Best practices as areas reopen corona virus

[specialmom]

What are you personally going to do in order to protect you and your loved ones as so many locations begin coming back online?  

[AnnieBrooke]

Back to the question of best practices -- we happened to have a couple of boxes of (you could call them) gloves kicking around in our kitchen for a few years. I bought them by mistake, thinking they were a more substantial kind of kitchen or painting glove, but they are the kind of thing you see on the PTO volunteers handing out doughnuts at the Harvest Festival --  lightweight, clear, thin baggie material in the shape of a hand. When the virus hit, I divvied out a handful of them to each car. I use them when pushing buttons on the ATM machine or paying at a drive-up window, doing the self-serve gas or going into a store or getting the mail at the post office. In a way it helps that they're so insubstantial because I have no compunction about turning them inside out and tossing them after the single use, where I might not want to with higher-quality gloves. We have been unable to get hand sanitizer, these are just protective enough to do the same job.

[specialmom]

So, I have some masks.  I have different types and had to find one that felt 'the best'.  I like a cloth one that has elastic for around the ears and a wire over the nose.  I wore the old fashioned doctor's office one and the darn thing kept going up over my eyes.  I must have a small face.  ha ha.  But I have a type that I can deal with wearing.  You know you can talk to yourself while wearing that at the grocery and it is harder for other people to tell that you're the crazy one?  Truth.  I told my kids that I also sing out loud at the grocery along with the tunage they play and they tell me not to.  

Anyway, I don't use gloves to be honest because I see that as not beneficial for me.  I wash hands frequently, have hand sanitizer that is 70% alcohol and so bare knuckle it. BUT, I do carry in my purse sanitizing wipes and push my cart with those and open case doors with those.  

I'm trying to think about my overall health to be the healthiest I can be in case I do get the virus.  Respiratory health is something anyone can work on.  I've read a few articles on this.  Here is a really good one.  https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/06/health/how-to-improve-respiratory-health-coronavirus-wellness/index.html  I walks through things to consider so that in case you get corona virus, what would help you be in the best position to fight it.  For me, I'm giving up candles and the fire pit for now.  And I've been on a quest for more exercise any way but I'm trying to make sure I do a decent amount of cardio for lung capacity.  We have our own little stockpile of Mucinex because I always take that if we get sick to help thin mucous but this article supports being mindful of that.  

Overall health, I'm trying to eat a balanced diet.  Lose some weight.  Increase my vitamins.  Just be in better shape. Get my sleep.  Keep my stress level down.  

I'm mentally preparing for life with covid 19 among us.  I know that most who get it are fine after.  Trying to keep that in mind while avoiding it as best I can.  

It wouldn't take much to convince me that it might be safe to get my hair done when salons open here.  lol  But that is just because I look so bad and this doesn't make me feel good about myself.  Overall, it doesn't matter so when they do finally open, we'll see how I feel.  It will be hard to get an appointment anyway with ALL of us trying to do so and the social distancing precautions so they won't pack us in.  I figure some time in June I can be blonde again.  ha ha.  

I am hoping more therapeutic options pop up as helpful before they finish with an acceptable vaccine.  It will be okay!  

[specialmom]

I guess I should say that I have gone to the grocery store about once a week since the lock down and had delivery once a week. With teenagers and some things like bottled water being hard to , the once a week trips have been necessary. And honestly, I sort of like it as it makes me feel normal again and I need that for the psychological part of all of this.  I have been to target one time since the shut down too.  Just like old times at Target . . . bought things NOT on the list.  Some things will never change.  ha ha.  

[Paxiled]

My wife and I are in our sixties, and frankly, I don't do much anymore anyway, too much pain and too many problems.  My wife has a lot of acquaintances, but she told me she's not about to start doing lunch or dinner at restaurants any time soon.  We used to go out to dinner every Saturday night, but now we get take out, sit at the otherwise unused dining room table, put on some music, which we hadn't done in years, and that's what we're going to do for awhile.  I just think this decentralized closing and reopening has left us without confidence that folks in looser areas aren't spreading it to places that really closed down.  The rates are still very much on the rise, and it's likely to not go away, so at some point I guess we're all going to have to risk getting it.  We're not going to all be shut-ins for the rest of our lives.  But right now, just no confidence in how it's been handled.  I wish we were more united as a people in the US, but I can't make it so by wishing it were; if we were I'd personally have more confidence about things, and in this kind of situation I think confidence is key.  I wish we had an FDR or Lincoln or TR right now but we don't.  Peace, all.

[AnnieBrooke]

I have been out about once a week, masked and gloved, to do things that can't be done remotely, like get my son his allergy shots. If "re-opening" were to include some of the stores where I regularly buy things, I might go there to stock up on stuff that has been unavailable via ordering and delivery. But that's about it, until I get an antibody test and learn I'm immune (if that is what a positive even means) or until there's a vaccination.

Even when I go out now on the unavoidable trips, my patterns are definitely different. I go in and out as fast as possible, no leisurely shopping. This makes me feel that lifting the restrictions is hardly going to create an economic boom. Not only are there a lot of people like me (worried about getting exposed), but people obviously have less money now from having been furloughed.

I guess the only other thing I'd do for feeling more safe is buy hand sanitizer when it becomes available, and a new mask if they ever become available. (I have this beat-up old painting mask with paint on it, but wear it anyway because it's an N95. I put it in the sun when I come in and let it cook until I need it again.) Maybe something more clean would be nice. lol

[xltjim]

Anniebrooke - Not sure if you have a walmart or other store near you that does pickup?  We have been using the walmart grocery pickup for the last few times.  You just need a week lead time (for our area).  You can add/remove items up until the day before your scheduled pickup.  For now its a free service.  No contact whatsoever.  You text or call them when you get there and they have your stuff loaded within a few minutes.   Although tipping is not required, I do leave a few dollars in the trunk for them.  Works for us anyways.

[AnnieBrooke]

We do get most of our groceries using the online ordering for pickup at our nearby big store (once a well-loved local chain, now owned by Kroeger's and working hard to keep up the reputation for service). And their pick-up service is really super. They won't take tips even if you strew money all over the back of the car (they're on camera. lol). But they are unfailingly helpful and cheerful, and we get almost everything we need in terms of groceries that way.

But some things, they don't list online or just won't sell to you that way. For example, I had to go into the store recently to get bleach (their online list said it was only available by picking up in the store), and something called dental wax for kids with braces whose wires are poking their mouth, and raw beef bones that the butcher cuts and packages but don't show up on the online ordering system (probably because the supply is too variable). Some of the items we buy just aren't popular enough to have been worth the space in their online ordering system. We also get our financial mail (bills and the like) at a PO box, which I've been picking up about every week and a half despite many fellow citizens being in there without masks. As far as the post office is concerned, I'm about to put in a forwarding order for our mail so I don't have to keep going there, but there's nothing I can do about the dog bones but go in, which I do because our poor, bored doggos appreciate them so much. lol

[AnxiousNoMore]

I have all my financial online, and print off whatever I need for tax purposes.

[AnnieBrooke]

We get a lot of things that don't lend themselves to arrival online, though I do think changing our bills over to online payment will be something I'll do before the shutdown is over.  (Except our mortgage, which the mortgage company in its wisdom has decided it will *charge* $3.00 additionally for accepting payment online, and not charge the added three bucks if we write them a check. I can see no logic in that, because they have to pay someone to handle and input our check, and if it were online it would all be handled by computers.) But the reason we have a PO box in the first place is because our mailbox is on a country street, not near neighbors, streetlights, etc. and we aren't always home when the postman comes. We long ago transferred anything we don't want to risk getting stolen to the PO box. What comes there are packages, magazines, a big, fat bundle from the accountant once a year that contains a tax organizer for us to fill out, old mail to my mother-in-law now deceased, letters from friends who I haven't heard from in a while, and other random stuff not online-able. lol

[AnxiousNoMore]

My mortgage payment was set up for automatic deduction. I haven't written a check for 10 years and only use outdoor bank machines so people don't sneak up and crowd me on the few times I have t owithdraw.

[AnnieBrooke]

That's pretty cool, not in ten years? My check writing has gotten less and less, but not that less. lol

[auntiejessi]

I'm with ANM - I can't remember the last time I wrote a check. Everything I pay is automatically withdrawn. I never have to worry about it being late, either. :)

[auntiejessi]

I'm still staying in. I'm higher risk, so I'm taking no chances. Cases in my area are still going up as we reopen, so I'm inside. If I have to go out, I'm wearing a mask.