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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
12/12/20 Usually Chanukah is all about get togethers with friends at our house or their houses. Big annual parties, community celebrations. Shipment of presents — two kids x eight days each — that my mom brings along when they visit for Thanksgiving and leaves with us, squirreled away in a closet, until the appropriate moment. Chanukah is not a big holiday, despite the bullshit attempts at parallels In media and popular culture, and I never really have shopped for the kids. Just let my mom do one token gift a night, more or less, and that’s it. This year, of course, we’re doing it differently. No community gatherings at all. No latke and dessert gatherings at friends’ houses to light the candles, and no one at ours. No parties. But we did make a ton of latkes last weekend and have been eating them all week, accompanied by the usual disagreements: Applesauce AND sour cream? Just applesauce? Sour cream only? Or, the genuinely contentious question: salt or sugar? (My family has a salt wing and a sugar wing, so I can appreciate both, but would say I’m planted squarely in the sugar wing!) Presents situation was different too. Without my mom’s careful planning, preparation, wrapping, and delivery, I had to pull something together myself. I’ve spoken with friends and other parts of the country in the past few weeks who won’t set foot in any stores unless absolutely necessary, but I’ve been to Marshall’s a bunch of times. One hour at Marshall’s, $200 later, and I had enough silly little gifts (and wrapping paper) to make it through the holiday: Kids robes, superhero slippers, toy dinosaurs, a set with a ton of tiny nail polish colors, etc. We’re managing this one just fine. And I’m still ready for more latkes.
December 13, 2020
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
This has been a good week in my part of the country. Our numbers look good, and they are getting better. Meanwhile, there are some really scary numbers coming from the south and the west. What I don't understand are these people who have made a big deal about wearing a mask. Why? It makes me think that there are people in the US who care for no one but themselves, and to hell with protecting others - because, ya know, it is my right to be a complete jerk. Their thinking is warped. And when they get sick, we are all supposed to feel sorry for them. The fact that these people are not shamed by their behavior is a mystery to me. Meanwhile, I continue my "stock up for a year" project. I fear that things here will get bad again -- and that certain foods and commodities will be scarce again -- that online shopping will be overtaxed and that shipping will once again be overloaded with long delays. So I am preparing. All the staples I need for a year are now in my basement. Toiletries, dry goods, canned goods, soaps and detergents, and paper goods etc. This helps me worry less, and eases my mind. And -- even if we don't have another spike, I'll be all set for the next year on all these items. So -- win-win. Still working at home, and I see no end to this until we have a vaccine. They are talking about vaccine availability at the beginning of 2021, but I am betting on next Spring.
July 6, 2020