Taking a Breath + Coronavirus Update

Hello sweeties,

this is an impromptu post, but also a follow up to my Adjournments and Apologies one from a few days ago. What with my week off work coming in ten days and my current level of stress/fatigue, I decided to operate some substantial changes on my schedule. All your lovely words of encouragement on the aforementioned post pushed me in that direction, but the last straw (in the best sense) was Lindsi's comment. I suddenly thought, why on earth am I doing this to myself? scheduling with a vengeance, putting too much stuff on my plate, planning to blog even on my week off work? So, I shuffled a few things around, and while you won't notice that I'll be on a hiatus because the March posts have already been written, I won't be blogging again until April.

Here's what will change on here. On Wed. 18th I'll post my review for When Futures End by Parker Peevyhouse (that I planned on saving for later) instead of the one for my NetGalley book Life on Repeat by Amy Larson Marble. That review has been postponed - I haven't had the chance to read the novel yet because of my computer problems, since I downloaded it on the one that's been in repair for two weeks, and in the meantime I couldn't download it on my fall-back computer as well. So I'll just let it expire and download it again in April (it's a Read Now book, and it will only be archived in August, so no rush). I decided not to torture myself with reading and reviewing it in haste only to met a totally self-imposed deadline. The other posts I had in store will, of course, go live as planned.

From Mon. 23rd I'll be on vacation for a week, and I plan on tending to the house, plus reading for pleasure, without any review obligation. Can you believe that so far I've only had the time to read 3 of my 11 new books? Of course, I've also been beta-reading for Joshua Winning, and it did cut into my time, but still - this is insane.

Speaking of insane things, the Coronavirus situation is stressing me out to no end. Honestly, I'm not afraid to get sick with it...I'm more afraid to catch one of my usual laryngites and to be quarantined for two weeks with no reason. I mean, they only perform a swab on you if you have symptoms AND have been in contact with a confirmed case, because swabs come at a cost for the national sanitary system...so what they do is put you in precautionary quarantine, and you and your whole family have to stay home for fourteen days and have strangers (??? I assume you can call SOMEONE SOMEWHERE?) tend to your needs...for nothing! The other day an electrician at the local hospital sneezed ONCE, a nurse heard him, and he was immediately sent home in quarantine! I mean, maybe he sneezed because there was dust on the thing it was working on, for goodness' sake. Why not perform a swab on him? Jeez. Just for once, I can't wait for the summer to come and this thing (hopefully) to start receding. Also because it's making a HUGE dent into our economy. Every cancelled event or closed place comes with a price. It's affecting the radio station where I work as well, because half our advertisements are of restaurants, pizza places and the like, and some clients have requested to put those ads on hold until people start to go out safely again...I live in one of the relatively safe zones (there are just four seven confirmed case of the virus in my hometown so far [*Saturday update*] - there was only one until two days ago...), but the blasted thing is spreading so fast.

 Since some of you graciously asked, here's how things are going for us in Italy at the moment:

• Starting from Tuesday, shops have been forced to close until April 3rd, unless they can guarantee that their customers can at least keep one metre's distance between each other at all times, or access one at a time if the place is small. That's why, for instance, hairdressers aren't working (and of course I was supposed to have my roots touched up LOL. Oh, well - of course there are more pressing issues right now). You can only go out for necessity reasons - home-work commuting, food and medicine shopping, doctor appointments, walking the dog, getting your car fixed...
• You have to queue outside of pharmacies, offices, supermarkets etc. - with the same criteria - and only enter one to four/five at a time in most places, depending on the building's capacity. (Note: I went to one of our supermarkets this morning, and they were ushering in a dozen people at a time. Apart from the distance signs in front of the cash registers and other sensitive places, we were pretty much passing each other in all the isles, one meter's distance be screwed. Many customers - and all the staff - were wearing masks though).
• Of course, all events of any kind have been cancelled or postponed. Not to mention, school were already closed since Mar. 5th, and they will remain that way until Apr. 3rd as well. I only hope that's the final deadline, and after that day we can - if slowly - start living a normal life again. In the meantime, my troath's hurting on and off, which is somehow normal for me, what with my vasomotor rhinitis and my gastroesophageal reflux...but it feels worse these days, and I'm so scared to get sick and be forced to stay home, I swear it's hurting even more.  

How about your corner of the world? Have you been affected? I mean, the whole planet has been affected of course, but it sounds like there are still relatively safer places so far...

So, these are things right now in a nutshell. Thanks everyone for your encouragement and understanding, and rest assured that, though on a hiatus, I will visit all your lovely blogs nonetheless! Have a great March and stay safe!