Coronavirus March 30

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 the weekend Virginia Governor Northam (I live in VA) sent staff out to some well known hang out spots in Richmond. Apparently people were hanging out like it’s a normal nice Spring day. The Governor was not amused, and today he dropped the mandatory stay-at-home order, effective until June 10.

This is why we can’t have nice things people. Too many of you are self-centered assholes.

A friend on Twitter suggested that with the weather getting nicer people simply are not going to comply with the stay home orders. I suspect he is right. I, of course, will comply. My wife is at high-risk and literally the only thing I care about now is keeping her healthy. Also, I’m not a self-centered asshole.

With the June 10 date I went ahead and admitted that our Memorial Day beach weekend isn’t going to happen. I pretty much knew that already but I had until May 7 to cancel and still get a full refund, so I was holding out for a miracle. Then I remembered that I don’t believe in miracles.

At my book club meeting yesterday (online!) I admitted to never having listened to an audiobook. They strongly encouraged me to give it a try, so today I joined Libro.fm, with 100% of my first months subscription fee going to my local bookstore. I’ve been waking up like normal at 7 AM most days, but just lying there until 8 or later as I’m in no rush to get up and face the day. So I figure I can start dragging my ass out of bed at 7 AM to start the day with a 1-hour walk while listening to an audio book. It should be good for both my mental and physical health.