No outside In

Thursday, March 26, 2020 One week in SELF induced immediate family isolation

4:30 pm United States 79,785 cases 1,124 deaths. up from 69,210 cases and 1,046 deaths at 10 am today

I marked my one week inside the apartment with a walk outside.  There were some items that needed to go to the Central Avenue post office and I thought we could use the outside comfort food of subs from Andrea's on Central.

When I leave the doorway of our building, for more than throwing the garbage and recycling to the curb, I wear blue rubber gloves and a N95 mask, that I bought a month ago at City Paint Hardware.  It's important to not touch your face even with the rubber gloves on.  The gloves keep your hands from coming into contact with surfaces, but the virus may have been picked up from the surface by the glove.  I wear the mask for two reasons. 1. I am not convinced that we know enough about the Virus being airborne, especially indoors, and that they say you may have it and not have any symptoms, so for all I know I have it and a mask prevents me from spreading it to others.  In the end, I would rather look a little silly to some and "overreact" and reduce my chances of getting or spreading the Virus. Risk-Reward. 

Before I get to the door, I grab my jacket and boots, which have both been left in the hallway since March 19th. I put them on when I am going to go outside and take them off before I enter the apartment. I lean and brush up against surfaces with my jacket and if someone sneezes or coughs the virus onto the sidewalk, how long does it survive on that surface?  Can it be picked up by the bottom of my shoe  and tracked onto the carpet that my eight month old crawls on.  Again Risk- Reward.  I'd rather overreact and do everything I can possibly can to keep the Virus out.

When I return, I take my boots and jacket off and place my goods on a table in the hall.  I go inside wash my hands and get a wipe.  I wipe both doorknobs on the apartment door, on my way to wipe the goods I brought home.  Leaving the bags they came in in the hallway to throw away the next garbage night.  Sorry, but even this most anti single user is going to err on the side of not bringing this Virus into my apartment. 

It was nice to be in the air and feel the sun today, but I would rather stay inside.  I'm too nervous about the cavalier attitudes of other people concerning the Virus.  I don't think we know everything about the Virus yet. And we live in a very densely population place.  Telling everyone to "go for a walk" in a place where there is 50,000 people per square mile seems incongruous with social distancing to say the least.

Stay Safe.  Stay Home.

David Calamoneri