Plague

[gaudior]

I realized that I could list all of the physical places I've been in the past six months.

That is not normally what my life is like.

A distressingly short and thorough list:

(Not counting the streets between these places, which I have traversed via bike or car or foot)

1. My apartment.
2. My office.
3. The grocery store.
4. The hardware store.
5. The pharmacy.
6. The three parks near our apartment.
7. Fox's school (though not inside it since it opened; I did some work on the interior in the summer to get it ready, but now that it's started, only the ten children and two teachers are allowed in, and only with masks)
8. Life Alive cafe (pick-up only)
9. A different pharmacy to get someone else's prescriptions.
10. My parents' yard (and bathroom).
11. rax's yard.
12. The park in Cambridge Common.
13. An ice-cream shop.
14. Beth Israel Hospital to drop someone off at and pick them up from an appointment.
15. A different ice-cream shop (pick-up only)
16. The Diesel in Davis Square (pick-up only)
17. A car repair place
18. A different park in Davis Square.
19. Route 2, for a protest.
20. Davis Square, for a protest.
21. Cambridge Common, for a protest.
22. Central Square, for a protest.
23. A park near sovay's place.
24. An Ethiopian restaurant (pick-up only)
25. Several gas stations (pick-up only)
26. Crane Beach (really nice, albeit socially distanced, day of swimming in the late summer)
27. Our doctor's office

...I think that may be it.

Oh, no: 28. Target
29. A different park, for hiking, that I forget the name of-- Beaver Pond, maybe?
30. Alewife Reservation, also for hiking.
31. The bookstore (pick-up only)
32. The natural foods store
33. Outside the Harvard Health Center to drop off/pick someone up for an appointment.



...wow.

I have spent the past six months within a 30 mile radius from home. Mostly within a three mile radius. And while I may have forgotten one or two places, I think that with only slightly more work I can list every single location I've been to since the end of February.*

I realize that for most people for much of human history, this was fairly normal.

I... do not care for it.

:(

--R

*I realize that there are many people who spend the pandemic going to far fewer places than these, and dear gods.

Comments

[redbird]

I'm in a similar situation, and also not happy about it. I was having a pre-visit screening last month, and the doctor's receptionist asked if I had traveled outside New England lately. I told her that I hadn't left Middlesex County since March. And that's both weird and a deliberate decision, or set of decisions.

[sovay]

I was having a pre-visit screening last month, and the doctor's receptionist asked if I had traveled outside New England lately. I told her that I hadn't left Middlesex County since March.

I was just about to leave a comment about a similar exchange, although in my case the question was "Have you traveled outside the country in the last month?" and my answer was "I haven't traveled outside the state all year!" I do not care for it, either.

I think the farthest I have been from my apartment since this pandemic began was the beach in Salem where rushthatspeaks and I were married. Which was a lovely beach for many reasons, but by this point in the year I have usually been at least once to either New York, Providence, or the D.C. metro area, and in an especially good year all of the above. I miss other cities. I miss my city. I don't even like this apartment enough to have wanted to spend the majority of the year inside it.

[ckd]

I've gone as far as the next county, because that's where my parents live. I've barely left my ZIP code otherwise, and rarely go even as far as two blocks away.

"Not happy about it" doesn't even begin to cover my feelings, especially with my nearest sweetie 2000+ miles away on the other side of a closed international border....

[lilysea]

I haven't left my HOUSE for 5 months, 21 days.

[My last leaving the house was 3 April, the local chemist for influenza vaccination]

I'm high risk enough / chronically ill enough / Disabled enough, that I need to be extremely cautious about COVID.

[libskrat]

Hm, let's see...

1) local polling place, 2x (I'm a pollworker)
2) nearest ATM for cash for tips for deliveryfolk
3) Arboretum
4) vet's office (cat needed a dental, he's fine)
5) building I work in during normal times (picking up specialized equipment for use at home)
6) thrift store, to drop off donations
7) hair salon, 2x

And except for chasing down the doordashing cat a couple of times, I think that's it?

[marahmarie]

Oh my, this is the stuff I try to block out/not think of, ie "how small my world's become". In the last six months?

--grocery store maybe 3-5 times
--Dollar General, about the same # of x
--another small (local) shop, about the same # of x
--a seafood store that just opened, really wanted to see (crashing disappointment to risk catching the actual plague over), just once
--Home Depot 1-2x
--post office 1-2x

(If I think of other places I'm forgetting I may edit to add, though prolly not forgetting much if anything)

Otherwise it's local neighborhood walks and very short rides without going inside of anything and...yeah. I haven't been out of the county since...2019, maybe? Nor out of the local (within five mile range) neighborhood since early 2020.

[mrissa]

Yesterday I tried to do curbside for used book sales, and the line was already five deep, so I turned around and left there. It gave me a nice drive to the used bookstore, and I'm going to have to go back soon (there are nine bags of books in the car, I am not hauling them back up to my (home) office), but it was 30-40 minutes round trip, and...going 15-20 minutes away from my house was very weird and out of the ordinary. Usually the farthest I go is my mother's, which is 10 minutes away.

[artsyhonker]

I think my current limit is 6 miles (church, which re-opened, with many restrictions and precautions, in early July). Most weeks I go to church, the allotment (2.5 miles away), and for walks in the forest. I've been to a couple of bicycle shops when my bike needed repairs, and gotten takeaway a few times. I'll be going to the chemist for a 'flu jab next week.

I'm finding it mostly all right; I think the allotment helps a lot with this. I do miss choral singing, though. And it's a very odd time to be finishing up a PhD in choral composition.

[sandrylene]

Yeah... at this point the fun and exciting changes of life include things like, "I'm going to take a day off so I can go to a grocery store or, gasp, maybe two! during lower traffic times."

I like routine as much as the next person, but changing it up is really refreshing, and has not been basically a possible option. It's all quite wearing, while at the same time it's quite clear that as compared with others, I have it sort of good/lucky. Such a weird year, weird dynamic, weird everything.

Here's hoping we all have more (safe, reasonable, responsible) choices available in the (somewhat near) future.