APRIL FOOL?

April 1, 2020, Wednesday

This day is noteworthy in our lives for a couple of reasons.

In 1970 --- fifty years ago --- were we fools to break ground on this day for the construction of our house?

Definately not. In the first place, few people get to build their dream house. And fewer are able to live in it for fifty years. We had two pre-school children then. Now we have two middle-aged children and four adult grandsons. The house still suits us, particularly at this time when we're sheltering in place. There's enough room to walk around and each of us has our own space. So we're not living much differently than usual.

This is also the day this year when I was scheduled to receive a knee replacement. Of course all elective surgery was cancelled as soon as the virus hit. I'd already gone through all the pre-op exams and procedures. They coincidentally took the place of my customary annual check-ups. So now I know that I have no underlying health conditions and would have a better than average chance of surviving the virus if I happened to become infected.

I look back at the pre-op appointments and can see how concerns about the virus escalated. On March 11, I attended a Gait Information class at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. The class was conducted by a physical therapist who showed us how to use a walker, crutches, canes, and gave us an overview of what the recovery from joint replacement might be like.

Coming up out of the parking garage, I started noticing signs taped to the walls of the elevator, and posted at the entrance to the main building. The sign, pictured below, lists the typical symptoms of the coronavirus, and concerns about a person's international travel history or contact with someone who had recently traveled internationally. Now that the plague has spread all over the country, there is little or no international travel, and the attempt to contain the spread by tracking the source of contageon is futile.

That was the last time I was out of the house for any gathering. Four days later, church was cancelled, and the following day we began sheltering in place.