Today was our weekly Costco trip. Time to grab six more salad packs and some Clorox wipes for the kitchen. And of course, whatever else looked impossible to pass up!

The parking lot was packed, as usual, but a car pulled out as we arrived, gifting us with front row parking. I didn’t think much about it, as a hustle and bustle at Costco is normal, right?

Upon entering the outer area of Costco, the first thing I noticed was that there were very few carts left to grab, though it was only the middle of Thursday morning. Upon entering the store, we were greeted by a huge stand filled with bottles of Airborne immune boosting pills, right next to thermometers that can tell your temperature just by a quick pass on the forehead. That’s odd, I thought. Where are the fancy EarPods!?

Off to the salad department, and all was well. Nobody was rushing or trying to get to the fresh cucumbers before the next guy. But there was a weird hush to the store….as in, it was super busy, but super quiet, punctuated only by store guys directing trolley traffic to their proper lanes. Looking to the checkout area, it was incredible…scores of people, with carts packed high, in lines stretching down the aisles.

Although everyone was being super polite, trying to zigzag through the maze of others getting their stuff, you could taste the tension. Every person was intentional and focused. No chit chat to be heard. And no special old ladies handing out tuna on crackers. And so we continued towards where I thought the Clorox wipes would be: And they weren’t there. Instead, three store personnel were standing together, saying loudly and repeatedly, “There is no bleach. There is nothing with the words Clorox or Lysol available in our store. But there is plenty of water!” And that was true; rounding the corner to the back aisle, there were stacks and stacks of water. I thought about how we can live with basically nothing, if we have water, and promptly selected two packs of 40 bottles for my cart.

Going to the pharmacy to get some Advil Cold & Sinus for our colds, Phillip (my better half) was told, “The system is down and without it we cannot sell that product to you.” Hmmm… the one medicine that helps us get through a cold feeling half decent isn’t available even though it is sitting right there on the shelf? Nope. The system to read his driver’s license wasn’t working.

So we finished up our shopping, left the store, and I decided to get the cleaning products and toilet paper we didn’t see there in the lovely bottomless pit called Amazon Prime. Or so that was the plan.

What the hell? Pack after multi-pack after teeny-tiny pack was “not available,” except for this one: 18 Rolls of Toilet Paper for over three hundred dollars. Now, I’m not ignorant and out of the loop completely. Of course I know there is an outbreak of the Coronavirus. I’ve heard radio hosts teasing about a toilet paper shortage. But I guess I thought they were hyperbolizing the situation, dramatizing things past the truth. Boy was I wrong.

Today, March 12, 2020, in our supposedly modern society, Amazon and Walmart are sold out of Clorox wipes and toilet paper, unless you want to be jacked on Ebay for 10x the value of the product. It’s insane! And apparently I just missed my call to riches because while staying home, peaceful, and not freaking out about the ten people in Nebraska with this virus, others went shopping for necessities and now are making a killing by selling black-market-style and are getting away with it because they are preying on others’ fear.

Thank goodness I shop regularly and have a couple packs of toilet paper under the sink. I’m not forced (yet) to deal with unscrupulous people. I was out and about because we wanted to do our normal shopping! But who knows what normal is or will be for a while. Entire countries are shutting their borders and universities and schools are turning to 100% online instruction. The NBA games have no people in the stadiums and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has announced that the annual Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments have been canceled due to coronavirus concerns.

US stocks recorded their worst day since the 1987 crash Thursday, on rising fears about the coronavirus pandemic, and New York City, along with the city of Miami Beach, has declared a state of emergency. Tom Hanks and his wife just announced they are under quarantine after testing positive for the virus, and in Colorado, the drive through lanes for getting tested in your car are having to be shut down, due to the high volume of people wanting to be tested.

My daughter is hoping her boards exam for optometry school will still take place on Tuesday, but is unsure, as the University of Houston just announced their closure. As an end-of-junior-year doctoral student, she normally spends half of every day doing clinical work to hone her craft. Yet now she’s told to stay off campus, losing those valuable opportunities to interact with the public over a wide variety of eye problems. Other university students are facing the dilemma of where to go when being told to leave campus, as the campus IS their home. Foreign students on an F1 Visa are required to attend classes in person, not online; what does this situation do to their lives?

Personally, I’m not freaking out about the coronavirus. I get it. It’s deadly for certain populations. My own mother is in an assisted living facility in the state of Washington, near Seattle. She’s not allowed to leave. And we’re not allowed to visit her. My 80-year-old mother-in-law does volunteer work in a hospital setting and could be exposed, become ill, and die. So, I don’t take this lightly. But I feel that this situation is out of control in people’s minds. More people are dying from cancer and the flu than from this virus. So why aren’t we upset about that? Why is the panic button going off now?

Since societal decisions are being made in uncharted territory in my adult lifetime; I’m going to continue watching closely to see where this all leads. Hopefully the illness runs its course and settles down. Hopefully the financial industry doesn’t completely crash in the wake of the world’s freak-out mindset. In the meanwhile, I’m glad I have some Charmin under our bathroom sink and am going to watch Happily Ever After on Hulu.