Weekend Coffee Share # 10-Coming Out Of The Cave

35 Replies

The coffee is ready. Come on in and pull up a chair. If we were having coffee I might ask you how your life has been over the past year. We are passing through an anniversary of sorts. It has been a year since we first heard we were in a pandemic.

The year of the pandemic started officially on March 11, 2020 with the declaration from the World Health Organization. For me it has felt like a year of unreality. The shock and fear in the beginning. On March 19 Governor Newson announced the lockdown of California. The first lock down which was to last until April 21 in LA. I remember thinking how will we get through it, a 1 month lock down. Little did I know it would extend into a year plus. The memory of our first trips to the grocery stores. We went in the early hours of the morning designated for older people and found long lines at one of our regular markets so decided to try another instead. The disorientation of walking into a store with many shelves, milk and meat cases empty. The hasty decisions about what to buy out of what was left. I quickly learned how to order online groceries and at first there were shortages with that as well. It seems like ages ago when we couldn’t get paper towels, toilet paper, or disinfectants. I remember hunting for those items everywhere. There were worse things to come. The loss of my younger brother to COVID. I remember visits with my grandson at a distance on our front patio. Dental visits postponed indefinitely. Doctors visits done remotely. A very frightening visit to the ER where we waited for almost 2 hours in masks. My husband hospitalized with a non-COVID illness. Eventually we all felt safe to visit with our grandson inside our house. We were our own little pod. My daughter was living with us for several months, so at least I was able to be with her regularly too. So grateful that my husband, children, and grandson have made it through. I have become accustomed to living my life inside my house. I am an introvert so this is not completely uncomfortable, but it will take some getting used to being out in public places again. Like shopping in a market, going to get my hair cut, or going to a movie theatre. I wonder if I have developed a mild case of ‘cave syndrome’, ( a term coined by Dr. Bregman, a psychiatrist), where I fear going out of my house. During the pandemic my hair got very long and I took to wearing it in a single braid down my back. My daughter said I looked like Willie Nelson and gave me my COVID haircut. She did a good job. I haven’t had my hair professionally cut for the whole year. My husband has an appointment for a haircut at the end of this month. He will wear a mask but I still feel nervous about it. He did go to have a couple of haircuts when the barber was allowed to be open. I know I will adjust to going into shops, the dentist, and doctor eventually. It will feel very strange in the beginning.

Weekend Coffee Share is hosted by Natalie the Explorer. Featured image ‘Good Morning Coffee’ by Daniel Go on Flickr.com

Also sharing this post with Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, hosted by Linda G Hill. Linda who asked if we would be comfortable sharing our experience of the pandemic year. I have shared my experiences throughout the year as you know if you have been following my blog. I wanted to do a post on the One Year Anniversary of the pandemic and Natalie and Linda were thinking on the same theme.

35 thoughts on “Weekend Coffee Share # 10-Coming Out Of The Cave”

  1. Natalie

    Deborah, I’m sorry to hear about your loss of your younger brother to COVID. I hope with more people getting vaccinated, gradually you’ll feel comfortable going outside where there are people again. Thank you for sharing your story. #WeekendCoffeeShare

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  7. bikerchick57

    Deborah, my deepest sympathy and hugs for you in the loss of your brother. There have been far too many lives changed and lost from this virus.

    For what it’s worth, my roommate and I schedule our appointments – chiro and hair dresser – first thing on Monday mornings or after they have been closed for a day or two. My hairdresser is in with others, but Monday mornings are quiet and there is never another stylist or customer anywhere close to us. It makes me feel safe, although I still douse myself with hand sanitizer afterwards and when I get home, I change clothes in the garage. They are all measures to keep my mind less stressed and so far, the process has worked.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  9. J-Dub

    I am very sorry for your loss. May your brother’s memory be a blessing.

    I may have that syndrome thing too. Now fully vaccinated I feel better about going out but not much. I have done the tele med and two in person to doctor out of body experiences. My dental is postponed by me indefinitely too. It has been a year since my last “real” hair cut though three times now I have taken the scissors to myself to “trim”. If I can find a place that masks and social distances from other customers, I may get someone to clean up my mess.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Deborah Drucker Post author

      Thank you, Jill.
      Ha, ha. out of body experience. Good one. It is pretty nerve wracking to put my toe in the water with closer contact. I am getting a bit better with having a few delivery/repair people in the house with all of us in masks. But to go into a shop or business would be a challenge for sure. Definitely would not like it if other customers or service people were not social distancing and wearing masks.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  10. JoAnna

    It has been surreal, hasn’t it. I’m sorry about the loss of your brother. May he rest in peace and in your fond memories. I understand how a cave would feel safe. You will come out into the sunlight one step at a time as you are ready.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  12. 🇪🇺 Bee H.

    Am glad you and yours got through it nearly unscathed. Sendi g good vibes to all of you 😍. I most certainly have developed “cave syndrome”. Don’t like going out at all nowadays. My way of getting around the shortages was to not shop with Supermarkets or big shops. I discovered “subscribe & save” at Amazon and used it even though I wanted to get away from the biggies. But I had no other choice to get toilet paper and cleaning products. Milk & More delivered yogurt and butter and my husband went every two weeks to the farm shop for the fresh stuff. We got chicken for eggs when there wasn’t a lock-down and I am going more and more towards a vegan lifestyle because of cancer so I make my own oat Milk and vegan butter. And we have a big vegetable patch that helped. Haircut wasn’t a problem. Chemotherapy had an advantage. Happy Sunday despite everything to you and yours 😁🙋‍♀️🤗🐝

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Deborah Drucker Post author

      Thanks you for sharing your experience, Bee. Chemo is hard way to get a haircut. Sending good vibes back to you that you continue to recover and that sometime soon we are all able to come out into a healthy world again. ❤

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  13. Susanne

    I’m so sorry for the loss of your brother. Your description of the first year sounds so scary, so you’ve probably succeeded well with describing it. I have almost forgotten the horrors of the early days of the pandemic – the fear, the uncertainty, the feelings of unreality. I’ve had a lot of fear and sometimes despair but have done my best to focus on something else. But regarding dentists, I really need to go but don’t feel it’s safe enough. It will take a long time before I can do those things and not worry.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Deborah Drucker Post author

      I have been reading a lot of posts in my local LA Times from other writers on the anniversary of the outbreak and lockdown in the US. Seems like we all want to talk about our perspectives and experience of the pandemic. I was more fearful at the beginning. I think it is good to acknowledge your feelings .We will come out of this. I think the dentist is a challenge for me as well. I have thought that if I had to go, and my husband to, that we should make an appointment first thing in the morning when other patients have not been in the office. I would also question the dental office about what they are doing to protect people from catching the virus. Thanks for stopping by, Susanne.

      Like

      Reply ↓
    1. Deborah Drucker Post author

      Thank you, Joey. It’s getting better. My older brother came home from the hospital and I think he is improving but he has some residual effects. He is up in years and I can’t take him for granted either. I don’t want to lose two brothers. I hope we all, the whole country and world too, pull out of this pandemic and things continue to go well. You had a rough time too, I think. In California, we are starting to have things start to gradually open back up this week. I don’t want to get right out there though. ❤

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

Comments

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.