Pandemic Times April 8, 2020 - Week #4



As we went into Week #4 of Stay at Home guidelines in Ottawa, I wanted to make note of things as they were changing.  I had started at the end of February tracking daily stats of Confirmed cases of Covid 19 and deaths around the world in a spreadsheet.  But there were other things that were changing so fast, I wanted to capture it bullet journal entry style.  I started this on the 4th week of working from home.  Here are my notes from that week:

  • Going on week #4 of working from home.
  • I have been tracking worldwide infection and death rates since Feb 26.  Watching exponential growth happen in real-time is unreal.
  • Kaitlin did her final exam of her nursing education yesterday.  She did it from her laptop at home, with a proctor verifying her ID and a camera recording her while she wrote the exam. 
  • Yesterday was Richard's mom's birthday. Most of the family (except Will and Cindy) joined a Zoom chat to light a candle and sing happy birthday to Ninh Ninh / Poh Poh



  • The nursing home where my Grandmother is (Athens, On) has a case of COVID-19.
  • We have been working on a 2000 piece puzzle, because it is the ONLY puzzle we own, for a little over a week now.  It is going slow, but we are making progress every day.  And by 'we', I mostly mean Kaitlin and Faith with some occasional assistance from Nathan and Lobban.  I sometimes sort pieces by colour.



  • Faith is knitting a comfort blanket for Bruyere Hospital (for palliative care patients). We followed a very simple, easy pattern where you just straight knit baby blanket wool.  I ordered the wool and knitting needles from Michaels online and then two days later did a curbside pickup.
  • People over 70 have been advised to not leave their homes so Kaitlin and Lobban picked up groceries for my parents and will deliver them, along with my Dad's prescription. They are on their way to SF now. 
  • There is no yeast or bread in the grocery stores.  (Along with toilet paper and other items that are difficult to find.)
  • The girls cut Richard's hair the other night because non-essential services like barbers are currently closed. They did a decent job. 
  •  We bathed the dog in the garage yesterday, because the Dog bath at the pet store is currently closed.
  • We have not eaten out or bought take-out for at least a month now. 
  • We spent about $2000 stocking up in groceries in the month of March.
  • Maisie is very happy to have everyone at home and gets to come upstairs to say Hi to those of us working from home a couple of times a day.  It is a fun game for her. 
  • Kids are writing messages in chalk on their driveways and I even found some painted rocks on the path down the street.






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