It's been one month since my last day at work. Partial pay from my job has run out - I will pick up my last check tomorrow - and today I filed a claim for Unemployment Compensation Benefits. The online system was so overloaded that I had to come back to my computer and log in four times, twice in the morning and twice in the early evening, before the site finally came up and I could complete my claim. I should be getting $600/week in addition to my regular weekly benefit, plus the $1200 stimulus payment, at least twice what I've been earning working irregular retail hours. I'll believe it when the payments clear my bank.
I'd like to go travelling, on some day trips at least, but everything is cancelled, even the perennial Skagit Tulip Festival, and the Ski to Sea Race in May. About four days a week I get out for a bike ride, to the Post Office in Bellingham at least, about a 24 mile round-trip, and then I get out for 20-40 mile local sight-seeing rides. Normally I would stop for coffee and pastry but even Starbucks is closed, except for drive-through. Without a car I can only buy as much as I can carry on foot (or in panniers) so I still walk to the grocery store several times a week, wearing a scarf around my face to block my breath. I used to walk out to the store often after dinner if I was craving chips, sweets or ice cream, but then I'd have to buy bread or milk or nutritious green vegetables, too, so the cashier wouldn't think I'd come in just for junk food. Now I've foregone those binges, and with all the bike rides, I'm losing my winter weight pretty quickly.So I've been reading a lot, and studying French again, a bit. I spend far too much time browsing randomly online, mostly Facebook, Instagram and my Google news feed. Sometimes I start to get irritable and take it personally when people make comments about not keeping an absolute quarantine. This isn't really, literally a "lockdown" or "shelter in place" situation, those terms have particular meanings that don't apply now, though I suppose things are more dire in larger cities with more dense populations. Around here it's not hard to go out and ramble around for hours and just see cows, no people.
I've been thinking about what is essential, and whether this enforced austerity will make a long-term difference in what people buy and consume and how they spend their time. I suppose if the economy doesn't bounce back immediately we will be forced to change.
My parents grew up in small farm towns during the Depression and WWII years, and I inherited their pessimism and frugality (before I inherited Mom's retirement accounts). I grew up during Boeing's Boom & Bust cycles, the Arab Oil Embargo, the S&L crisis . . . one thing after another every decade. I still feel fairly secure about my future, but when I try to look beyond the time when the immediate stimulus money runs out - anything can happen.
