Covid-19/Coronavirus. My story

I suffer from COPD. (Chronic Obsructive Pulminory Disease). It is kept under control by medication: pills and inhalers. I have not yet qreceived a letter from the National Health Service advising me to go into hibernation for twelve weeks, but I am keeping clear of others.
This is our daily routine:

Normally once per day my wife and I drive to the stable yard about a mile away to feed and check the two horses for which she is responsible. We take the opportunity to exercise our labrador/collie dog in the currently unused paddocks, which are enclosed and inaccessible to the public. We are lucky enough to have about five acres to play with.

We may detour on the way home to her office to collect post, and then she returns to work in our home “office” (originally set up when I worked there for around 15 years).

Once per day I walk the dog and occasionally visit the local Tesco for groceries. I have found a secondary use for “dog-poo” bags as a means to avoid touching the stock or anything else in the shop. They are far cheaper than latex gloves and easier to use. Tesco have set up plastic screens in front of the tills and floor markings for guidance.

i would like to play tribute to the gentleman In our local Tesco this evening who, while everyone else waited on the “stand here” two-metre spacing indicators, decided to step into the middle of the queue. Everyone “hrrmmph”ed and stepped back one space. If I had a 2-metre long stick available I would gladly have twatted the idiot.

As home delivery services from supermarkets are currently not generally available, we are still doing a weekly shop, with precautions, and shopping for the owners of the stable yard who are isolating themselves at home for medical reasons.

In the meantime my garden is looking far tidier than usual. I have a composter on order now that the council have closed the tips and halted “green waste” collections. Yesterday I practiced four hours of “self-isolation” with my dog while I drove the 4×4 up and down the paddocks with a chain harrow attached.

In case either of us at home starts to show symptoms of the virus I am preparing to move into the caravan and man-cave complex in the garden for the duration.

Keep well, stay safe.