It rhymes with Ovid
March 15, 2020
So by now you’re very much familiar (hopefully not too intimately) with COVID-19 and the whole coronavirus thing. This is obviously a serious situation, and a very trying time for people who are themselves part of a risk group or have loved ones at risk. For me as a healthy young(ish) person it’s more a case of staying at home to avoid passing the infection around. I’m currently waiting for the surely forthcoming news of Salute 2020 being cancelled, and I assume that our long-awaited holiday trip to London is off the cards too, what with travel bans and all. Things at work have been disappointing too, with several major seminars and conferences cancelled after a lot of work put into them. Of course these are minor issues compared to being afraid for your life, but it doesn’t really help.
Despite all the risk, there are some things that are making things more palatable: both of us working from home currently means a lot more family time, and cancelled kung fu, yoga and dance classes mean plenty more free evenings. We don’t have kids, so family time is very relaxing. The cats are happy that we’re home all the time, too.
On the hobby front more free time obviously means more time for everything fun-without-leaving-the-house. Personally, I’m looking forward to doing a lot more painting than usual, tackling my Steam backlog of unplayed digital games (I started with Yes, Your Grace yesterday, highly recommended!) and shortening my reading queue too. Might as well make the most of this sudden influx of time! I have a few recently finished Black Scorpion miniatures that I’ll post about soon.
Despite the global hardships, I can’t shake a feeling of a kind of fascination with the situation. Yes, it is a catastrophe in many ways, and I definitely don’t want to make light of it. But as I wrote in literally the first post of this blog, back in 2009:
I’ve always been fascinated (in a very sane, rational and normal sense) by catastrophes, what-if fantasies, tales of desperate struggle and the end of the world. The sinking of Titanic, alternative history, Helm’s deep, Alamo, Chernobyl, The Book of Revelation, global epidemics, thermonuclear war…you name it. The zombie genre combines all of this. Simple as that.
Obviously and luckily this isn’t the apocalypse and make no mistake – I hope we clear this thing as quickly as possible with as little tragedy as possible. There’s still something oddly unreal about this situation and watching it develop. It’s not fun, it’s not cool, but it’s interesting.
I don’t usually discuss topical, non-hobby events on the blog, and don’t really intend to. However, during the past years a wonderful micro community has sprung up around miniature blogging, and I’m frankly quite interested in how you lot are doing in your corner of the world. Stay safe, and keep painting and posting hobby stuff, we all need the entertainment!
Dawn of the Lead 
Thanks Mikko – hope you stay safe yourself. Today we did a bit of a stocktake, made some purchases of food that won’t spoil quickly, and decided what to do if different family members get sick – who sleeps where – who cares for who, that sort of thing. Workwise I have three public events to attend on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday – so by Thursday I may be self-isolating, who knows!
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Thanks Dave! Where are you located? Here in Finland the official recommendation is already to avoid public gatherings when possible, so with the university closed down we’ve been advised to work from home.
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I’m in Australia, where public gatherings over 500 are now banned, but schools remain open for now. Universities are planning to take classes online but haven’t completely done so yet.
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Just come back from a game of rugby where we have tried to drown the virus in alcohol, but I’m not sure if that advice was correct lol. Here in the UK we are like the picture above and not particularly worried. Yes the place is heading towards shut down but I live out in the countryside where to be honest I’m more worried heavy rain flooding the local river. Hope everybody is ok and look after the elderly as they seem to be the people at risk.
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Thanks for the comment TMW! Wouldn’t mind the countryside at the moment tbh – we’ve been thinking of locating to a British village one day 😀
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Mikko! Pets seem to be the beneficiaries of people working from home (I’m in the UK), and our two dogs have definitely made it clear that they get the prime locations around the house and I have to make do! On the plus side, wargaming, reading and painting minis are hobbies that lend themselves to being indoors. 🙂
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Cheers John! Yeah, this time is definitely ace for all these indoor pursuits. Benefits of geekdom for sure.
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Good thoughts. Hard to know what is going on in Australia. People aren’t worried but the government is taking it seriously. But they haven’t fully banned travel yet which is annoying. Our office has basically told everyone to work in isolation and just use phone/internet for all colleague and client contact.
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Thanks Warburton! Yeah, first full working at home week starting here as I write this. Our traditional office brunch is done via FB chat and photos 😀
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Living in the rural SE part of the US, we’re already socially isolated – We are not bible thumpers, closest family is 500 miles away and the boys are adults, so while I worry about my elderly mother and in-laws it did find myself opting out of the group bicycle ride this Saturday to solo cycle and am spending more time working on crafts. The run on paper products and hand sanitizers is a quirky American thing.
For a country that like to tout itself as “Number 1”, we are so far behind the rest of the world on this COVID-19 outbreak, I’m really starting to wonder if the producers of “The Walking Dead” really did pick the right spot to film (Senoia, Georgia is only 40-miles north east of where I live!).
For now, it’s minimize contact with as many people as possible and stay healthy. Keep painting and don’t touch your face!
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Good to hear from you Eric! You’re not alone on toilet paper and hand sanitizer hoarding, unfortunately, as we have that in Finland as well – even though paper products are one of our main exports. If there’s one country likely to NOT run out of toilet paper…
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The toilet paper thing is really strange. My local supermarket has been cleaned out of the stuff but the tissue section is full of stock. Same with the hand sanitiser stuff ,all gone but bars of soap galore in the next aisle.
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I’m up in Massachusetts and we now have a ban on meetings larger than 10 people. Restaurants and bars are closed, and only drive-through restaurants are open. I hope people remember that this started in China, and that somehow they are held accountable for starting this mess. or at least not acting responsibly when it did hit. Stay safe.
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Good to hear Mark, pretty similar situation here in Finland! So far I think China has been handling the situation well, all things considered. They did initiate massive shutdowns early on, but at that point stuff was already out of control. I guess this is a Jurassic Park kind of thing – life finds a way.
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