I work at a university and on March 10, my institution told us to start preparing for the possibility of going to telework and moving all courses to online-only for "a couple of weeks" starting at the end of spring break (March 22). On the evening of March 11, my wife arrived back from a two-week work trip to South Africa and Finland (arriving from Helsinki via layover in London). The U.S. limited travel from Europe the next evening (I think). March 12, work told us that Friday, March 13, would be the last day on campus for any "non-essential" employees (including faculty not involved with patient care at our hospital) and those of us who could, would be teleworking. That was dramatically earlier than expected. I had been teleworking 2 days a week for several years, and my wife has preciously spent a lot of time working from home (her company also told them they had to telework pending further notice) so everything was already in place for us at home.
Growing up in Mississippi, I had experienced hurricanes, during my time "up north" I had experienced blizzards, and we all learned a bit during 9/11. As a result, I always keep a couple of week's worth of batteries, bottled water, toilet paper, etc., and well more than a month of canned, frozen, and non-perishable food in the house. About February 28, I began to get the feeling this was going to be worse than most people were expecting. I went to Sam's and stocked up on some more items (thank goodness I bothered to pick up liquid soap refills, tp, gloves, and hand sanitizer!) to get us through even longer. On March 12, I had my annual medical exam, and my wife went with me. Immediately afterwards, we went to Sam's, Target, the pharmacy, the pet store, the liquor store, and a local grocery store to pick up even more supplies/food (work made the the announcement via text while I was in my medical appointment). It was her last/only time out of the house for 2 weeks as she decided to self-isolate during that time since she had just gotten back from an international trip. Additionally, in the afternoon, the announcement was made that all public schools were going to close "for a couple of weeks" beginning on Monday. Apparently there was a run on grocery stores when that was announced, so we dodged a bullet on that one. I made a run out to the hardware store that Saturday to get a few things for projects to work on during our time at home. Never seen it so packed.
We felt we were prepared, and we isolated, but the following Friday, there was a rumor that the governor was going to order a shelter in place (with no trips out whatsoever). I ran out to the grocery store to get things like milk, meat, eggs, produce, bread, etc. It was my first time out, post-panic, and I was shocked at how out-of-stock the store was. Fortunately, I was able to get everything I wanted, or at least a reasonable substitution, and got out of there quickly. It was almost surreal. I also dropped by the liquor store to get a bottle of wine my wife wanted. The shelter in place was never ordered, but a few days later, they shut down non-essential businesses.
The next Thursday (March 26), the county waste management picked up my recylcing and yard waste, but inexplicably left my trash. I made a run to the dump, so decided to grab a couple of things from the pharmacy and grocery store while I was out. This was around the time that the rumors(?) were spreading about Ibuprofen not being recommended for COVID-19, and I generally don't use Tylenol. I was fortunate to find some (typically I buy generic, but it was sold out, so I got some brand name). I went to a different grocery store than I normally go to, and they had plenty of what we wanted.
I went out to pick up some prescriptions on March 28, but unfortunately they didn't have one of them in stock and didn't let me know beforehand, so I had to go back on March 30. Picked up some groceries while there each time. This past weekend, the screen on my wife's work phone stopped working, so she had to take it to a repair place. She was told it would take 2 hours, so went to Big Lots and Sam's before picking up her phone. I also subscibed to a CSA delivery service, so we will have a produce delivery once a week. I'm looking into a meat/dairy delivery service, as well. If I get that set up, we theoritically won't need to leave the house for months. We have shifted most of our shopping to online/delivery.
Other than what I've already mentioned, we've had food from local restaurants delivered, and we take the dog for walks several times a day. The kids have not been anywhere except for walks around the neighborhood. My wife and I have each been out once to pick up food from a restaurant. We have not been to get gas since March 12 (although I need to go get some soon for the mower). For my son's birthday party during this, we arranged to have all of his buddies join him for some online gaming (and sing happy birthday via game chat), my wife baked him a cake from scratch, and we had Amazon and an outdoor supply company deliver his presents.
Our state has issued a ban on leaving the house except for trips for essential reasons (grocery, pharmacy, restaurant pickup, etc.). Kids are now taking their schooling online and will not go back to the classrooms until at least May (school year ends mid-June). Same status for me at work, although I have leeway to continue teleworking if they don't go back. Our (university) students will not come back to campus this semester and administration is working out details for a virtual or delayed commencement. Sports games/practices, other meetings and events, etc. all postponed till at least May. Wife's work hasn't said when she may need to be back in the office. I'm almost 50 and other than having childhood asthma, don't think I am "at-risk". Between my wife and I, we plan on only going out once a week for groceries and maybe once a week to pickup food from a restaurant (only one of us goes out at a time). Delivery seems to be working well, so far, so maybe we won't even need to go out for that. I'm torn between wanting to completely isolate and have everything delivered vs. keeping some sense of normalcy by still going out to get groceries.
