You know, My Mom said Trump would bring about the apocalypse and look what’s happening now.
Ok, I’m exaggerating. But doesn’t this feel like some epic goddamn movie? Like I’m just waiting to see what’s going to happen next. Because there’s really nothing else to do but wait. Because what’s still coming down the pike? A whole helluva a lot more of a shitstorm.
Here are my predictions for the next few months.
First, this is not going to be over by April 6. Or April 15. Or whatever magical April date they’re talking about today. This is not going to be over in May either. This is a fucking pandemic. These things don’t fizzle out
in a couple of weeks. They take months to run their course. The quarantine measures put into effect will not shorten the amount of time it will take for COVID-19 to rage through our population, in fact it will likely lengthen it. What does the quarantine do you ask? It makes the bell curve that marks the course of the disease spread a lot lower. This makes it easier for our hospitals and clinics to accommodate all the people who are now coming down with this shit. Many of our hospitals in harder hit areas are already at capacity and anticipating even more sick. The problem with this virus isn’t that it’s deadly. I mean, yeah, obviously we don’t want our most vulnerable populations to die, but the virus doesn’t appear to have a high mortality rate in healthy individuals. The problem? It’s in the infrastructure. It’s the fact that we don’t have the capacity within our healthcare system to accommodate a need like this. So without quarantine measures, the height of that bell curve means a lot more sick at the same time. Which means hospitals are going to start having to decide who gets admitted and gets a bed. Who among the admitted gets a ventilator. THAT is what is going to raise the death toll in this massive COVID-19 clusterfuck. The fact that we don’t have the capacity to care for our ill.
I couldn’t resist…
Second, people are going to start hoarding more than toilet paper. Canned goods, gasoline and medicine are going to be the next impossible to find items. Face masks and sterile gloves are already gone. I use non-latex exam gloves in the kitchen when handling raw meat. Making fried chicken the other night was messy gross without them. And people are just fucking crazy about it. Which is making ME want to hoard because I feel like if I don’t, my family is going to get screwed and end up without toilet paper when shit really gets bad (pardon the pun).
Third… We are going to lose our shit. Staying at home, working from home. Yes, I’m one of the lucky who is still managing to stay employed, although both The Zen Master and Princess Punk are collecting trying to collect unemployment. The phone number was so busy that for days you couldn’t even get on hold, the number just disconnected the circuits were so busy. The Zen Master got his deposit when he was supposed to because they already had most of his info since he files every off season. Princess Punk’s claim is on hold for God knows how long. She’s gotten several emails and a letter basically saying, “We’ll get to it when we get to it.”
Shit. Side-tracked, sorry. Where was I? Right. Third. Home. Stuck at home. Princess Punk is driving me batshit because she’s isolated, grumpy and stressed about getting kicked out of her apartment (they shut down the school completely, she couldn’t even get all her stuff) and doing all her schoolwork online. The Peach is so full of unspent energy that she is literally bouncing off the walls. Like she ran through the house, hit a wall, bounced off and kept going. The Zen Master is incredibly anxious which is making it difficult for me because he’s my port in a storm. And I don’t know how to reassure him because shit is just that fucked up. My Mom is taking on the home-schooling thing with both hands and I’m scared that she’s going to burn out pretty quickly. She spends plenty of time caring for The Peach but now she’s teaching her for 8h a day as well. I know I couldn’t do it. We’re actually managing fairly well at the moment despite all that, The Zen Master and I even managed to have a “date night” last night, consisting of a picnic of takeout on the bed and a couple of action movies. However, I’m anticipating that the proverbial shit is going to hit the proverbial fan in about 5 days and one of us is going to completely lose their shit. Because although everyone is coexisting fairly well right now, it’s a delicate balance.
And so it goes…
newlifeinvermont 