The shutdown has officially been extended in both its length and its limitations, and what a weird world it is. I had to go to the supermarket on Thursday, and the whole place – blessedly empty – basically involved people slowly pacing the aisles as they carefully avoided each other as far as possible. It took a lot longer than usual.
From now on, we can exercise a little in isolation outside the house, but travelling no more than 2kms from our front door. We can go to essential jobs only, and the supermarket if necessary, and medical emergencies. Its a far more hefty lockdown, but seems like it’ll save lives.
There’s a really odd feeling to the whole thing as an individual. I’m lucky, so far, in that I personally don’t know anyone who has been diagnosed with the virus. On the one hand, there’s a battle for life going on, one we hear about on the news on a day-to-day basis, a shocking, abrupt, overpowering thing that’s proving really draining even for those not involved, and I can only imagine the agony for those that are.
Then there’s the almost monotonous side of it. I’m still at work (from the kitchen table), and certainly don’t lack for things to do, but the restriction of freedom, while necessary, is hard. Humans weren’t designed to be mostly confined by four walls, or at least this one wasn’t. My running has stepped up, as an excuse to weave far from anyone else who is outside, but at least get in some exercise. Earlier today I ran over 8kms on an empty 150 metres long lane a few metres from our house, just up and down and up and down.
We’re trying our best to keep some normality for the little guy. He does reading, writing and maths every day, and has been running with me and cycling around the empty pavements near our house at times, too. We’re now signed up to Netflix, Now TV and Disney Plus for entertainment, with plenty of movie nights. We’re working on unlocking the final level of Super Mario Odyssey. I’m writing a lot, including an extended series of music Q+As which you’ll find elsewhere on this website, something to keep me going.
There are now over half a million cases worldwide, and over 30,000 deaths. Ireland’s cases are in the thousands. Things are going crazy in the US, and in Spain, France, and worst of all Italy, where the death rate is really quite high. This will end, of course, but it feels a long, long way off. Thankfully we still have no symptoms. Hopefully we’ll come out of the other end of this sooner rather than later.
