Tales from Lockdown

So I guess now because people like arguing semantics, we're not supposed to call it "quarantine" unless we are, in fact, sick. So it's self-isolating. Which is a mouthful. So now people are calling it "lockdown," which to me sounds like we live in a police state, but, well, give it time.

I have one friend who says something along the lines of "Never put it past the government to make full use of a pandemic." He's probably not wrong. I did see where Pelosi was trying to secure more funding for Planned Parenthood in a pandemic relief bill. because obviously somehow PP is going to help us all not die of Covid-19.

Oh wait.

I'm honestly rather glad that I'm already fairly cynical and sarcastic. I imagine the true Polyanna's of the world are in for a harsh awakening when they realize just what's going on.

Hubby is loving the traffic these days though. (Yes, he still has to go in to the office. It's basically him and 5 other people, but he works in a secure environment so it's not really anything he can do from home. He does try to do as much as he can here, but so far has only managed one full day away. It's the perks of a small company, being fairly high up on the food chain, and aforementioned non-teleworkable-work content.)

For me and the boys? It's basically life as usual, minus the playdates. All our various therapy offices have closed at least through March if not past Easter, so that makes the days stretch out somewhat. But the weather has been nice, so I've been shooing them out into the yard and there has been much rejoicing.

I will say I'm glad the therapist office closed. We did show up to OT on Monday. Arrive to an empty room, devoid of toys, chairs along the walls. No one else there. I check in the kiddo and pay -- the woman puts on fresh gloves to take my credit card and process the payment -- and as she hands back my card she says, "After he goes back, you can wait in your car."

What now?

"No." Says I.

She looks rather taken aback. "Well, we're just trying to reduce the potential exposure to the virus by limiting the number of people in the waiting room."

I glance back over my shoulder then back to her. "From one to zero?"

"So you can wait in your car?" There's a hopeful tinge to her voice now.

"No. Sorry. I'm not leaving the building while you have my minor child. I'll be sitting over there. If that's a problem, you can refund me and we'll cancel our appointment."

At this point she's spluttering and the office manager comes to investigate the problem. She's much nicer about it and says how it's something they're offering, as if it's for my safety, as opposed to the initial presentation that made it sound like a requirement.

I defer again and say, "If you're really that worried about people sitting in your waiting room that you're willing to be rude about it, you should just close. Many of us can't cancel - you make it clear we run the risk of losing our spots if we do that - but if you close, everyone wins."

I was pleased to see them close the next day so I didn't have to go through the same idiocy at the other location today.