MITCH STURGEON
Author and Blogger Living With MS
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Let’s give this a try: more frequent, shorter blog posts, with a mixture of hard truth, social media humor, and irreverent observations about life with our little pandemic.
Dispatches – what they used to call news reports from the field back in the old days, like World War II. This, being the most significant disruption to our society since World War II, makes the term appropriate.
CoronaVille – my short name for CoronavirusVille. The suffix “ville” implies a place, such as Lincolnville (a real town here in Maine). But I think of CoronaVille as more a state of being, like Margaritaville, except the opposite.
Home Schooling
Most kids in America, and perhaps around the world, are not at school these days. Dedicated teachers are trying to keep making them smarter by remote control. Here is one mother’s take on the situation.
If the human race survives this pandemic, I can see a couple of potential silver linings:
Working from Home
This trend has been inching forward each year, but it’s going to get a shot of steroids from all the people who are working at home during the crisis. Employers will learn that not only can certain employees be just as productive at home, they may be even more productive. Technology and procedures for working from home will advance as far in a few months as they might have in a few years if not for the coronavirus.
Telehealth
Why must we trudge all the way to a doctor’s office for every little thing? Sure, sometimes it’s necessary, but half of primary care physician visits could be accomplished with virtual appointments. Again, out of necessity, telehealth will advance as far in a few months as it might have in a few years if not for the coronavirus.
My Family’s Current State of Affairs
Kim is a middle school counselor. The school is closed, and she is counseling from home. I have advanced multiple sclerosis, and I’m staying in the house for now. My daughter, Amy, is a freelance marketer and lives with us. Her husband, Nick, is an electrician. He is still working, but is taking care to practice social distancing at his various job sites. Amy and I pretty much stay home. Kim and Nick are our designated grocery shoppers.
We are taking no visitors. We are hunkered down.
Our son, Zach, lives a few miles away and is working from home. Fingers crossed.
How are We Holding Up?
Not too badly. Everyone, other than me, has their work. I have various writing outlets, and we all have Netflix. No cabin fever yet, but the toilet paper inventory is getting low.
Questions for Readers:
26 Replies to “Dispatches from CoronaVille – Post #1”
Hi Mitch and Kim,
David and I are both home. We are doing ok. Miss the kids and grandchildren. Town hall in Scarborough is closed. Been trying to troubleshoot from here. Glad you are doing well.
Barbara, thanks for checking in. Glad that you and David are staying home where it’s safe.
Mitch my wife is still working as a home care nurse, although I have been pushing her to cut back. Working from home as a real estate agent not immediately impacted by the slamming shut of the U.S. economy, but I do anticipate it negatively affecting my family’s income this year. How could it not? Staying busy with the day to day operations around the homestead. Although I do have an underlying condition I am hopeful that when I do contract the virus (how could I not) I will be able to come through it ok. We’ll see.
Rick, thanks for responding to my post. We are living in historic times. Hopefully we all make it through okay.
I’m home and Alec is working from home. My three kids are all working from their respective homes. I am fielding several FaceTime calls from my two oldest grandchildren. I’m wishing I could think of a good engaging phone game to play with a 4 and 6 year old. Any suggestions?
Hello to you and your family. Hang in there.
Mrs. Reed, we are all forced to get creative at home, which is, in a way, another Silver lining. Maybe when this is all over we will appreciate all the ways that we can connect with our loved ones, and not let so much time pass between visits of one kind or another.
I’m working every day providing accounts with necessary equipment to run their business. From clean uniforms to sanitizer and hygiene products including paper goods. I love my job and I’m doing everything I can to keep people safe. Cintas provides to the largest hospitals in the nation and many health care facilities that rely on us.
Rob, beautifully said! Thanks for doing all you do. You’re part of the hospital supply chain that will be so critical the rest of the way.
Kim and I are both still working so we have not impacted financially yet. Kim’s diabetes has made her job description and duties change. We are holding up well. Between me playing guitar and her genealogy goings on we are coping fine to date.
Andrew, that’s good to hear. Having those hobbies sure makes staying home more palatable, but I do look forward to our next dinner at Snow Squall, whenever that might be.
I’m retired, so that eliminates the working piece. Have COPD, so am staying away from people; have not had anybody in my house for nearly 2 weeks, and intend to keep it that way! Hard at work on my fourth novel…this isolation thing is great for writing! Doing okay, all in all. May we all be safe…
Deborah, it sure feels to me like the lower the population density, the easier it is to avoid the virus. So Mainers should enjoy an advantage. Is your next novel about The Eastern?
Great to hear from you Mitch! I am hunkered down …. family get togethers are on hold — I had to cancel annual golf vacation to Florida. Up until three weeks ago, I did not pay much attention to my age; but, being told over and over again that I am elderly the past few weeks, I am beginning to question my own sanity. I don’t like to see my net worth diminished on a daily basis, but thankful that I was well positioned. I get together with another “elderly” neighbor … she is also isolated from her family. We have a glass of wine … remember going through the polio scare as young children and the disgusting sugar cube we had to eat. We get our golf putters out and practice in my hallway. Life is not on hold, it is just on a slower router than usual.
You take care!
Sharon, great to hear from you! And I’m glad you are hunkered down. Although I am still a few years shy of the “elderly” label, I think I have the body of an eighty or ninety-year-old sometimes. Regarding our dwindling retirement funds — remember it’s only a paper loss, but one helluva paper loss. I missed the polio scare. Where is our Jonas Salk?
I am continuing to work as charge nurse and staff nurse in our critical access hospital. Trying to remain positive despite the pandemic and all that it entails. Missing my grandkids like everyone else but FaceTime is a godsend. Stay home! Stay well!
Beth, thanks for serving diligently on the front lines. “Stay home! Stay well!” is a perfect mantra.
Thijs and I have hunkered down on our little island in the Salish Sea in British Columbia, Canada. Our population is only 900 people so it’s a quiet place generally but with this virus it’s almost silent. The ferry comes here from Victoria and Vancouver daily (for now) but tourists have been discouraged from visiting during this time. We have put together groups to get meals and groceries safely to our elders and have phone trees set up to call and chat with those who live alone. Thijs and I have our donkeys and dogs to keep us busy and smiling. Thijs is taking this home-time to clean up and organize his workshop which he’s been threatening to do for years.
Good to hear from you Mitch.
All the best to you and Kim and family.
Sandy, thanks so much for writing. Small communities like yours can teach the rest of us about self-sufficiency. I think “tribal” survival is baked in our DNA, but we lose those principles when our communities, or our tribes, get too large. Glad to hear that you folks are busy and smiling 🙂
Being retired and in our seventies, Juli and I are at home, self-isolating. For contact with family and friends, we rely on Facebook, FaceTime, WhatsApp etc. When this started, we thought we would mange to do grocery shopping by using the local Hannaford To Go service. However, because this has been suspended (presumably not forever), and other alternatives (like Walmart) are also no-gos at the moment, we have to rely on family to deliver to our door.
Otherwise, we are fine. We get out for fresh air and exercise – our local trails here are very quiet – and we have plenty to do. It’s possible that down the road, we may feel a financial pinch due to the collapsing pound and the tanking stock market, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now, our policy is to spend as little as possible!
Stu, thanks for the update. What a perfect opportunity to make progress on your novel!
Dear Mitch,
My husband and I had planned to travel this summer but now won’t go to Portland, Machias and Cutler until at least next year. I had planned to visit you and bring items for Kim to sell. I am at home always here in Florida but am enjoying some old hobbies. Our daughter lives in the Orlando area with her family and we may visit them soon? She is in health care and still working daily. I worry a little about her being exposed but she works at a pediatric hospital so maybe will be less likely to see cases of the coronavirus. I was recently “upgraded” to SPMS and can readily feel the difference from the last fifteen years. We are retired so our income did not change. I hope you and your family stay healthy,
Robin, I agree with you that major summer travels this year probably wouldn’t be wise. Maybe by Fall? I look forward to having you visit us. But for now, stay home and stay well!
Michael is still working in his shop but no customers are allowed in. He has enough back-log to keep him busy for quite some time. I am working from home and seldom going out. Michael does the grocery shopping as infrequently as possible. Michael is immune compromised with crohn’s disease. My 90 year old mother is living with us and my sister, who is also immune compromised, is in the same building. Her job at a spa has ceased to be until this all passes. We are all doing very well and staying positive and healthy. We miss you both!
Nan, thanks for the update. It seems that you are doing all the right things. Moving out into the country as you did is looking like a smart move! See you on the other side of this craziness.
On day 6 of self-isolation. Miss the kids and grandkids, though we use messenger and other tools to do video calls and share pictures. Also, our apartment building is great for socializing and caring for each other… or I should say WAS great until this pandemic has stopped face-to-face communication almost completely (except for across-the-hallway discussions. There are a lot of older and physically vulnerable people in this building. A silver lining: for a while, our GHG footprint will be much smaller. I hope this makes people realize how fragile our civilization is: if a relatively benign disease can shut down the world, what happens when the full effects of global warming take effect: droughts, famines, floods, hurricanes, increases in pests and disease, resource wars, mass migrations of starving refugees… This is nothing compared to what our children’s futures will be like if we don’t change our ways.
Ted, thanks so much for stopping by and commenting. Have you seen all the pictures about how the environment has improved with our own isolation — the canals in Venice are particularly striking. You are right, in that this pandemic will likely pass. The emergencies in the future may be irreversible…
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