Coronavirus

I made these Easter bunnies for Hans and Peder in 1975

Well, the Coronavirus is now sweeping the USA. My intention here is not to be a news reporter, but to reflect on how the virus is affecting me.

On March 17 all public rooms where I live were closed with an orange sign on the door which read "Do not enter. Room is closed until further notice." This includes the Library, the Exercise Room, the Eden Room (small party room down the hall from my apartment), the Valley View Room (the large party room), and the lobby. All activities on the calendar for the remainder of the month were canceled. We were instructed to not congregate in the hallways or at the mailboxes. We are to use the hallways to get to our destination and to use the shortest route. We are to limit our visitors. No vendors would be permitted to work in our building. We are to call for maintenance only in an emergency.

On the Thursday after my doctor cleared me of pneumonia, I went to church to rehearse in the Tour Choir (for our trip to Germany and Austria on June 1), and to rehearse with our church choir. The choir had the weekend off, so I decided to go to church for the Saturday night service. I hadn't been in church for many weeks and it felt so good to be there. I was especially happy that communion was observed. I coughed a bit during the beginning of the sermon and considered leaving after sucking on two cough drops didn't seem to be taking care of the cough. Finally, my chest settled down and I was able to sit quietly for the remainder of the service. It was sometime during the next week, March 20 I believe, that we got the notice we would not be having choir rehearsal and that the entire service for the weekend would be online only. Wow! This had never happened before. We thought it might be for one weekend only, but now we are about to experience our third weekend. This week we got the notice our choir trip to Germany and Austria has been canceled.

And starting at midnight tonight, our Governor Walz has ordered a "Stay at Home" to last for the next two weeks. Only those with essential jobs will be permitted to work. We can go out for groceries or drugs, walks or runs, keeping the "social distance of 6 feet from one another." Schools are closed until at least May 4. Students in many cases are taking classes online. My heart goes out to the children. This is so different for them. They miss their friends and teachers. Many seniors will not experience prom or graduation.

Heidi called me yesterday and told me starting next week the Air Traffic Controllers are going to be working five days on and 10 days off to keep the numbers of controllers in the towers down. Her five days will start Monday and she will work the same shift all five days which is new for her. Hans told me the Pentagon made a similar move to keep the population down two weeks ago. He works every other day each week—he worked Monday, Wednesday, Friday last week and he worked Tuesday and Thursday this week. Rachel's job has slowed down due to customers not wanting vendors in their homes at this time. She Facetimed with me Wednesday.

All in all, this is so different and weird. One highlight was a notice I found on Monday morning that had been pushed under my door. It was from our Valley View president who suggested we who live on the parking lot side of the building go out on our balconies at 3 pm with noisemakers, pom poms, or other means to be able to see our neighbors. She said she would be out in the parking lot to video us and perhaps send it to a news station or two to air, showing others how we are trying to safely connect. Someone suggested we do it every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It was decided to do it every Monday and Friday. So I am looking forward to 3 pm today. I have put out my American flag and will continue to put it out each day when it is not raining. In the meantime, each days seems like the day before.