Pandemic Diaries Week #6

20 April 2020

Note - the photos have nothing to do with the narrative, I just don't like all words and no photos in our blog.

We moved back into our regular hotel on Sunday, after the pipes were all fixed.  There was the usual weirdness with air and rust in the pipes, and that lingered in the hot water for a few days.  But it eventually worked through.

However, our mini fridge decided to quit working.  We tried turning it off and on.  I looked online to try to find out if the higher number is low or high.  Nothing worked, our yogurt and fruit got warmer and warmer.

I finally talked to the guy at the reception desk.  He came down to our room, and said the easiest thing is to try a different outlet.  We thought maybe he'd check the breaker switches, but no, he just unplugged the mini fridge, pulled the huge dresser/fridge/microwave/tv unit away from the wall, and plugged the fridge into a different outlet.

HUMMMMMMMM!!!!!  Success!!!!  

Occam's Razor:  the simpler theory is more likely to be true.

23 April 2020

I probably should start by saying that this is not an upbeat blog. So if you are feeling overwhelmed by our national and world news, then please, skip this blog. I know that we're living through a very scary time in the world, and all the news is depressing. It is easy to be overwhelmed by it all. 

But sometimes, I think it's important to realize why it's overwhelming, why it's heart-breaking. I personally believe that being heart-broken about human tragedy is what makes us all human.

Throughout this whole Covid-19 period of our lives, I keep thinking of John Donne - and most people know the quotation, though I will post it here:

"No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manor of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

I found a poster with this quotation at the tender age of 15 or 16. And somehow, at that rather self-absorbed age, this quotation struck a chord deep in my being. It still does, roughly 50 years later.
At any rate, yes, each person's death affects each of us, the collective whole. Each individual who dies from this horrible disease diminishes our collective humanity - and while their family mourns in social isolation, we as the world lose that soul, that person, and everything they might have done had they survived.

We are the continent of Humanity, and we are losing part of our larger selves bit by bit, person by person, in horrendous numbers. We may not know each person, nor their names. But we mourn their death, we mourn the rising numbers, we mourn the loss of life along with the loss of our normal life.

Because to NOT mourn, to do anything otherwise, makes us callous. Makes us less humane. And makes us less human. 


24 April 2020

Laundry, which included walking to the hotel next door to get more quarters for the machines (since our hotel was out), and then across to the neighboring liquor store for more quarters.  Boy the owner of the shop is grumpy!  Signs all over to not touch this or that.   I walked in and he pointed to somewhere.  I looked at him, confused.  He pointed again and said "there."   So I went to stand where he pointed.   Nope, not what he wanted, he pointed again and said, "THERE."  I still didn't understand what he was talking about, I looked around, he pointed emphatically and said "THERE!!!"  I finally realized he was pointing at a container of hand sanitizer, LOL!   You'd think he could say, "Please use the hand sanitizer here on the counter."  But I guess that would have been too easy, LOL!!!  


26 April 2020

SIL's Covid-19 test came back negative, so we're all moved in.  Nice to be in a house again, so that there are different rooms to be in!  Plus a yard!  A bunny who lives in the hedge!  Two cats inside, and all kinds of birds outside!  Plus streets for walking!

SUCH LUXURY!!!

Pandemic Diaries Week #5

14 April 2020

I don't know what other people are doing about their hair.  Just before Peru closed the borders (and airport), I had located the place I where I had gotten my hair cut several years ago.  It took a bit of wandering around our neighborhood to find the spot.

But that was on Sunday, when they were closed.  The next day, Monday a month ago, we awoke to learn of the shutdown.

So it is now it is over four months since my last haircut.  And with hair that's somewhere between wavy and curly, but not curly enough to really be called curly, well, too much length pulls it down and pulls out the curl.

Yeah, time to do something.  I don't want to be too drastic, but it's definitely time.


16 April 2020

I went ahead and trimmed my hair.  Fortunately, layered curly-ish hair is forgiving, because this was an improvised haircut.  

My former hairdresser in St. Thomas would cut my hair in what he named The Gypsy, where each hair was cut to the same length.  Not the same length as in a straight blunt cut.  No, more like every single hair was cut to 4" or something.  So that it was layered.  He said to imagine turning upside down and cutting the hair - the hair on the top of your head would be shorter while the hair toward the bottom of your head would be longer - so it comes out naturally layered.

Well, so I kind of did that.  Lay down on the bed with my head hanging down over the end, and over a big paper bag.  Pulled all my hair into a sort of ponytail and held that in my left hand, while I trimmed about an inch off the end.  Then got up, made sort of a part in the back, and pulled everything to the front and trimmed another inch off the ends, so the back is slightly longer than the front.  Trimmed my bangs a bit as usual - drawing the bangs together and twisting, then just a small trim slightly uneven.  (And all trimming was over that paper bag.)

That was it.  So I sort of have chunky layers, and the whole thing is a bit shorter.  And back to being more curly-ish and less fuzzy! 

YAY!


17 April 2020

As places around the US begin talking about going back to business as usual, I hope the re-openings are slow and careful, based on data for each location.  We were told just today that our hotel is not accepting new reservations nor walk in customers!  We're able to extend our reservation because we're already here, but new people are not accepted.  This decision came from the county government!  So, I guess things aren't opening here in south New Jersey any time soon, if they're making decisions like this.  (And actually, it sounds like maybe there have been an increase in virus cases here, if the country won't let hotels take in new guests from just anywhere.)

Then our sister-in-law contacted us - she's had headaches and a low fever for a week or so.  Said she often gets this with changing seasons, but given the virus she talked to her regular doctor.  She's scheduled for a Covid-19 test on Tuesday, which means results Friday or Saturday.  We talked about it, Richard and I talked about it, and our decision was that we extend our reservation here for another week.  Did that online, not a problem despite the limitations initiated by the county.

And THEN, a pipe burst in our hotel and they called in plumbers.  They managed to repair it, but then a second pipe burst when they turned the water back on again.  So now, we've been told that we're moving to the sister property across the parking lot, and we should pack for maybe two days.  Hopefully that's all it will be.

And I just found out we have an 8 PM curfew here!  I guess New Jersey is seeing a rise in Covid-19 cases!

Crazy sort of a day, huh??? 


19 April 2020

We're moved back into our original hotel, and the room feels bigger somehow.  Maybe because we have a partial divider that separates the couch area from the bed - who knows?

I think I mentioned that the hotel gives us a breakfast bag each morning, with packaged muffins, a piece of fruit or two, and a bottle of water.  The first few days, we received apples that were rather old and withered, and just not something either of us wanted to eat.  I thought maybe I'd chop them up into oatmeal, but never did that.

So today, I took our old apples, walked around our building and into the empty lot next door, and threw them into the forest behind our hotel.  Really, it's just undeveloped sandy soil full of pine trees and underbrush.  I figure there must be deer, rabbits, raccoons living out there.  Squirrels.  Some animals that will appreciate a few apples.

But it was kind of fun tossing apples out into the forest and calling animals to come eat them!  (No, I didn't see any.  I'm hoping the animals find them during the evening or night.)

Pandemic Diaries Week #4

6 April 2020

We spent two nights in Virginia, at a nice hotel.  Well, it probably is nicer when they aren't following pandemic procedures.  But it was comfortable, the staff were friendly and helpful, and the landscaping was beginning to flower.

We splurged on a taxi to Union Station in downtown Washington DC, and caught an Amtrak train onward to Philadelphia.  Neither of us had EVER seen Union Station so empty - no lines, and the train was nearly empty!  We had a very nice redcap who put us on a golf cart, along with our luggage, and took us down into the deep underground of the station right to our train.  Amtrak announced that everyone needed to sit two rows apart to maintain social distancing (or stranger distancing, in reality).  

It was a really pretty trip.  The District of Columbia is known for the cherry trees that blossom each year, initially gifts from Japan but we assume the multitude of cherry trees are the descendants of the original trees.  There were avenues lined with fluffy pink trees, bright spots of color among the early budding trees everywhere.  I do love pink, it's a much under-valued color.  So I was quite happy to see all this pink on our trip north.

Richard's brother (S) met us in Philadelphia, another very empty train station.  (And a really pretty station, too.  Original train stations dating back to the early 1900s all have such lovely architecture, with soaring ceilings full of ornamentation, huge windows keeping everything bright and sunny, and lines of pillars and wooden benches.)

S brought essential supplies in his car - disinfecting wipes, hand sanitizer, lunch, and snacks.  We hadn't been able to find sanitizer or wipes in Peru, although I finally bought baby wipes and wiped down our seats on the plane and train.  I figured it couldn't hurt, right?

I had booked a hotel in Absecon, New Jersey, using our hotel loyalty points so we have a free stay.  So S dropped us off, we checked in, and we're now ensconced in our suite.  Me being a little paranoid about this virus, I wiped most of our things down with the disinfecting wipes, including our shoes.  Clothing including my jacket went into the laundry facilities across from our room.  A full shower, and clean clothes.  Only then was I ready to relax.  Not my usual procedure, but this is the Age of the Pandemic, so maybe this is the Strange New World.


7 April 2020

Our hotel is on sort of a highway, the White Horse Pike.  I found there was a shopping area about 3/4 of a mile away, so I braved the off-and-on sidewalk and wandered down to buy exciting things like lotion.  (All that handwashing!!!)

This is vaguely rural southern New Jersey, not too far from the shore which is more famous.  I don't know how big the town of Absecon really is, but there were several stores of major chains, as well as local places.

And flowers!!!  Bright yellow daffodils planted behind several buildings, pink buds opening into bright white apple or cherry blossoms, tiny purple flowers among the green ground cover.  

As much as I love summer with the long sunny days, the warmth, and the leisurely pace of life, I do love the flowers of spring as the world awakens after the long cold winter.  So if we need to be back in the US and in one place, self-isolating and waiting out this pandemic, it's really nice to be here in springtime! 

8 April 2020

I forgot to add that yesterday, on my walk back to the hotel, I waited for two guys walking on the path where there wasn't a sidewalk, just to keep my social distance.  As they walked by, I noticed that one guy was wearing a mask printed to look like the bottom half of a skull!  Very cool, actually!  I complimented him on his mask.  (As I was wearing a paper mask covered by my pale pink homemade mask.) 

So, during self-isolation, we're finding that it helps to have family about 20 minutes away.  Today, they brought over a full Passover meal for us, plus stuff things we couldn't find nearby (like some cups of yogurt, and a case of Diet Coke for DH - too heavy for me to walk with that). 

Our planned procedure was they would bring it over, have the front desk call us, we'd meet in the parking lot.  So Richard's brother put the bags of food and groceries on the hood of the car, and he walked to the next parking spot about 10 ft away. So I walked over, put down the little package with refrigerator magnets we picked up for them in South America, and picked up our bags of food.  And backed away, chatting with S. 

It really was kind of funny, like a hostage exchange in a movie!!! 

9 April 2020

We just finished a family seder via Zoom - I think we were six or so different family units, mostly on the east coast but one on the west coast.  We had a fun abbreviated seder.  My favorite part, though, were the two tutorial sessions I had earlier in the day, given by the two twelve-almost-thirteen year olds in the family!  Not only was it fun, but just knowing that these bright kids are so tech-savvy that they can explain new apps to those of us 60-something plus, and walk us through - pretty amazing!

So welcome to Passover 2020, in the era of social distancing!!!

11 April 2020

Our hotel is practicing social distancing as well.  There is one lady who is doing housekeeping, but only for rooms where the guests are checked out.  For those of us staying for a longer time, we don't actually have housekeeping.  Nor do we have the normal breakfast that this chain of hotels usually provides.

In the morning, Richard goes down to the lobby and picks up two "grab and go" breakfast bags from the reception desk.  They have a bottle of water, a piece or two of fruit, and a package with two muffins.  Not exactly a healthy breakfast.  (I usually eat the fruit, and skip the muffins, having a container of yogurt instead.)

After my shower, I bag up the towels and washcloths and anything else we want to change, and take those down to the reception desk.  I ask for clean towels etc., and bring those back to the room.

Trash also gets bagged up (usually by me), and recyclables go into their bin, trash goes outside into the larger bin.  After lunch and/or dinner, I usually take the packaging down to the trash or recycling as well.

And yes, reception will give out clean sheets, and I've remade our bed.

Not exactly the usual service at a hotel, but these are different times, extenuating circumstances, all of that.  We understand that this system is to protect their staff from us and our possible virus microbes, and to protect us from those of the staff as well as other guests.

We definitely are acting as if we all have the virus, and at the same time as we all DON'T have the virus - protecting others from us, protecting us from others.

We both have and don't have the virus, at the same time.

As someone said on Facebook, this is the Schrodinger's virus.  The having and not having at the same time.

Pandemic Diaries Week #3.75 - The Evacuation Flight

5 April 2020

Okay, so in the last blog, I explained that I contacted the US Embassy on Facebook (of all places!) and said that we'd been waiting for a flight for nearly two weeks, kept submitting more information as it was requested, and we were still in Peru.  That we were older adults with underlying medical conditions XYZ and QRS.

That afternoon, we received notification from the Embassy that we were officially on a flight manifest and our flight would leave Lima on 3 April!!  Woohoo!!!

So we finished our packing and printed up the necessary documents: the emails of notification so there was proof we were on the flight manifest, the promissory notes that are used to notify us of payment for the flight, and the letter from the Embassy that we should use in transit in case we get stopped.

Now, I should pause to say that things tend to happen to me that often don't happen to the average traveller.  Even during my first travels overseas, things just happened.  (Our family ended up in downtown Athens during a coup d'état.)  So, keep that in mind as I explain our Day of the Evacuation Flight.

On Friday morning we packed sandwiches at breakfast and filled our bottles of water.  Took our luggage downstairs, checked out, and requested a taxi.  I was armed with all that paperwork and our passports.  Richard helped load up the taxi, and we were off.

Good thing I had all of those documents - at random checkpoints, we were stopped by police and military personnel, some with scary automatic or semi-automatic weapons.  Our taxi driver had to show his emergency taxi authorization from the government.  We would be asked something in Spanish, I'd offer "la carta del paseo por volar" - the letter of passage to fly.  It was the best I could do to explain.  Once we were also asked to show our passports, but once the guy saw they were from the US, he said "Okay, thank you!"

We must have been stopped about six times!!!  Finally, we arrived at the US Embassy building, and the line of people and suitcases wound around two sides of the block, even though we were early.  So we had our driver pull up to where there were some official looking people, and we unloaded the luggage.  Because Richard isn't quite able to stand up straight with this back injury, I knew he really didn't need to stand on that really long line.  One of those official people ran over to help, and expedited us through the line.  There weren't any wheelchairs available, but one man put our luggage on a cart and made sure it got to a bus.  Another person had Richard sit in the shade and sent me from table to table - submitting our name for the flight manifest, handing over the passports, handing in the promissory notes, on and on.  

It took a while, but finally we got sent to a bus.  Turned out that our bus was the old and infirm person's bus - some of the people showed up in wheelchairs and could barely make it up the three steps to get into the bus!  Other buses filled up and drove by, but we just sat, slowly filling up with anyone who seemed to need extra time or assistance, including a few families with very small children.

After what seemed like forever, all the people were processed, the buses filled, and we headed to the airport - with a police motorcycle escort!  The cops on bikes would put on their sirens and zoom ahead to close intersections and block traffic so all eight buses could drive on through without interruption or being separated from each other.  Other police seemed to be stationed along our route, also stopping traffic so that we could drive on through.  We were the last bus in our caravan, so I could see the motorbike cops zooming alongside to the next intersection, sirens blaring.

At the military base, the buses drove up to a hangar that had been set up as the evacuation flight staging area.  Because we were the "special" bus, we mostly stayed on the bus and didn't need to go through the hangar to finish the processing.  US military people (I think mostly Marines) would come on the bus and explain the procedures in English and Spanish - one person per family needed to get off the bus and make one pile with their group's carryon luggage, and then work with an airline person to tag and group their checked luggage.  Leave the carryon outside.  When we were done and back on the bus, a dog was brought through to sniff the luggage - a cute golden Lab who seemed way too cheerful to be a bomb-sniffing dog.  He was rather interested in one particular bag that probably had lunch in there, burying his face all the way down into the bag.  Later, the police brought another dog, a shepherd type dog, who was much more serious and sniffed every bag as well - and buried her face in that same lunch bag.  They were pretty funny!

Turned out we were on a United flight - they disembarked a planeload of people, most likely Peruvians who had been living in the US but opted to be repatriated to Peru during this pandemic.

As people in hazmat suits went on the plane to disinfect it, clear out the trash, and reset things like seats and blankets, the Customs officials came through our bus to check and stamp our passports.  Next, a Marine came through, handing out little pieces of paper with seat assignments to each family group, ensuring people would sit together.  We ended up with 3G and 3L, and I realized we were in either business or first class!  Nice!  I think at this point, when people realized we were good to go, the bus people started applauding for the various people who helped us through this long process.  (This was now about 5 hours since we'd been told to arrive at the Embassy.)  

Finally - FINALLY - it was our turn.  The people who had been processed in the hangar started walking out to the plane and boarding from the rear, but our bus of the elderly-ish drove right out to the bottom of the stairs by the plane.  Several Marines very carefully and slowly assisted some of our more fragile passengers up the stairs, slowly being the operative term.  I guess this was why we were in business class, so that these very slow passengers didn't need to walk very far.

It was a pretty normal flight.  Friendly flight crew, mediocre food.  At least we had really comfortable seats in those little cubicle spaces, and the seat could be reconfigured into bed mode, so I got in a little nap.  The whole flight was about 7 hours or so.

The only excitement was that the man in back of me had a bit of a medical emergency.  He ended up with half the flight attendants and two medical people talking to him, taking blood pressure, oxygen, etc.  One flight steward was emailing the guy's whole medical history and symptoms to the CDC as well as the captain, both to be sure this wasn't a case of Covid-19 and to see if we needed to make an emergency medical landing.  The man  was in his late 80s and diabetic, so they gave him some juice and he felt better, although they think he passed out a couple of hours later.  People kept coming by to check on him, both our flight crew and the two Spanish-speaking medical people.

When we landed in Washington DC, we were asked to remain seated while some medical personnel came on board to assess the guy.  And then they ended up bringing on one of those skinny wheelchairs to roll him on out to a gurney.  (We didn't see any ambulances, so we figure he was pretty okay.)

All the normal stuff with Customs and Immigration, pick up the luggage, and so on.  We found a lounge area to sit down and Skype Richard's brother, and then we decided to go to a hotel for the night.  Packed up our carryon, headed out.  Once we arrived at the hotel, I realized that I lost our passports!  (I think they fell out of my pocket when some other things fell out of my pack, so I missed the passports while picking up everything else.)  ACK!!!!  Of course, I had trouble sleeping that night, I was so stressed!!!

Since I was up early in the morning, I figured I'd just go back to the airport and see if possibly the passports were still where we'd been sitting, or maybe turned in to lost and found.  It took me a while to find the lost and found area (way down in the luggage pickup carousel area, in the far back corner).  I talked to the airline's lost and found guy, who didn't have our passports.  Once I guaranteed that we lost the passports in the airport (because we got through Customs just fine so I had the passports through that section), he called the airport police to see if someone could open the airport lost and found area, and see if our passports were in there.  (Just to keep things balanced, there was also a TSA lost and found, for items accidentally left behind at the TSA screening stops.  Yes, three distinct lost and founds.)

It took about 30 minutes for the two airport police people to show up, but the woman police walked up and said "So, passports?"  I explained that yes, I seemed to have lost them last night when we took out our computers to call my husband's brother.  She unlocked the door, picked up a passport, and read out Richard's name!  I of course threw my hands in the air in a universally triumphant gesture and said, "And Phebe Schwartz!  YAY!"  So she handed me my passport, and I had to quickly tell her that Richard was my husband and I needed his passport too!!!  

As I started to leave, both passports in hand, I told her I was so happy I could hug her, but I knew I shouldn't.  She said, "Please don't.  Just a thank you is good."  We laughed, and I thanked them once more.

WHEW!  What a 24-hour period!!!  

We decided to stay one more night here in Virginia, since we both need to catch up on our sleep.  Tomorrow, we'll head to Union Station in Washington DC, and catch a train to Philadelphia.  Then head to southern New Jersey, where we've booked a hotel for two weeks.  Again, another period of quarantine or self-isolation or social distancing or whatever term you prefer.

But that evacuation flight was such an ordeal, I thought it deserved its own blog!  I mean, between the police and military checkpoints, the processing, the flight, the medical emergency, and the loss (and then retrieval) of the passports, it was quite the roller-coaster day!!!

 

Pandemic Diaries Week #3

30 March 2020

When I publish a blog (what the website calls it when I post it online), I always check our statistics.  How many hits, what blogs are most read, things like that.

This week, as it has been for many weeks, our blog has been read by numerous people across the USA.  But the second country where we have close to 200 hits this week is Italy!

So to all our Italian readers, Buon giorno!  Grazie per aver letto il nostro blog. Sei nei nostri cuori mentre continui a lottare contro questo virus. Pensiamo al tuo bellissimo paese, al tuo spirito forte e speriamo che questo piccolo blog ti dia piacere. Ti inviamo tanto amore.

Okay, no, I really don't know that much Italian.  I would say it much more like a three year old child.  Yay for google translate, right? 


31 March 2020

I got all dressed up today.  Okay, I wore another pair of earrings instead of the ones I've worn the past month.  That counts, right?  ALL dressed up!

It actually rained this evening, surprisingly.  Lima is one of the driest cities in the world, despite being on the coast.  Rain is pretty rare.

The president of Peru extended the curfew, so it was quiet after 6 PM.  Seems early, but I guess he felt this was needed.  It really is hard to not be social when you live in a place with all your friends and family in the vicinity.  I was trying to imagine going back to Seattle and not being able to see my friends.  Or to meet up and sit 6 feet (or 2 meters, or 2 king penguins lying down) apart.  Not to be able to hug the people I haven't seen in months.  It's easy to be socially distant when we live far away from everyone, or when we're travelling somewhere that's already distant.  But when you're right there, in the same town?  Yeah, that must be so difficult, so tempting.

We humans are definitely social creatures and pack animals.  No wonder dogs like us!

1 April 2020 

Another flight is going back to Canada today, and one more tomorrow.  Several people at our hotel are heading out to Toronto and onward to their homes.  Nice to see that the embassy is taking care of their citizens.

A Canadian friend sent a message to me quoting one of the couples that had been evacuated - they entered the jet to Canada, and the flight attendant handed them a tiny Canadian flag, saying "welcome home."  Isn't that a wonderful thing to do??  Just lovely!

Us?  Still no idea.  We've submitted the information requested, the first time on 21 March, when the US embassy initially said they were arranging charter planes for these evacuation flights.  Just last week, they came out with a form to standardize the information about each passenger, and that was the fourth time we sent in our names and other info.

And yet, we wait.  College students have been sent home.  The ambassador.  Diplomats and their families.  Every email from the embassy says they prioritize older adults and people with medical conditions.  But, not us.  We check email numerous times a day, including just before going to bed about midnight.  Nope, no information saying "you're on tomorrow's flight."

I'm starting to wonder if possibly the embassy staff has been directed to vet the passengers.  Maybe someone checks Facebook, or political party affiliation in voting records.  Who knows?  We've definitely exercised our First Amendment rights regarding our opinions of the current presidential administration in the US.  Maybe it's the fact that the CIA and FBI have a file on me for my time in the Peace Corps, or Richard's file as a peace activist in the 1960s.  But I do wonder if perhaps something like that is why we have not yet been put on an evacuation flight.

Feeling disheartened.  And I'm rarely less than cheery and optimistic.

On a lighter note, I'm adding photos of some of the artwork I've made with the online art workshop I'm "attending."  I've done a lot of improvisation with these projects, because when it's a collage project I'm limited to maps or brochures from the hotel (and my tiny tube of crazy glue).  When the project includes painting, all I have are my aquarelle (watercolor) pencils.  But I'm having fun, and it keeps me busy.  Both important when we're in shutdown mode! 

2 April 2020

I saw the American Citizens Services Embassy to Peru on Facebook, and finally spoke up.  I said that we sent in our info about 2 weeks ago, we're seniors, we have medical conditions, what's up. Someone contacted me, and asked what are our medical issues - I replied - we're now on the list of vulnerable people!!!  So I hope that bumps us up to the top of the list!!!  Of course, we're both of the age that if we need ventilators in a hospital, we may be denied that.  But hey, we feel a little better about things right now.

Later that same day....
 
We now are on a flight manifest!  We fly out tomorrow, to Washington DC.  Once we get there, we'll book something onward - didn't want to do it until we land, because we don't know how long it will take to go through Customs and all.  But it looks like we'll move from this quarantine to a US quarantine, and just try to keep avoiding this virus.

I'll post this, and will start up again once we're back in the US.