Dear Darlings,

During this crazy, stress-filled, panic-inducing, social distancing time I was asked to blog again, or rather told that I need to write this down. This whole what life is like right now. For posterity.

It’s truly crazy out there. In so many ways. Some good. Some bad. But all important to the stories that mankind is making in this global pandemic.

On March 9, 2020 I made a regular trip to the grocery store. Or what I thought was a regular trip. It was just beginning to be announced that we should stay home and social distance. I didn’t realize how the world had turned in a minute until I saw this…

Completely empty meat counters. Not a scrap of fresh meat to be found. Nothing. Nada. Zip. So I wandered a bit and saw a lady with two carts, pulling one and pushing the other. One of her carts was mounded with cases of water. The other one was over-flowing with food. I was stunned. Were things about to get so bad that we needed to hoard cases of water and cart-loads of food? Then I went to Trader Joe’s and began to understand the magnitude of what was going on. One of the workers said if you were there by 8 in the morning you weren’t going to get essentials. The freezer case was empty. I thought the world turned crazy in a day. I was sure zombies were going to be around any corner. Little did I know it was going to get worse…

On March 16 I ventured out again. I had already found fresh chicken elsewhere so I just wanted to see what the toilet paper hype was about.

Toilet paper and paper towels. Gone! There were still boxes of tissues, so I guess there’s that, but the entire store wiped clean.

Luckily, I had my priorities straight and headed here.

A fully stocked beer aisle! Woohoo! My irritation at the lack of provisions was slightly mollified by this sight.

In all seriousness, though, I was talking to a gentleman last week. He works at the Medical College of Virginia, one of Richmond’s biggest hospitals. He said life there was beyond crazy. And about to get crazier with four confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the results for more potential cases coming in shortly. He began to question our government and how cocky we, as a nation, were (and to some degree still are). But that same cockiness has gotten us through some pretty trying times. Both World Wars for example…

“The yanks are coming” is a damn cocky song. One that shows how important we have always thought our nation is. But that cockiness served us well, too. It shows we can come together under tremendous strains and rise up together. Which we did, together. Our nation came together for the greater good, fought the enemy and won. True this time is a different enemy, but we can still persevere and over-come by using our cockiness (Stan calls it over-confidence, but I prefer cocky) to come together by social distancing, by not hoarding and by being kind to one another.

Be kind, but stay cocky and healthy out there!

xo,

me

PS: And remember to wash your hands!