Angelina's Garden

Slice of Life 2020: Day 9

Here’s one to lighten it up a bit…

A doctor told his patient, “I’m going to have to quarantine you and feed you bologna and cheese because you have a contagious disease.”

“That’s terrible!” said the distraught young man. “I don’t know if I can handle the isolation and why do I have to be on a bologna and cheese diet?”

The doctor responded, “Its not exactly a diet. It’s just the only food that will fit under the door.”

My husband suggested I explore the word quarantine for a slice. Since we’re knee deep in quarantine talk around here, I thought I’d give it a try.

Quarantine is a state or period of isolation in order to make sure a person or animal is healthy or safe before being allowed to enter into the general population of a country or region.

As a young girl my first encounter with being quarantined happened aboard my family’s sailboat in the Bahamas. We’d just spent 24 hours pitching back and forth in the Atlantic Ocean, sailing from Miami to Bimini in a 22 foot sailboat. Right when we docked, the Customs Agent said we must continue to stay aboard until our vessel could be inspected and our papers reviewed. It seemed like an eternity, but finally the next morning our vessel was inspected and we were given the thumbs up to come ashore.

On a different note…

On the radio today, the Governor of Georgia announced that they were preparing small trailers at a state park to house infected persons needing quarantine. I thought, “Boy, that sounds interesting…spending two weeks in a make shift trailer at a remote state park surrounded by sick people.”

I think I’d rather be quarantined aboard a small sailboat with my family than in a random state park.

Self-quarantining is another popular topic. There is talk here of what will happen if everything has to shut down and we all get locked in our homes. That’s what’s happening in Italy right now. I’ve been slowing preparing mentally and physically for this. I’m making sure we have toilet paper and beer. Thankfully we have chickens! Maybe its time to plant the cool season garden.

Anyway, we strive to keep it light! We’ve been laughing at the clever ways people are trying to make a buck off this current scare.

A wine shop here ran an add in the paper that said something like, “Women between the ages of 35 – 60 must be isolated without children or husbands. XYZ Wine shop is specially designed to accommodate women who must be quarantined and kept away from distracted children, noisy kitchens and overbearing bosses. Let us help you with your isolation needs.”

I thought that was pretty creative.

Today, I drank some stress-free tea, did a yoga stretch and turned off the television to combat the anxiety that does seem to crop up here and there when I think too long about it all. We continue to pray that this madness will end soon.

I pray you are all finding ways to cope during these days of uncertainty.