COVID-19 Not Just a Movie

I have seen the pandemic movies produced by Hollywood in which society falls apart when a virus spreads rapidly through a urban area and the hero of the movie must face unbelievable odds to  protect his/her family and arrive in the "safe zone." The world changes rapidly within hours, from normal to panic to bad.  You see the "good" people turn bad and "bad" people have more humanity than the "good" people.  At the end of the movie I wonder how I would react to an event like that.  Would I be that "good" person gone bad?  I go home and re-evaluate my emergency preparedness and find that I am lack in so many areas. I promise myself that I prepare better and evetually by the end of the week I forget.  

What happens when the movie becomes real?  To my horror the movie just turn real. We are living it right now! I already went through the denial stage.  I thought this virus was nothing, it will soon blow over.  I believed the media was blowing it out of proportion just to get high ratings.  Things started to get real when the government started to send the COVID-19 positive cruise line passengers to San Diego. In one week my denial stage was torn to shreds.  It started with the World Health Organization announcing that COVID-19 had the characteristics of a pandemic.  Then President Trump announced travel bans starting 3/13/2020 until the end of the month. No travel to or from Europe except UK.  Immediately after San Diego gave its restrictions, no gatherings of more than 250 people allowed. They are recommending for us to prepare for an emergency. Schools are closing, events are cancelling, there is also a restriction on visiting hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and other medical facilities.  I had the misfortune of having to go to an urgent care, before I was even allowed to enter the urgent care I was screened.  I was no longer in denial it was now the harsh reality and I needed to get with the program.  

Right now I am in the panic stage, I guess everyone else is in that stage too. Panic shopping has taken over and as much as I don't want to participate in this chaos how can I ignore the fact that the supplies are flying of the shelves.  We are being forced to panic shop because all the hordes are taking all the supplies and refuse to leave any for others.  The unscrupulous people are buying large quantities of supplies and cleaning out every store in 100 miles or more just to sell them back for 20 x or more the price. Some people don't buy anything because they don't believe in what is happening. They are still in the denial stage. Others don't buy because they don't want to be bothered and think there will be a special stash saved by the store for them.  Others don't have the time to shop because they are at work.  The worse are those who are capable of getting their own supplies but decide to steal from business, people or even family.  

Soon I will be in the stage of acceptance in which I evaluated my situation and realized I am not prepared and now I have to suffer the consequences. At that point there is nothing that can be done.  My only hope is that the panic shopping stops or slows down enough to be able to get much needed supplies.  I don't know when that will be but it looks like it will last until the end of March.  The patients with the COVID-19 virus are increasing so this panic may continue for longer period of time.  

Luckily, traveling to remote places has semi-prepared me to have some essential items at the ready. Unfortunately my essentials are not pandemic proof. I love the idea of becoming an over-lander, in a way over-lander have some similarities to "dooms day peppers" however they are different group of people.  Right now the "dooms day peppers" are hunker down in an undisclosed location surrounded by supplies and watching society go into chaos.  They are probably thinking "I am not so crazy after all," among other phrases like "I told you so," "Who is going to survive now."  

Since the announcement of the pandemic I have stayed home, mostly because the day it was announced I was ill for a different reason.  During my recovery I was only focus on recovering and did not do any travel planning or editing.  I am differently not doing any travel by plane anytime soon.  If I do travel I will be visiting the mountains and places where there is not that many people.  My original plan for this year was to visit all the tourist places in San Diego. I just received my San Diego Visitor's Guide this week.  Due to the COVID-19 I have to rethink my plans since it is being recommended stay away from people and avoid large crowds.  I know this will affect tourism especially in the small mountain communities that depend on tourist money to sustain themselves.  Right now my only concern is that we make it out of this pandemic.  While I am staying indoors I am using that time to plan.  Better planning makes for better content.  Stay safe out there and explore when it is safe.