phone about how our movement around the house went. After asking each other this for a few times, it becomes old and the silence that follows becomes awkward. Now the conversation is about trying to downplay the amount of space you have in your home lest you sound like bragging about what you have that others don’t.

It was a slow start for me. Stock market was picking up and then spiraled back down with the news that oil prices are below zero! Never in the history of the industrial revolution was oil ever in the negative mark. We’re fighting a different war – in order to win we should not move.

What’s the consequence of this? I bet the oil lobby, which is very strong in this country, will do all possible to influence the US government to start opening up. Try to kickstart economic activity again. Well, at what price to human lives? Is it going to be survival of the fittest, literally? Those who do not have the strength to fight this pandemic will be allowed to die and be damned for the sake of industries that have been wallowing in cash and profits for many years?

If we decide to open up too soon, and surely experts already predict thousands more deaths, then we, humans, are the real enemy not the virus.