The Routine of Quarantine

Like everybody else, the pandemic is "top of mind" 24 x 7 for me. I'm writing to help myself not internalize all of it. You can find other posts in the series at https://odonnellweb.com/pelican/tag/coronavirus.html

Over 1 month into our quarantine and life has settled into a routine. I get up later than normal, around 8 AM, and make it into the home office around 8:30 AM. My work day hasn’t really changed, so that is a tiny blessing. If the weather is nice I take a break with lunch or in the afternoon and go for a walk with Michelle, Breck and Teddy. My work day ends around dinner time and after dinner I take a 1-hour walk while listening to podcasts or an audiobook. After my walk I usually write this blog post, and after that I hang out with Michelle and/or Breck and do something like watch TV, play board games, or work on a puzzle until we go to bed. In bed, I read for 30-60 minutes, or longer if I’m really sucked into the book, and then finally go to sleep at midnight or later.

Repeat daily. For how long? Nobody knows, but certainly for longer than any Federal Government recommendation. I’m not getting sick, bringing the virus home to Michelle, or dying to prop up some rich assholes' portfolio.

I read a couple of longer articles in the last day that will burn a few minutes of time for you.

Photographer Jamie Harmon is wandering his Memphis neighborhood getting “in-window “portraits of his locked-in neighbors. Click through for the unexpected appearance of an 80s metal rocker.

And this photo essay chronicles the harrowing and deadly journey migrants take to get through the Darién Gap on the border of Columbia and Panama. These folks risk everything on a 5-day journey through remote jungle controlled by drug gangs on their way to the United States. This county may be a shit hole these days, but it’s a nice looking shit hole compared to many other places on the globe.