The stay-at-home order won’t be extended in Colorado when it expires in a few days, though there will only be a limited opening of businesses and interactions with people. Social distancing is still to be observed.
But . . . the senior population is still in lockdown, allowed to go out only when absolutely necessary. Apparently, agism is alive and well, especially since in many cases older folks are way more vulnerable to the effects of isolation than they are to any pathogen. Still, I’ll go along with the order since it doesn’t make much difference to the way I live my life though it is beginning to make me feel imprisoned.
There’s been no indication of when the library will reopen, and who knows — since I’m one of the locked-down seniors, they might not even let me in when it does open for business again. Social distancing, you know. I still have a couple of weeks’ worth of emergency books left, and I can extend that a bit by watching the DVDs I borrowed from a friend months ago, and then . . . who knows. It’s up to the vagaries of bureaucrats who seem to think we all live in big cities rather than in relatively unpopulated and impoverished counties as some of us do.
A ludicrous aspect of this situation are the emails I keep getting from various businesses, such as insurance companies and utilities, telling me they have my best interests at heart. Not enough to lower prices, of course, just enough to annoy and mystify me. For example, I’ve had appliance insurance for the past year that covered all the major appliances including my washer, and the company is changing over to a new policy that only covers the furnace, water heater, range, and air conditioner. My washer is acting up, and even though the new policy doesn’t go into effect for another week or so, they won’t send anyone out to fix my washer. Apparently, although I’ve been paying the premium, they’d already cancelled the original insurance without telling me.
And my internet provider sent an email saying that to ensure the safety of their customers, they will continue to do critical repairs, but added, “we’ve modified our processes so our technicians can complete exterior work as usual, while relying on our customers to complete interior work.” What the heck? We have to do our own repairs?
On a lighter note (perhaps), the garden frog I’d ordered months ago came in today. Although the statue photographed for the catalog looked happy, this one looks sad or at least pensive. Considering there is not yet a garden for the poor thing, no wonder it doesn’t seem all that pleased to be here.
But where there are plants, there’s hope, and I do have some plants in the ground, including a few lilacs that had to be moved when the garage foundation was put in.
It’s gloomy and windy today, but there is a 50% chance of rain, which would be nice. Not just for my incipient garden, but for a change.
And oh, do I need a change! I think I’ll brave the wind and go out for a short walk. Maybe the activity will blow away some of the feelings of isolation and imprisonment.
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Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. “Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read.” –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator.
Bertram's Blog 
April 21, 2020 at 1:49 pm
I know, I know! Terrible time to move into a new home but here we are at the end of the 6-month build process. Cox won’t do new internet installs even though Rich works remotely and is considered essential. But CenturyLink uses the phone lines instead of cable so they can set us up from the outside. Crazy times! Did I already comment on this? Sorry if I’m repeating myself. You know how seniors are – lol! Must be locked up!
April 21, 2020 at 5:43 pm
No, you didn’t already comment about this. This whole situation is getting more ridiculous (and frightening) by the day. What a world.
April 21, 2020 at 11:18 pm
With the statistics still showing the USA’s COVID-19 cases are still increasing, and with the largest number of cases in the world and the most deaths, too, it’s hard to understand that people are protesting the ‘stay at home’ directive. But we’re all getting cabin fever, that’s for sure. Thankfully, springtime has finally arrived here where I am, and I’ve been puttering in the gardens on the nicer days. It helps pass the time but doesn’t make up for missing all the people-related activities we would normally be pursuing. It’s a challenging time.
April 22, 2020 at 10:18 am
I’m not only feeling isolated and imprisoned. I’m also getting outright angry at the lack of information and proper statistics. Do the asymptomatic but infected shed virus? What proportion of the populating is infected with sub-clinical symptoms? How do various lockdown and other spread prevention measures actually change the infection curve? We’re told “we’re working on it”. As far as I can tell they’re working on a plan to have a meeting to develop a protocol for best practices to write a paper on how to develop a plan to… Geez guys, this has been going on for months. I recall remarking to the ER people when my wife died in January that I thought it would be busier with everyone with a sniffle coming in to get checked for the virus. Without answers to these pretty basic questions, we’re almost guaranteed to screw this up.
April 22, 2020 at 12:28 pm
The whole thing is seeming to be sleight of hand, and yes, it will be screwed up. It already is. Apparently, whether or not there are lockdowns, the disease has the same trajectory. But countries without lockdowns, like Sweden, have much healthier economies.
April 22, 2020 at 12:23 pm
My answer ended up being so long, I posted it as today’s blog post.
April 22, 2020 at 10:24 am
The way I see it, insurance companies are in the business of collecting and investing premiums. The are not in the business of paying claims and often have some pretty devious ways of avoiding doing so. It’s like going to a casino where you know the odds are stacked against you (but without even the entertainment value of a casino) As such, I tend buy insurance only for life-altering losses.
I like the frog. Pensive, but pensive can also be contented..
April 22, 2020 at 12:26 pm
Exactly. Except for the appliance insurance, I only have car and house insurance. I only got the appliance insurance because I am new to homeownership, so I thought it would make things easier for me. I am reconsidering the insurance, though.