Social distancing in America

When I first decided that I was going to stay at home and practice social distancing, it was a decision I made with complete clarity, and one that felt almost patriotic. I had been reading about the alarming aspects of the spread of the novel coronavirus and of course its high mortality rates. But, it was the news out of Italy that was most sobering. The news that the current medical infrastructure in any country would be, as it was in China’s and Northern Italy’s cases, unable to keep up with the number of infected people needing care at the height of the outbreak. That was eye opening and mindset changing for me. It meant that the most important thing that I could do and must do was to stay at home and reduce my exposure to people.

My first act as a social distancer was to inform my husband that I would not be going to the Lyric for the Beatles tribute band concert, but he was free to go if he wanted to go. He was very supportive. A little surprised, but supportive. He ended up giving the tickets away to someone in his office, who had a great time. My next efforts were not so clear cut or successful. I am a U.S. Masters Swimmer and belong to the Columbia Masters group. We swim mostly at the Swim Center. I knew that given the schedules of my “lane mates,” I would be swimming in a lane by myself at the next practice I would normally attend. Swimming is my sanity. So, how could I stay home when I figured I’d be social distanced enough…

Indoor Pool

Well, I was so conflicted it hurt. I did end up swimming. In a lane by myself. Social distance seemed to be achieved. But I did not feel great about being out. Next up, another opportunity to social distance. I attend a weekly meeting that is also not overcrowded and opportunities to space myself away from others are available. I ended up going there too. But, by now, I am racked with guilt. And shame. I was not being very good at sticking to my decision to stay at home. Then, just to put the icing on the cake, well-meaning folks were all over social media talking about still going to restaurants and making sure they lend a hand of support to small business. My husband came home from work and said, “Let’s grab something to eat out somewhere.” I knew that was not what I wanted to do, because that was not social distancing. It was  going into a group of people, who had been going about their business and not staying at home. So, the final test failure of the day was going to dinner at Chipotle. In my mind I was thinking that, “OK, this means that my 10-14 day isolation to make sure I’m not carrying the virus has now been set back the whole day, and I’m not being a very good citizen.”

Meanwhile, I am still reading reports of the spread of the virus and efforts being made overseas to stem that spread. It is very clear that the best way to do that is to keep people from being around other people. When I woke up the following morning I was in an uncluttered mental place with the staying at home decision. And, thankfully, it was one that was unencumbered by opportunities to undertake the bartering and justifying I had done the previous day. In fact, I was almost giddy at the opportunity to do my part, which still seems woefully small and insignificant in the face of the trials facing many Europeans and a small number of Americans now. However, I know from all the reading I’m doing it is not insignificant. It’s lifesaving and hopefully catastrophe-saving.

Rental Car Ratings – Our Assessments

 

We have become quite the experts on the rental car experience and what makes a worthwhile rental for saving money. We were on our fourth rental in two months. Our goal was to try to save some money on our frequent travel expenses. We found that it was more economical for us to rent cars than to drive our Saturn SUV, mostly due to the costs related to gas, which had gotten so expensive. So, for several of our Fall trips, we rented cars. We rented two Nissan Altimas and two Ford Fusions. Overall, we liked the Nissans better, but as one would expect, the higher the trim level, the better we liked it. We decided to keep track of our thoughts on the cars for future reference. We don't have immediate plans to buy a new car anytime soon, but we figured these trips were the equivalent of very long and in-depth test drives, because our trips run between 300 to 400 miles, mostly highway but each trip has some city driving.

Our ratings categories are: Comfort – Overall/Seat/Leg room

Gas mileage – Actual gas mileage

Ease of drive – Handling/Road Noise

Extras – Toys: SiriusXM/Heated seats

Ratings are one (awful) out of five (best) stars:

First car- Nissan Altima (newer, low mileage, higher quality/trim level)

Drove to Smithfield, RI.

Overall Comfort: 4 Stars

Seat comfort: 4.5 stars

Leg Room Comfort: 5 stars

Gas Mileage: 5+ stars An off the charts 41.3 miles to the gallon. Loved it!

Ease of Handling: 4 stars

Road Noise: 5 stars-Very quiet ride

Toys: No leather seats, no SiriusXM, and no heated seats.

Overall assessment: Loved the car and the ride; didn't need the toys mentioned above. Have sought to rent same vehicle for subsequent rentals.

Second Car: Ford Fusion (Cheaper, bare bones model)

Drove to Smithfield, RI

Overall Comfort: 2 stars

Seat Comfort: 1 star

Leg Room Comfort: 1 star

Gas Mileage: 4.5 stars; Got a respectable 38 miles per gallon.

Ease of Handling: 3 stars

Road Noise: 2 stars; so loud we couldn't converse over the road noise and how loud we had to put the radio to drown out the road noise.

Toys: It had SiriusXM, which was good; no Leather Seats; no heated seats.

Overall assessment: We were very uncomfortable in this vehicle. The only thing that saved this vehicle was its gas mileage. It started out with a weak 31.2 miles per gallon, but by the end the of the trip it bumped up to mid 30s. But, we said never again! Too uncomfortable for that long of a trip.

Third Car: Ford Fusion (Despite our requests for another low mileage Nissan Altima, we were left with another Fusion.) This time, it was a newer model with comfortable leather seats, so we decided to give Mr. Ford one moe chance.

Drove to Smithfield, RI

Overall Comfort: 3.5/4.0 stars

Seat Comfort: 5 stars- nice leather

Leg Room Comfort: 3.5 stars

Gas Mileage: 3 Stars – starting out at 31.2 miles per gallon- stayed about the same.

Ease of Handling: 4 stars

Road Noise: 4 stars- nice quiet ride.

Toys: Has SiriusXM; Has Leather Seats; Has heated seats; also has a ton of gadgety features that my husband is loving. Advanced SiriusXM with playback mode, among other things; has extra space in center console below dash, which is nice for holding our misc things (EZ Pass, USB Adapter for cigarette lighter); the car also has the USB and other plugs in the console. So, it's a pretty loaded model.

Overall Assessment: We enjoyed this rental.

 

Fourth car: Nissan Altima – Hurray! Back in a low mileage Altima with a higher trim level.

Drove to Mystic, CT, then onto Smithfield, RI.

Overall Comfort: 4 Stars

Seat Comfort: 3.5/4.0 Stars

Leg Room Comfort: 3.5/4.00

Gas Mileage: 5+ Stars; started at 44.5 and the lowest it went down was to 41.3. Totally sold on this car for great gas mileage. Neither Ford could touch it.

Ease of Handling: 4 stars

Road Noise: 3.5 Stars, louder than the last Fusion we had.

Toys: No SiriusXM. No leather seats, and no heated seats. Not many extras in this model, but we are sufficiently jazzed about the gas mileage that we are putting up with having to constantly change the radio station, as we travel in and out of the stations' ranges.

Overall assessment: pretty good, gas mileage exceptional.

 

 

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Taking Care of Family (Business)

Yesterday was the memorial service for John's Uncle Bob (his Dad's brother), who passed away in November. It was a nice little, family-only service at the chapel where his ashes are interred. Since Uncle Bob was in the army, there was a U.S. Armed Forces Honor Guard funeral flag ceremony at the beginning of the service. Hearing Taps and witnessing such a beautiful and solemn ceremony was very moving. Following the service we drove the short distance to the grave site, which was next to John's paternal grandparents. At least four sets of Great (and Great, Great) Grandparents are also buried in the “Polish Cemetery,” as it is sometimes called, somewhat neat to where we were. John had taken Alex to St. Stanislaus Catholic Cemetery on a previous visit when John was looking for the headstones of past generations to enhance his family history research. It was a very cold and snowy day, so we weren't able to walk around to visit any other grave sites. In fact, the (sort of) surprise snowstorm left about 3-4 inches of snow in the morning. It finally stopped while we were eating lunch. We had decided to eat at a popular burger restaurant, Grover's, before the memorial service. Luckily, the snow kept the crowds away and we were able to get in and eat right away. Normally, Grover's is so crowded that there is always some kind of wait for a table. My photos are from Grover's. @foodnetwork #dinersdriveinsanddives

 

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Family Travel and a Family Tree

Yesterday was a travel day. We took one of our biggest and best pieces of advice: Enjoy the journey! Take advantage of what you see along the way…So, yesterday, that meant we stopped at the office of the Livingston County Historian, in Mt. Morris, NY to do some family history research. One of the projects I am eager to pursue is to (hopefully) confirm my lineage back to a fellow who was in the Revolutionary War. One of the gentleman we are looking at as a possible link was born in Connecticut, but travelled to the Geneseo, NY area sometime around the early 1800's or so. We were able to pull some information about a brother of his in the hour or so we were with the assistant historian, but unfortunately nothing concrete. We are still searching for clues about where he ended up living and where he married, among other information we are hoping to uncover. So the search continues. The kids were pretty cooperative with our “travel break,” but it was interesting traveling with both adult, grown kids in the same car for a long period of time. First of all, it was a challenge to gather, pack and then, finally load, the big duffles and suitcases, bags of wrapped gifts, a snow board and extra warm clothes, boots, and miscellaneous outerwear. Getting all that to fit in the back of the SUV was interesting. Then, there were the requests to stop at Dunkin Donuts and Chick Fil A for breakfast, and of course we had to stop by the Post Office to mail my Christmas cards. So much for easy load and go. Once we finally got going, both kids fell asleep until we stopped for lunch. Afterwards, one was wide awake and chatty. She was not enjoying being in the car for so long. I had flashbacks to traveling with the kids when they were very young and hated long car rides. I made a mental note to make sure no one drinks coffee on the day of a long car ride.

 

 

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