Today is number 199 of my pandemic experience. I was laying in bed a couple weeks back, unable to fall asleep, and started adding to when I last counted days I've been mostly at home. I landed on 178 and pondered that number for a bit ~ that's half the number of days in a leap year. It had been half a year since this whole mess started for me. And tomorrow it will be 200 days....
It seems that autumn has decided to give us a break this week. Last week the nights started getting colder and early this week we had scattered frost on the fields in the morning. When the seasons changed yesterday the temperatures warmed and a lovely warm breeze blew that demanded open windows. The rest of this week promises to be as beautiful. I have no excuse not to paint the exterior door jamb that Ken has repaired, and it actually looks pretty good with just the first coat.
I decided that this is the week to make all the phone calls and appointments that I have been putting off. I have a dentist visit tomorrow that was rescheduled months ago, and there is a list of protocols to follow to insure safety. Next door to that office is my optician, so I called today to see if they will take my glasses in for repair; I will call from the parking lot and they will retrieve my glasses from my car and give me an estimate on how long it will take.
I called my doctor's office to see what I can work out to get flu shots and TDAP boosters for me and my husband. It took two days and four phone calls but it turns out we can schedule "drive in" vaccinations where a nurse meets us at our car for our shots. The scheduling will require another phone call but it's worth it.
We need the TDAP booster because we are expecting grandchild number four in early December. My younger son and his wife are having their first child, and we are all very excited. I am already plotting how I can quarantine for two weeks here before I go to Massachusetts to help out, probably around the first of next year. They have taken the "stay safely at home" as seriously as we have so they have been part of our "bubble," and they were back to visit over Labor Day weekend. Those days were relaxed and easy and made life seem normal, if only for a few days.
But really, there is very little that is normal about this time of a pandemic, continual racial injustice and violence against people of color, and corruption of the party in power like we have never seen in our country ~ all amidst wildfires and weather events ripping through parts of the country with increasing severity. When it seemed like it couldn't possibly get worse, last Friday we learned that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died. I woke up Saturday in tears. I have moments of complete despair. Tonight I asked myself what might help, even a little bit, something I could do right now.
Writing would help. Reaching out. Connecting. Even my introverted self reaches a point where I can't do it all by myself any more. So here I am.
I hope you are well. I will return....
