Self Isolation - Day 4

Trev and I got a text from Juls this morning that their toilet paper crisis is over, she was able to order a package of toilet paper from Amazon yesterday and it arrived today.  Lol.  Last night when we were over she said that they were down to 7 rolls!  She didn’t realize that they were so short, when we asked “What can we bring” she almost said “toilet paper?” Lmao.





This morning I’m prepping docs for a client so we can do a phone meeting and have them sign their mortgage paperwork.  I’m having difficulty logging onto my system to prepare the last few documents for them (Disclosure to Borrower and Amortization Summary).  Seems to be the system because I can’t log in from my laptop or iPad or on wifi or hot spotting.

I have my PC Express pick up from Zehrs today - they sent an email saying to wait to come in to pick up until you receive a notification that its complete due to higher call volume.  I’ve never done this before but I’m excited about going out and getting groceries today, even if all I do is pop my trunk! Lol.

We have this little coffee shop in town that is doing some amazing social media marketing, its run by my friend Julia McDonald and her friend Rebecca Harman.  They were one of the first shops to move to a drive up -  “call the shop or wave aggressively from your parking spot” - e-transfer only.  Now they have a walk up window, all their treats are in the front window and they installed a screen door on the front of the building so that you can pick up your phoned in order.  I don’t shop there that often, but I’ll go get a coffee today when I’m out to get my groceries and have them bring it to the car.  Julia is also the Fair Board coordinator of the kids craft section and they released all the Fair crafts for kids so that they can get a head start on it while they’re off school, they’re releasing the different crafts slowly for people to do.  They’re really doing an amazing job. I decided to buy some coffee from them so ordered 2 bags of ground decaf to be able to use in my Keurig when it arrives.

Another marketing company in town set up a directory listing any businesses who want to be involved - their hours, restrictions, how to support them (do they offer delivery, pick up, take out, etc)

I saw this post on Facebook today and shared it with my Mom and a colleague, Caroline, since I was talking with them over the course of the last few weeks and the concept of “its just a flu” came up.  I really didn’t know why this is being treated differently than a flu but this explains it well.

“ BEST explanation I've heard.

Feeling confused as to why Coronavirus is a bigger deal than Seasonal flu? Here it is in a nutshell. I hope this helps. Feel free to share this to others who don’t understand...

It has to do with RNA sequencing....i.e. genetics.

Seasonal flu is an “all human virus”. The DNA/RNA chains that make up the virus are recognized by the human immune system. 

This means that your body has some immunity to it before it comes around each year... you get immunity two ways...through exposure to a virus, or by getting a flu shot.

Novel viruses, come from animals.... the WHO tracks novel viruses in animals, (sometimes for years watching for mutations). Usually these viruses only transfer from animal to animal (pigs in the case of H1N1) (birds in the case of the Spanish flu). But once, one of these animal viruses mutates, and starts to transfer from animals to humans... then it’s a problem, Why? Because we have no natural or acquired immunity.. the RNA sequence of the genes inside the virus isn’t human, and the human immune system doesn’t recognize it so, we can’t fight it off.

Now.... sometimes, the mutation only allows transfer from animal to human, for years it’s only transmission is from an infected animal to a human before it finally mutates so that it can now transfer human to human...once that happens..we have a new contagion phase. And depending on the fashion of this new mutation, thats what decides how contagious, or how deadly it’s gonna be..

H1N1 was deadly....but it did not mutate in a way that was as deadly as the Spanish flu. It’s RNA was slower to mutate and it attacked its host differently, too.

Fast forward.

Now, here comes this Coronavirus...it existed in animals only, for nobody knows how long...but one day, at an animal market, in Wuhan China, in December 2019, it mutated and made the jump from animal to people. At first, only animals could give it to a person...But here is the scary part....in just TWO WEEKS it mutated again and gained the ability to jump from human to human. Scientists call this quick ability, “slippery”

This Coronavirus, not being in any form a “human” virus (whereas we would all have some natural or acquired immunity). Took off like a rocket. And this was because humans have no known immunity...doctors have no known medicines for it.

And it just so happens that this particular mutated animal virus, changed itself in such a way that it causes great damage to human lungs..

That’s why Coronavirus is different from seasonal flu, or H1N1 or any other type of influenza.... this one is slippery AF. And it’s a lung eater...and it’s already mutated AGAIN, so that we now have two strains to deal with, strain S and strain L....which makes it twice as hard to develop a vaccine.

We really have no tools in our shed with this. History has shown that fast and immediate closings of public places has helped in the past pandemics. Philadelphia and Baltimore were reluctant to close events in 1918 and they were the hardest hit in the US during the Spanish Flu.

Factoid: Henry VIII stayed in his room and allowed no one near him, till the Black Plague passed...(honestly...I understand him so much better now). Just like us, he had  no tools in his shed, except social isolation...

And let me end by saying....right now it’s hitting older folks harder... but this genome is so slippery...if it mutates again (and it will). Who is to say, what it will do next.

Be smart folks... lets get this virus under control!

Stay home and share this to those that just are not catching on.“

I don’t know why the font is different. Lol.

I think I’ll make a stir fry for dinner tonight...use up some of the veg we have. It will be interesting to see what we get from our grocery order, what is missing and what is substituted.  I’ve seen a few complaints on Facebook about short orders but in bigger cities.

My order is ready for pick up!  Very exciting and an hour early.  Looks like most of what I ordered is available and only 2 things were cancelled completely, 3 things substituted which we were happy with all 3 items we got in exchange. I’ve started another order for next week and we’ll hope everything is still running smoothly then.  The quirky cashier from Zehrs did the pick up order, she’s so nice and always super positive.  I thought as I was on my way I should have brought her a tip.  They must be working so hard at Zehrs.

We had grilled cheese for lunch and the girls aren’t allowed to ask for a cookie until a tray of veggies is gone.  As we had lunch we watched Premier Ford do a press conference with the Education Minister because we had heard there would be an announcement about school, but as of now its still back on April 6th (unlikely).  And as of now we aren’t on complete lock down.

In the news today:
Air Canada is laying off almost 5,000 staff as of April 30th.
Canada will now be turning away asylum seekers crossing in Quebec and sending them back to the US.
People are still being urged to stay home, yesterday Mayor Dave Barton posted on Facebook that if kids didn’t stop congregating at the pump park and not keeping their distance he would have to close the outdoor spaces in Uxbridge as so many kids were gathered in groups even though there is space to keep your distance.
Other towns and cities have closed down public parks as they are afraid of transfer on the playground equipment.
For Jay’s business, the insurance companies use outside companies to contract nurses for home visits for their medicals - the nurses are no longer working and have halted home visits which puts a hiatus on the insurance industry.

Teachers and the government came to a tentatively agreement today on the teachers contract. This is good because teachers would look like A-holes if they striked after this. 

Joy sent me this meme saying she wishes she could go to the gym:



I was snacking on veggies.

But I should be using the gym in the basement. 

Paige asked me to go play on the trampoline or hide and go seek, both not my things which she knows and is just trying to be an A-hole. Let’s play cards, a board game, so a craft. I’m not interested in peeing myself on the trampoline today or any day.

Paige and Sophie got in a big fight over making a dog house for Sage and Willow.  I finally just said for them each to go into their rooms for an hour and read, draw, write, do a craft, whatever.  About 20 minutes later Paige came out and in her calm voice said “Mom” Yes Paige “Sophie and I have apologized to each other..” “WE HAVE NOT!” (Sophie) “WELL I APOLOGIZED!” (Paige) “You said I’m sorry for not taking your ideas into consideration” (Sophie). That is an apology Sophie, that’s what an apology is.  Paige, you are released.  Sophie, go back to your room.  “MOM! FINE ‘I’m sorry for not taking you into consideration;”.  Close enough.



Sophie finally agreed to play a game with me.  We played a childhood favourite of mine, Housebreaker.











I told Sophie - a nice smile, a real smile, people are going to see this, this is what you look like forever.



Dad got home from Florida and filled up his wood box. It’s getting cold again so I had a fire this afternoon. He said we can come and get more wood so we will go grab some tomorrow afternoon after my phone client appointment.



After another epic meltdown, which delayed the girls going outside, they went out on the trampoline with Jay but it started to rain as soon as they got out there.  Karma’s a bitch ladies.

We had another debate this afternoon as Trev decided to go see Patricia and break his quarantine. I told him - I’m not going to judge you but I’m going to tell you exactly what I think because we love you and that’s what you do. If you go down and see her you won’t be able to come back and see us. And this is not about the 10 days you have remaining on your self-isolation this is about the lock down and social distancing that is potentially coming for another 6  to however many weeks afterwards that you are going to be on your own. You don’t know who she has seen and where they have been and who her kids have seen and where they have been. I think you’re being irresponsible and so is she in that choice”. I later sent him a text about my email and missing Sent folder on my computer and told him he couldn’t leave because I need him!  He called later and said that he spoke to Patricia and explained he wasn’t coming and why and she understood.

Made one of my favourite meals since I was a kid. Chicken teriyaki. My Dad used to make it for me for my birthday dinner. Paige loves Buddha bowls right now so I did this like that instead of as a stir fry.



One benefit of this self-isolation is that I’m cooking every meal so we are going to save some money on fast food and restaurants.  Jay’s done the calculation on just how long we can live with no income, it will take us beyond any length of time we can imagine this continuing so he’s not worried about that.

At the dinner table we started talking about growing a garden (thank God Jay said no to chickens, even though we figure we’re too far down Sarah’s list of important people to get farm fresh eggs if there is a food shortage - lol)

Jay and the girls are planning our raised gardens for the summer. What we need:

Paige was doing this on my iPad, but then she and Sophie were fighting over the  design and what we needed and Paige didn’t want Sophie using the iPad so Jay said “Shut up and bring it here you two. fat. brown. turds.”. LMAO, I was in the bedroom and heard him it was so funny.

Here are the final two designs:

Next they have to do some material calculations to see what we have and what we need to get.

Maggie is going to do an LCBO run for me tomorrow, she’s going anyways so I asked her to pick up some beer.  And if she happens to go to Kawartha Dairy I would take some chocolate milk in bags too - I wonder if they’re using their summer take out windows?

The US is about to overtake Iran, Germany and Spain for the number of COVID-19 cases.