Whose Your Hero?

There is a website that a mortgage company put up called #EVERYONEKNOWSAHERO . 

They are asking the public to nominate and upload a photo of someone who is a hero in their life and hopefully they will feature your hero on the site. 

Last week I uploaded a photo of mine. He's my nephew Eric who is a police officer in a large city in America and he was featured the next day! I am so proud of him.

Eric is my hero in so many different ways. Since he was a little child he has always had a heart for others as big as the outdoors. There is nothing he wouldn't do for you if it is in his ability to do so. 

He loves his family and he's always there for us. He's an example to all of us and to strangers as you can see from the photo above. 

To simply say I love him would be an understatement. The love I feel for my Eric, although I did not give birth to him is as strong for him as if I had. He is a huge piece of my heart and he always will be.

I love you Eric and yes, you are my hero! 

Weekend Wrap Up

My weekend was full. Saturday morning I went to the local farmers market which was finally able to open. Usually they open around April first and end on October first. This year because of the coronavirus hysteria they didn't open until yesterday. I got there around eight-thirty AM and it was already jam packed with people. It was good to see the vendors and the people again. 

I bought some really beautiful, locally grown beets, strawberries and blueberries. I also purchased two soy wax candles that smell just like a real peach from a girl who is there every year as you can see in the photo above. She's a bit expensive but I have found her candles to the best around. 

After coming home I washed all the produce and then made some juice smoothies to have for the next few days. 

The rest of the day was spent doing household chores and the like. At night I watched a documentary on the destruction of the farming soil in America by big commercial farming. Was very enlightening to me. 

Sunday is the Lords Day and I try very hard every Sunday to make it a day of rest, prayer and spiritual reading. Unfortunately, Mass is still unavailable to me so I began the day attending Mass as much as I could via live stream on the internet. It's not the same but it's all I have at the moment. Afterwards, I made some coffee, gave the dogs their breakfast and then sat at the dining room table talking with my Mr for a while. He then decided he was going to go in garden for a bit. We are re-arranging things a little bit in there.

I spent the rest of the morning reading a book I've been wanting to get too for some time.

I also took a decent nap this afternoon and now, I have a beef roast in the oven for dinner, potatoes cooking on the stove top. I will do the dishes and then relax for the rest of the evening. 

I hope you had a good weekend and have a good week ahead. Talk with you soon! 

Corona Diaries 5-20-2020

It's been a while since I've given an update in my Corona Virus diaries.

So where am I today in all this now that it's the middle of May?... To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure. As is now and was before, there is still so much conflicting information, it's all been turned into a political game so you have no idea who is telling the truth about this thing and who isn't..

Lot's of doctors and nurses have come out on social media over the last few weeks saying we are being lied to and telling us what they are seeing first hand. Lots of people who we 'thought' we could trust have been discredited in a big way, yet, main stream media along with federal, state and local governments are still playing the hype card.

Certain big box stores are requiring shoppers to wear masks or they aren't letting you in, our Constitutional Rights have been spit on, stepped on and trampled on and no one is doing anything about it. People who wear masks are shaming and fighting with others in public who don't, people are spying on others and reporting them to authorities (yes it does sound like Nazi Germany, you would be correct in that thought.).

So where am I an in all of this.. I am pretty much the same as I always have been and maybe just a bit more cautious but not for myself, it's for my Mr.  He's sixty - two years old and he does have underlying health conditions that are nothing to shake a stick at. So we have not been going out at much but we will go out and run errands when we have too. We do not wear masks,we do not wear gloves. We do wash our hands when we come home, change our clothes and take our shoes off at the door. I do try and keep the inside of the car wiped down and I do try and clean all door handles, knobs and electronics often, more often than I used to.

But, my real position with all this is, I'm with God. Do I believe that God will do what I want Him too? No, I believe He will do what is best for us. We are all going to die one day, none of us can get away from that. Do I want to die yet or my husband? Of course not but, that's not in our hands. That's in His hands. He decides the time, the day and the why. I have put my faith in Him and have as best I can each day to accept whatever He decides. We live like we always did. For that day and we don't worry about the next.

How are you? Where are you in all this? 

Happenings On The Homestead

Well hello! It's been a bit since I have had time or energy to sit down and write a blog post for you all. So let me bring you all up to date with whats been happening on what I like to call our little homestead..

Summer has arrived in my part of South Carolina and with spring and summer, it's sort of a mixed bag here in the South as far as temperatures go until about the middle of May, so with these seasons come planting time. And planting we have been. We've also done some home repairs which also took a bit of our time. In this post I would like to share with you what we have planted so far. I say so far because I have more things I want to grow we just haven't gotten them in yet. I know people up north and up in the North West the growing season can be quite short but here in the South where I am our planting and growing season begins after the last frost which is usually the end of April and we can go all the way to the end of October and even to December depending on how hot it will be that year.
I have quite a few more things I want to do on our property this summer and when they are finished I will share them with you also. So without further ado let me get to showing you what we have thus far..

The tomatoes have begun to produce fruit.

The Sweet Banana Peppers too..

And the Crooked Neck Squash as well.

This here are onions that I experimented with and it's working! I took two sweet yellow onions that I had bought from the store, I cut the bottoms off where the root would have been and planted them just to see if they would grow and low and behold they are!

I did the same thing with a few organic carrots I also bought from the store and today I noticed they are growing!

We've also been growing and drying fresh herbs that we dehydrate on our small dehydrator. Here we have Basil, Rosemary, Lemon Thyme and Cilantro.

Sunflowers are my most favorite flowers. They just look like such a happy flower and they make me smile when I see them. A sweet friend of mine bought me some for my birthday back in April and then I bought another container and my Mr planted them. Here they are looking so happy and bright...

Even our Hydrangea bushes are feeling happy and putting out the most beautiful blooms!

Now you see why I haven't been around. Been happy to be outside and working on our land and food.
I hope you enjoyed seeing what we've been up too and I promise I will share with you soon what all else is happening.
Until then.......

Turning Fifty During A Pandemic

I would have never thought that I would see a birthday I would be celebrating or not celebrating during a worldwide pandemic but, there I was.

Fifty is a big birthday. I had large plans of taking a train up to see my family in New Jersey for my birthday this year but Coronavirus put and end to that. Instead I found myself staying home doing, well, not much of anything.

Instead I just took the day off. I sat out on my deck in the sun for a while, I finished a book I had been reading for way too long and it was for the most part a very boring, quiet day.
I did do some reflecting on my life now that I have reached the age of fifty. Some of it good, some of it not so good. I was and am grateful that God has allowed me to see fifty as my father didn't get to see thirty six nor have many friends gotten to see forty so I do know how blessed I am.  But reflecting for me isn't always a good thing.

For me, it tends to lead to looking backwards and feelings of sadness. On the flip side of my gratefulness my sadness is,  I miss my parents, I miss friends and family, there are things I wish I had done, things I wish I had never done. I think for a lot of people as we age we begin to look towards the end of our life. That may sound morbid to some but I am more closer to the end than the beginning and I know this. For me, that is bittersweet. Maybe for others too.
The one huge bright spot in my day was hearing from my kids. I call them my kids but they are really my nephews and my niece. Why do I call them my kids? Because I was just a kid when they were born and for most of the formative years in their lives I was very hands on in helping to raise them and teach them and love them. So in my heart, I may not have given birth to them but I love them just as any mother loves her children.

They aren't children anymore and in fact one of them has children of their own but as any parent will tell you, it doesn't matter how old your children get, they will always be your babies.  Those three kids have always been my heart, the lights in my life and they always will be no matter how old they or I get. To get phone calls from all three of them truly made what started out as a kind of let down, boring and in some ways sad day, to a good day. All it takes is to talk to one of them and I am instantly feeling better about life in general.

When we are able we will celebrate and until then I will be thankful to God for all He has and does give me and look forward to brighter days.

Corona Diaries 4-19-2020

Yes, I took some time off from the blog. I've actually been quite busy here and there over the last few weeks.
To begin with I put in another small garden this year which I swore after last years fiasco I wasn't going to do but times being what they are at the moment I thought it might be a good idea to try again and so, I did.

I went for another container garden. I did the same last year only then I used these garden bags I had gotten off Amazon which had rave reviews for planting both vegetables and flowers in. I guess they worked and the failure of the garden was most likely my own fault. The black plastic you see in the photo from this years garden is actually what you should use. It's called WeedStop and it's not a plastic but a mesh type material that has teeny tiny holes in it for drainage.

Last year the first mistake I made was using a heavy duty plastic with no holes in it. While the garden bags did drain well the water had no where to go so I believe I ended up with root rot in some of my plants. The pots you see there now all have had holes drilled in them so between the holes in the pots and the tiny holes in the weed cloth the garden drains nicely and nothing is sitting in water.
The second mistake I made last year was watering to much. I had read that container plants need much more water than if you had planted straight into the earth. I was always worried they wouldn't have enough water so I was watering every day sometimes twice a day and I believe it was too much.
This year I will not water that much and I've learned about how to tell if your plants are not getting enough water. So between learning that I watered too much and learning the signs of over watering I will keep a better eye on my garden this year.
You can't see it in the photo but off to the side I planted some squash and bush beans directly into the ground as sort of a test. We do not have the best soil but I am interested in seeing how those three small plants will do. I will keep you updated.

The garden wasn't the only project we worked on. We also had a lot of things to clean up in our back yard. Just lots of stuff that needed to be put in the shed, two wood piles that needed to be cleaned up and moved, my deck had stuff that also needed to be cleaned off like, ladders, and misc outdoor tools that never made their way back into the tool shed.

We bought a new deck umbrella for this year. We got one of those huge umbrellas that stand on their own and open up to ten feet across so I also rearranged the deck and now it looks very nice and it's a pleasure to sit out there. It's not the best of everything but it's good enough for us. I do not have a photo at the moment but I will share a photo of the deck when I can.
If you're not following me on Instagram or Facebook then you should. :)

Corona Diaries 4-4-2020

Today is Saturday April 4th 2020 and for the most part it's been a quiet day.

I left the house this morning at seven - thirty am to head over to our local Walgreens to pick up one of the prescriptions my husbands doctor had called him in on Friday that the pharmacy was able to fill.  When I returned home I did my usual cleaning up of the kitchen and straightening of the house. That didn't take too long and so I was finally able to get to my house plants that have been seriously needing my attention for a few weeks now.

I watered them all and gave my spider plant that is over twenty five years old a good bath and hair cut as I call it. I snip off all the dead ends and spruce him up a bit. Yes I call the plant a him and sometimes I even talk to him. I remember scientists said it's good to talk to your plants because they can hear you and respond. Now I don't know if that's true but I figure it can't hurt. This plant has been with me since approximately 1992. My mom, God rest her soul made it for me when I moved into my apartment after being married and it has traveled with me through three different houses and one state move. He's resilient I will say that.

Tonight I had to put Alvin, that's my twenty two pound chi-mix into the sink and give him a bath. Every year when it begins to get warm here he goes through an itching phase. Neither myself nor his vets can figure it out. Tonight I gave him a benedryl and a warm bath with a medicated shampoo made for itching. For now it seems to have helped him some so he can rest. I may have no choice but to take him to the vet this week and have him get a steroid shot.
Speaking of leaving the house. My state does not have a stay in place order in effect as of now. I don't know how I feel about those orders either but I will say, as I am sitting here tonight I can physically see why some states are enforcing them. As I look out my window I can see the neighbors across the street are having yet another soccer game on their property. This goes on every weekend in the warm months. They had a weekend long party last weekend. These people simply do not believe that staying away from others to stop the spread of Coronavirus applies to them and they aren't the only ones.

Our public beach access was closed last week for the same reason. People, spring breakers, getting together in droves on the beach. Yesterday I had to go to the store to pick up the items the doctor recommended my husband have. That grocery store was packed with people. All those people needed to go out for "essential items"? I drove past Lowes and the parking lot was packed with people, Walmart was packed with people, Dollar stores, Target etc.  People are not listening.
Part of the problem in my state of South Carolina is that we are not testing nearly enough so for now in my county and state the positive cases and death rate is low. People I guess are taking a false sense of security in that. If and when we do begin testing on a massive scale I am afraid both cases and deaths are going to explode here. It doesn't help that we have a governor who seems to be living in his own little bubble. He seems to think we are a "unique kind of people here in South Carolina"(his words not mine)  I have no idea what in the hell he's even talking about and neither does mostly anyone else.

What on earth would make us so unique? Nothing. I've been sick many years and I know first hand, illness of any kind does not discriminate.. It doesn't care about your race, gender, financial status, nothing. So what this man is talking about, I haven't a clue.
I know for us I am trying my best to be at home as much as possible. I do have to go out because I have a husband who needs things because of his health, me as well and I have five dogs who also need things for their health. I believe these are essential reasons for leaving the house. Anything else? Not so much

Corona Diaries 4-3-2020

Well, again.... it's been a day.. As per usual nothing went as expected. I really need to listen to that old saying because it's so true... Men plan and God laughs.

My morning began with me knowing I had to go out to the bank, to Walgreen's to pick up prescriptions for my husband and to the drive up at the vet to get their medication. All essential outings. I sat down with my coffee at the dining room table and also mapped out how many pairs of gloves I'd need, masks, and wipes. How to handle the bags, how to wash everything when I got inside etc.

After running those three errands, I came home and did all the 'things' to disinfect. I was kind of tired so was getting ready to sit down for a while when my husband said, " I don't feel well". You can imagine my thoughts because of all that is going on. He said his lungs hurt and were burning when he breathes in, he has the chills and he feels run down.

First thing I did was call our local health department line to see what my next move was. I was told to call my doctor which I did. At twelve- thirty his doctor called us on Face-time. He says he does not think it's Coronavirus but he can't be one hundred percent sure as of yet. He says my husband is not showing hardcore symptoms yet and because of that he wouldn't be tested yet. So, he called him in an antibiotic along with telling him if at any point he runs a fever or breathing is worse we are to go to straight to the ER. So far, he has no fever, says his breathing hasn't gotten worse and his pulse OX (yes we have a finger O2 meter here at home) has been normal. For this weekend it will be keeping an eye on him. Please keep us in your prayers.

My husband is also having trouble with his intestines as well. Two years ago he was in the hospital for four days with a tube up his nose and down into his stomach. He had an intestinal blockage and we don't want or need that to happen again. So along with the antibiotic the doctor also said soft foods like soups, eggs, pudding. He said my husband looked somewhat dehydrated and to get some gatorade and drink water. Well of course I don't normally have some of these things on hand so that meant going back out to the store. (think petri dish).

Before I went to the store a few hours later, I called Walgreen's to see if his antibiotic was ready. Turns out, the way the doctor wrote the script and the amount don't match up and they can't fill it until they speak to him. Guess what? It was 4pm on a Friday. Doctors office was closed and their emergency number is not working. It's a good thing we have a whole course of antibiotics here he can start in the meantime. If your'e wondering why I did not make a pick up order for the grocery store, I did. They are so low on stock by the time they got done texting me what they didn't have I had no other choice but to go there physically and see what I could get.

On a brighter note, my great nieces birthday is today. She turned six years old. I got to Face-time with her and her daddy who is my baby (my nephew). That was the bright spot in my day. As for myself, I'm just tired. I am surrendering all of this and us to the good Lord and praying for an increase in my faith and trust, perseverance and courage to do His Holy Will and not that of my own.

Corona Diaries 3-31-2020

After the post I put up last night I knew I needed to sit down and get my brains straightened out. So, I did...

I actually took out my journal and began to make a sort of list. I needed to put things into perspective for my own mental health and I wanted to share it with you in the hope it may help you also.  T will stand for "Thought" and CT will stand for Counter Thought. This is a trick I learned to help me recover from severe anxiety disorder years ago and it does work.  Here is what I wrote last night :

T - This may very well kill those I love.
CT - Those I love including myself could die at any time for any number of reasons. You've learned that hard lesson too many times since childhood. Stop forgetting it but don't obsess over it either.

T - This plague is killing thousands of people every day, we are surrounded by death.
CT - Influenza kills thousands of people every year. Every day we are surrounded by death we just don't hear a lot about it.

T - This plague is so much more contagious than Influenza.
CT - Is it really? As of right now it seems to spread in the exact same way.

T - What have I touched? Have you disinfected enough? Did you do it correctly? Are you washing your hands enough?
CT - I remember as much as possible what and who I've come in contact with.  I have done my best to disinfect everything I can the way I know how. I wash my hands as I've been taught.

Conclusion : I am doing the best I can and asking God for His help. I am trying the best I can to do what I know and to leave all those I love and myself in Gods hands. No one can ask anymore than that from me not even myself.

Corona Diaries 3-30-2020

I apologize for being missing in action the last few days. I had to take a break.

I needed a break or so I thought. Now I'm thinking maybe it wasn't such a good idea.
In truth, it is getting to me. I thought I would be able to handle all that is happening or not happening but my brain feels like it's going to explode. So many thoughts just racing through my mind. I've tried to stop them but it doesn't seem to be working and it's affecting every area of my life and I don't know how to make it stop.

I haven't watched the news, I've kept social media use to a minimum but still my thoughts go right back to all the questions, the uncertainty, the loss of life.
How much worse will it get? Will I lose someone I love? Will my husband get it? If he does will he survive it? Would I? Is it ever going to end? When it does what will life be like? Will I even be here? How would I make it without my husband?

See all those questions up there? Those are the first things you're supposed to stop when trying to recover from anxiety disorder. I know all about the what if game. I played it for years, it ruled my life for years and it took me years and a lot of grace from God to get out from under it and lately I feel like I am being thrown right back down the rabbit hole again. I know in my heart I have control over that but, in a situation that none of us on this entire planet has ever had to deal with before, I do not know how to stop my slide.

I've been holding it together for the most part. On two occasions I have found myself in tears while in prayer. The loss of life is devastating and we know it's going to get worse before it gets better. How many more people will have to pay for the evils of others?
No, I have not lost my faith but in truth, it's shaking right now. I know Jesus is with me, us and I am trying best I can to fight my fear because fear is not from God. I beg His help with this but I also know I am human as well. I am not perfect and I don't believe there has ever been a saint for all of their holiness who was never afraid at any moment. I believe that is impossible as a human being. The degree of fear is another thing but fear itself I believe is a natural human reaction no matter how much faith you have.

So, I will continue to beg God to end this scourge upon the humans of this earth, to send me His peace and fight it as best I can..
How are you doing?

Corona Diaries 3-24-2020

Well, it's been a day.....

Still feeling uneasy. Okay, a bit more than uneasy. Spoke to a family member who is in New Jersey. All my family members other than my husband are still in New Jersey and unfortunately they are right next to New York City in a county that is being hard hit by the virus. I am scared for us and for them. They were going to have a get together this weekend for a birthday but thanks be to God my brother had enough sense to put that idea right out the window. Both my nephews are police officers and one of them is an officer in a major city. The conversation with my brother today was sobering to say the least.

He told me it's really bad up there and he is trying to accept that it is possible one of us will be killed by this. I hated to talk about this but in a way, God forbid (prays) he could be right.
Then this morning my husbands feet decided to start swelling up. He has Congestive Heart Failure. His feet haven't swelled in months. It has to start now?

For as much as he and I have talked about this virus and the precautions we need to take my husband had a major lapse in common sense this afternoon. In all honesty, I was so angry at him. He was not thinking, at all! We are having trouble with our cable router. So he decides to call the cable company and then make an appointment for a tech to come to our house this afternoon to replace it. I almost went through the roof. He actually sat there trying to convince me it would be okay. When I got frustrated enough by his stupidity I walked away to take a breath. About an hour later I told him. You HAVE to cancel that appointment and do it now. I do NOT want ANYONE coming into this house. You're not thinking. This tech whoever they are has been in countless homes, in contact with countless people and you want him to come here? Are you seriously risking our lives for a cable modem? It can wait! Well, I think my yelling snapped him back to common sense because he agreed and cancelled it.. It wasn't what I needed today..

Then this morning I went on Facebook and learned a man who works for EWTN for many years, written many books and has been a very big help to me personally is in the ICU with Coronavirus, his wife Stephanie is quarantined at home. Dan was born with lung disease so this is devastating. Please I beg of you, pray Dan and his wife pull through this.
Tonight I decided I will make a pick up order for food at FoodLion tomorrow. I sat down and mapped out how I would do this as cleanly as possible. From getting the groceries home, to getting them in the house and put away. I opened the app, put my items in the cart and went to check out. My card kept getting declined. So I go over to my banking app and see the CASH deposit I made yesterday is missing! I checked last night and it was in my account and available but yet tonight it was just, gone. It is all the money we have left for this month.

I called the bank and after being on hold for almost forty minutes the girl repeatedly says to me "I understand your concern we will open a claim and it should be resolved in two to three days".. That was it. I hit my breaking point. I said to her, "You do NOT understand my concern. YOU have my money. It was CASH. I have the RECEIPT. It's all the money I HAVE. I have to buy FOOD. I can NOT and WILL not wait two to three days to find out how you LOST my money. I need my money NOW."

She then tells me it would be best if I went back to the branch office in my town. I blew. I said, "NO! We are in the middle of a pandemic or have you not been keeping up? I am high risk, I am pretty much sheltering in place. I didn't even go INSIDE yesterday! YOU need to fix this RIGHT NOW"...
She put me on hold for what seemed like another forty minutes, when she comes back to the line it seems, while I was on hold my deposit just happened to "suddenly show up again and was now available."..

I said to my husband, all day long my anxiety has been tested. I am exhausted. I can't take many more days like this and it's only just beginning here in my state...

Corona Diaries 3-23-2020

I have to admit, last night my anxiety meter went a bit high with this virus. There is SO much information just everywhere you look. You seriously can't get away from it unless you choose too.
That's what I did for the better part of this day. Today is Monday and in my house Monday's mean my friend comes to help me with the cleaning. She and I sat down at the table this morning and had a good talk about what the near future might hold with her coming over. It's a tough situation because for one, I need her help. She does the heavy cleaning that my body just won't do which is basically all of it. For another reason, and one which means a ton to her, she is self employed. She doesn't have employees or anything like that, she works for herself cleaning people's homes. If she doesn't work she has no income and if she has no income she doesn't eat.

She also has the responsibility of her elderly mother who is not in good health. So there's a lot to think about. But then, there is the elephant in the room. Yes, the virus. So like all people we sat and scratched our heads just wondering what we should do about this.
My husband and I spoke about it the other day and so I relayed to her what we spoke about. If at any time I feel, or my husband feels, or she feels uncomfortable coming over, or one of should not feel well for whatever reason then she won't come until things clear up. At the same time though we will still pay her like we do every week.

Now before you get it in your mind that we have a ton of money let me just dispel that thought right now. We do NOT have a ton of money. We live on a fixed income and because she is a kind, caring soul, she does not charge us very much for what she does. Also, because her help to us is so important to us, we put her on the monthly budget every month. Paying her is as important to us as paying our mortgage or car payment. We need our house, we need our car and we need her.
Everyone's priorities of what they need are different. These are just some of ours. SO how are we able to still pay her living on a fixed income? Firstly, the money we pay her is always put aside the first of every month. If she were still coming to clean we would be paying her anyway. Secondly and most important, this is a bad time for people in the whole world. We have no idea what will happen from hour to hour, day to day. Will we get sick? Will someone we love get sick? Will we, they survive? Will we not get sick? No one knows the answers to these questions. As I said above, if she does not get paid she does not eat and she has others to worry about so it's not just herself. We HAVE to help each other and since I would be paying her anyway if this was not happening in the world, I would continue to pay her so she has some kind of money coming in. It may not be much but it's something.

We still don't know if this will happen but if it does I wanted her to know she doesn't have to worry about pay, at least not from us. It's early here while I'm writing this tonight. A little after seven pm but I am not feeling well. No, I don't believe I have the virus, I have many nights and days where I don't feel well because of my own poor health and how I physically feel changes from day to day as well as severity. So I am actually resting in bed with a book that I am desperately trying to read about simple living. Hoping it will get my mind off things and help me to relax because it feels pretty bad when you physically feel unwell and anxious at the same time.

Corona Diaries 3-22-20

Today is Sunday which belongs fully to God. Unfortunately because I can not attend Mass as our Bishop has suspended masses due to the Covid-19 virus going to Mass to worship God with my community of brothers and sisters was not an option. I am however grateful that I live in an age where technology was able to bring the Mass to me in my home via live stream on Youtube.

The morning began at four -thirty AM when Toby (one of my 90 pd pitbull mixes decided to jump on my bed and lay on my legs). I was up until five thirty AM when I could no longer keep my eyes open so I went back to sleep until seven thirty, almost eight am. Ate some eggs, made some coffee and sat down with the scriptures for the day. At ten AM, I attended Mass online with Fr. Mike Schmitz from Ascension Presents until eleven am.
Afterwards I began reading a book I've had for a while about frugality and simple living. I was doing well most of the day as far as the virus anxiety until about five pm when I went online to a local page for the residents of the town I live in. Understand that my town is very large but the town itself is broken up into little communities.

I live in the historic district. We have one Walgreens, one CVS, a super Wal-mart, a Food Lion and a very old IGA. I would estimate that 98% of all people who live in my district use Walgreens for their prescriptions and just about everything else. Inside the store as well as the drive through is usually packed no matter what time of day or night you go there.
I have prescriptions waiting to be picked up. I have been putting it off because I am not sure I want to chance going out to a store, drive through or not but I have to have my prescriptions. So in my mind I've been going back and forth on what to do. This afternoon around five pm someone posted asking why the Walgreens was suddenly closed. As in the entire store locked down. Turns out, one of the employees has Coronavirus, they just found out and locked down the store to disinfect.
Here's what I'm thinking though. One employee gets Coronavirus. How long have they had it? How long were they working until they got sick and tested? Who else in the store have they come in contact with? How many items have they come in contact with? Who else now has Coronavirus that works there but doesn't know it yet because they haven't been tested? So my panic meter went up pretty high.

There are three things that I really need to do outside of the home and I honestly do not know how to handle it. The first is getting my prescriptions. The second is I have to go to the bank and deposit cash. The last is I have to get my one dog to the vet for her blood because she has a thyroid condition and needs new medication but has to have her levels checked and her brother, yeah the one who jumped on me at four am needs his nails cut badly. No, he won't let me do them.
So here I sit wondering how to do this and not get sick or not come in contact with the virus and possibly bring it home to my husband.