COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US)

I spoke to my parents yesterday and they surprised me (in a good way). They are intelligent people, and speaking to them on different issues/ topics is always fun, but when you back out of specific issues it is obvious that they live in the Fox echo chamber and though I can break them down on almost every major issue as disagreeing with the man, will likely vote for Trump.

That said I was terrified they would not be taking this thing seriously. I was wrong, they are very aware of their risk (74 with some underlying health issues and 73) and have changed their lifestyle to match. They recently moved to a place called "The Villages" in Florida, and though I have not seen the place yet I am assuming they are living around mostly people in their own demographic.

They have a great deal of social activities that they like to partake in, and they have stopped all of them. They have not hoarded by any stretch of the imagination, but my mom says she has some "Hurricane Supplies" if they cannot go to the store. As for trips to the store apparently their local store is fairly low volume and has regular sanitizing "breaks" during the day. They have been going on multiple walks daily, but say that everyone keeps a good distance and there are never more than couples walking together.

In the place of their social activities they have decided to pick up golfing (badly) for the time being. They got a golf cart when they moved to this place, because apparently that is the thing to do for getting around there, and their local golf course has lifted the minimum party size to tee off.... so it is just the two of them puttering around in a golf cart, playing golf badly, going for walks, and reading books.

Since they have retired a decade ago they have been almost non-stop go. They have hit all the national parks in the western United States, traveled to almost every major urban center in the US and Canada, traveled Northern, Western, and Southern Europe for months at a time. Run pretty much every cruise route in the Caribbean, both the Alaska and Hawaii cruise and done a number of 80 day cruises touching every continent except Africa.

I was afraid they would use this as a way to try to find low cost travel arrangements, but they canceled any plans they had for the next year, and told me they are going to go into "Google" exploring mode for the next year, maybe two, until they see conditions as safe enough to resume their travels. Their hope is they can take this time to find destinations and activities they would not have and add them to the list for a time that they can venture forth again.

I had been worried since the onset of this thing that my parents would let the blinders they have put on in their media/political steer them into harms way... but underneath it seems that they are still the critical thinking pair that raised me when it counts.

I rambled way off course, but basically now is a good time to call your loved ones... they are probably bored and stressed, and even if you just talk about what flowers are blooming in the garden, or what good meals they have eaten lately it is relieving and comforting (at least it was for me).