March 2020: The Month That Felt Like a Year

Where were you on March 1, 2020? I know it was a Sunday, but I couldn’t tell you whether I was out playing basketball, grabbing beers with some friends, planning an upcoming trip, or skipping church (oh wait, definitely skipped church). What took place in March of 2020 will be seared in our brains for the rest of our lives.

The first week of March was “easy.” It wasn’t the first, but the second week that had me walking into work each morning stating to my coworker, “What the eff is going on?” It became quite rhetorical by Thursday morning. This was the week of cancellations in the United States. Writing about this just three weeks later provides a sense of insignificance due to the level of development and evolution of information and change in our lives caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The NBA was one of the first major organizations to announce “we are suspending the season indefinitely.” This was just a few days after the Big Ten Basketball tournament stated it would hold basketball games with no fans other than close family and selective personal. That lasted maybe 24 hours, and then they cancelled the tournament. We didn’t even get to one single game with no fans. I was kind of excited to see what that would be like. Let’s give credit to the Ivy League, as they had cancelled their conference tournament several days before. Gosh, that looked so conservative at the time.

Wednesday, March 11, the NBA announced the season would be suspended. If that wasn’t bad enough, five hours later, Tom Hanks announces he has the Coronavirus. Woody? Forrest Gump? Ah shit, not Chuck Nolan? He survived four years on a deserted island, but this Coronavirus got him? That’s when it hit. Once it got someone we felt close with, this thing felt real and drove a tremendous amount of panic and fear into the minds of society.

The stock market sure wasn’t happy about Tom Hanks getting the Coronavirus. Friday, March 12, the stock market dropped by more than 2,000 points, falling 9.99%, almost a correction in a single day. As an investment advisor, let’s just say my daily emails quickly began to spike. However, at the time, I still had more clients expressing their “confidence” and sharing their words of encouragement for me, rather than panicked clients wanting to jump ship. Something was off. They were either not logging into their accounts or delusional about their portfolios getting a big ole chunk bitten out of them. Well, March 16th, just four days later. The stock market dropped 2,997 points, plummeting 12.93%, which was worse than Black Monday of 1929. Yeah, that “confidence” was. . . Fake.

As I said in a previous post, the month of March will go down as the wildest month of my life. The only word for it is, unreal. It’s tough to say whether any of us really had time to stop and let the revolving door of eye shocking news headlines ever sink in. Maybe it never will? So far, everyone I know, both friends and family are safe and healthy. That’s all you can ask for during these times.

Below I have taken stock of a number of life and community changes, closures, and cancellations that have taken place over the past few weeks. I’m sure I will forget a few, but here we go.

On the sports side, March Madness cancelled (the final four would be this upcoming weekend). Wimbledon just announced today it’s cancelling for the first time since World War II. Spring football practice cancelled. NHL, MLB. . You name it. There will be an asterisk next to the 2020 season for a countless number of college sport’s teams and who the 2020 “champion” was.

High school and college seniors won’t have a normal commencement. Gracie, I feel for ya. She won’t be walking in the Horseshoe to close out her college career. 17 and 18 year olds won’t be enjoying high school prom this year. Sorry to those of you who lost your last chance to get lucky before closing out high school.

Intramural leagues and social groups have officially shut down for the immediate future.

Community and apartment gyms began to close. Forcing us to all begin working out virtually from home or finding creative ways to workout outside or at friend’s garages. Thanks Max!

Oh yeah, we had a democratic debate going on. Well those events aren’t happening. Or at least with no in person audiences. Did the rest of you completely forgot that we have a Biden v. Sanders fight for the nomination?

The most populous states have instilled stay at home orders and have limited business operations to only those considered “essential.” The service industry is getting annihilated.

We bump elbows, not fists anymore. Handshakes are from the Stone Age.

If you wash your hands for less than 20 seconds, then you are not cool.

Hiking trails, state parks, national parks and camp sites have all begun closing and encouraging visitors to stay home. My goal at the beginning of the month was to order some REI equipment and head to the outdoors for my isolation. Still working on this.

My buddy TJ’s bachelor party was supposed to be last weekend in Indianapolis. Well, that was cancelled and his wedding was supposed to be on May 9 in Clearwater Beach. They’ve postponed to September of this year. “Love is forever and nothing can thwart destiny.”

Most, if not all elective surgeries have been postponed to free up resources in hospitals. I can imagine that there are some very disgruntled individuals who have been gearing up for hip replacements for quite some time.

Funerals aren’t taking place or are limited to extremely small crowds. Very sad given the circumstances.

Church has been online for a few weeks now.

Golf courses have remained open, yet most stopped providing golf carts and are walk only. My guess is most will be closed soon.

Florida beaches took awhile to close down. They took a fair amount of heat earlier this week (as they should). Shake my head.

I probably keep comments on the stock market and economy light because I spend all day reading and discussing it, but we just ended the worst quarter in the stock market since 2008. We had a 17.5% positive week last week, but we are still down close to 25% on the year. With things looking to get worse before they get better.

You’ve practically won the lottery if you show up to Costco and are able to snag any Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, or chicken. Grocery stores open for only senior citizens during the first hour and are only allowing families of two or less to enter.

For Peet’s Sake, I just learned they are tearing down volleyball and tennis court nets at local parks. And even zip tying basketball nets! Ok, I can’t do it. That ripped my heart out. No basketball? What if it’s just me?

Ok, I think I am done for now. You get the point. Until next time.