Long time no blog! I am using this time of quarantine as a way to get reacquainted with the wonderful habit of journaling and blogging with a first person voice, keeping you and me entertained in the process. You may feel like you have missed a few episodes, or rather a whole season! I will try to catch up as we go. In the meanwhile, stay safe and wash your hands 🙂
The response to the health crisis here in San Diego has been pretty appalling. Saying nobody gives a shit is an understatement. Last weekend, people were gathering on the beach, a dozen in our campground were having a BBQ, and what I find even more disturbing, was the response on the military base my husband works at.
People on military bases are not subject to whatever the state governor says, so pretty much everyone shrugged it off and kept business as usual. There was an event on base, where spouses brought all their kids, offices are still not downsized to the bare essential personnel, but the best came from medical.
If you get flu like syndromes, you get a PIECE OF PAPER ordering you to self-quarantine at home. You then have to go to your office, to HAND SAID PIECE OF PAPER TO YOUR BOSS. Because, you know, we’re trying to #flattenthecurve.
I know because it happened to my husband, who got 3 days off out of an abundance of caution. If he had COVID-19, well now the office has it too. I thought the military would be the most informed and responsive part of the population.
I am also shocked by my elderly neighbors who are getting so close to me and the dogs all the time. Do they know where I have been? Why would they trust I am healthy?
I am trying to tune down the paranoia, but on the other hand if I am doing the quarantine I don’t deserve someone spoiling it for me and making me sick.
That reminds me of autobiographies I have read, from the WWII Jewish ghettos to the HIV spread in the 80s in San Francisco. Why the ghetto? Because here at the campground, we are still unsure we are going to be allowed to stay through the whole thing.
They can kick us out at any time. Some people choose to move out, some people stay just in case. Are we these people who will react too late and be thrown in the streets?
We have been voicing appeals to be allowed to stay, but then found ourselves trying to save our skin and not caring about the neighbors. Should only active duty stay, and retirees get out? How can we get to a point where we don’t care as long as we are part of the saved ones?
The HIV memories come out when people assume I am healthy because I don’t show exterior symptoms. I am tempted to cough anytime someone gets near, but then the paranoia of getting kicked out of the campground takes over.
Remember when people were sleeping with each other because “I know you so you’re not sick” or “I trust you”… That led to so many unnecessary deaths.
Yet no one cares. When I saw the dozen people BBQ going on at the campground, I was tempted to say something. Then I shied out because I didn’t want all of us to be thrown out because a few of us are acting stupid.
The uncertainty is hard, but again we are doing good in the RV, we don’t have to be around roommates or more promiscuous neighbors who are not taking care of themselves.
The scary part is, if we do everything right, it will look like we overreacted. People will get out in the streets and forget all rules about social distancing and hygiene. And we will probably get thrown in for another loop…
Today, San Diego, Carlsbad and a couple nearby towns closed down their beaches and park following the weekend’s abuse. Coronado is likely to follow soon. We went on a bicycle ride and there were cops everyone, including one chatting casually with locals, at about 2ft distance. These are our leaders, people.