pandemic, adjective
pan·dem·ic | \ pan-ˈde-mik \
1. occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population
What I am witnessing in my little town of 30,000 is PANDEMONIUM.
pandemonium, noun
pan·de·mo·ni·um | \ ˌpan-də-ˈmō-nē-əm \
1: a wild uproar (as because of anger or excitement in a crowd of people)
SYNONYMS: bedlam, chaos, mayhem, uproar, madness, havoc, turmoil, tumult, commotion, confusion, disorder, anarchy, furore, frenzy, clamour, din, hubbub, hue and cry, babel, rumpus, fracas, hurly-burly, maelstrom
Yes, this is a serious epidemic, one step higher, actually a pandemic. But I don't think it is necessary to have pandemonium. Stop the hoarding. Buy what you need, maybe enough for the two week quarantine, but for goodness sake let others have milk and bread (not to mention toilet paper).
I love what Costco is doing. Letting only a certain number of people IN the store at any one time. To help keep shoppers in a calm mode AND to be able to have 6 ft distance between people. They are limiting high demand items. Some local grocery stores are also doing that.
So far, we are healthy and happy. It snowed Saturday morning (1/2 inch!) and the family went sledding. The parents had a "date" since the 1980's Prom put on by the school was cancelled. The boys had a mix mash of leftovers and milkshakes and cookies while we watched "Are You Afraid of the Dark". And, yes Braeden was. We had all the lights off, streamed it so no commercials, and we had to watch part of a more gentle movie to end the night.
Calm down neighbors. Have a two week staycation, if that is possible for you, and enjoy your family.
So far, we are healthy and happy. It snowed Saturday morning (1/2 inch!) and the family went sledding. The parents had a "date" since the 1980's Prom put on by the school was cancelled. The boys had a mix mash of leftovers and milkshakes and cookies while we watched "Are You Afraid of the Dark". And, yes Braeden was. We had all the lights off, streamed it so no commercials, and we had to watch part of a more gentle movie to end the night.
Calm down neighbors. Have a two week staycation, if that is possible for you, and enjoy your family.
It's crazy, isn't it. It's like the Y2K hoarding that went on before the century changed and everyone though mass shortages would happen. I'll bet some of those hoarders still have toilet paper in their bunkers.
ReplyDeleteAnd several older friends are hiding CASH in their homes! We need a few fresh produce items and are hoping the hoarding slows down. Then we can buy a few pounds of hamburger as Jesse know 4,193,268 ways to make it tasty!
DeleteAmen!! You said it very well!! Its funny because my hubby is not a doomsday prepper but we do have an emergency supply of stuff like lots of batteries for flashlights, candles, cash, even freeze dried food. He carefully keeps track of stuff going on and if it looks like something is going to happen he prepares for it. He kind of knew through watching events and reading stories that there was going to be a terrorist attack before 9/11 hit. He just keeps up on things like that. Anyway, this whole thing threw us both off as far as how people reacted to going and hoarding things at the store. When we were at the store yesterday just doing our usual shopping afterwards I said to him "where did we go wrong this time? How did we not see this coming and react before the panic to get what we thought we might need?" By the way we were well prepared already for anything needed and we got everything on our shopping list but Vitamin C which I was running out of. I did find it at Walgreens but not Wal-Mart. His answer was this. We have been treating this virus intellectually. I truly believe the media has not in their reporting. So when Covid-19 was called a pandemic on Wednesday that's when people started panicking and started thinking they were going to be out of supplies if they did get quarantined for 2 weeks and we had the panic at the stores which was ridiculous. I said people probably are going to realize how much they spent on toilet paper etc and realize they have no money for food until their next paycheck. Anyway, we thought of some solutions for the next crisis because there will be a next crisis. And we realized when we hear a term that is starting to be used a lot like coronavirus it is time for us to start making sure we have what we need and a little bit extra. We also weren't sure how safe stores were as some stores reported some fighting going on for people shopping. When we went to the store we determined if a situation looked dangerous we would use the secret word we used to have for the kids for their safety with strangers. If we knew we had to get out of there we would say the secret word and leave the store immediately even if we were in the checkout line getting ready to pay. Unfortunately its a mob mentality out there for some people who aren't keeping themselves informed and its causing in some cases unnecessary panic.
ReplyDeleteGosh this is a long comment :)
betty
I'm in agreement about a mob mentality! The media is mostly to blame. I think if the govt would shut down ALL news, for one month, we would all be a lot better off. Everyone has a story!
DeleteIt's all so insane. I don't remember SARS or H1N1 affecting us this way.
ReplyDeleteI remember China wearing masks and self quarantine. Do all these wicked viruses come from China????
DeleteIt sounds like you're handling things just fine. Poor Braeden... I'm glad you put a more gentle movie on for him to end the night. ha!
ReplyDeleteWhen my daughter watched, there were commercials to ease the tension. Today they were watching one in the daylight ... much better. After they play out side for a while, we are going online to visit a museum or two!
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