The Pause

Most of us have put our lives on pause. If you are retired, this is not a huge difference in the pace you used to set each day. It is a bit frustrating if you are very social and love your  meet-ups. It is a bit frustrating if you participate in social sports or even gym activities, but making a sacrifice to save lives is not all that difficult! My daughter lets her little girl out to ride bikes with a good friend a few times each week. They are told to stay 6 feet apart when talking. My granddaughter must have some social connections at the age of 12,but who knows if she understands the seriousness of all this. That is her life overseen  by her parents. She spends the rest of her freetime on the snapchat APP of her phone or doing her homework online. She is not a stellar student, but also someone who will make it through school as above average. 

My oldest grandson is a teenager and smart enough to be able to handle the homework in an efficient manner and  spends too  much time playing online games.  He is very close to his uncle, my son, so they connect electronically at the end of the workday.

The youngest is nine and tries to keep up with his teenage brother but is somewhat lost because team sports have been the  central  part of his life outside of school.

I do not  think any of my family realizes how  long this hunkering down is going to last.  

I  have restricted my going  out to maybe twice a week...maybe once more as we do  not get rural  delivery of mail.  I wipe the mail down with a bleach  and  water cloth  and let it sit for a short time before I open it

I am now getting my vegetables and fruit via delivery.  Getting the first box in  two  days.  We  will see how that goes.  I may try to get all my groceries via delivery.  My neighbor and I are planning  on leaving the box  outside the house and bringing stuff in to clean in the house.  

Yard workers and delivery do not come into  the house.  I am certainly hoping we do not need repairs.  My friend 's refrigerator just died and she got new one.  On that same day, Best Buy, which sells appliances, emailed all  its customers that they will sell and deliver appliances, but no longer install them!  They will get them to  the front door and the rest is up to you.

We planted spring potatoes in the volunteer children's garden, but not  sure if  or when community children can help us harvest.  It was just hubby and I.  We  canceled the get-together with volunteers  to pre-plant all the vegetables in small trays to  place under grow lights and hubby spent  4 hours doing  it  himself in the basement.

My daughter  had planned a long weekend  in the nearby mountains  with us, but the cabin owners canceled and refunded the money.  My son and his wife planned a weekend with us at the C&O canal in a cabin.  That is in May and might very well  be cancelled.  We have a late June trip where my husband was going to take the oldest grandson on a SCUBA diving trip to the Bahamas.  My son was going also.   I was going just to make the the three males behaved themselves.  That is farther away in time, but I will not be surprised if flying out of the country is unadvisable in June!

So life is a bit of a bore.  Even our brief  consideration of taking a chance drive up to see the cherry blossoms has been  canceled as D.C. said too many people were enjoying them!  Even  though they are all outdoors, it was too crowded.

We still  have the  local parks with their hiking  trails, but hubby and I do not know if they are crowded as this weather warms.  We will have to see in the days ahead.

Mage from Postcards From the Edge is back blogging after her lengthy illness.  But she returns to the pandemic that has us all staying home.  It is good to read her "postscards" once  again, though.  Blog connections with you all are more important than ever,  helping us realize that life goes on and we can keep each others spirits up virtually with  absolutely no exchange of bacteria or  virus!