I called my daughter last night, and when she picked up, there was some worry in her voice, something, I think, that only a parent would pick up on. “Are you all right?,” she asked, adding she was walking home and would call me back.

Since she rarely asks that question on our weekly phone call, I asked her if she was worried about me for some reason when she called back. “Well, I was reading about people at risk for the Coronavirus,” she said and I couldn’t help but notice you’re pretty close to the top of the list.”

I guess I did know that.

I got an e-mail from one of my health care practitioners pointing out that people in their 70’s with “underlying” medical issues including diabetes and heart disease” are most at risk from the virus and should get tested and treated immediately if they had any of the dozen or more symptoms associated with the virus.

Go straight to the hospital, the message said.

I’m used to being on warning lists, every time there’s a snowstorm I am warned electronically that people like me – older heart patients – should stay indoors and not shovel snow.

And of course, I go through all of the many rationalizations we all apply to separating ourselves from danger and trouble.

I always wonder in this – as the political and media hysterias bubble up – what is it I am supposed to do in the midst of all this alarm and confusion. My idea is to be informed – up to a point – and then wait to see what actually happens, rather than focus on people say might happen.

It’s an odd situation for me to be on those warning lists, for most of my life, I wasn’t. I do fit the bill for warnings about the new virus, even though I believe it is not very likely to come up here in the country.

I also know it can spread anywhere at any time. And so I won’t just blow it off or hide from it if I get those symptoms, I will go and get tested. I can’t do any therapy dog work because visitors are now allowed.

My heart goes out to the people who have died already and are truly at risk – those in crowded cities, or who have traveled overseas, or who just seem to get sick for no reason anyone can understand yet.

Older people with chronic illnesses are always the most vulnerable, their immune systems are weaker. It sounds crass, but it is true. We will all die of something.

Up here in the country, there is little panic over the virus, and for good reason.

But still..Maria and I went to a music concert Saturday night and as we were leaving the auditorium, I started coughing. I notice people quickly moving away from me as we walked down the stairs.

We miss most of these new infections and pandemics in the country, one benefit, I suppose, from living here.

I’m not smug or silly, I understand this virus can pop up anywhere at any time, the country is scrambling to catch up with this new reality.

I just don’t feel endangered. Maybe I’m just arrogant. And I don’t wish to be a Panic Vampire and feed off of other people’s trouble.

I imagine there will be many disruptions in many lives before this is over, which it will be, I am sure, in a month or so.

Maria asked me last night if I was afraid of getting the virus, and I said that no, I honestly wasn’t. This is not my crisis, my danger.

I don’t see myself going this way, I’ll keel over somewhere one day and expire peacefully, at least that is my plan.

I did say that if for some reason I got this virus and was hospitalized – I have already been told to go straight to a hospital if I have any symptoms – she should rush out and grab a laptop for me and get it to the hospital.

She laughed. “Of course,” she said. She got it right away. She will not forget that laptop. “Leaving you in quarantine without a way of writing and blogging would be the worst thing I could ever do to you.”

Imagine blogging from quarantine, and if I got really sick, I’d be blogging like mad right up the end. Maria would not be allowed in, but maybe Zinnia could get one visit. Most people can’t say no to her.

Panic and worry does sometimes come through me from the outside, I do have to be careful what I take in. I don’t see this as my time, my way to go. And I have no real idea of how to help anybody else. And I always remember, as a former journalist, that nobody knows what will happen.

I think the politicians make me as sick as most viruses, and I will take this as another opportunity to stay grounded and be in the present. Paul Tillich calls it “The Eternal Now.”

I do worry about the Mansion residents, I hope they are spared this trouble.

So the hard part of this for me, I think, will be watching people struggle with fear and confusion. A friend messaged me from a local Wal-Mart and said she saw a dozen people wearing masks in a store outside of Albany.

I can’t tell anyone else that this wearing of masks as a precaution is a good or bad idea, but I’m not ready to go there. When all is said and done, I’ve lived a full and long life, I’m really not into worrying about how I might die.

This too shall pass.

I did remind Maria not to forget about the laptop. Just in case.