COVID-19 Where We Are

For the sake of documenting our time in this crazy pandemic I'm going to update with the local numbers. I get a lot of emails from friends in Canada about how worried they are about us being in the US. Thanks guys! We know you're worried but it's a big country. We're in one of the safest places here. It's going to be ok but anyway here are some stats and facts to put it in perspective.


Marin is a county of 258,826 year round residents (2018) in 2,140 square km. So for Canadians, that's lower population and more sparsely populated than Greater Victoria. Now we are of course surrounded by a collection of other counties in the San Francisco Bay Area which tops out at nearly 8 million people.

It's worth noting that all people working any kind of job right now outside their home can get free testing regardless of symptoms and anyone else with symptoms can get that too. There are a lot of tests here so I think the recent numbers are probably pretty accurate.

The number of potential cases being monitored has gone down sharply since the beginning when there were very few tests available so that's also a very good sign.

Currently our Shelter-In-Place order is on-going with very gradual changes every few weeks to allow for more business activity. Masks have been mandatory for anyone when they go out since late April. The first re-opening step was just allowing non-essential businesses to do curbside pick-ups. And some of the parks with parking lots re-opened their parking so people can use a park a little further from their house to walk. So pretty small steps, lots of waiting to see what happens. Schools are set to re-open in late August BUT with lots of very unknown social distancing rules so we really are all unsure of how that is going to look.

Summer camps and childcare are re-opening with much reduced numbers and limited placement available currently only children of essential workers. We've been contacted by Summer camps who say they can at least enroll kids for later in the Summer and see what happens. Most are expecting kids of non-essential employees working at home can do some kind of childcare soonish.

Anyway, that's what it looks like here. Not very shocking, no dramatic hospital scenes and people generally following the rules and staying the course.

Third Month in the Time of 'Rona

So it's the end of week 11. It's been gorgeous weather through almost all of these weeks at home. We had a few much needed days of rain a few weeks ago but mostly it's been clear blue skies and a lot of hot Summer days with temps in the high 30s.

Our days are pretty easy. We get up, I make coffee and crawl back into my sunny bed to read and the boys make some breakfast for themselves and play. I get up and cook eggs and sometimes they put pants on. Sometimes. If I'm organized and not trying to juggle anything else I gather up our "school" materials and we head down to the little outdoor lounge area by the play structure to work under the trees before it gets too hot. They choose a sheet of math games or language arts or a book to read and that might be it for our structured work day. It's amazing how much they have covered in just a short and sweet daily check-in but that's really the extent of our school day.

After that, there's all the play. Forts need to be built, zip-lines tested, paintings painted. I have never heard anyone say they are bored. Not once. No one ever stops moving either. The pile of things that didn't pass the brother's stress tests grows. They do break a lot of things. But they always have an entertaining story about why. We are more patient about many things because we have time to investigate the whys. They tell us they can't wait to go back to school but they are also happy and unhurried. Austen keeps telling me this might be one of the best summers of his life. Caelen keeps saying "it's such a lovely day mom."

I'm keeping really busy. I mean just keeping the kids alive and doing some of their schooling is already full time but I'm volunteering to help with collecting work samples from Austen's class and I have 1/3 of an acre of garden that keeps trying to sneak away from me. Lots of baking to keep up with and Joel and I do quite detailed meal planning together. He cooks ALL of the dinners still ( I KNOW) and I do the online grocery order from Good Earth once a week and a local dude rides it over here on a motorized utility bike.

Now that everyone working any job or running an errand is in a mask we felt it was safe enough to risk a restaurant take out meal. Once every week or two we have been ordering in Indian food for a date night. Even with that little occasional splurge, our shift to having almost no packaged pre made foods - not that we were ever getting much of that - has cut our food bills more than in half. It's been a good challenge. Food is generally more plentiful than it was in the first weeks. We aren't seeing empty aisles at grocery stores anymore. The toilet paper is back on shelves (rationed but there) and I don't have to limit milk, eggs and cheese because I can buy enough for a week at a time without hitting a store's purchase limits.

Who knew the kids eat 3 lbs of cheese, 2 dozen eggs and a gallon of milk a week? I did not. Joel and I used to meet at Good Earth nearly every morning after the two school drop offs and have breakfast or coffee and then I'd grab just a few things. I had never in my life shopped for a week. And now most of our staples we actually shop for 4-6 weeks in advance and my weekly is dairy and produce.

Anyway, we're going to be fine here. We're pretty safe and happy in our little bubble.