Pandemic

Anyone reading this will know that this began many weeks ago.  Coronavirus.  Covid-19 specifically.

In January we began hearing about this virus that was hitting China really hard.  Everyone was wearing masks and it sounded horrendous on the news.  At that time, there was maybe a couple of minutes of some story on the news, but that was enough to show us how bad it was in China.  Wuhan, specifically.

By the beginning of February, the stories on the news were lasting at least five minutes.  Sometimes more.  There had been confirmed cases in Washington by then.  There were several cases on a couple of cruise ships.  The cruise ships were not allowed to dock anywhere.  Even healthy people on the ships were locked down on the ship.  Many people began dying.  I started calling them Death Ships. . .I mean, it was crazy!

But that was only the beginning, for us.

By the end of February, it was popping up all over the U. S. and Europe.  Italy, particular, was being hit really hard.  They were locked down by the end of February.

March saw the numbers in the United States really climb.  Particularly New York.  New York became the new Italy, although things are still really really bad in Italy.  We had our first case pop up in Virginia at the end of February and the numbers did climb.

Loudoun County Public schools had decided, as of March 11, that they would be closed on Friday March 20 for a Teacher Work Day so they could figure out Distance Learning plans.  We were at dinner with friends.  Exactly 12 hours later, I received a call from the schools saying schools were closed effective immediately until March 27th.  I was crazy trying to figure that out!  I mean, what happened!!

Aidan had his Tier 1 training on Thursday, March 12th but then by Friday, the 13th, Kettler was closed.  So was Ashburn.  ION was still open so the boys all went to that rink for Stick and Shoots over the weekend and into the following week.  ION, being the new rink in town, wanted to stay open as long as possible.

By Monday, the 15th, there had been someone in Loudoun County diagnosed.  Now, things were starting to get very real.  We began a new phase of our life:  Social Distancing.  We are to be 6 feet or more away from everyone else and we had to wash our hands with soap and water or Purell and wipe everything down with alcohol based cleaner.  Panic buying became a thing.  People began hoarding TP, paper towels and Purell.  I thought it was crazy before. But, now, I mean yikes!!

As of Monday, March 23rd, Loudoun County had 15 case; Tuesday, March 24th we were at 18; Wednesday, March 25th we were at 20;  By Thursday, March 26th, LoCo was 28 and Friday, the 27th the count was 43.  I just saw on the count site that LoCo is at 54.

Other counts, as of today:
The World--629,627
USA- 105,006
Virginia--604

New York is the current hot spot with 52,318 cases.  However, Chicago, Detroit and New Orleans are the new up and coming hot spots.

Hockey has been cancelled for the immediate future.  We have no idea when that might come back.  School in Virginia has been cancelled for the remainder of the year.  We're learning about Continuity of Education and Distance Learning.  Not sure how well this will go.  Staying focused is not a strength of Aidan's.  Staying focused without continuous adult or parental supervision may be non existent.  But, we're trying.

Today, I went to Costco for a couple of things.  I was in tears by the time I was checking out at the full realization at our new reality.

I'll try to be more positive the next time. . .