It's been five years since the beginning of the pandemic, and I thought I'd write about that first year, reflecting on how quickly life changed for the entire world.
I drafted a blog post in March 2021, but never got around to publishing it. I'm incorporating that post with some current thoughts, as well as photos from that first year.
On March 13, 2020 we entered a state mandated lockdown in Oregon. In conversations with my family and friends, we all agreed that it would probably only last until summer, and maybe even into the fall, but I don't think any of us had any idea we'd still be there a year later. Of course, we weren't "locked down" for the entire year, but our lives aren't that much different than they were last spring. We are still wearing masks and washing our hands and observing social distancing guidelines. But I now go to the grocery store once a week instead of every two weeks. We get together with friends, but only outside and masked, of course. We haven't had any visitors and haven't seen any family since September 2019, when we were all together for our daughter's wedding.
I discovered dozens of delicious new recipes (our favorite might be the fruit galette), baked bread (when I could find yeast*) and experimented with a sous vide.
No longer able to work out at our gym, a Peloton bike (and on-demand classes) saved me from the dreaded COVID 15.
*We already knew TP and sanitizer would be scarce, but flour and yeast?
And we Zoomed. A lot. Zoom kept us in touch with our family and friends. I'm grateful that I don't have to use it on a daily basis, but I'm glad we were able to see the faces of those we love and miss. My book group meetings were also on Zoom, which was a bit weird at first, but we were so desperate for those interactions and made it work.
We have remained safe and virus-free. My mom has now had both of her vaccinations and my husband and I have just had our first jabs. So by the end of April, we should be able to resume life relatively close to what we once knew. We are already beginning to sigh with relief, but that doesn't mean we're going to be careless. We will still wear our masks while out in public and keep a bottle of sanitizer in the car. I'm not sure when we'll feel safe enough to go out to eat.
And of course now, five years after the onset of the pandemic, we've had numerous boosters and feel pretty confident that the danger is behind us. Surprisingly, neither my mom (who turns 92 this year), my husband, nor I have ever had Covid. It seems like everyone we know has had it at least once, but we've never caught it.
We started getting together outdoors within our small "pods," while maintaining safe distances and using hand sanitizer. My Mah Jong pals and I even started to play again, wearing masks and either sitting outside on a patio or in a warm garage with all the doors wide open.
It was cold in that garage!!
Rod and his friends got together to play music in our garage and driveway.
Covid testing sites began to pop up in our county, which has less than 50,000 residents. You had to have a doctor's order to be tested there.
Our little town of Depoe Bay looked like a ghost town!
Watched the strange Opening Day Dodger game with the stands filled with cardboard cutouts. So bizarre.
I am fortunate to live in a beautiful community and am able to get outside and walk along the ocean and in the forest, listening to podcasts and audiobooks, all of which provides me with much needed distraction from the news and updates. We cancelled our upcoming 2-month road trip (we were to leave yesterday) for obvious reasons.
We did eventually get to take a trip up the coast to one of our favorite campgrounds (Nehalem Bay State Park) and camped for 11 days! It was our first outing since the previous year, so we were very happy to get away. We had the campground pretty much to ourselves, with the exception of the first weekend. Even then, it was maybe only 10% full.
More from my 2021 notes:
Our county has moved into a low risk category and yet we are still not comfortable with going out to eat unless there is an outdoor option.
Looking forward to going out to eat with friends. Traveling and visiting family and friends.
A year ago, the U.S. had confirmed 1,000 coronavirus infections. Now, we’re approaching 30 million. We couldn't fathom losing 100,000, but we did. Today, more than 530,000 Americans have died from the virus. [As of March 2025, Wikipedia states that there are 1,219,038 confirmed deaths from Covid in the U.S.]I don't think anyone will ever forget this time in our lives.
We are retired and our lives didn't change as drastically as those who have jobs or have children in school.
Notes From My Journal:
January 20 - First case of COVID in U.S. (Washington state).
February 29 - First COVID death in U.S.
March 11 - Costco was a zoo! No toilet paper or Kleenex. People are panic-buying because of COVID.
March 12 - Grocery store has empty shelves. Stock market dropped 7000 points since January. We lost $20K in February.
March 14 - Trying not to spend too much time online reading about COVID. This is such a surreal time. Schools are closed. March Madness and NBA cancelled. Libraries closed. Churches closed. Disneyland closed! Broadway went dark. Long lines at grocery stores. I cancelled all of our reservations for our camping trip. :(
March 16 - Lots of emails flying around about whether to cancel book club and Rae's going away brunch. Shay wants to come out this summer, but who knows if that's even possible.
March 18 - Rec Center officially closed.
March 19 - Day 1 COVID "Stay at Home." COVID testing tent set up at Samaritan clinic.
March 20 - IRS moves filing date to July 15th. CA statewide "stay at home" order. "Shelter in place" COVID deaths surpasses 10,000 globally. Our stocks our down $77K. Went shopping with Rod. Bought almost $350 in groceries. Should be stocked up for a month.
March 22 - Socially distanced drinks on the deck with Molly & Dave.
March 23 - Family game night with Rod and Mom (Quiddler). Rod has a cough... trying not to worry!
March 24 - Text from CJ - coworker has COVID. First case in Lincoln county.
March 30 - John Prine has COVID - critical condition.
April 7 - John Prine died.
April 8 - Depoe Bay looks like a ghost town. No cars parked anywhere!
April 11 - Feeling out of sorts. Anxious. Lonely. Missing my girlfriends. Want to go camping!
April 15 - Really miss having a normal routine. No yoga, no pickleball, no Mah Jong, no book club to fill the days.
Wimbledon cancelled.
Boston Marathon cancelled. First time in its history.
May 19 - Trader Joe's and Costco. Masks required for entry.
May 25 - Unrest in Minneapolis after George Floyd was killed by police officer kneeling on his neck for 9 minutes.
May 27 - 100,000 deaths in the United States!
NYC Marathon cancelled.
July 23 - Opening Day (baseball). No fans in the stadium, just cardboard cut-outs with photos!
Got my first haircut after an entire year - 6" cut off!
This is all I have in my notes. I may add more as my Facebook memories pop up, but that's it for now.
May we never had to endure such a terrible health scare again. Science matters!
That was a blast from the past. I remember those testing centers in the library parking lot, not ebing able to go anywhere without a mask...wow. I am glad those times are over. What an impressive post, Les. Oh, the vaccination cards! I have mine still ut now we don't need them.
ReplyDeleteTina, I found most of these photos on Facebook since I knew I had shared a lot during that first year of the pandemic. Yes, I'm glad those times are over. Let's hope we don't have anything like it again!
DeleteThis is a fantastic account of that first year! I wish I had done something similar. I just remember doing everything for my parents since they were older and we worried my mom's lung disease would make her particularly vulnerable (the irony is that when she got it, she had hardly any symptoms!). I remember wiping down the mail and groceries in the early days. It really was such a surreal time.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Helen. It's a little strange to say that I enjoyed working on this post, but it was interesting to look back and see how the year unfolded. My mom (who is now almost 92) and my husband (almost 73) relied on me to do all the shopping in order to keep them completely isolated for as long as possible. Thank goodness for those vaccines! Like you, I remember wiping down the groceries, as well as all the counters and door handles after each trip to the store. It truly was a surreal time in our lives, wasn't it?
DeleteWow! That brought back a lot of memories! What an interesting account of those days. I’m so glad for all of you that you were with your mom during the lockdown. And that you were in such a beautiful place with such good friends.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize how long my post was until I started reading it again! Lots of memories, that's for sure. Yes, it is wonderful that we had already moved here to be with my mom. I can't imagine what life would have been like for her if we were still in Nebraska!
DeleteI was in France with my sister, and her son and his family, in late January and early February, as we started to hear whispers of illness appearing in Europe. We were thankful to get home before people started getting sick in the US. We went into strict lockdown until we were able to get our vaccinations, especially because of my dad and his wife, both in their 90s. I remember crying when I got my first vaccine. My dad and my husband and I have never gotten Covid either. So many deaths.
ReplyDeleteDeb, I was thankful to get my vaccinations since both my mom and my husband have health issues. Like you, I got very emotional after that first vaccine. Can you imagine how awful it would have been if those scientists had been delayed getting those to us even 6 months later? So many unnecessary deaths. My sister-in-law lost her father to Covid, but I think that's the only relation I know of who died. I know others were not so fortunate.
DeleteGreat post and wonderful pictures. 2020 certainly was isolating ... that was before our move and it was a bit tough in the city to go thru Covid lockdowns ... which I think might have been even more in Canada. I traveled to see my parents a couple times which was complex with all the quarantines. I'm glad you & Rod never got Covid. So good! We didn't get it for years ... and then much later after a trip to Italy we got it. Love your Mah Jong photos .... looks fun even in those circumstances. Nice recap. I hope we never have such a pandemic again.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susan. It was quite a time (not in a good way) in our lives, wasn't it? I remember all the anxiety about travel. We had planned to go on a long RV trip to Alaska, but in the end decided against it since we had to be tested prior to crossing the border into Canada. The timing of all of that seemed daunting. I was so grateful for my Mah Jong pals. Not sure how we would have survived that year without getting together with our friends. I, too, hope we never have to go through another pandemic...
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