a peek inside the fishbowl

A few things have changed since my previous post about what we are doing now that COVID-19 has arrived in Ottawa.

I did a second large grocery shop a couple of nights ago. It was busy, but not as busy as reported today. e.g. line ups that loop around the entire store. When I came home with multiple bins and bags in hand the other night I think Mark thought I was going a bit overboard – our fridge and pantry and small freezer are now overfull – and perhaps I was, but it actually made me feel a lot calmer. (And no, I didn’t load up on toilet paper, and not just because there wasn’t any to buy.)

Maybe the trick is to focus on the things we can control: like what groceries we buy. (And beer.)

I made pizza for dinner last night, and we watched a movie. It was a good start to what was surely going to be a great weekend: A Weekend of Doing Nothing but Reading. Two e-books that I had been waiting for from the library suddenly became available (!!), which added to my reading list considerably.

There’ve been a lot of jokes going around about introverts looking forward to hunkering down at home and not going anywhere – and I was frankly looking forward to the opportunity – but I’m feeling mighty squirrelly this morning.

I read my book for awhile but couldn’t quite focus. (Sidebar: I’m reading Know My Name: A Memoir, by Chanel Miller and it’s EXCELLENT. Honestly, this should be required reading for high schoolers everywhere.) So I spent the next few hours doing laundry, tidying the kitchen, cleaning the bathroom, and getting rid of things that were irritating me, such as an old pair of boots that were too worn to wear anymore. (Why was I holding on to those, exactly?) I made a toasted tomato sandwich for lunch. Organized a kitchen drawer. Made the bed. Watered the plants. And now I’m gearing up to give our mudroom an overhaul.

I’m finding it hard to sit still. I suppose it’s just nervous energy that I need to channel somewhere but I’d really rather be reading.

The other thing that’s changed since that last post is that many places have temporarily closed, including museums, galleries, sporting events, community centres, pools, arenas, schools. March Break has been extended. Many people are working from home now. Vacations have been cancelled all over the place.

Queen’s University has cancelled classes for the rest of the semester and moved the learning online, but it looks like the girls are staying where they are for the time being. (I have mixed feelings about this.)

I am worried about their health, obviously, but I’m also worried about what the summer will hold for them. They have both applied for jobs in Ottawa, but those jobs might not exist as a result of what’s happening now. What if they can’t find work to offset the cost of their university education?

Right now many of us are worried about getting sick and whether we have enough toilet paper. The other outcomes will come to light soon enough, I suppose.

From the archive: To mark #InternationalWomensDay, here are profiles of 7 truly remarkable women — from a 101-year-old runner from India to a Yemeni refugee who didn’t let war stop her from being a scientist. https://t.co/Il9M445uZP

— NPR (@NPR) March 8, 2020

• “I Fail Almost Every Day”: An Interview with Samin Nosrat, newyorker.com
• A Photographer’s Parents Wave Farewell, newyorker.com
• Road trips, risks and a break-in: What’s stopping women from travelling alone, theglobeandmail.com
• What’s The Best Plant-Based Milk For Coffee? We Tried 10, chatelaine.com

On the nightstand: Before we were yours, by Lisa Wingate

It’s important to think about the things we can all do to prepare for possible cases of #COVID19 in our community. In the video below, your Medical Officer of Health @VeraEtches has great info to help you be prepared. Please watch & please RThttps://t.co/SDvkNTcPiJ

— Ottawa Public Health (@ottawahealth) March 4, 2020

Ottawa Public Health has declared that risk is very low, but news of the virus is so widespread and pervasive right now that it’s hard not to want to do something in response.

What have you done, or changed, in response to COVID-19?

Me:

1) One thing I’ve changed is that I wash my hands with a frequency and dedication that has never existed in my Personal History of Handwashing, especially at work. (As some of you know, I work in a health care setting.)

Someone on Twitter said their hand washing intensity was at the same level as if they had just deseeded a jalapeño with their bare hands and needed to take their contacts out.

That is intense.

Yes, there IS a right way to wash your hands. pic.twitter.com/FytxYyGYCe

— WebMD (@WebMD) February 28, 2020

I practice Complete Handwashing. This means using enough soap to create a good lather followed by 20 seconds of rubbing my hands together (as per video!) before rinsing. Some people sing a song in their heads (apparently two rounds of “happy birthday” does the trick) but I just use this time as a mini meditation.

2) I use hand sanitizer between hand washings. It is widely available at work so I use it freely and frequently. I thought it would dry out my skin but so far, so good. Some people use hand sanitizer after washing their hands for complete coverage. NOTED.

3) Related to this, I keep my fingernails short.

4) Related to this, I try to use my non-dominant hand to open doors and don’t touch things in common areas like elevator buttons and handrails if I can help it.

5) I bought Lysol wipes for my office at work.

6) I try not to touch my face, but it’s hard, because I do it without thinking. It helps if I have something in my right hand, like a stress ball (or stress avocado):

Here’s an article with some tips that might be helpful if you are the kind of person who touches their face.

7) We stocked our pantry. (Notice I used the word STOCKED UP instead of stockpiled!)

We aren’t buying water, generators, or kerosene-powered camp stoves at this stage, but I think it’s a good idea to have a pantry that’s full instead of empty in case one of us needs to stay home for 14 days.

I made an “emergency supply” list, but it was hard to know whether to approach it from the perspective of being healthy or ill. If I’m fighting the flu, I probably won’t want to be baking loaves of bread or making pancakes from scratch. So convenience had to take priority.

My shopping list was also drawn up with a few other things in mind. If we are confined to our home, we’ll eat perishable goods first. Plus, we already have bunch of pantry staples, like rice, flour, cooking oil. (If we didn’t, those things would be on the list.)

Also, we don’t have a chest freezer, which is a tiny bit of a downer, otherwise we’d really be able to stock up on frozen fruit, veg, meat, and bread. As it stands, if anything happens we will be bit limited in this department.

I also debated whether to buy enough food to feed two, four, or more people. What if extended family needed supplies? Our grocery shop the other night was planned with the intent of feeding two people for two weeks. We bought food we like to eat (no 20lb bags of dry beans for us!) so we can slowly nibble away our supplies if nothing comes of this. The next time we go grocery shopping we will continue to buy doubles of the things we normally buy.

Our emergency food supply list for Operation Restock the Pantry (two weeks worth of food)
(keeping in mind we already have some food at home – in our pantry, fridge, and small freezer):

Canned meat and fish
Vegetables (canned and in jars)
canned fruit
canned beans
Soup, stew, chili (boxes and cans)
ramen noodles
peanut butter
pancake mix (the kind that only needs water)
large bag of rolled oats
container of steel cut oats
cereal
dry pasta (and KD!)
pasta sauce
whole grain crackers
dried fruit and nuts
non-perishable milk (in boxes and cans)
boxed juices (1L boxes)
coffee and hot chocolate mix
granola bars
toilet paper

Speaking of grocery stores, I predict a quick end to sample tables at Costco and olive bars in the coming weeks. What do you think?