A Summary of our Strange New Times

This post is designed to give me something concrete to look back upon years from now and remember how odd these days really were.

-Alabama stay home order is now extended to April 30th
-Gas prices are $1.67
-School builds are closed, so students must do online/homeschool.
-Tape on the floors at grocery stores and others to help distance shoppers (6ft) from each other.
-Limited number of people inside stores, therefore, lineups outside the store doors.
-Non-essential stores and businesses mandated closed. (including clothing retailers and salons). 
-Restaurants closed (can utilize curb-side pick-up or drive-through.  Governor encourages us to support restaurants in this way)
-Daycare centers closed unless the children have parents who are essential workers.  This mass daycare closure means several hundred parents have to skip out on going to work because they must stay home with their children
-Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.
-Entire sports seasons cancelled.
-Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events - cancelled.
-Weddings, graduations, proms, family celebrations, holiday gatherings - cancelled.
-No funerals.
-No masses, churches are closed.(FB live church,drive-up Easter Sonrise Service)
-No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, 10 or more, now no gatherings.
-Don't socialize with anyone outside of your home.
-Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers. (people make cotton masks)
-Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill.
-Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towels, no laundry soap, no hand sanitizer.
-Shelves are bare.
-Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.
-Government closes the border to all non-essential travel.
-Fines are established for breaking the rules in some places (curfews established) $500 fine
-Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.
-Press conferences daily from the President and the governors. Daily updates on new cases, recoveries, and deaths.
-Government incentives to stay home.

-Government provides stimulus check to those making less than $65K per year.  ($1,200 per adult.  $500 per child) (Good time to invest in the stock market if you can).
-Barely anyone on the roads.
-People wearing masks and gloves outside.
-Essential service workers are terrified to go to work. (Grocery stores are open, so grocery store employees are considered essential and must report to work.)
-Medical field workers / Veterinary field workers / others who work with the public are afraid to go home to their families.
-People put construction paper hearts in their windows with the names of family members who still must report to work during this time. 
-People hang teddy bears in their windows so kids can have a "bear hunt" and have something to look at while they drive by with their families since kids can't actually get out of the car or go anywhere
-At some hospital parking lots, citizens and police flash their headlights so medical workers know that they are supported and being prayed for
-People who have to go to the hospital cannot bring in family members.  Sometimes this also means women must give birth without their partner, and other adults undergo surgeries without family member support.  Minors are allowed to have one or two parents attend with them, but must wear masks. 
-Vacation rental companies are offering full refunds to patrons who purchased rental packages because they know that travel bans are in place and no one can actually get to the rentals anyway
-Beaches are closed-- even private beaches that abut up to individual properties
-Some landlords waive rent, and others are mandated not to evict
-Insulin is capped so that people with diabetes can afford medication

This is the Covid-19 Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.


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This is not meant to further scare anyone.  It is meant as a reminder to me of how much we've walked through.