In list form, because I lists:
- Still no toilet paper at the grocery store
- Hand sanitizer also remains vanished
- As of tomorrow, I am working from home until [no date specified]
- Things I can’t do because they are closed:
- Buy a book at Indigo
- Buy an iPad at an Apple store
- Buy a Surface Pro at a Microsoft store
- See a movie at Landmark Cinemas
- Have a stiff drink at any bar to try to forget about the pandemic
- Exercise, go for a swim or play a sport at any indoor public facility
- Things I can’t do because they are no longer allowed:
- Gather with more than 50 people
- Things that are still allowed:
- Fretting
- Worrying
- Pacing back and forth
- Checking your temperature
- Did I mention fretting and worrying?
The whole thing still seems surreal, but the new wrinkle of working from home (which in a way is a relief as it allows me to avoid the long commute on public transit where I could be exposed to the virus or unwittingly expose it to others) has added a more tangible sense of yep, things have changed.
The question now is, for how long? Optimists say weeks, pessimists say months and I haven’t checked with the nihilists yet. I’m expecting that we will at least be edging into summer before anything resembling a sense of normalcy returns, and I consider that leaning toward the optimist side of things.
