COVID-19 Check In

Hi pals,

Like everyone else in the world, Canada is dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. It is a scary time for many people. There is so much uncertainty. We thought we should take the time to write what is up with us.

First, we are fine and healthy. The Man works for the Federal Government making sure people get paid the government retirement pension. So from Monday-Friday, he is working on the couch. 

The Lady works in human services with individuals with autism. She is now unemployed. She has a little bit of work to do that she has been dragging out forever to keep her busy and help her transition. Given that close contact is needed to deliver therapy, it is not safe for her teams to continue at this time. Financially our peeps will be fine. They can live on the Man's pay. Lady will qualify for a special Emergency Fund Benefit in April, so that will help. They also have an emergency fund and other savings if times get tough. Things will be tight, but they know they are better off than many. 

In Canada, in the past week or so we have really gone into isolation. Basically all non-essential services (think grocery stores, pharmacies and liquor stores as essential) are closed. So only take out restaurants, no bars, clubs, casinos, pools, community centres, schools, residences, day cares, libraries etc. etc. Everyone who can work at home (including our Prime Minister who is in quarantine as his wife has COVID) are. Lady says the benefit to everything being closed is there is no place to spend the money they don't have.

Lady estimates this will be our life for at least the next 2-3 months. The Man is our designated errand runner as being at home is harder for him than Lady. Lady said they are suggesting one person in the family be the one to go out to reduce contact.

In many ways, Lady is living her best life now. She has actually noted a huge decrease in her stress. She drinks less and swears less. Yes, our Lady has realized for her, her job is more stressful than a global pandemic . . . .This has her thinking that she needs to use some of this time to figure out how to reduce the stress in her normal life, because normal life is coming back eventually. Her biggest concern is her vanity. Lady would be completely grey if she didn't get her hair done every 6 weeks. She is going to have some terrible roots when this is over (and then she might just continue to isolate herself until she can get into her hair stylist!)

Lady is also very good at amusing herself. She is doing more exercise (she is complaining a little about how she hurts), she is walking us at least 2 times a day (don't worry, we live very remotely, we rarely see anyone and if we were to, it would be very easy to social distance, we could cross the road), she is reading lots, she is working on a puzzle, she has a huge list of cleaning/organizing projects to start once the last of her work is done. What is really exciting, is she is keeping up with all of you more! She is really enjoying having time to sit and enjoy your blogs.

As for us, we are liking having the peeps home all the time. The first few days Phod was clearly creeped out by it all. Lady could tell he was stressed. But now we are in the new routine. The only problem is sometimes, it is hard for Phod to know which person to be monitoring.

So that is how we are doing here. We don't want to make this another source of COVID news, but we thought we should just do one check in now, and perhaps some little updates as time goes by. It is a huge life altering event, and we can't ignore it all.

Stay health and sane friends!

Be kind to each other!

Together (yet apart), we've got this!