Italy was infected bad, there were a lot of deaths. Then it spread to the United States. There was talk about we could possibly be quarantined for a few weeks. People started going to the stores to stockpile food and supplies, mostly toilet paper.
At this point, I was cautiously concerned, but not really. Back in 2009, we had a pandemic of Swine Flu (H1N1) it blew over fairly quickly. People got it, in 12 weeks they came up with the vaccine, I had my kids vaccinated. It was in the news for a few months then it went away. There has been other communicable diseases in the past few years, SARA, Bird Flu, MRSA, nothing came of them. I felt like Coronavirus was a lot of media hype.
The first week in March was a busy week. A niece from Curtis' side, Krystal Suarez, was planning to get married March 6th. We had a lot of Curtis' family come into town. First, we had Curtis's Dad and his wife Marilyn come stay with us for a few days. Then his mom, Shauna, and sister, Audrey came to stay with us. While other more family trickled into town for the wedding but stayed at the Zoccoli's or other places. We had several family gatherings so we could spend time with each other before the wedding. Coronavirus was always a topic of conversation. Friday, March 6th was the wedding. It was over the top with 14 attendants, at a beautiful venue in Paradise Valley, the weather was beautiful, the decorations, festivities and food were all amazing. March 6th was the last day of school for my kids before they went on Spring Break for 11 school days. Over the next two days, the family trickled out of the house and returned life was good.
We started hearing about the virus getting more widespread. Large events were getting canceled in areas where the disease was more prevalent. The term "social distancing" started getting used more often. The first time I heard that word, I thought "I love it" being an introvert this sounded like music to my ears, no large groups, no handshaking, no hugging. This is a dream for me. Slowly more and more things started canceling, first, it started with General Conference not having a congregation, then weekly church meetings all of the world were canceled. By Thursday 3/12/19 the US President, Donald Trump, had pretty much put us all on quarantine. No large gatherings, schools closing, movie theaters, and gyms started to close, restaurants could only do take out or delivery. The NBA canceled the season and there would be no NCAA playoffs/March Madness this year. Some states are more strickt on the quarantine. Some business have to close and people are told to "shelter in place" while other states like Arizona are mostly shut down but you can still go to some stores and business. This is killing our economy. Unemployment literally skyrocketed. Highest it has ever been and it literally happened overnight. The economy was fantastic before this all hit. Hopefully, this will be quick.
Most everyone is trying to work from home. Interesting to see news correspondents, doing the news from their home. It is crazy. People trying to work from home, kids walking in and interrupting. It is a new way of life for everyone.
While our kids were on their first week of break they first canceled school until March 27, they were originally supposed to return March 24, then it was extended to April 10th.
When word of a possible quarantine started to spread a few weeks ago there has been a run on Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and cleaning supplies. I check every time I go to the store and the shelves are bare for those items. I heard if you go right when the store open you can buy 1 package of TP. While I was not desperate I thought it would be a good idea to get a bit more. The store opened up at 7:00 by the time I set foot in the store it was 7:06 there was a huge line wrapped around the store. I assumed it was for TP, indeed it was. I got in a line of about 70 people at 7:07 I grabbed my one package of TP the shelves were about 90% empty by then. I then headed over to the hand sanitizer. It was 7:20 by the time I got to that aisle, 100% empty. That will wait for another day.
I keep thinking how the world has changed so fast. Although Covid 19 was on our minds during the time of Krystal's wedding, everything seems so different now. If her wedding would have been a week later it would have to be canceled.
This has been very stressful for Curtis. He is about to lose his mind. He is concerned about the economy and his business, his hobbies are playing sports, watching sports, and working. He can't do any of those right now, besides he likes being around people. He feels like he is in a nightmare, I know he is not alone.
There is a lot of funny memes going around social media and people are really trying to be helpful and lift each other up. These are some of my favorite memes.
 |
| A lot of celebrities doing PSA telling us to #Stay Home |
 |
| In the middle of all this Utah had an earthquake. What the heck?? Moroni lost his trumpet of the Salt Lake Temple. Wierd!! |
