It's An EPIDEMIC!!!

I'm SO NOT a doomsday prepper.

There's no more than 10 canned goods in the pantry at any time here. I have 3 gallon jugs of water in the freezer downstairs more to offset the cost of freezing the few things in it than to have in an emergency. I do however have a stockpile of the husband's medication, but that's has more to do with a miscommunication with CVS than our need to hoard it.

And yet, I have a pile in the basement of toilet paper, paper towels, Lysol wipes, hand soap, newly purchased cold medicines of our choice products, and 4 cases of water.

Damn that coronavirus.

This week they closed all 12 of our schools down to "properly clean and disinfect all facilities and school busses" because ten days ago 17 people came back from Italy from a foreign exchange program, and no one thought to preemptively keep them home for a bit just to be safe. Not to mention the 17 that went from the middle school as well.  And yet, here they are spending god knows how much money cleaning, which, in fairness, should probably be done on a semi regular basis during flu season anyway. All of this, because one student from the trip is now sick with an undisclosed illness.

Here's the thing, we are not high risk for dying of this.  It has a 97% survival rate. We are in relatively good health and are rational people.  I also believe that this virus is already EVREYWHERE in the United States.  Why?  Because most people present as a cold.  A COLD.  How many people go to the doctor with a cold?  None. The flu went around the wrestling room a while back, many of my coworkers came in over the last few months sounding like death, and none of them actually went to the doctors to get a diagnosis. I just wiped down the mail truck, like I do every Tuesday morning, with a Lysol wipe and carried on, just as Youngest dosed with Dayquil and cough drops and went to class.  And even if anyone had gone to the doctor, they wouldn't have been tested properly because it wasn't on the radar to test for the coronavirus.

So yeah.  All those idiots saying there's nothing to worry about, we don't have an issue here, are just stupid.  It's here.  It's been here. And the people buying masks, knock it off, you're diminishing the supply for the people who actually should be wearing them.

Which brings me back to my stockpile. I think it's ridiculous that I even have to do it but seriously the shelves are wiped clean already folks.  Wiped. Clean. And while I don't clean all the time top to bottom, when we get the flu or a cold here, I wipe everything religiously.  I change out toothbrushes, and in some nasty cases of the stomach bug, even change out the toothpaste. I wash the towels and sheets with Lysol laundry sanitizer and spray everything not washable with Odorban. I do this simply because I don't want it to go around the house over and over, because let me tell you, we are not good people when we are sick.

We all have a specific medicine that works best for us, so I just restocked that in case we get sick again.  Not because I wanted to spend a small fortune in CVS but because the stores are being wiped clean by crazy people.

I also only stock the house for 3 people now, which means if Oldest has to come home early from College, or Bonus Son needs something, I need to have stock for five. And if the high school issues quarantines, Youngest will eat literally everything we have in the cabinets.

So here I sit, waiting for a virus that's likely laying in wait on the oranges I bought 4 weeks ago at the wholesale club, with 14 boxes of cereal, 17 canisters of Lysol wipes, and enough TP for the football team to go crazy all over town. At least it won't go bad, and if in 5 months I still have it all, these two will be the best stocked kids in college.