My wife’s dream of a fabulous new bathroom had just gotten started and had reached the point of gutting the old bathroom and dressing area back to the studs. The electrician and his helper had just started work. Neither of them seemed at all concerned about COVID19. However, my wife had a panic attack about our daughter being alone in her apartment in Brooklyn and drove down to bring her home. When they returned, my daughter announced that she had just received a note from work that two of her co-workers had tested positive. At this, the two electricians literally (I am using that room correctly) ran from the house and put on gloves and masks. They returned only to quickly grab their tools and bolt to their truck. We learned later that they are still working, but only on projects involving never occupied buildings. We still have a ladder they left behind.
For this project, we had tiles ordered and paid for, but the delivery kept getting delayed. We found out the tiles were in a warehouse, but they were risking deliveries only for big projects, not little ones like ours. My wife, a better negotiator than I, said that’s okay, we will just get the credit card company to reverse the charges. At this, they said let’s not get hasty. We will try to deliver your order, um, someday. My wife says, you have until 5:00 PM Friday or I reverse the charges. The tiles did show up a little after 4:00 PM Friday. I tried to tip the delivery guys in cash, but they would not even go near it (I had left it on a table). I mention this only because a couple of days later, we received another delivery (different guys) and they gladly took the tip my wife offered them: a couple of rolls of toilet paper.
So, my petty whine is that we currently have on one and a half baths, instead of the two and a half bath at we previously had, and no hope of getting my wife’s dream bath done anytime soon.
By the way, I am well aware of how trivial this is compared to what other people are suffering. The father of a very good friend went into the hospital (in Italy) with a broken hip and got COVID19 while there.