Lockdown: Day Whatevs

I’ve completely lost track of how long I’ve been stuck inside the apartment. March was around 7 000 days long and April, so they say, is the cruelest month. Fork you T.S. Eliot. The lockdown in Italy has been extended until the middle of the month, although we all know it will be longer. Easter, the biggest holiday of the Italian year, has effectively been cancelled. Meanwhile, the rate of new infections has slowed and the number of deaths remains pretty stable. That’s good news and an indication that self-isolation is working.

Obviously, we’re all still being super careful with the hand washing and mask wearing. Here’s how paranoid I have become. A few nights ago, I woke up around 3 am to have a pee. In a crucial aside, Phryne likes to carry things in her mouth (see Exhibits A and B below). When she is bored, she grabs whatever low hanging fruit she can find (books, toiletries, Tupperware from the bottom shelf in the pantry) and walks around with the thing for a few minutes giving me the side eye until she loses interest and drops it on the floor. On the night in question, she fished a used sterile glove out of the trash at some point and deposited it on my bedroom floor. Naturally, I stepped on it on my way to the bathroom. After I got back into bed I worried and fretted for way too long before getting up and washing my feet in the bidet for three go-throughs of Happy Birthday.

Exhibit A

A slightly blurry Exhibit B

At this point, many of the people reading this blog are having the same experience as I am. Here in Rome, we’re just slogging along. No more singing on the balconies, no more applause sessions for hospital workers. Life is pretty boring. I’m reading and cooking (and eating and sleeping) a lot. My hands are super clean and they look like I’m a thousand years old from being washed 75 times per day. I’m having lots of Zoom coffee dates and cocktail hours. That’s great actually. I’ve started to clean out my junk room after ten years of talking about it. We’re not supposed to go far from the house and we need to carry a little document saying why we need to be out. The fines for scofflaws are huge.  It’s super weird to think of Rome as being all but deserted. Imagine how cool it would be under different circs to have the Colosseum or the Vatican all to yourself. The dogs are moping around and even Reina (who usually hides when a walk is in the offing) races to the door when it is time to go outside. Phryne is desperate to play — she looks out the window a lot and cries when another dog walks by. Fortunately, we have a hilly little patch of ground in back of the building so they can run around a bit.

Listen, mopey whining aside, I know exactly how fortunate I am. I have plenty of work and, since I’ve worked at home for years, I’m already in the groove (much more distractible though; I look at the coronavirus statistics a million times a day). I’ve got a fantastic view right onto the park, although I can’t yet go inside.

There are worse views, I’ll grant you.

I’m safe and warm. There’s plenty of toilet paper and a handful of well-stocked shops in the neighbourhood. I’ve got the dogs and the UV here to keep me company and to tell me everything I am doing wrong housekeeping-wise.  I think of all the people who are out of work, without a safety net, who have had to close down their shops and restaurants, maybe forever. This will not be an easy thing to bounce back from. Most of all I think of the amazing health workers who are risking so much to keep us safe. And the individuals, organizations and companies who are being so generous with their time and money, making and donating masks and other critical supplies. It seems clear to me that at the end of the day this crisis will be overcome, despite the governments, through the efforts of ordinary people coming together to make a difference. And that’s kinda great.

 

Life in the Red Zone: Week 2

Welcome to Day 12 (I think) of lockdown. It is very easy to lose track of time in this situation: one day is very much like any other. I feel like it’s hardest on the dogs, who are used to running around in the park across the street. That’s closed now and it’s only possible to take them out for short walks around the neighbourhood. Granted that’s better than nothing and it gets me outside as well. I am thinking about renting Phryne and Reina out to non-dog owners who need an excuse to get a breath of fresh air. €50 per hour. DM me if interested. Otherwise, the big highlight of my day is walking out to the trash cans in the piazza.

Rent-a-dogs, available for walks by the hour

This is all deeply surreal. It’s easy to get everything we need food-wise from the little bodega down the street. Pharmacies and dog food stores are open. We’re not the least bit uncomfortable. Plenty of toilet paper in case you American weirdos were wondering. No guns though, yet, Lazio only has 800 odd cases of coronavirus so far, as opposed to 20 000 up north in Lombardy so I guess our worst is yet to come. The Upstairs Vegetarian is still staying with me since the renovations on her kitchen have been put mostly on hold due to the lockdown. She’s reporting on the virus for her big fancy newspaper and is super knowledgeable and thus hyper-vigilant about things like handwashing and floorcleaning (since you can apparently track the virus into the house). Every time I come inside she shouts at me to wash my hands and take off my shoes. We’re fine for the time being and I’m trying to be relaxed about it all. But every once in a while, the fear comes. On my birthday, just over a week ago, we hit 10 000 cases. Now there are over 41 000. And yes, I do know how epidemics work; I’ve just never seen one up close.

Will this ever end? To date, we’ve had more deaths than China, with a fraction of the population. The lockdown has now been extended past the original end date of April 3. How will Italy’s already overloaded healthcare system cope? Not to mention America’s, which doesn’t seem to be even remotely ready for this. How many more people will die? I only know one person who has tested positive so far but obviously that will change. Scary. And then I watch the video of the dumbass spring breakers that’s been circulating and it makes me incredibly angry.

Listen dumbasses, the thing is that this virus can be asymptomatic, meaning you may have it but not be experiencing any symptoms. It’s also super contagious. So that means you could go out, feeling fine, have a yoga lesson, go to the shops, pick up a coffee at Starbucks, come home and wash your hands, thinking, “What’s everybody so worried about? This isn’t all that bad.” Meanwhile, you’ve just killed the old lady who was behind you in line when you ordered your decaf caramel mocha frappuccino. You thought you were being nice when you picked up the purse she dropped. Instead, you just passed her a handful of coronavirus germs and now she’s dead. Go home. Wash your hands.

In lockdown, it is easy to abandon the nuisance things one tends to do when in the presence of polite company. Men stop shaving, I assume. Women stop colouring their hair, thwarted by the closure of the beauty parlours. Don’t even get me started on my fingernail situation. I am currently constructing a sort of Leaning Tower of Pisa in my bedroom consisting of the clothes I have stopped hanging up and putting away. I’m interested to see how high it can rise. Now here’s a thing. I am old enough to remember the 1980 New York transit strike. It only lasted about two weeks, but when it was done, a ton of people carried on walking to work every day just as they had during the strike. I had about a three mile walk each way, but once I got into the habit, I really enjoyed the walk, which took me through the Central Park Zoo. Once this ends, if it ever does, I wonder if any of our behaviour will change on a permanent basis. Hair dye and manicures aside, will we start to treat each other better? Will we start to treat the planet better?

The news just came in: 793 deaths today in Italy, the most so far. Be safe everybody.

We are bored, but healthy.