Life of Wry

First off… a nice picture of a flower bed on B Street — at the University Lodge. They always do a nice job of planting flowers.

Nice to see a cheery photo, I’m thinking.

The rest.. not so cheery.  It is just plain surreal to be quarantined.. or sequestered.. or self-isolated as the whole entire world outside unravels. I was reading my favorite historian person, Heather Cox Richardson, whose nightly summaries are the best reads around, and whose summary tonight said, among other things:

A report on the possible future of the pandemic, written by UK epidemiologists, has predicted 18 months of illness that will overwhelm hospitals and cause more than a million U.S. deaths.

She went on to say there are lots of reports and projections and, really, we just don’t know yet what’ll happen, so don’t get too hung up on any of them. Still. It’s a bit startling to read a line like that as I sit comfortably in my home, feeling, I think, healthy (even though I’m on the cuspy cusp of that vulnerable population they keep talking and worrying about).

I hung out today with me. We got lots of little things done.. wrote a condolence card, a birthday card and a hope-you’re-not-too-stressed-out card. Wrote a difficult little email to the City staff person who manages the new homeless respite center about why I’m not returning as a volunteer; sent off a few more emails and texts that had backed up and felt good to get out; took care of a teeny bit of business; worked out (yay me); listened to a pathetic news conference; did a little whining on FB about said pathetic news conference; read a bunch of articles I was behind on; attended an online yoga class offered by my friend Lisa; made two yummy au laits and steeped about four mugsful of chai tea; and prolly ate about twelve times. Oh! And watched a fantastic video presentation that Peter and his lab partner Tobias put together about their robotic car that parallel parks. Peter did all the coding, Tobias did the car assembly. Their presentation opens with that scene from Bananas where Woody Allen “helps” a guy parallel park a station wagon. So funny. It also shows their little robotic car lurching through its parking maneuvers, while cutting away to Peter doing the same maneuvers, lurchingly so, in his [my old] Honda CRV. So well done and so amusing. My god I love that kid.

And.. that was sorta my whole day. Will have to get a bit more creative as the days wear on.

And so.. we hunker in isolation… waiting for a shoe to drop.