Coronavirus March 28

I'd really rather be here today.

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

We woke up at 7 AM today. We got out of bed at 9 AM. It’s not like we have anywhere to go or anything to accomplish today. It feels like as we settle into the routine of quarantined life finding ways to shorten the number of hours we need to deal with it is becoming a priority on some days.

Spent the morning screwing around online - so productive. After lunch and a Zoom call with our daughter I went for a 3-mile walk. It’s 70 and sunny today. Lots of people are out walking around the neighborhood today. Tomorrow will be mid 80s and sunny. I need to find an out-of-the-way park that we can hang out at for a couple of hours to get Michelle out of the house. Later in the afternoon I added another 1-mile walk with the family.

I grilled steaks for dinner. When we come out the other side of this I hope one benefit is that people continue to cook at home. We’ve always done it so the only real change here is that our typical once-per-week dinner out is not happening. However, I’ve seen a lot of people online, especially younger people, just learning how to feed themselves without using a food delivery app. Life will be much enriched by learning to cook. I wish I had learned about 20 years sooner.

The highlight of the evening was a virtual happy hour with a few college buddies. Maybe another benefit of the backside of all this is that we will all realize we’ve been pretty damn slack at staying in touch with people. Facebook updates don’t compare to a video conference happy hour.

Two updates in a row without actually dwelling on the negativity of our current situation. Will he make it to three in a row? Tune in tomorrow to find out.