I decided to start this blog to keep a record of what it's like living through the COVID-19 pandemic. It is mostly for me, my family, and friends, but I hope it might be interesting or useful to others.
Today marks 11 days since Seattle Public Schools closed all of the schools in the city. The boys have adapted pretty well to being home, but the School District does not quite have their act together. This is perhaps not surprising since the speed with which this pandemic consumed our city is hard to describe. At first it seemed it wouldn't even be necessary to close the schools, since children do not seem to be affected by the virus, however it quickly became clear that they can carry it and were likely to bring it home to their older (and possibly much more vulnerable) family members.
That was the day that the virus started to seem really, really serious, and even a bit dangerous.
That same day, the Governor banned all gatherings of more than 500 people.
That morning I headed to Fred Meyer to get a few grocery items, and the place was packed with people, carts were piled high with supplies, and lines were really long. I overheard one employee say to his manager "What the hell happened?!" and the manager replied "All the schools just got shut down, that's what happened!" There had been some panic buying and hoarding (especially of toilet paper, for some reason) prior to this, but this was the first time it seemed like people were preparing for a siege.
There were instructions to maintain 'social distance', to stay at least six feet away from others, and to wash our hands like our lives depended on it. We would adapt to the closed schools, but everyone would still go to work, the restaurants and bars were still open, we could still go to the park and ride our bikes, so we thought it was still manageable.
Then Governor Inslee ordered all restaurants and bars to close immediately, though they could continue to provide takeout and delivery service. Calls to maintain social distance and focus on hygiene intensified. The Governor banned all gatherings greater than 250 people.
My wife Amy, a Family Nurse Practitioner, was starting to see more and more people coming in to the clinic who were concerned they might have the virus. However, the essentially non-existent Federal response to that point and the complete disaster of the initial rollout of the CDC test meant there was no way for her to provide those tests. Her clinic began to develop protocols for keeping regular patients away from potential COVID-19 cases, and the providers were starting to use some pretty serious personal protective equipment.
More and more companies began to tell their employees to work from home. My co-working space in Pioneer Square closed down to help prevent members from getting or spreading the virus.
Gyms and similar facilities were ordered to close. The Governor banned all gatherings greater than 10 people. All of the rock shows I had been planning to attend were cancelled. Basically at this point, everything was cancelled.
The boys were starting to get antsy, and since Amy had to work this past Saturday (several of her coworkers are at-risk and are no longer working with patients to minimize exposure), the boys and I met our friends Ed and Mateo for a hike at Deception Pass. We maintained an appropriate social distance, and it was lovely being out in the woods on a warm, sunny spring day. But there were SO MANY people hanging out in the campground, and all along the beach at Bowman Bay, and Ed and I talked about how there were probably more restrictions coming.
On Sunday we celebrated my birthday. We are trying to support local businesses when we can, so we ordered breakfast burritos, pancakes, and fresh orange juice from The Dish, just a few blocks from our house. It was super yummy and I really enjoyed spending the morning with my family. That night we ate special Death Cakes prepared by Lochlan, and I received a beautiful geode engraved with a tall ship from Lochlan, and an awesome handmade canvas and leather pencil/pen case from Liam.
Today, I decided to take the boys for a bike ride, both to get exercise and because I had a premonition more restrictions were coming. We rode on the Neighborhood Greenway to the Burke Gilman and went to the parking lot just south of Golden Gardens. It was another beautiful day.
We continued our ride along the Burke Gilman to the Ballard Locks...which, of course, were now closed.
We decided to ride back towards home through Old Ballard, which is where we saw workers boarding up this restaurant on Market Street.
Heading down Ballard Ave we saw many more businesses that had already been boarded up. It's like they were preparing for a hurricane.
We were pretty shocked to see this vibrant street where we've spent so much time completely deserted, boarded up, and just...completely transformed.
We were curious about what was going down in Fremont, so we continued our bike ride along the Burke Gilman, and although we only saw one boarded up businesses, again it was shocking to see this normally super lively neighborhood looking like a ghost town.
Just as we were about to head for home, I got a phone call from my friend Karsten. He'd just been told by one of his clients, who works for the State of Washington, that Governor Inslee was going to make an announcement in 90 minutes, at 5:30.
He was going to order every Washington resident to shelter in place for two weeks. All public gatherings are banned. Only essential workers are permitted to go to work. Residents are allowed out only for essential needs--grocery store, pharmacy, hospital. Basically, we are quarantined.
Today marks 11 days since Seattle Public Schools closed all of the schools in the city. The boys have adapted pretty well to being home, but the School District does not quite have their act together. This is perhaps not surprising since the speed with which this pandemic consumed our city is hard to describe. At first it seemed it wouldn't even be necessary to close the schools, since children do not seem to be affected by the virus, however it quickly became clear that they can carry it and were likely to bring it home to their older (and possibly much more vulnerable) family members.
That was the day that the virus started to seem really, really serious, and even a bit dangerous.
That same day, the Governor banned all gatherings of more than 500 people.
That morning I headed to Fred Meyer to get a few grocery items, and the place was packed with people, carts were piled high with supplies, and lines were really long. I overheard one employee say to his manager "What the hell happened?!" and the manager replied "All the schools just got shut down, that's what happened!" There had been some panic buying and hoarding (especially of toilet paper, for some reason) prior to this, but this was the first time it seemed like people were preparing for a siege.
There were instructions to maintain 'social distance', to stay at least six feet away from others, and to wash our hands like our lives depended on it. We would adapt to the closed schools, but everyone would still go to work, the restaurants and bars were still open, we could still go to the park and ride our bikes, so we thought it was still manageable.
Then Governor Inslee ordered all restaurants and bars to close immediately, though they could continue to provide takeout and delivery service. Calls to maintain social distance and focus on hygiene intensified. The Governor banned all gatherings greater than 250 people.
My wife Amy, a Family Nurse Practitioner, was starting to see more and more people coming in to the clinic who were concerned they might have the virus. However, the essentially non-existent Federal response to that point and the complete disaster of the initial rollout of the CDC test meant there was no way for her to provide those tests. Her clinic began to develop protocols for keeping regular patients away from potential COVID-19 cases, and the providers were starting to use some pretty serious personal protective equipment.
More and more companies began to tell their employees to work from home. My co-working space in Pioneer Square closed down to help prevent members from getting or spreading the virus.
Gyms and similar facilities were ordered to close. The Governor banned all gatherings greater than 10 people. All of the rock shows I had been planning to attend were cancelled. Basically at this point, everything was cancelled.
The boys were starting to get antsy, and since Amy had to work this past Saturday (several of her coworkers are at-risk and are no longer working with patients to minimize exposure), the boys and I met our friends Ed and Mateo for a hike at Deception Pass. We maintained an appropriate social distance, and it was lovely being out in the woods on a warm, sunny spring day. But there were SO MANY people hanging out in the campground, and all along the beach at Bowman Bay, and Ed and I talked about how there were probably more restrictions coming.
On Sunday we celebrated my birthday. We are trying to support local businesses when we can, so we ordered breakfast burritos, pancakes, and fresh orange juice from The Dish, just a few blocks from our house. It was super yummy and I really enjoyed spending the morning with my family. That night we ate special Death Cakes prepared by Lochlan, and I received a beautiful geode engraved with a tall ship from Lochlan, and an awesome handmade canvas and leather pencil/pen case from Liam.
Today, I decided to take the boys for a bike ride, both to get exercise and because I had a premonition more restrictions were coming. We rode on the Neighborhood Greenway to the Burke Gilman and went to the parking lot just south of Golden Gardens. It was another beautiful day.
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| Liam, and Puget Sound |
We continued our ride along the Burke Gilman to the Ballard Locks...which, of course, were now closed.
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| Sense of foreboding intensifies |
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| More explanation for the closure |
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| Hazelwood getting boarded up |
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| Studio RA |
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| Percy's & Co |
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| The Tractor Tavern, where the boys performed just last year |
We were curious about what was going down in Fremont, so we continued our bike ride along the Burke Gilman, and although we only saw one boarded up businesses, again it was shocking to see this normally super lively neighborhood looking like a ghost town.
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| Google's office is just up the street on the right. This place is ordinarily PACKED with cars, people, bikes, dog walkers, delivery trucks, etc., this is the first time I have ever seen it this empty |
He was going to order every Washington resident to shelter in place for two weeks. All public gatherings are banned. Only essential workers are permitted to go to work. Residents are allowed out only for essential needs--grocery store, pharmacy, hospital. Basically, we are quarantined.
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