Mine will not be the only family contemplating the reality of six weeks of separation from those about to be locked down in Melbourne.
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At just after 3.20pm on Tuesday lives were thrown into disarray when it was announced that Melbourne metropolitan local government areas and the Mitchell Shire would be going back into six weeks of restrictions.
There would be no trips to the country (the Grampians received a shout out) for four-hour hikes. No throwing your rods in the back of the car and heading to the cool streams and lakes that dot the countryside.
Those restaurant bookings you had? Gone. Those birthday parties you'd planned? Off.
It's been done to keep rural areas - where there are far fewer COVID-19 cases - safe and stop the stem of a rising tide in metropolitan areas.
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While it will be tough in Melbourne - and for some metro businesses it will be the end of the road - it will also have an impact on those of us living in the country.
Many people will have loved ones in Melbourne - I have family, nieces and friends all heading into lockdown.
They live in all corners of the Melbourne metropolitan area but face the same reality.
They won't be travelling out of it until late August.
They will have just four reasons to go out, and will be back to juggling at-home study for children with the demands of work.
Travel, holidays and sitting in cafes and restaurants - albeit with restrictions of 20 - that those of us in regional areas can continue to enjoy will be absent. It's back to takeaways, no parties, no group socialising.
When the announcement was made I Facebooked people.
Were they listening to Dan Andrew's announcement, I wrote?
At least one was scrambling to find out the facts - and then with an obviously heavy heart replied, "Yes, looks like we are in it".
"Can I move there?" another said, wistfully looking for a way out.
While it's necessary, the retrograde step is sad for my family - as it will be for many others.
Plans for a face-to-face celebration for our much-loved parents' upcoming birthdays are off the table. I can go (for now at least) being in the country, but others will have to Zoom in from afar.
I've already reached out to somebody living in rural Victoria about to be isolated from their main metropolitan-based support network. I don't want them being alone in this. None of us should be.
We may be sitting in the country looking in at the lockdown, somehow feeling we've escaped it.
But when you think about it, we haven't.
It's going to hit all of us, in some way.
Juanita Greville is the acting editor of the Ararat Advertiser.
Do you have a story to tell about how the COVID-19 metropolitan lockdown will affect you? Email us at editorial@araratadvertiser.com.au