The handsomest dog I know <3 We literally don't ever go on a walk without someone commenting on how beautiful he is. This social distancing has made walking him that much more pleasant for me. This sounds totally snobby, but I like to walk him alone because I like to tune out and be alone. Now that we can't be close to people, I don't feel bad ignoring them, and nobody is tempted to stay and chat as we walk by. It's a quick greeting from a distance and moving along. An introvert's dream!
Quarantine life continues. I saw this thing on Facebook that was basically a journal entry that applied to most of us as of April 4, 2020. I know I'll want to look back at this in the years to come, so I updated it a little and re-typed it here.
April 7, 2020:
- On April 3, it snowed in BC!
- Gas is 86 cents/litre today.
- School is cancelled indefinitely.
-There is 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.
- Eating inside of any restaurant is not allowed.
- Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.
- Remaining sports seasons cancelled.
- Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events - cancelled.
- Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings - cancelled or postponed.
- Church services online only.
- No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, now 5 or more.
- Children's outdoor play parks taped off - closed.
- Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.
- Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill (in many parts of the world, but so far not in BC).
- Panic buying and hoarding causes shortages nationwide: no toilet paper, ni disinfecting supplies, no paper towel, no hand sanitizer.
- Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.
- Car companies are starting to produce ventilators for potential shortages.
- Shelves are bare in grocery stores. Bread, milk, yeast and flour are hard to find.
- Government closes the border to USA to all non-essential travel.
- Fines are established for breaking the rules.
- Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.
- Regular press conferences from the US president, Prime Minister and Premiers.
- Every day, usually at 3:00, we look forward to our provincial update from Dr. Bonnie Henry and Minister Adrien Dix. Dr. Bonnie Henry is considered a local hero.
- Numbers of new cases and deaths rise exponentially every day. 1.4 million have been -tested positive worldwide, with just shy of 80,000 deaths.
- BC is showing signs of "flattening the curve" as cases are rising slowly compared to other provinces and countries.
- Government mandates to stay home.
- Thousands have lost their jobs.
- People are wearing masks and gloves outside.
- Essential service workers are anxious about going to work.
- Every night at 7pm people take to their balconies and driveways to bang pots and pans as a gesture of appreciation for our front-line workers.
- Medical field workers sanitize to the extreme before going home to their families.
Alright, so with all this in mind, life must go on! Here's our life lately...
I went to Canadian Tire and picked up a bunch of storage bins for the kids' clothes. I purged two huge garbage bags of clothes, and have everything labelled and organized nicely now! The only downside to purging right now, is that you can't actually donate things, so we have to store it until everything goes back to normal.
Dave stayed back, so I went with Scott and Ashleigh. We put our Happy Birthday banner on the front of Scott's car. While we were admiring it, Scott's knee bumped the windshield wipers and they came WHOOSHING up, totally mangling the banner. You probably had to be there, but it was honestly probably one of the funniest things to happen in weeks; it felt good to laugh until it hurt.
Everyone stayed in their family clusters and sang Happy Birthday and then talked and caught up a little. It was the first time in a long while that we've seen people we know face to face. So nice!
On Saturday Steve and Meghan were set to get married. Due to COVID they had to cancel their big wedding, but still decided to get married with close friends and family only. The church organized a parade to celebrate them. Many, many people gathered at the church and all drove together and honked like crazy. Someone called the police... I figured for a noise complaint, but as it turns out it was a social distancing complaint for the bridal party... Alright.
Before we went to the church, we met up with the Beugelinks and Baeldes for a quick visit in the Shoppers parking lot. Easy to distance with minivans in an empty lot!
Sunday felt like an almost normal day. We do our best to make things feel normal. Dave made a diaper box tunnel, we "went to church" in our living room, I gave everyone haircuts, and we ate dinner after the kids went to bed. Okay, so now that I wrote that, I realize none of those things are normal for us... Maybe it was just a nice day!
Much fun was had in here! Today, it is time for it to go!
I half got to listen to the sermon before I was joined by these distractions :)
Who is this little teenager?! So much hair!!
It's gross, but her hair kept getting stuck in her boogers, so I finally trimmed her bangs. She wasn't sitting still, so there's lots of room for improvement, but it's a start! Her first haircut!! I then cut Dave and Dom's hair. Now who will cut my hair?! #lionmane
You can see Dom's shorter hair here... definitely not totally even, but I did what I could.
Scott and Ashleigh came over and COOKED US DINNER after the kids went to bed. It was so delicious, and amazing to sit and eat and talk without the kids. It felt like a double date. Seeing them in their first year of marriage brings back so many memories. Such fun times.
Seriously, check this out!
On Monday I had this brilliant idea to go to Costco. I sent out a few messages to see if anyone needed anything, and before I knew it I was shopping for 7 people! Hey, might as well load up while I'm there! The lineup to get into the store was insane. I was fully expecting it, and it took just over an hour to get in, but I definitely had to walk further than I was anticipating haha. Inside Costco it was almost silent, and felt super calm. There were a limited number of shoppers, everyone gave you space, and people followed you around wiping the things you touched. Shopping paradise haha!
My super official map of the lineup. It's Langley Costco, for context. The red line is where the lineup was. The blue dot is where I was when I took the screenshot. Costco was very well organized with people directing traffic, lots of space for social distancing, hand sanitizer, wipes, etc.
Someone asked me to grab them some chicken breasts. Sorry... no can do!
Yesterday was also Natalia's 35th birthday. We were supposed to have a big celebration for her, but obviously can't do that anymore. We arranged a drive-by birthday wishing for her. The girls and I met up in the parking lot at Save On first, and taped signs onto our vans saying, "Happy 35th Birthday Beautiful Natalia !!!" We then lined up and drove past her house where Andrew had her outside, honking and yelling at her. Afterwards we all felt like we wanted to hang out still, so we went back to Save On parking lot and parked our vans in a social distancing Chickaletta pow wow. So nice to see these ladies in person again. I'm sure this will happen many more times in the coming weeks/months.
Picture from Natalia's view. There were 5 minivans and Alycia's SUV all with hatches open hanging out. Obviously it wasn't a problem as a police officer drove right beside us and didn't bat an eye.
The weather is starting to look up again. Yesterday after dinner we went outside for a bit to run around, play in the sun, and listen to the 7:00 salute to front-line workers.
Dave and Dom stayed back to play hockey, while Emilia and I went to the yellow wall to watch cars. We then got a text from Ashleigh saying she saw Emilia and I having a photoshoot as she drove by. How embarrassing! Haha
The nightly ritual!
So a little Sherlock update, too. He had this ranula, which is sort of like a cyst under his tongue. He was originally scheduled for surgery on March 24, but we were asked to reschedule because of COVID, so it was then moved to April 8 (tomorrow). Last week we noticed the ranula was gone/not visible anymore, but that there was a lump in his neck under his jaw. I called the vet to explain and ask what to do, and they cancelled our surgery and I brought him in for a checkup this morning. The surgeon checked him out and then called me (we have to wait in the car now), and explained that the ranula may have become a mucocele, which apparently is different... Essentially, everything took too long, and the original surgery may not be effective. They will try the original surgery and hope that the mucocele drains and resolves itself, but if not, there is a likelihood we'll have to have Sherlock's salivary gland removed on that side, which apparently is a very complicated surgery.
Sweet.
That was a lot of (probably only partially accurate) veterinary jargon, but we have re-booked his surgery that was supposed to be tomorrow for Thursday, as the surgeon said not to wait. We just have to hope and pray that this rights everything, or else he has to go in for the second potentially risky, more expensive surgery. We're not prepared for that. There are some financing options, but they will likely have interest charged, so we'll see what happens! Oh Sherlock... <3 :(
With all this monitoring of Sherlock, I noticed a hard lump in his neck as well. I asked the vet to check it out, and said, "I don't know if it's related to his other issues, part of his regular anatomy, or something serious." Ya... it's nothing serious. It's his larynx! HAHA! There goes all my credibility when I call with questions and concerns!
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