Shawna in Texas

Shawna is a high school friend of my brother. She is currently living in San Antonio, Texas with her husband and shared this about their experience.

"Checking in from San Antonio, Texas, population approximately double that of Calgary (~ 3 million) with 220 confirmed cases in the state, 39 in our county (Bexar) and 25 in the San Antonio area.

Our city’s mayor announced just Wednesday March 18th that a city public health emergency was being declared, effective until April 19, 2020 (about a month) that requires non-essential businesses to close (including bars, movie theatres, gyms and bowling alleys) and only allows restaurants to offer take-out, drive-thru or delivery orders.
The Texas Governer Greg Abbot made a statewide order that put almost identical rules in place across Texas, however it only lasts until April 3 (unless an extension is announced in the coming weeks). This order also limits gatherings to 10 people.
Most school boards have closed their schools voluntarily since March 9, 2020 but the statewide order will keep them closed until at least April 3.
Our city is in a unique position because San Antonio has a very large military base, which includes the Lackland Air Force Base as well as a CDC research center so a handful of cruise ship passengers from California and all over the world were brought to a secure location on the Air Force Base (AFB) to be quarantined and monitored by the CDC staff, which unnerved many San Antonio civilians, but it turns out the lack of tests available as well as people’s unwillingness to self-isolate and practice social distancing has resulted in more cases than the AFC quarantine cases.

My Experience:
Bonus points here because I am currently 29 weeks pregnant, and with so many data gaps concerned pregnant women I have to say this whole situation has been a rollercoaster of emotions for my husband and I.
There’s concerns about the state of the hospital we’re scheduled to deliver at, both in the policies (will my husband be allowed into the delivery room?) and quarantine protocols (will they separate the mother and newborn if the mother’s health is in question?)
Overall the high costs of healthcare in the US have many people on edge regarding the potential cost of being treated for the virus or even just testing and quarantine. Personally we have decent health insurance, but the costs are still a big concern for us. (I can elaborate on the health insurance vs. healthcare costs if you want.)
The other big impact on our daily lives is a common one for almost any area right now – groceries and food supply. Just this morning I went to the grocery store (sanitizer in hand, ready to practice social distancing) around 10am to get some small provisions, mostly fresh produce and some OTC medications and there was a line up of about 75 people with carts waiting to go into the store because they were limiting the number of people allowed in at any given point. I felt the line up was too risky, so I went home with no groceries.
Other than that, my husband’s business trip to Oklahoma was canceled and he is now doing his training through video conferencing instead of in a classroom. I’m unable to work in the US because I am here legally on his work visa instead of my own (we’re both Calgarians!) so staying in is already my routine and I tend to occupy my time working on the garden out back as well as painting (very casually).  Before the shut down I enjoyed swimming laps at the gym, but I’ve been doing more yoga at home because the gyms are all closed."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Graphs and stuff and things

Image
Today was a good day. I ventured over to Sobeys to pick up some more of my husband’s medication. He’s immunocompromised so I’ll be making all those trips for the time being. It was busy again. There was no toilet paper again. I grossly underestimated the weight of the stuff I was going to buy and had to walk all the way back home with extremely heavy bags.  I miss my family and my friends. The social piece of this is starting to feel harder. The reality is that we will see my parents again soon, we need them to help with childcare starting next week. But it’s still hard right now. 42 new cases in Alberta today.  10 000 in the USA. It’s worrying what’s happening over the border and is responsible for about 70% of my current anxiety. Science and numbers make me feel better though and I saved a series of graphs published by the Globe and Mail today. Some perspective for why we’re doing this.
Read more

Professional Development

Today is a PD day. I love PD days. For real. I like talking about my work, my kids, their work, my discipline, anything that has to do with my job. So I really value the opportunities presented by PD - especially when it's conversational. Today, I attended an online session about maintaining connections with students through this crisis. It was great - super helpful, gave me some good activity ideas, and gave me some energy and inspiration to get through a few hours of task design. This was a good start to the week after a long weekend. I'm choosing to ignore that it was Easter this weekend. We're not religious so the significance of the holiday in our lives is just time spent with family. I would have loved to go to my parent's house for a big easter dinner and a little too much chocolate. We would have brought home leftovers that I would be eating for lunch all week and it would have been a nice day spent with family. Instead, we stayed home. We still have lef...
Read more

In Our Time

Image
This morning I chose to listen to a time machine. As soon as the needle touched on and the record started spinning I was transported back to summer 2018. I'm at the Calgary Folk Fest, sitting on the little hill at stage 4, partly in the shade of the trees but also still bathed in sunlight. Drinking one of those shaken lemonades and eating kettle corn all while being serenaded by this musician I've never heard of before called AHI. And he is good. Like really good. There's something so compelling about his lyrics, they're personal yet universal. He sings about his own family and you feel like you are a part of it. He sings about his earlier life and you, somehow, were there too. I bought In Our Time on vinyl about a month after the Folk Fest when I saw him in Vancouver. We took a short trip out after our wedding that August and my husband surprised me with tickets to see AHI open for Michael Franti (another favourite artist of mine) at the Commodore Ballroom. This ...
Read more