Day 3 - Heavy Rain In the Forecast
2020 March 20
Friday
9:45am:
My husband woke me at 7am today, before leaving for work. This was good, as it avoided a repeat of yesterday’s poop on the floor.
As I lay in bed, I mindlessly scrolled Twitter and Facebook, and watched a couple of news conferences. Eastern Ontario numbers are still going up. One of the Ontario deaths was a case of community transmission, but it feels like the media is glossing over that fact. I wish it was the headline.
The weather today is wet, dark, and gloomy -- much like my mood.
Our family is well-positioned to ride this out without too much change or hardship, but I worry about people without job security, I worry about the people in abusive home environments, I worry about students, and I'm thinking a lot about how things might look for our country this time next year. I worry about the people who haven't seemed to grasp how serious this is and are fixating on job losses and business closures, and trying to go about life as normally as possible. There’s a lot of worrying, and it is interfering with my sleep.
Weirdly, I'm not experiencing any panic about all of this. We prepared in advance (back in February), so now we just need to pick up a handful of things at the store once a week, which greatly limits our potential exposure. Only one of us goes, the kids stay home. The stores are eerily quiet.
I feel like I'm in a roller coaster car that has just left the boarding area and is slowly climbing to the top of first hill. Tomorrow I head into the city for a shift at work.
My body is running at a low, constant buzz of restlessness and anxiety.
I read a piece this morning about how Justin Trudeau is embodying the same shift we're all experiencing -- 24/7 Prime Minister in easily the biggest national crisis of his political career, and yet he's also 24/7 dad, working from home in quarantine while his wife is ill with this virus. It's oddly comforting. It makes him feel real and approachable, and if anyone is going to understand the challenges Canadians are facing right now, it's going to be a Prime Minister who has to deal with them firsthand.
The teens are still in bed, the baby is currently trying to stand up without holding onto anything, and the other three are playing video games. I'll probably let them get their fill today -- the quiet is nice.