MARCH 13
Little did I know this would be the last day of school for my kids. My son, 6, is non-verbal and was happy because the weekend was starting. My daughter, 3, was happy because we watch a Disney movie after school. This was our last normal day.
MARCH 14
Notification that my son won't have school for two weeks. I can handle two weeks. When he first got diagnosed with autism, he was home all the time. When we lived in RI he was home all summer. We have flashcards, books, a trampoline, a peanut, and places to walk to when it is warm. Besides my daughter has school, so we got this. Missing two weeks of speech, pt, and ot won't cause too much of a regression. I also knew my son's extremely dedicated teacher would have a plan.
MARCH 15
My daughter's school has been closed until further notice. Pt/ot canceled until further notice. Speech therapy canceled until further notice. She goes to a preschool for special needs children and the bulk of her therapy is off-campus. She engages in echoing and scripting so she really needs these services.
My son is still not fully potty trained and can take up to 40 minutes in the bathroom, which is upstairs. She is extremely clingy and will be upset. How am I going to care for them? At least we have 5 BHPs that come 5 times a week and often together. I can get chores done and shower then.
MARCH 16
We will be having 3 BHPS coming to limit exposure.
The world is going crazy. I'm watching news reports of food and supply shortages. One of the Altwire writers shares with us a picture of a store that looks like locusts ate the paper goods aisle.
My son's teacher calls. She sounds exhausted. She had to put together a packet of work which was hard because my son can't read or write and is a visual learner. He has an IEP so he has goals he is working on. She explains she has three kids of her own she has to care for and was told at the last minute she had to create packets for her students. She said that given the short notice, she thinks she did a good job. I told her that any guidance she can give me will help. I don't think she understands how much I appreciate her.
My daughter's school sent word on Facebook that they are compiling a list of links to help the kids learn.
MARCH 17
The schools are providing free meals if you pick them up at select locations between 9 am and 11 am.
Please send help.
The BHPs are coming during the day now. This is helpful because the kids are upset their routine is off-kilter and want to go to bed at 6 pm.
I had placed an order on Walmart Grocery. Fifteen items are unavailable, mostly frozen veggies and rice. As long as we have bread and peanut butter we will be fine. Got an email that the peanut butter is unavailable.
MARCH 21
I have no idea where the last few days went.
Congress is proposing a remote learning bill but it will not accommodate children with an IEP.
I decided I need some homeschooling supplies and go to Walgreens because there should be fewer people there. I get kinetic sand, a ream of paper, and pads that reveal images when you "paint" over them with water. I walk around the store to see what they have. They are fully stocked with necessities. The only sign something is different is the floor is marked with blue tape to show where six feet away from the cash register is. The clerk is wearing latex gloves that she is not changing between customers. I suppress the urge to tell her that's not how to use them properly because I realize there may not be a lot of gloves and she has to make them last.
I call my parents in Rhode Island. My mom who is 67 cannot find toilet paper, meat, eggs, milk, pasta, rice, frozen or fresh vegetables, tuna, lunch meat, bread, paper towels, napkins, rubbing alcohol or bleach. She also can't find bottled water which they have used as the town water is high in chlorine for over twenty years. She says she might have to start rationing. She spoke to her brother who is in his 70s and lives in Arizona with his wife who has COPD and had a kidney transplant. My aunt has not left the house in weeks. They have three rolls of toilet paper left. They can't find the same food items my mother can't. My uncle who is a major sports fan is upset because since he can't go out, this is the perfect time to binge on sports. My uncle has never seen anything like this.
I call a friend in Rhode Island who lives in subsidized housing. He relies on public transportation and there is none anymore. He has no soap and is low on food. Offer to buy him some soap and some food to hopefully tide him over a few days.
MARCH 22
Why did I offer to buy food and soap for a friend? I went into Hannafords which looked like the stores you see on the news that were picked clean.
I feel bad that my friend doesn't have a working computer because one can only watch so much tv. I decide to buy him a word search magazine to help keep him busy. Oddly, the magazine section is overflowing. Next to the magazines is a wire rack with books. Being a bibliophile, I have to look. Then, I take a step back, disgusted. Someone has placed a used tissue on top of the books. Why? Seriously just why? Even during normal times that's a health hazard.
I begin walking the aisles looking for food that will be easy to ship. As I head down the pasta aisle I hear a woman screaming into a phone. There are some boxes on the shelf, but more empty space than anything else. She is looking for a certain brand or shape but they didn't have it. She sounds like she is about to have a breakdown because she has to settle. I wanted to tell her she should be happy she has options but when she sees me coming, she throws herself against the shelf and claws for the remaining boxes while giving me an angry look. All over the store, when people see me glance at a shelf they are near, they grab as much as they can and run away. There really isn't a call for that. If you believe this is the end of days is that how you want to be remembered? "I saw a woman coming who probably has children but I snatched all the pasta shells even though seven boxes will last me a week and that family didn't get any food." If everyone just takes what they need, the stores would have enough to feed us all, like they always do.
My friend wanted Ivory soap but there wasn't any. The only bar soap he would probably use was Dove for Men. I hoped that would suffice.
He also wanted ginger. When I walked into the produce section, the usual rainbow array for fresh fruits and veggies greeted me like an old friend. No one was eating the fresh food but they were hoarding everything else.
I felt like the food selection I got wasn't great so I went to Shaw's. I should have just gone to Shaw's because other than there being no paper products, the store was as stocked as it ever has been. No one was panicking, no one was racing and grabbing food. I even got a rotisserie chicken for supper. I was able to get my friend a can of chicken breast, a can of tuna, as well as cans of green beans, corn, and baked beans. I got him chicken soup, two Lara bars, a pound of ginger, the soap, and a pouch of microwavable rice. I also sent him 7 Dove dark chocolate squares from my supply at home.
MARCH 23
We will not be getting BHP services for my son. His BHP may have been exposed. My daughter's BHP will be coming three times a week for four hours at a time.
I thought my daughter was doing ok with not going to school, but she was looking at a Pete the Cat book which showed Pete at school. She started echoing "Pete the Cat at school, Pete the Cat loves school." I told her teacher who will try to make videos of the staff reading.
I talked to my mom who said people are now hoarding ketchup. She was not looking for ketchup, she was just looking. Three grocery stores in her area have been cleaned out of their ketchup supply.
My son's teacher will begin posting videos online soon.
School in our town will begin hopefully on April 27. I could cry. It took 3 hours to get my son to do 15 minutes of work.
At 10 am I left to get the kid's food bags. I walked down my normally busy street and two cars passed me. No one else was walking. As I approached the van, the driver waved at me. When I was about twenty feet away, he got out and asked me how many meals I needed. I replied that I had 2 kids. At 10 feet away, he unlocked the back of the van. I had an insulated bag and he counted out four single cartons of milk, two breakfast bags, and two lunch bags and placed them into my insulated bag to avoid my hands. I said thank you and started walking home. He waited till I was about ten feet away, locked the back, and then went to the cab again. When I got home I sorted the bags. Cereal, grapes, broccoli, ham and cheese sandwiches, apples, graham cracker cookies. I froze the grapes and broccoli and stashed away the cereal and cookies for another day. We have some snacks already opened and the kids have been eating from a big container of yogurt for breakfast. I felt as if I lived in post WWII Europe and got my food rations for the day.
I went to Shaw's and got a pound of brown rice and quinoa. I also got a box of pasta and a can of tuna. I have kale and cheese sauce. We can have mac and cheese later this week. I am not going back to the store for a week, or until we need bananas, milk, and bread.
Maine now has over a hundred positive cases of covid-19. I don't want to be on the list of positive cases so we will continue to stay at home.
These are weird times.
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