Tag: quarantine

The Coronavirus Pandemic Experience

Picture showing our groceries
We got bottled water separated so the virus in plastic dies off. (Picture taken by me)

We are living through an historic phase, and I am doing my part in recording it…through this blog.

It is April 8 and I have been living the quarantine life for two weeks. Most of the world have been at this longer than me because I don’t count the week I was on Mexico.

The good news is that I have not developed symptoms, so I didn’t get it in any tourist attraction on my trip nor on the airports, which was causing me stress. If I do contract the virus, I will catch it here, and I think I should be considered “second wave,” at least in Austin.

We are just going out to do light exercise. It consists of walking a trail for 45 minutes. I am so out of shape that I get winded after that. We see people, and we are keeping our distance.

Hope that is enough.

What are we doing for entertainment, the wife and I, during the confinement?  Nothing much different. We are seeing a lot of Netflix, and I am renting movies in Fandango. Currently, we are watching the sixth episode of “Tiger King” (yes, it is a weird show and if you are reading this 20 years from now, you should analyze the cultural phenomenon this docuseries caused). Our binge skills are strong. We finished season four of “Money Heist” in one setting.

My time is split into working from home, which I am lucky to have because last week, 6.6 million people applied for unemployment, and finishing up my Social Media Certification and Bilingual Court Interpreting course work. Believe me, it is a lot of work.

The wife is taking good care of me by being a good “grocery hunter.” At this time, we have found the basic groceries, and she has divided them into unwashed and washed items.

What’s going on:

We are hunkering down. There have been a bunch of scary stories. For example:

  • Young people, like this 32-year-old woman, are dying when we thought senior people were more susceptible.
  • Deaths in Ecuador are so many, dead are being left on the streets.
  • New York and Louisiana have been hit the hardest. Washington and California seem to be turning the tide after being hit first. Still, it seems the worst is yet to come.

My anxiety level has been high.

You can see some of my anxiety on my Instagram or Facebook profile, which I hope you follow. I need suggestions to what to write, so you can send me suggestions that way.

What we are doing:

We have these high-value items:

  1. Water.
  2. Food for at least two weeks. Restaurants are still open for carry out.
  3. Toilet paper!

Unfortunately, we are running low on cleaning supplies.

The picture shown is how we are dividing our groceries. The bags have not been gone through the disinfecting process, so they are outside the kitchen. We have been told the virus dies in two days. Since these groceries are non-perishable, there is no need to put them on the fridge just yet.

What we will do:

We are going to start doing more exercise. We have gone to walks, but the paranoia is starting to set in. The are we walk is still used by people.  The only thing we haven’t done is laundry.

Last week I was still adapting. I didn’t feel like writing, but I plan to resume writing reviews. Please visit my Contact Me page (I have changed it!).

I also plan to continue posting chapters of my novel, which the main page is here. Please let me know what you think.

Spring Break – Reprise

El Canon del Sumidero was a beautiful site to visit, but also very crowded. (Photo taken by me)

As anyone who is living right now, I have been affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. Not as much as others. I don’t have symptoms, nobody in my household has, we have acquired groceries (including milk, eggs and toilet paper which we were low), and have hunkered down for one week of who-knows-how-many.

I needed to let some time pass to write again. My last post about Spring Break could have been misunderstood that I was one of the crazy young people going to Florida even though authorities say to avoid it.

I wasn’t. I was anxious about my trip and the uncertainity of what was happening. The reason why I was optimistic was that Mexico, specially the state of Chiapas, had fewer positive cases than Austin. I thought I was escaping from the pandemic for one week. My destination was safer!

I got anxious just seeing people with masks at the airports. When we arrived at our destination, we went to see the town of Tuxtla Gutierrez. See, I thought we were on a small group and mostly visiting rural areas. I had the idea we would not be in crowded places, but when we visted the plaza, my preconceived notions were all wrong. It was packed!

Now I was concerned. Chiapas is not wealthy, it relies mostly on tourism and is rural in almost all areas. My first impression was that if it got the disease, a lot of people were going to suffer.

I try to enjoy the trip, but I kept reading the news. There were rumors of the border closing but nothing concrete. I knew it was coming, but we didn’t have a specific date.

Then, on our last days, our tourist guide got the news. The historical sites were closing down to avoid the pandemic. There were a lot of tourists from different places of the world – including Asia and Europe – visiting the same small places. It seems we were the last wave of people visiting those sites since they closed down a day after we visited. On our return date, we knew the border was closing.

Now everything is worse as before we left. I haven’t shown symptoms, and Mexico is in denial, like Americans were weeks ago. The denial is more out of necessity. Without tourism, they are going to lose their jobs and way of life.

But…most of the places I went were so far away that there is hope the virus will never get there. There is a chance the poorest sites will not see the disease, while the richer sections of the country will suffer.

That’s wishful thinking of my part. At the time I am writing this there are reports that rich Mexicans brought the virus and are infecting domestic workers. Rich people will get the treatment. The poor will not.