Tuesday, March 24, 2020

brief update

I don't even know where to start.  When I woke up January 1st, I never expected March 24th to be like this.

I'm sure nobody did.  Yet, here we are.

As I type this, New Jersey is #2 in Covid-19 infections.  I feel like I'm walking a mine field every time I step out of my house.  Like many places, we are restricted from many things.  Most everything is closed, and places that aren't closed are open limited hours.  I fear for many businesses and wonder how many will be able to come back.  One of my closest friends opened up her own bubble tea store in January, and it was doing quite well.  She had to close it up a week ago.  She hopes to be able to reopen at some point, but who knows.  She still has rent to pay.

All of the restaurants are doing "contactless" takeout or delivery.  I think some are doing ok, but I'm sure there are others who are struggling.

Liquor store deliveries are doing well though.  My father was right when he used to say that liquor stores can survive any crisis.

Both my kids are online schooling it now.  My daughter is on her last paralegal course.  She was going to start job hunting about now, but I think that will be postponed.  My son's college is online, and the local juice cafe where he worked is closed for now.

I've been in the grocery store a couple of times, and honestly, it makes me nervous to go in.  It's a production when groceries come home or when we get deliveries.  We spritz most everything down with alcohol.  I had one load of groceries delivered, and I picked up another online order at the store, but now it's hard to reserve a slot for either one since they all seem to be booked up for awhile.

On top of all this, we are still in the process of moving.  Since I'm really hesitant to have movers in the house and touching everything, we have decided to try moving everything ourselves.  It's not like I've never done this before.  Sometimes I feel like I've been moving furniture all my life.  But it sure would be nice to be about ten or fifteen years younger right now.  The house we're moving to is 8.4 miles away.  We've been back and forth about 1,273 times (give or take a few miles).  I have an Apple watch, and it records my daily steps.  They've pretty much doubled in the past two weeks.  I think I now average about 14,000 steps a day.

On the upside, if you recall the photo of my attic from the last post, it looks like this now:


Of course the basement of the new house is starting to look like this:


Last week we had some really nice weather, and it sure did bring all the people out to walk.  I've always been a walker, and I see the "regulars" out on my walks.  There was a point on one of my walks last week when I was thinking, "who are these people??"  I see a lot of families with very small children, and I think about how I'm glad I'm not cooped up with very small children.  Being cooped up with a puppy is bad enough.

Two seconds after saying, "no paws."  It's like having a two year old all over again.

I'm not sure if her groomer is still working.  If not, she is going to be a hot mess very soon.

My friends and I do goofy things on Facebook to keep spirits up.  We've all been doing more cooking and baking and then sharing pictures of what we make.  It's fun, but you can tell that everyone has this underlying feeling of tension and nervousness.  We joke, but we are all scared.

I hope everyone out there is doing well and coping well.  








Wednesday, March 4, 2020

such craziness

To me, the past few months have felt like that snowball rolling down the hill that you used to see in cartoons.  It rolls faster and faster, gathering more snow and becoming larger and larger and out of control.  Well, actually the last four years have felt that way, but the past few months have just been crazy.  Total governmental chaos, fires, tornadoes, wind, rain, draught, hate, fear, viral plague...the list just goes on.  Adding to that is my own personal stress of moving, college kids saddened and doubtful about their future, a newly spayed puppy, cranky and whiny because she's stuck in a cone for ten days.  Some people are starting to stockpile wipes, toilet paper, paper towels - I feel like I need to stockpile Xanax. 

I look for anything to distract, to bring about a smile, maybe even a laugh.  As I type this, I'm watching a beautiful red cardinal feasting under my feeder.  It makes me smile.  The other day, a friend of mine posted this on Facebook, and it made me laugh.



In between all the craziness, I will continue to seek out the good wherever I can.  I hope you all can too.