ENTER COVID
Everyone in the whole wide world has a Corona story.
This has all been both a blur and slow motion. March was so long ago. April didn’t happen. And now suddenly it’s May.
For me, it started slowly. Liz, Virginia and I all had a chance to go out to dinner after we’d all recovered from the whirlwind of Mardi Gras. We went to Vincent’s Italian on March 4th, 2020. The Corona Virus subject was conversation, but nothing in our lives had changed. Days later I went to two gallery openings and had dinner out at Taqueria Coronas with Maureen and Virginia. Seattle had popped up as a hot spot, but still no one had tested positive in New Orleans or even in Louisiana. That would change in a matter of days. There would also be a quick learning curve and an immediate run on toilet paper, Clorox wipes and yeast.
I locked myself inside my house and began my quarantine on March 16th. Up until that time I hadn’t been out much anyway—except for the dinners I mentioned. Other than that it was a usual once-a-week trip to Winn Dixie and back home to work. As a painter, this lifestyle didn't feel that much different. I was used to working from home alone.
I went three whole weeks with enough in my house to get by.
What we didn’t know back when we were going out to dinner is that the virus was already here. Very quickly New Orleans would become one of the worst places in the country for COVID cases. I had to stop reading the news.
There was nothing I could do about any of this except stay home. If I go out, wear a mask. If I order groceries delivered, wash everything down. Stay six feet away. And my main job? My main job is to not send myself into a panic attack.
So we start visiting in House Party, on Zoom, in FaceTime and on our porches. I’d meet up with neighbors on our respective porches around 7:30 in the evening to catch up and check in.
“You have people in the hospital? How are they doing?”
We’ve learned a lot about each other and a lot about our neighborhood. We know now that one particular rat runs across the power line like he’s late for work every night at sunset.
But there have been a lot of sad days. Friends have lost people and are unable to have funerals.
And then there’s the good stuff. I’ve been quite happy to stay home and paint. Happy to work in my yard. Happy to have things be just a little slower all over. I’ve been able to chat with friends for a scheduled cocktail trivia hour from all over the country. I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have been able to coordinate that otherwise.
In the backyard we removed some slats from the fence so we can see and hear each other a little better. We share food. We Venmo. We look up at the stars. One of my neighbors even built us herb garden containers. I now have lavender, mint, rosemary, chives and basil at the ready. And I’ve been using up and repurposing many things from around the house. I turned old Illy coffee cans into hanging fence pots. And re-laid the brick in my backyard. I strung up a few volunteer tomato plants and soon will have a daily duck supply without even leaving home.
After two months of this now, I am getting food and drink deliveries. Puzzles too! The local business owners in my neighborhood have been something else. I am impressed, but not surprised, to witness the creativity and adaptability. New Orleans is good at that.
