Coronavirus diaries: day 294 - life in lockdown

 

Snow and cold

I was thinking about when I post to this blog, and why I'd left such a gap.  One reason is that the days blend into one another.  There's a lot of news when the lockdown starts, but then as it drags on, not much happens - at least at an individual level.

The U.K.'s Covid-19 numbers have been horrible.  Last week, we breached the 60,000 level for one day.  This would be equivalent to ~ 300,000 cases per day in the U.S.  According to government health experts, we are now in the teeth of the epidemic, and the next few weeks will be the worst.  My personal view is that when the 'UK variant' hits the U.S., cases there will skyrocket.

Our family remains healthy.  Individually, I do not have a lot of outside contact.  I work from home, I go running, and I go to the grocery store.

I guess the last activity poses some risk, but I've been doing this since the start (masked, of course), and so it feels normal.

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Running has been good.  We've had two weeks with snow on the ground and subfreezing temperatures most days.  So, it's proper winter.  I've been getting out in the morning often before sitting in my office for most of the day, as sitting after having exercised feels much better than waiting all day to get out.

At this time of year I'd usually be planning races or backpacking trips for the next 12 months.  But it doesn't seem useful to do so, and indeed when the thought crosses my mind 'We should travel to x this summer' it seems strange.  Imperceptively, my horizon has shrunk.

Coronavirus diaries: day 287

                   Line of cars waiting to enter McDonald's drive-thru 

It's the 287th day since our initial lockdown last March.  What, you may ask, happened in the last 277 days since my last post?  In Scotland, the initial lockdown lasted in various forms until late June and early July.  Summer was not fully normal, but we made the best of it with backpacking trips to the Highlands, and a family week away at St. Andrews.  At one point, there was optimism that Scotland might be Covid-free, as the case numbers had dropped so dramatically.  Our teens returned to school in August, and a second wave of Covid-19 (+ new restrictions) returned in the Autumn.  We've just entered a new lockdown, with the Prime Minister again making an announcement on TV of restrictions. Similar rules were also announced earlier in the day for Scotland by the First Minster here. 

But as we start 2021, our family remains in good health.  The schools are off and will continue to be so now until February.  The challenge now, as before, is to maintain structure (and spirits) as we work and school from home.

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Prior to the announcements today, we went to McDonalds for lunch in what is likely to be our last visit for a while. There's no dining inside, but you can get take away (which is what we did). They also restricted the number of people in the restaurant ordering food.  We don't go to McDonalds often but, as with many things, the prospect of not being able to do so made it much more appreciated.

Coronavirus diaries: day 10

A closed playground

We are still well. This morning I could hear my wife coughing, and it occurred to me that she could have the virus (I'd always assumed that I would get it first, as I have asthma, and am susceptible to the flu generally). She was fine, and just needed a drink of water.

This is one of the problems I'm finding with the virus: every time you have a cough, or feel unaccountably tired, you wonder 'am I sick?'. Oddly, it seems worse when I am in the house all day. Towards the end of the day, my throat feels dry (could it be the exposure to all the cleaning chemicals we use?), and I'm sometimes fatigued. Usually, this dissipates once I'm outside exercising.

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On a video call with work seven work colleagues, it emerged that two of them had isolated with symptoms that could have been the virus. They were o.k. now.

A third colleague indicated that his wife had had the virus. She had a fever and cough, the hallmarks of the infection in the evening. She'd ask my colleague to make sure that he loaded the bread maker the night before to make a loaf for the morning. In the morning, she complained to him that he'd forgotten to make the bread, as she could not smell it. However, he had not forgotten, and the whole house smelled of freshly baked bread.

Obviously, seven is a small sample, but it does suggest that the virus is widespread. They are only able to test hospitalised patients at the moment, and front-line medical staff (and not even many of these), so the official numbers are vast underestimates of the true spread. To their credit, the authorities have acknowledged this.

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I've developed a habit of tuning into the daily coronavirus briefings by the government, if I'm available. Today there was a jump in deaths - 538 new fatalities.


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In the evening I felt myself coughing a bit. I felt well, and went out for my daily run. This usually reveals if anything is truly wrong. Admittedly, I did feel tired at the start of the run, but after a handful of miles, as usual, I felt fine.

It hasn't rained for almost two weeks, so the ground is finally drying out, and the trails are good for running. A side benefit of our smaller world is that there's the chance to pay more attention to one's local surroundings. This evening, for example, I noticed that the trees along my path had an orange lichen (which I know know is called alga Trentopohlia).

Coronavirus diaries: day 7

The motorway was really quiet this morning.

The latest news is that the infection is expected to peak here in Scotland in two to three weeks, and that we should expect that the stay-at-home restrictions will continue for 13 weeks.

Like a marathon, I'm not thinking about the whole duration. I'm just focusing on each week as it comes.

And as this week has come to a finish, it is striking how long it seems. It seems like a long time ago when the restrictions on movement were made, though it was only Monday. Life seems to have slowed down, and this in some ways in pleasant.

I also have this sense that as long as I stay home I will not get sick. So, it's not quite as tedious as might be imagined.

Also, of course, we have access to a lot in our online world. Imagine if the pandemic had struck in the pre-internet world.

Coronavirus diaries: days 3-6

A little low on wine today at my local grocery store


Day 3

The restriction to one exercise outing a day has focussed my running. I know I can only get out once, and this will be the majority of my outside time for the day, so I want to make it count. Thus, I've been trying to do about 10 miles a day. This also will help me to achieve one of my pre-coronavirus goals: running 100 miles in a week.

Day 4

Taught my first class on-line today. There were a few technical hitches - one of my videos didn't work - but overall it went well. Actually, with students asking questions on the chat function at the same time I was live-streaming, it felt interactive.

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Late in the day, the University cancelled exams for the students. I suspect my on-line classes going forward will now only be attended by the keenest students.


Day 5

I reasoned that the grocery store would be less busy today (Friday) than on the weekend, so my son and I headed out there. There were several changes since my last visit. First, the controlled the number of people in the store by having people line up outside, spaced apart. They then only let a few people in at a time.

Waiting to enter the grocery store

Inside the store, people were keeping their distance from one another. One woman was wearing a mask. The shop was reasonably well-stocked, and my son and I picked up food for the week. The wine aisle, however, was depleted.

To check out, we again were required to get in a single-file line. This wrapped around the perimeter of the aisles. My son and I took turns waiting in line while we added our final items to the cart.

The check out line

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My runs are starting to feel less effortful. As I do much the same loop, it is starting to become automatic, so that the time passes relatively quickly. I passed 26 people on the run.

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The Prime Minister has the coronavirus, it has emerged.

Day 6

I want to start doing my runs in the morning, and this has been a little difficult because I've been running in the evening, and I'm thus tired the next day. To break out of this I ran this morning (after dropping my daughter off to work at the bakery). My legs were tired initially, but the sun was warming and I used the outing to try a different route. I still passed 38 people, many of whom were dog walkers nearer my town.

I've been running on quiet farm roads

Coronavirus diaries: Day 2

I was up early, and headed out for a run before 7 a.m. My route takes me along isolated farm roads, and then along a canal towpath back into town. I didn't pass anyone for the first hour of the run, and then passed 12 people - individual dog walkers or runners - along the towpath and nearer my neighborhood.

And that was it. I was inside, working via my computer, for the rest of the day.

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After lunch I received a text message from the government, reinforcing Boris Johnson's statement that we are to stay at home.

Coronavirus diaries: day 1

At a nearby grocery store

The purpose of these diaries is to document the every day changes that occur during the coronavirus pandemic. I'm motivated by Victor Klemperer's Diaries in which he documented the day to day changes occurring in Nazi Germany. I'm not equating the two, of course, but I think it's important to notice the small details in the way our lives are changing, as cumulatively, they will lead us to a different place.

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Today was essentially the first day, of the first full week, of limits on non-essential travel. My two teenagers are off of school, and I tried to introduce a structure with a 9 a.m. family meeting - essentially just to get everyone up, dressed and active. I'm thinking that we are in for the long haul, so having a daily structure is important.

At this point, we are all healthy. I do know of two work colleagues who indicated that they were currently or had been down with a fever, and feared coronavirus. But to this point, the virus has not affected us directly.

I worked at my computer this morning, and in the afternoon I dropped off the lawn mower at the repair shop. As I was out, I went to the grocery store in a nearby town. It's a superstore, but there were only a few people shopping. On the P.A. system, they announced the shopping limits: shoppers were allowed no more than three of any one item, and two of restricted items.

The store had some items that our local grocery store did not have - and I was able to get three tins of tomato soup (which we are going through quickly, as we are now all home for lunch every day). I was also able to buy beer, which had recently become almost sold out locally when they'd announced that pubs were to close. There was one battered 12 pack of McKewans Export remaining, so I took this, and some bottles of craft ales.

Walking past the toilet roll aisle, I noticed that the shelves were largely bare.

At the checkout, I was only permitted to buy two bottles of the same beer, and thus had to put my third bottle back. I was able to buy any number of different beers, however.

On the drive home I listened to a press briefing in which they again discussed the coronavirus outbreak.

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At 8:30 in the evening, we sat in the living room and watched Boris Johnson's special announcement. I feared that we'd be restricted from getting out to exercise at all, but fortunately he announced that individuals could go out once a day to walk, run or cycle. All non-essential businesses are to close.