Random Thoughts During the Pandemic

I’m a morning person.  So getting up early and going through the process of making my latte, reading the paper and listening to the news makes me feel like it’s a “normal” day.

I usually go to the garage in my bathrobe to feed the birds; they don’t care if I’ve washed my hands.

Everyday I try very hard to put on that day’s mindset.  Don’t want to lose track of what day it is, although they’re all very much the same.

I make our bed religiously.  It’s important to me.  And since I’ve asked my housekeeper to stay home with pay, I’m ironing, taking out recycling and garbage and about to tackle vacuuming the entire house.  (My husband is helping with the cooking and dusting.)

Billy, my dog, and I are clocking many walking hours.  He’s always game for another walk.  And I’m sure he’s very perplexed why we’re home so much and disturbing his naps…

My daughter and I have also been walking.  She carries a huge golf umbrella, and holds it out if we get too close.  We try to talk about other things, but inevitably, it’s always the virus, and new facts, and what cases have landed closer to us.  It reminds me of when I was a kid.  My mother didn’t believe in giving us vaccinations.  So I got the measles and chicken pocks and whooping cough…and was very afraid of polio.  I remember those summer days listening to the radio with news of new polio cases coming closer and closer to our address.  I finally had to have a polio “cube” in high school.   Thank God!

My friends and I have started having “car coffee” in parking lots.  Windows down – a car apart, we discuss fears and facts and movies and books.  It helps to see their faces!  Three of my friends have doctor daughters on the front line.  We vow to keep them in our protective white circles.

Social media has finally become a positive in all our homes.  On St. Patrick’s Day, our two daughters and their families and we had a half-hour dinner together on Google Duo.  It was joyous and loud and the next best thing…

Tomorrow I’m exercising with my trainer and two others on Zoom.  It’s not quite as good as the gym, but I’m grateful.

After dinner last night, Billy and I took another long walk at twilight.  I found it very sad, because the birds were singing their Spring songs and no one was out the hear them.  I even heard a wood thrush who only comes through once a year.  I was glad I experienced that.

I started noticing that people are crossing the street when they see me in the distance.  I started doing the same.  On a quiet side street, I saw a man sitting at his computer; and a woman standing at her window, on the phone, who waved at me.

This is hard on humans.

I’m wondering if this may be the actual movie where the world (humans) comes to an end.  Hope not.  I have so much more to live.  And then I think about the British during the blitz.  They had very few supplies, cold houses, and they were being bombed every night. I feel ungrateful being confused and miserable.

If we come out of this, we will be different.  Maybe in a good way.  I think we’ll make great strides in science and medicine.  I think we’ll definitely become more positive in our social framework.  We may even see the light in curbing some of the climate crisis since industry is at a standstill.

I’m probably naive.  But I’m going to focus on the positive coming out of adversity.  If this is divine intervention, how timely…