Covid-19 Journal from Western WA
Some notes about life during the coronavirus lockdown from Washington state.
Last updated: 06/08/2020
04/15/2020
I’m not sure how to format this or even talk about it, so bear with me if you’re reading! My first instinct is to be aggressively positive about everything. My friends and family are healthy, I still have income, I have a roof over my head, I have woods and a garden to keep me busy—my life could be much worse right now, and it already is much worse for millions of people. Talking about the various low-grade anxieties running beneath the new normal is not easy or probably necessary.
For my partner Isaac and I, the lockdown effectively began much earlier, on Jan. 1. That night we set off to the ER for what turned out to be unpassable kidney stones. We found out there that an administrative error had left him without insurance, and then spent two weeks getting that straightened out before he could have the stones removed. We learned of the first coronavirus case in the US, about an hour’s drive away, while in the hospital for that procedure. Then right after Isaac recovered from the kidney stones, we were back in the hospital; this time his appendix was failing. We watched news covering the first death in WA while he was being discharged for that surgery. By the time he was up and moving again, the lockdowns had started.
Thankfully both of us have stayed healthy since then. We go out for groceries once a week or so, and every weekend we buy a take-out meal from our local diner. We miss eating there quite a bit and hope they make it through the partial closure. No one is really sure how this is all going to shake out economically, and I don’t want to speculate. But I can at least hope that there’s relief in sight for everyone—people are hurting enough to talk about their finances with strangers now.
Masks are a common sight in our town. The grocery stores are limiting shopper numbers and funneling people down one-way aisles. TP is still scarce. But life is going on, there are still cars on the road, and our state is talking about easing restrictions in the coming months. Now we are mostly waiting to see what the world looks like post-Covid.
I plan to update this periodically—hopefully with only good news! I am doing lots of gardening and cooking and art right now and will share those when I can. I snapped a few pictures of our property right now to celebrate the end of a long winter.
04/25/2020
Time is moving much quicker than usual—probably because there aren’t many memories to make in lockdown. Every day I get up, make coffee, feed chickens, make food, work, garden during lunch, make more coffee, work, and then pass the evening somehow. Fall asleep, wake up, repeat. And that’s about it. Bright days mean hearing from friends and family or talking for a moment with grocery workers and the folks at the diner.
Anyways, my troubles continue to pale vs. the outside world. The people who always suffer more are being disproportionately hurt here too, and not much help is headed their way. We hit 50,000 recorded deaths in the USA yesterday and a few states are beginning to open up again. Without many alternatives people are choosing between financial ruin and personal risk. I think we would be angrier if it wasn’t expected.
I must sound pretty gloomy, but it's not all doom here. We are cooking outdoors a lot already, mostly smoking meats. Smoked eggs are amazing. And we’re spending a lot of screen time watching the Great Courses, which I recommend to anyone reading this. Speaking of, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re having an ok day. :D Check out this delicious pork butt:
05/06/2020
Just outside our craft room window is a rhododendron bush. For a good part of spring and early summer, a robin we affectionately call ‘Bonky’ likes to sit in this bush and attack his own reflection. Over and over again. But he does so because this bush also contains a nest! Bonky’s lady has been sitting on her eggs for a couple of weeks now.
Here in the world of humans, things are moving along about the same. After being stuck in the IRS ‘Get My Payment’ hole we received stimulus checks this morning. Toilet paper is not as scarce as it used to be, but now we’re dealing with meat shortages at the store. I’m not sure how much of that is a lack of supply and how much of it is due to panic buying, but our store is limiting people to two meat items per visit.
According to Worldometer the USA hit 74,000 deaths today. I hope anyone reading this is doing OK—there are still millions of people in a much worse place than us right now, and they’re the ones who need the focus and help. Stay safe!
05/21/2020
I expected the epidemic to still be ongoing by now, but I’d hoped we’d have greater clarity. Instead things are messier and less settled than ever. People wear masks or not mainly based on their political ideology. We’re faced with a lose-lose choice and a loud minority on both sides insist they can win without compromise. And in all the uncertainty we are losing oversight, losing transparency, and losing lives for the benefit of a sheltered few. I guess it’s all very predictable, but it doesn’t bode well for future, larger challenges ahead.
We’re up to 96,000 confirmed deaths in the USA. About 39 million people have managed to file for unemployment in the last nine weeks. Enhanced unemployment is likely to end in July, along with other protections like rent and mortgage forbearance. Two dams burst in Michigan forcing thousands to evacuate. Meat prices are around double what they were a month ago. We’re projected to have a nasty fire season here on the West Coast. And because we live in some weird carnival world, the markets are still recovering.
I have tried not to get too doomy with this journal, but I wonder if the high point of comfort and security in my life has already passed. I thought it would happen a few decades from now through a turning point in climate change, but does the USA have the vision and compassion needed to bounce back from this? And what would “bouncing back” even look like for the majority of people?
In brighter news, our robin family hatched out two babies not long after I last posted.
06/08/2020
Haven’t posted here in a while due to the ongoing protests. I’m feeling my privilege more than usual lately from the safety of my rural home. But I’ve also been to Seattle and seen the line of police and National Guard for myself. The protesters are peaceful—even when tempers run high. People are helping each other, supporting each other, and listening to each other. They do not deserve to be gassed, shot with rubber bullets, or hit with batons and flash-bangs. Whole blocks of Seattle have been gassed to disperse peaceful protests, including last night, after promises tear gas would no longer be used. This is not a proportionate reaction.
Covid has pretty much dropped out of the public conversation for the moment. The next few weeks will tell us a lot about how reopening goes.
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