Creative Ideas for a Meaningful Self-Isolation

White Tank Mountain Regional Park

On January 21, it was reported that the coronavirus ravaging China had arrived in the US, in Seattle, Washington. We were on our annual three-month all-inclusive vacation at a resort in Mazatlan, Mexico. Later, I got more worried since the most vulnerable seemed to be older people, like Bill and me, especially those with compromised immune systems. This post is how we progressed from cutting short our trip, going home to self-isolation, and finding ways to cope with the situation.

Going Home

Los Arcos on the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta

On March 11, when we were on our second of a two-week visit in Puerto Vallarta, the WHO officially declared COVID-19, the coronavirus disease, a pandemic. We did not want to cut short our stay so we did social distancing. We did not join tours, visited landmarks at non-peak times, went to outdoorsy places, and tried to keep the required healthy distance from the people we found in places.

When we got back to Mazatlan on March 14, Europe had become the new epicenter and panic-buying in the US had set in. We had twelve more scheduled days in Mexico but we decided to cut short our stay and canceled/rebooked our tours to La Noria, La Concordia, and San Carlos. Then we shopped for staples, including toilet paper, at Walmart and local grocery chain Soriana.  We were driving.

the Mariposa border, a ghost town

We left Mexico when the statistics were pretty grim, the US had become a new epicenter, and the Canadian and Mexican borders had been closed to non-essential travel. It took us two days, driving eight hours each day to get home. What was surprising was it took us no time at the Mariposa Border on both the Mexico and US sides. What was scary was that there was no inspection or testing done.  

But home is the best place to do self-isolation, not on a cruise ship out at sea or a hotel room in a foreign country. Now that we have completed our 14-day period of self-isolation, it has been decided for us that we have to extend it to the end of April. I wouldn’t say it is welcome news but it’s not a problem. There are a few things we have learned to do to make it a more meaningful one.

Having a Flagship Project

Whenever a phase in my life goes south, I always turn to some project to which I can focus my energy. The last time, my first travel book, Carolina: Cruising to an American, was born. This time it’s my second travel book. I started it last October but progress had stalled. Now my first draft is near completion and I hope to be on the editing phase by the end of the month. (No, the title will not be Cruising with Coronavirus). I call it a flagship project, one that consumes my passion. Find yours!

Creating Significant Engagement Time with Others

My three daughters and their husbands are all in “work from home” modes in San Francisco, Calgary, and Melbourne. With the help of Zoom, I have been able to conduct one-hour class sessions with my grandsons, ages 4-6, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I am so happy that I can help and that I am engaged with my family. They may not be as far-flung as mine but your physical engagement is limited just the same. On Easter Sunday, we hope to celebrate via HouseParty. And we have scheduled a neighborhood party through the same app. As a matter of fact, an appeal of mine for one lemon posted on the Viewpoint Facebook Group netted 18 lemons, 13 oranges, and seven grapefruits,   Let technology bridge the gap!

on Zoom with my grandkids

Keeping the Kitchen Alive with Substitutes 

Delivery from groceries and pick-ups from pharmacies have kept us from needing to go into stores. But, particularly for groceries, the stocks available are not the same so sometimes we cannot cook with the same ingredients. Consider my Spam Fried Rice. We did not have eggs. Guess what is the substitute for them? Vegans have known all along that it is scrambled tofu. It’s a good thing I had a non-refrigerated version from a Mexican local grocery chain. Scrambled tofu looks and tastes just like scrambled eggs. Believe that there’s always a substitute! 

Cleaning with Everywhere Solutions 

The time calls for disinfectant cleanliness but the panic-buying has created out-of-stock items big time.  When we shopped in Mexico, hand sanitizers and 60+% Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol bottles were nowhere to be found. But Bill found ethyl alcohol 70% so we made hand sanitizers together with aloe vera with it. He even found wipes and gloves in a medical supplies store at a hospital in Mexico. As far as face masks are concerned, Holiday Inn, our hotel on the way back home, gave us enough. Solutions are everywhere!

a gift from Holiday Inn

We had our house cleaned before our arrival. As soon as we arrived, we left our shoes outside the door and used disinfectant sprays on all commonly used surfaces to further protect us. Now we also launder linens and towels more often.  We also disinfect groceries outside before taking them in. It is good we are fully supplied with toilet paper, paper towels, and tissue paper because the shelves in Mexico were full of them, as well as other cleaning supplies like Chlorox and Lysol.

at Walmart in Mazzatlan

Keeping Ourselves Renewed

My writing assignments have increased and I am still maintaining my blog while Bill reads e-books and listens to music a lot when he is not working on our financials. As far as recreation is concerned, there are many options for entertainment available for my favorite pastime of watching movies. So, we are friends with Netflix and TV every night. As a matter of fact, we have allowed ourselves the luxury of one Redbox on Demand once a week when we imagine we are in a theater with popcorn!

at the Estrella Mountain Regional Park

But the best idea is this. We have considered our car an extension of our home. We disinfect it, too. So we have created a list of places where we can go and breathe the good fresh air and see the desert in color. Spring is the best time to be here. It's the season when the palo verde trees turn blazing yellow, poppies grow wild, and the cacti bloom. If we don’t see people on the trails, we go down and walk a little. If not, we just continue driving. The operative principle is to distance ourselves from others, but not from nature.  We are grateful that Arizona has not closed its state parks.

We have canceled our trips in April but are still holding on to our bookings from July to September. Even if they all fall through, we will not be bothered. Self-isolation is a meaningful activity not only because it helps flatten the curve for our community and the world but because it gives us meaning for our own lives. Besides, it may be a significant inflection point for a new normal of how we live.

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