A little self-isolation

March 26, 2020 by Shannon Fennell 2 Comments

Well, the world is certainly a different place than it was two weeks ago. Not unexpectedly. Confirmed cases of Covid-19 are jumping and  death rate is climbing. Several friends around the world are now reporting family, close friends and neighbours are infected. There was also an employee from the college confirmed – travel related. So shit is getting real.

Here in Ontario all but essential services are now closed. People are to stay home, and only leave their homes to get food and medicine. You aren’t supposed to be within 2 metres or 6-10 feet of other people. Unfortunately a lot of people just aren’t getting it!

The government is going to start enforcing the stay home rules, and are already arresting people who break the mandatory 14-day quarantine after returning to the country.

People are still hoarding… really difficult to find toilet paper and disinfectants. Some stores are gouging – saw Ontario Premier Doug Ford on the news and he was LIVID. They will be enacting legislation about it tomorrow and he said they are going after the price gougers. Good. Hopefully that will apply to the cretins who bought up everything they could to resell.

I’ve decided to stay off Twitter – too much US news. It is terrifying to watch the damage Trump has caused by his inaction and greed. I firmly am of the opinion he was stalling as he was trying to figure out how HE could make money off of it.

It is nice to see some billionaires actually doing something – Dyson designed a new ventilator in 10 days and is building 15,000 for the NHS in the UK. Elon Musk has been getting shipments of PPE and other equipment to hospitals around the US for over a week, and is getting set-up to manufacture ventilators. Some corporations are still paying their staff after closing. Others are… well selfish bastards. Imagine the richest man in the world setting up a Go Fund Me to cover employees who can’t work??? Well you don’t have to imagine it because it is true! All this stuff is in the news.

My poor hands are so dried out I’ve scraped my face with the skin on them! Now… I know you aren’t supposed to touch your face, but my hands are clean! And how the hell do you NOT touch your face. I have to keep remembering to moisturize.

Trying to get groceries delivered or order for pick-up is not working for me. All the local ways to do that have about a 10-day wait, and that’s for pick-up of an order! It is nuts.

As I had to go to a eye appointment (not something I could put off) early on Tuesday, I decided to stop for groceries on my way home. I really did not want to go to a grocery store, but I needed fresh food. Luckily it was just after 8 a.m. and there were only a few people. Lots of fresh vegetables, NO frozen, none. Well, except okra but who eats that? I kept away from people and wiped down things when I got home. Washed and prepped the vegetable and put away.

The college is now completely locked down as of Tuesday. Up until then they were allowing individual access to the studios, labs and computers. But once all non-essential services were closed, they locked down. And the date they had given for return was cancelled, with no new date. So we won’t be returning.

Everything is online now. Which is an adjustment for me. I am trying to keep to a routine. And make sure I don’t miss due dates which is hard when you have no idea what day it is! I am working through all assignments that are open for me to do now. I like to work ahead if possible. Then I don’t have to worry about forgetting or being overloaded at the end of the semester.

I’ve been making art – doodling and watercolour. I do have some assignments as well which I will get at over the next few days. This is some of the stuff I’ve done over the last week.

The doodles were done with really cheap dollar store felt pens – I thought they were ballpoint when I bought them a couple years ago. They are decent – lots of ink and really excellent nibs. They aren’t Copics or anything really excellent artist quality, but for what I am doing they work great, are nice and bright and don’t bleed.

A friend in the UK is doing a daily watercolour class live on Facebook (7 a.m. my time) so I’ve been participating. A good reason to keep to my early morning schedule. Everyone is staying home around the world and having an activity do like this is a good motivator to get up and do something.

Here’s my worktable. The LED lamp date/time is wrong. I had finally figured out how to set it but the power went off a couple weeks ago, and I can’t be bothered. My radio is precariously balanced to the right of it against the wall – and leans on the base of the lamp. Took two-days to find a spot in the room where the reception was steady so I have no desired to move it now! It is actually lying on its side as that is the only way to get a signal. The volume control is underneath now, so it stays on all the time.

I am posting daily on my FB page in My Pandemic Journal. Just my observations about what is happening in the world and my life during the crisis. If you want to check it out it is linked. Nothing earth shattering, just daily ramblings and images.