Hello, Sunday!

As recently as last Sunday my husband and I went to a buffet restaurant, although we did wash our hands thoroughly after going through the line and filling our plates using the utensils everyone else had touched. I felt a bit foolish doing this.

As recently as Friday morning (two days ago) I went with Ben to rehearse the scripture drama we were planning to perform in the church service today. Before we rehearsed we greeted the pastors, who had just decided to cancel church services for the next three Sundays. Pastor Janice made a video of our rehearsal.

As recently as Friday evening we had a wildly successful party welcoming Ben with wonderful home-cooked African food. The next morning someone who had been at the party woke up with a sore throat. She called her doctor and was told to get tested for the Virus and self-isolate for 3–5 days. I haven’t heard whether she got the test.

As recently as Friday evening we were planning to drive the next day (yesterday) to a very small family gathering to celebrate the 5-year-old grandson’s birthday. During the wildly successful welcome party we got a text from our daughter saying she’d been exposed to someone who might have the Virus and she wasn’t feeling perfectly healthy herself. Birthday party cancelled, at least for us. Our children have been reminding us, emphatically, that we are members of the vulnerable population.

On Saturday evening we had our first all-family Zoom gathering. Our daughter was feeling okay by then. But she said her city (which has a major medical center) had run out of tests, so her friend who was having a fever and shortness of breath, classic Covid-19 symptoms, had not been tested.

As recently as yesterday morning we were hoping to gather with a few friends for a little church service today. But almost immediately those plans were dropped because one of the friends had a fever. She learned she couldn’t get a test because she hadn’t been traveling or had a known exposure. We just had a nice Google Meeting service this morning with three households.

As recently as 4 this morning I woke up angry about the unavailable tests, furious at Trump, grateful that at least many local leaders had the sense to call most things to a halt. At the same time I was making mental lists of all the things I would just dash in and pick up at Costco as soon as it opened so there wouldn’t be too many people there, and of the Chinese carryout we would pick up for Sunday dinner instead of going to the restaurant as we would otherwise do.

In the light of day I have decided to do none of that. I must, indeed, drop everything. Stay at home. Cook the abundant food we have on hand. Take a walk in the sunshine with my husband.

How are you on this Ides of March?