Today was definitely not about shedding anything

The WHO has declared a pandemic. This has led to pandemonium as people buy up everything in sight. I had gotten enough essential supplies for a couple of weeks a while ago, but my daughter decided to go shopping today. She said the line-up for the cash register reached almost to the back of the store. I have heard stories of people fighting over toilet paper (when each already had huge packages of the stuff in their shopping carts). I went late tonight to pick up a couple of thingss we had overlooked and was quite shocked at how picked bare much of the store was.

We all need to take a collective deep breath, make sure we have our contingency plans in place, and be prepared for a little rock and roll for the next few weeks. It will definitely be tougher for some than others. My team is in good shape because we are knowledge workers and have already gotten ourselves equipped with laptops and video-conferencing software. We have all tried working from home at least a few times. But the women who collects the trash and recycling? She is only paid when she works, so if hours are cut back because everyone is working from home, she’ll be in trouble. And the woman on my team with two small kids? She can work at home, in theory, but as of quitting time she still wasn’t sure whether her young children would be at daycare or at home. If at home, she’ll be much less able to work.

My little panic is much more selfish. All the city’s pools, libraries, and community centres will close as of Monday, so this may be the last of swim practice for a while. The National Arts Centre is closing for three weeks; so much for the two ballets I was scheduled to see next week. And my dance school is also closed for that period. Time to get reacquainted with Adrienne and her youtube videos. And maybe ride my horse a little more often.


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