ScottSevener.com

…I know that I really shouldn’t.

The last week or so, I’ve found myself escaping through watching various travel vlogs – Kara and Nate have been one of my favorites – and after watching their most recent videos about coming back to the States (after traveling abroad for four years!) and buying a van to tour the USA while this COVID-thing works out, there’s admittedly a part of me that would like to hit the road myself and take the family exploring…

…and at first glance, it doesn’t sound all that crazy. Traveling by road in our van, we could limit exposure and get take out just like we do here at home.

But then there’s hotel rooms … because there’s only so much cleaning a maid can really do!

And besides that, there’s what do you do when you get to wherever you’re going?!

Plus, I would argue that it’s a lot easier for a young couple to go off the cuff and just play things by ear in random road trip fashion, whereas kids will only stay buckled in their car seats for so long before they start making demands that their iPads and the TV in the van simply can’t handle!

At one point, I even looked into vacation homes just here in Florida because Sara had a friend who stayed at an awesome one over in Orlando with slides and ball pits and all sorts of cool themed rooms for the kids … yet she also mentioned spending five hours cleaning every surface imaginable on her own after the owner also had a professional cleaning crew do the place over themselves.

The fact of the matter is, even as I’m getting a little stir-crazy here, I know deep down that right now is a terrible time to travel, as depicted abruptly here in Exhibit A:

For those of you playing along at home…

• In the last five days since my last post, Florida added 47,677 new cases, which is about 9,000 cases more than the previous 5-day period.
• Yesterday Florida took the record for the most new cases reported by a state in one day at 11,458, beating out a previous day set by New York back in April (according to Johns Hopkins’ data, anyways).
• Despite having one of the worst spikes, Florida is one of several states that still does not have a statewide mask restriction. (thankfully the counties around the Tampa Bay area have all passed their own local ordinances)

If anything, it’s kind of scary to realize that looking back to when I first started blogging about COVID-19, our national chart looked like this…

…and now we’re using that same scale, but at the state level for Florida instead of the national level!

For comparison’s sake when I look at this later, here’s that national chart three and a half months later…

Anyways, to wrap this up so I can get to bed, instead of traveling I’ve really been trying to focus on sprucing things up around the house to make our home a little more enjoyable while we wait out COVID as long as it takes. We recently got our pool cage rescreened after far too many years of having panels blown out by the wind, and the bamboo that always haunted me in our backyard has now nearly been removed, too.

As a result, I think I was in the pool with the kids every single day over the holiday weekend, which was nice, and it gave me some exercise, and most of all, it does wonders for wearing them out at the end of the day!

Next on the list is getting someone out to service the heater for our hot tub that has also been broken for over a year, and I’ve also been playing with some fun outdoor lighting options to add the pool area to bring my growing Hue obsession poolside!

Between all of that and the new patio furniture that we just splurged on, I’m pretty excited about it … or at least I’m trying to remind myself that I am whenever I daydream about driving the family cross country in search of something new and exciting that doesn’t also carry the inevitable threat of COVID.

In the last seven days, Florida has seen 48,931 new cases of COVID-19.

For comparison, this is more cases in the last week than we saw in the first two months of the pandemic, including what we thought was its peak with some days having more than a thousand new cases!

In other words, wear a damn mask already, you freaking maniacs…

It scares me to think about how bad this is really going to get because we’ve got the 4th of July at the end of this week and at least for now, Disney World is planning to open its parks again in another week and I believe their reservations are already completely booked.

On the plus side, deaths have been fairly stable (at least here in Florida) despite in the increase in new cases, and we starting to see a few counter measures like mandatory mask orders here throughout the Tampa Bay Area and last week most of the bars got shut back down.

I get that a lot of people want to just forget about it and move on with their lives. As far as I’m concerned, those people are crazy. Personally I’m most worried about two things – 1) will my employer continue to allow us to work from home, and 2) what’s going to happen in another month and a half when school is supposed to start back up again?

As far as working remotely is concerned, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see this chaos dominate the rest of the year, so I’m really hoping remote work remains a part of “the new norm” for as long as possible. Of course, I’m very biased because I spent four great years working from home when Christopher was first born so I have a fond appreciation for the extra freedom it gives me to navigate my day and better support my family. Everything is easier when I’m able to choose how and when I do my work, plus the lack of a commute and time saved not getting sucked into random meetings and discussions is an absolute godsend!

School is tricky because the kids both love and need it, and as great as virtual school was in the spring when this whole thing started, it doesn’t hold a candle to live instruction. That said, I think I worry most about the teachers who have to navigate with our walking petri dishes and stand a much greater risk than the kids do of catching COVID. Right at this moment, my wife and I have a plan for the three boys that we’re “ok” with … but that’s not to say perspectives won’t change if things get even worse over the next 6 – 8 weeks.

Right now, I feel like the best I can do is to stay informed and be concerned. I don’t avoid going places like the store when we need something, but I’m not going out of my way to wander around a mall or a theme park. I wear a mask whenever I’m around strangers and I’m doing what I can to teach the kids to wear theirs as well … in addition to why it’s important for them to do so.

I’m also trying to remain grateful that this hasn’t impacted our family like it has many others. We’re both still working, and we don’t have any immediate friends or family who have gotten sick, though we know of people who are either in critical condition or have already died of it.

Being inconvenienced by COVID-19 when other people are truly suffering and dying from this thing is the least we can do.

I think that’s important to remember when social media is filled with people complaining about having to wear masks and not being able to enjoy theme parks the way that they could six months ago.

Two thoughts that I’ve been mulling about recently that I wanted to share…

Assume Positive Intent – This is a perspective that I stumbled upon from Automattic’s CEO and it’s something that I think offers a lot of value for a reluctantly cynical person like myself. It’s so easy to expect the worst from people, and sure, sometimes it’s what you get, but sometimes it’s not and let’s be honest, which one is a happier state of mind to maintain?

Stop Looking at Things as Absolutes – This one is really an attempt to counter a lot of the hoax-based mentality that more and more people are grappling onto lately whenever they see the slightest thing that tilts COVID-19 arguments in their favor. For example:

• “Hospitals are classifying any death as COVID-19, so all of the data is garbage!”
• “The virus is smaller than the holes in your mask, so masks are useless!”

Of course, the reality for both of these arguments is that it simply doesn’t work like that.

The reporting data is going to have flaws, but it doesn’t mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater and forgo any sort of measure of the virus’s progress whatsoever!

And sure, the microscopic virus particles themselves are super small, but the main way that we’re concerned about them spreading is through saliva, which is definitely big enough for a mask or even just a bandana to slow down!

From another angle, myself I’ve been kind of trying to combine both of these two ideas as I encounter others out and about who may not be taking the exact same precautions as I am…

For starters, tonight when I ran to the store, I had Christopher try wearing a mask, too, so that he could start to get used to it for when Sara finishes the ones that she’s making for our whole family. He didn’t wear it the whole time, and sometimes he wore it under his nose, and he touched his face a bit, but it’s something, and he’s a kid, and he’s learning.

Likewise, we encountered several people who either weren’t wearing masks or were walking the wrong way down the aisles. My first instinct was to get upset, but then I noticed that a family that had gone the wrong way down the aisle in front of me was in fact wearing masks … so at least they were trying. 

Even the ridiculous cashier I had a few days ago who wore her mask underneath her nose because otherwise it was hard for her to breathe … at least she was doing something, and sometimes I think we’re pushing so hard and we’re so stressed out that we don’t want to stop and give ourselves or others credit simply for trying.

Sure, those masks weren’t as effective as they could’ve been, but the people wearing them had positive intent and I think that should count for something.

I know that when I’m doing my best and still slipping up, I’d much rather people pay attention to the good rather than my mistakes…

I know that this virus has been tough on people financially in a variety of ways, so I wanted to share a handful of discounts that we’ve stumbled upon recently to help put a little cash back in our pockets…

Verizon – Monthly Discount for Nurses
Their verification app was a little clunky, but after looking up and providing Sara’s state license #, the next day Verizon confirmed we’d be getting $25/month off of our cell phone bill … plus next month it’ll be $50 because they didn’t have time to do it for this bill cycle!

Progressive Auto Insurance – Free Meal +20% Off
A couple of weeks ago I was surprised to find an email in my inbox with a $50 Uber Eats coupon, also because my wife is a nurse. This one was triggered automatically, I assume because I listed our professions when I signed us up. They’re also supposed to be giving everyone 20% off their auto premiums for April and May, though I haven’t seen anything on this one for April yet…

(I believe Geico and USAA and some others are offering premium discounts, too…)

Electric Co-Op – Capital Credit Refund
Now this one may be unique to us but because our electric company is a co-op, they issue a refund each year for the excess profits that they collected. This normally comes around Christmastime, however they decided to do it early this year due to COVID and as a result, our next bill has a $60 credit on it!

Student Loans – Refinancing for Deferred Payments & Interest
This last one is a doozy, and it’s still up in the air because I won’t fully believe it until I see it, but long story short – Sara’s student loans didn’t qualify for the interest and payment waivers from the CARES Act because apparently her loans aren’t technically owned by the US Department of Education.

…even though they started out that way…

Regardless, a few weeks ago we started the process of consolidating them, which in theory should move them back under the Dept. of Education and basically put everything on hold until Sept. 30, That’s five months of no student loan payments or interest, so if it works, that’s definitely the biggest savings opportunity currently on our plate!

TALK TO YOUR BANKS
One other thing I’ll note that isn’t really a discount, but if you’re really struggling because maybe you’re out of work or have reduced hours or additional expenses, I’d strongly recommend getting a hold of your bank(s) … mortgage, credit cards, car loan … anyone who loans you money, and ask what options they have for forbearance.

We did this during a hurricane where we evacuated a few years ago. I made a list of everyone we made payments to and many of them had info right on their websites about what to expect. Because most of our banking is with one bank, with one somewhat long phone call, I think I temporarily eliminated over a grand out of our monthly budget by getting credit card payments and other loan payments waived.

You definitely need to read all of the terms to understand whether you’ll owe a lump sum at the end or if payments are just tacked onto the end of your loans (I think this was more common), but most businesses are willing to work with you if they’re aware that you’re struggling and otherwise just might not pay them!

I think today was the first day that I actually set foot inside of a restaurant for more than like 30 seconds, and it was very uncomfortable and weird.

I decided to grab lunch from Firehouse Subs, but their app wasn’t working so I had to go inside to place my order. The place looked as if they were getting ready to tear up the floors – all of the tables and chairs had been piled in the corners except for a single row of tiny two-seaters against the wall opposite the counter. A table with cups and lids was setup in front of the drink station so that no one would have to hand you your cup. And a stack of high chairs served as a barricade to provide extra distance between customers and the cashier.

There were a couple of X’s in tape on the floor to indicate where people were supposed to wait, but there was only one other guy sitting at a table by himself eating his lunch, so it didn’t really matter.

Surprisingly, there were like four or five employees on the other side of the counter, which seemed excessive, but I suppose it was later in the afternoon so maybe it was busier earlier.

For the last month and a half, I’ve pretty much exclusively gotten my food through drive-thrus and curbside service, and even Panera the other day brought my food out to me instead of me going in just to grab it off of their takeout shelf.

The other day I drove through the mall and admittedly it was very strange to drive past restaurants and see tables full of people, even spaced far apart.

I’d imagine it’s even more uncomfortable for the employees working at these places.

I’ll be honest – all of this talk about Reopening America™ makes me very uncomfortable.

It’s like everyone agreed that this phased approach with gradual openings based on a downward trajectory of cases made sense, and then a few days later they decided to just skip the data part and go right to putting things back the way that they were!

I mean, yesterday we just had our second-worst day of new cases ever at 36,007, so how are we even talking about this right now?!

I just look at places like Jacksonville where they reopened the beaches and people claimed that they were acting responsibly and social distancing, even though a lot of them weren’t. I’ll admit that even just walking around Walmart, it can be hard to do when there’s just a ton of people and you need to grab a box of Frosted Flakes that this lady has been standing in front of for the last five minutes.

I worry that things are going to go back to normal, and people will basically ignore that Coronavirus ever existed … and then cases and deaths will spike like we never could’ve imagined in the last month and a half that we tried to keep this under control.

Yes, I get that we can’t just live inside forever and that a lot of businesses are hurting from not being able to be opened right now, but this disease isn’t something that’s just going to go away because Americans got bored with it and Trump needed our economy to rebound for his reelection campaign.

One of the arguments I’ve heard is, “You can stay inside if you want, but let the rest of us do what we want…” and there’s a part of me that would be ok with that if there was any sense that the people saying it would still follow the guidelines and keep safe distances from each other and generally take COVID-19 seriously. Yet instead when they do go out, they gather in huge crowds and wave semi-automatic weapons on the capital lawn and rant about how awful vaccines are … and I just can’t.

Right now as I write this, we’re finally at the high-water mark of the 65,000 deaths caused by the last flu season … two months into COVID-19 … and with no actual sign of it slowing down anytime soon.

There’s a good chance that by the end of June, we’ll be over 100,000 deaths and 1.5M cases, and I fear that the more lax we get about reopening the country, the more we’re just going to blow right past those figures like the first couple of months were nothing.

It’s like we’re living the movie Jaws and I guess I just really don’t want anyone else to get eaten by this shark…