Ramen and Toilet Paper

So… corona virus, aka, Covid 19…

Yeah.

Ohio schools have closed at least through April 3. The situation will be reevaluated at a later date to see if they’ll close longer than that.

Oh how I laughed at Tom when we found out he’ll be stuck in a house with Olivia for three weeks.

And yet…damn.

I mean, sure, I get it. We need to slow this thing down. Social distancing and all that.

We currently have plenty of toilet paper, in case you were worried about our butts.

Alas, we’re down to our last package of ramen. Think there will be some when I go Walmart to buy groceries on Saturday?

I’m taking bets here.

See, I don’t even plan to go in order to ‘stock up’. I just need to buy groceries, which is what I do every Saturday. But we are low on ramen. And since the girls will be home for three weeks, we’ll need soup and Spaghetti-Os. Ewww, but still, a child can’t live on ramen alone.

Let’s not forget the macaroni and cheese.

It will appear to the average shopper (me) that I’m stocking up and perhaps even hoarding and that’s okay.

I took Alyssa to the doctor the other day for her sports physical. I felt a vague sense of guilt for taking a perfectly healthy child to a germ-infested doctor’s office but she needed that physical in order to participate in track meets. She can practice without it but she has to have had the physical in order to compete.

She’s fine, by the way. I know that shocks exactly no one.

But our doctor talked to us a little about covid-19. He said that the panic amongst the medical community is due to the unknown. They just don’t know what this virus will do to people, not really. It’s spreading so fast and making the elderly SO sick (or, rather, KILLING them) and there simply are not enough tests in this country to stop people from spreading this stupid virus.

So we have to slow everyone down.

I mentioned SARS and Zika to my doctor and he seemed surprised that I remembered them. They were flashes in the pan, if you will. He said he hopesCovid-19 goes the same path but no one knows for sure that it will.

It might become more like influenza, which still kills tens of thousands of people each year.

He pointed out that the flu killed more people in the late 1910s than bullets did in WWI. So…yeah, that’s depressing.

But we’re hopeful. We’re rallying. We’re staying home and washing our hands and not licking the handle of the shopping carts.

And…some of us (not me, but some people) are buying ALL the toilet paper and hand sanitizer. I just hope there’s still ramen available the next time I go buy groceries.