DAY 14: ECQ

Two weeks.

It has been two weeks.  Or a little less.

I was in the gym last 16th then went to the supermarket right after ... then went back home.  I have not left since.  So technically I was out of the immediate domain of my residence for the past twelve days.

Since then I have been going through the same routine --- day in, day out.

I need my seven hours of sleep --- so I wake up at about eight in the morning (something completely unimaginable during the normal days when I have to be up by seven or even earlier if I am going to school), I have my breakfast while writing on my journal or skimming through social media for the news ... then by ten-thirty I should be out in the patio, garbed in my gym outfit (just for the sake of feeling that I am still in the gym) then board my stepper for an hour or so ... then take my shower, go straight to lunch ... proceed to the workroom to write, read or survey the net.

I do that until dinner, then have my dinner --- go back to writing until I feel it is time to hibernate in my bedroom to catch Netflix.

My God, I have been doing that for the past twelve days!

What worries me the most at this point is that:

(A) There will come a point in time because of sheer familiarity that I am going to actually ENJOY this state of semi-vegetation.

What if all of a sudden it dawns upon me that that this is my ultimate goal in life: to photosynthesize.  I mean, I have never slept so good without the aid of Sleepwell or any of the herbal teas that knock you unconscious after a cup.  I have never had such predictable days so much so that I am now familiar with the six kinds of barks that my neighbor's dogs give each time they have the compulsion to yelp.

As my nephew pointed out ... there comes a point in time when your dog starts to demand space.

During the normal schedule-burdened days of appointments and commitments, the chances of actually bonding and playing with your canine friends become few and far in between.  They go crazy when they see you ... especially when you give them morsels of your time to make them feel important.

Aba,eh, since this lock down, my Labrador named Meghan has had much too much of me.  Whereas before all I would do was call her name and she would come barging into the kitchen to play catch with me ... now she gives me this withering look that implies, "Uh, can you gimme a break, ok?" 


(B) I am not exactly experiencing cabin fever but ... this has only been two weeks and things seemed to have been redefined in my existence.

My God, I want to go to the supermarket!  That for me is the ultimate adventure to break the rhythm of mediocrity.  I am craving to push a cart and buy kalamansis in bags, gallons of Zonrox and the Holy Grail of all grocery items --- rolls and rolls of two ply toilet paper.  Why?  Because no trip to the grocery is complete without such a purchase ... or so it seems in a society prone to panic that there might come a time that you will have nothing to wipe your derriere aside from the jet gush of water from your bidet.

But corollary to this need to brave the virus infested air to go to the grocery is another challenge ...


(C) I am not sure if I am ready to wait it out exercising the much needed social and physical distance before I can get into the grocery.

I have seen photos of people lining up outside the drugstore and the grocery ... some taking hours just to get through.  Yes, there are properly distanced chairs placed strategically outside the supermarket but ...when you get there are the surge hour, you are bound to be uploading enough Tik Toks to cause chaos to the entire application.

Unlike other countries which have special policies for Senior citizens during these most extraordinary times, I am not sure if there are express privileges given to us who have crossed the six decades mark.

Well, yeah, I even heard that a certain city bans senior citizens from entering the supermarket. The reason is because we are the most vulnerable to the virus ---and it is assumed that we are not to be allowed to be exposed to the rest of the human population, especially the stores for fear that we will be infected.

But what is not being placed in the equation is that not all senior citizens have people with them who can do their errands, buy their necessities or even tend to their needs.  I have friends --- ladies and gentlemen for that matter --- who are past sixty years of age, living alone or still serving as heads of their families and do not depend on yayas or drivers for their daily needs.

So what about them? What about these senior citizens who take pride in their independence and are now being castigated for wanting to be useful despite their age?

( Someone made mention of home deliveries of groceries.  Yes, they are right. But these services are apparently not geared towards something like a worldwide pandemic.  The sudden surge of orders to be delivered to homes could not have been met by the facilities of these stores.

Despite their good intentions, online purchases and house deliveries are still relatively new and scarce even in so-called metropolis like Manila.  Uhm, this first world convenience is still much of a come-on for establishments who want to uplift the third world frame of mind).

(D) I want to know what banks still have branches open for transactions.  Truth: the ATMS are being depleted faster than you can punch your pin code.  Early in the morning I have already been warned that all the ATMs within my periphery are kaput because of the wild rush for cash.

You check the internet for which branches still have service and you find that there is but a handful and they are not exactly quite near to where you are.  Then you figure out what is the best way to deal with this considering that if this really stretches out for months everyone is definitely going to run out of cash.

So unless you have one of these room-size safes in your house (with an elevator to bring you down to Basement 2 where it is located), then you know that eventually you are going to be running out of precious cash. This above the fact that you are not earning a single cent ever since the lock down took place ... and your bills are still piling up (despite delays in payment) and worry about how the hell you are going to deal with all that after this whole ordeal is over.

Okay. It is as if worrying can bring you anything except acid reflux and really bad skin.

Deal with this one at a time.

Acknowledge there are problems because turning your head away from them does not solve anything as well.  You only add more problems.

In the meantime, let me worry about Netflix.  If I will go Spanish or Korean tonight.