How the Pandemic And Restrictions Have Affected Me

A brief review - I'm 64 years old, I have high blood pressure and COPD, with asthma that's triggered by cigarette smoke.  I've had multiple surgeries, have had multiple broken bones, and suffer from deep depression.  I take medication for the hypertension and for the depression.  I have an inhaler for breathing assistance when I suffer from an asthma attack.  I have multiple food allergies; and have a list of 184 items that will trigger migraine headaches for me.  I generally cook at home, and there are few places where I can safely eat out - especially as I am highly allergic to anything having to do with soy beans, soy bean products, and onions.  Besides food products, a lot of body products - lotions, shampoos and hair conditioners - now use soy products as an ingredient.  -  A few minutes after anything containing soy touches me, it burns like an acid through my skin.  So I am very careful in reading the ingredients of any item I purchase.

   

Early morning view from my balcony, looking west-southwest

   When the pandemic was first announced, my nephew was visiting two close friends on the West Coast - one in Seattle, who has leukemia; and a school friend who lives in Portland, Oregon.  He also has cousins who live in those two cities.  He was worried about getting back home, due to state-side travel restrictions.  He made it home, but self-isolated in a friend's empty condominium, as he didn't want to infect his wife and young son.  It's a good thing he did.  He was extremely ill for 7 weeks, and twice talked himself out of calling an ambulance.  Friends would bring him food supplies, and they were hauled up via a rope from his fourth floor balcony...  Luckily, he recovered; and he is back at home with his wife and son.  He missed his son's fifth birthday while he was ill and in self-quarantine.  That is love.

   My 70-year-old retired cousin in Wichita was not as lucky.  He was a Captain of the Wichita Fire Department, and his father was greatly involved in setting up the Kansas Firefighters Museum in Wichita.  My cousin volunteered his time there several days a weeks after his retirement from active duty. A few months ago, he awoke on a Sunday morning with no sense of smell.  Being a well-read and informed man, he knew that was a possible indication of COVID-19 infection.  He went to his local Emergency Room, and waited several hours to be seen.  He was given a prescription for antibiotics, his fears regarding the virus were pooh-poohed by the staff caring for him, and he was sent home.  He died less than 48 hours later, in his bed at home gasping for air, beside his wife, from the novel coronavirus.  The EMTs were called when his wife heard his stentorian breathing, but they arrived much too late.

   Here I am in Boulder, Colorado.  I am retired, other than, now, an occasional odd job of caring for pets (when it doesn't involve staying the night), and doing genealogy research.  My oldest cat has precluded my overnight stays in pet-sitting, because I need to be at home to give her medication twice a day at set times.  I live in low-income housing, with a wonderful house-mate.  I'm a widow, she's a divorcee; we're both in our 60s; and share, pretty much, the same likes and dislikes and weird senses of humor.  We barely make through some months with any extra money.  Our two bedroom, one-and-a-half bath second floor apartment is just a few feet over 1,000 square feet, with a tiny balcony of about 30 square feet.  Our rent is over $1,500 each month, and then add in other bills, plus food, clothing, etc. That's because, even with the pandemic, and low-cost housing, our rent increased $75 per month begining this month - July.  We don't own a vehicle, but use the public bus system, and - before the pandemic - various friends would take us to two stores once a month to do our "big shopping spree."  We visited Sam's Club and WalMart for the big shopping sprees, buying some items in bulk.  (Boulder will not allow either a WalMart, Sam's Club, or Costco store inside, or encroaching upon, its' city limits.)

   How has the pandemic affected me, personally?  

 1 -  I always wear a mask anytime I step outside my door - even to walk down to get the mail, or place trash or recycling in the dumpsters in our lot.  I do not wear a mask if I'm on the balcony reading or playing with the cats.

 2 - I used to take the bus or walk to the grocery store almost every day for just a few items. I now only go once a week, and make sure I have a list that has been double-checked at home, and at the store, before I leave.  We no longer make "big shopping trips."  We order a lot of things on-line and have them delivered to our door.

 3 - We used to walk outside for pleasure and exercise.  We no longer do that.  The main reason is because, even though it's a state and city mandate, most other people do not practice social distancing, nor do they wear a mask.

 4 - We used to visit museums, in Denver, Boulder, and Longmont.  Even though most have now reopened, we still stay at home.

 5 - We try not to go anywhere where there might be a crowd.  I try to do my shopping early, before the summer heat rebuilds. We think this state of affairs will last at least a year, so I'll be going out grocery shopping around 1 pm in the winter, for the warmth and - hopefully - already melted ice or snow.

 6 - While several vaccines for the COVID-19 virus show promise, the much touted Moderna vaccine has only been tested on 45 people. Period.  I really don't believe that 45 people represent a huge selection of people from around the world of different age groups, backgrounds, ethnicity, and medical histories.  The new vaccine at Oxford University is starting to be tested on a large group of people, but, again, the original testing was on people aged 18 to 55 in good health.  What about older citizens and younger citizens of the world, and people with pre-existing medical conditions?  I don't think a truly good, well-tested vaccine will be available until the end of 2021, if then  -  since the novel coronavirus continues to mutate itself.

 7 - I believe that COVID-19 is going to be with us for several years, with various outbreaks around the world, even after a vaccine is developed.  I know that will be considered negative thinking, but, having a little bit of medical background, and having read a lot of reports on COVID-19 from around the world, that's my belief.

 8 - I have multiple re-usable face masks.  I will continue to use them, and I will continue to social distance myself until Dr. Anthony Fauci tells me it's safe to go outside and enjoy myself without wearing a mask or keeping a good 6 feet away from other people.

 9 - I am personally fed up with people who whine about wearing a face mask inside businesses.  If you wear a face mask, you protect others from your own germs, and you protect yourself from the germs of others.  I love some of the examples used on Twitter and Facebook - It's like driving without the car headlights on at midnight.....  It's like handing the unmarried father of a baby a condom at the gender-reveal party... It's like disabling the horn, air bags, seat belts, head- and brake-lights in a car and then sending your unknowing child out to win a demolition derby...  

 (I do realize that some people, due to trauma or other circumstances, have severe panic attacks caused by wearing a face mask - they feel confined, trapped, and unable to breathe.  I greatly feel for these people, because I suffer from panic attacks, too.  But... a lot of people who don't really suffer from panic attacks, are using this as an excuse - because the wearing of a face mask is an inconvenience, or because they feel it, somehow, is a curtailing of their personal freedom.)

 10 -  I am truly sorry for children who don't understand, or can't yet grasp, why this is such a dangerous time.  I feel sorry for the 9-year-old twin boys who live above me and don't understand why they can't have parties with their friends, or play sports and games with their friends.  I also feel sorry for them because one has been diagnosed with asthma, and both parents smoke...

 11 - I feel that I have become a much more bitter person since the lockdown for the pandemic began.  I think a lot of it has to do with not being able to go out and about normally.  But I also am becoming more angry with the rules and regulations in our low-rent community - I actually like the rules and regulations... I do not like the fact that when we make a complaint about others breaking the rules, we are told that the community can do nothing to make the people obey the rules in their lease.  My biggest complaint is this is supposed to be a non-smoking community.  It is written into the lease - no smoking si allowed anywhere on the property.  But people smoke on their balconies, in the parking lot, and standing at the corner of our building, right under the bedroom windows.  

   In our two bedroom apartment, there are only two windows that open so obtain fresh air - one in each bedroom.  There is also the sliding glass door to the balcony, which has a sliding screen cover.  The cats climb the screen at the balcony, so if we wish to access fresh air, it must be via the bedroom windows.  When people stand and smoke under the windows, I have asthma attacks, if the windows are open.  But, unless I give the complex management a photo of the smokers, with a date and time stamp, they won't even speak to them.  It's very discouraging, to say the least...

Enough of this - the final item turned into a rant....