03/16/2020, Monday

Perhaps because I'm a working stiff and my job requires a lot of mental energy, I am welcoming this break from my routine. I am a little pissed that Ron insisted on working three Masses yesterday at church since so many people backed out for health concerns, and understandably so. I get he is devout, but his church has no protocol in place to sanitize between services, but is limiting mass to 95 parishioners so there is distance between people in the pews.

I have been safely at home for the weekend. Today I will groom a dog for my BFF, go to the gym, and work on cleaning the office. Tomorrow we are supposed to meet for a mandatory staff meeting, but several of my colleagues are wanting to do the meeting via Skype of some other form video conferencing. I actually want to go to my building and work in solitude to get a few things done. I figure and empty classroom is pretty much social distancing, right?

Ella continues to swell. I have an appointment to have her drained again tonight.

I watched Outbreak! (1995, Dustin Hoffman, Renee Russo, Kevin Spacey,) on Netflix last night. Made the events of today look not so dire. I am also enjoying Locke and Key on Netflix. I think it is because of teaching, I tend to be drawn to shows with kids as the leads. Anyhow, it's a show about a familial house with a history of dark magic unlocked by special keys. I love darkish, fantasy, magical mystery stories.

Breaking News here.... Shelter in Place order has been given for 6 Bay Area counties. Mine is one of them.

I think you and I will be watching a lot of classic movies. Not so sure Outbreak falls into that category lol. But my stepdaughter (21) was wanting to watch some kind of "contagion" film and my husband recommended Outbreak but when she was told it was made in 1995 she responded "but that's like an OLD movie." hA! It has sound AND color lol

I am one of the many *****nted Contagion. I wanted to see what people were talking about! Eerily similar to what is happening now, but with a 25% death rate.

I was never so happy to drive to work as I was today, a few minutes of normalcy. Aside from the vacant roads. Last Monday I thought if I was careful, I could still travel to NYC. Ha! The plan is that we report to work this week and prepare for distance learning, and then start our spring break this weekend. But practically on the hour we were warned that we need to bring everything home, because the building might not be accessible the next day.

Good luck to all of our patients: Shirl, Ann, Diane's DH, and Bonnie and her husband. Take good care!

Liz, how could they close the pool? Could there not be some way to enforce social distancing by changing bathing load limits? This would be a big loss to me.

Since we aren't traveling this spring break, I thought I'd freshen up our bedroom to mimic "vacation". My days off start before dh starts his, so I thought I'd give it a deep clean. I'll hop on Amazon this week and order a new quilt etc. I bought new sheets this weekend. Staycation it is.

I am still pretty blue, and teared up a few times today during meetings. I am a bit perplexed by these waves of something akin to grief, but it is what I feel. I'm neither pushing it away or summoning it, I'm just trying to sit quietly with it when it comes ...

Take good care of yourselves!

How could I forget, Happy Birthday Liz. So much has happened in your world since your last birthday. May this coming year bring you many moments of well deserved peace, and unexpected joy.

Greetings Friends

I am especially grateful for this group today as we are sheltering in place (sort of) and this provides some social contact. I did go to CVS as I was out of coffee and had to accept overpriced inferior stuff. Oh well.

Thinking of Shirley today and hope her encounter with a new knee goes well. Ditto for everyone getting surgery this week. Seems to be a trend. Lets all think good thoughts.

We are closing both of the art galleries for 14 days since our governor says to. Since we sell non essential stuff it makes sense to stay closed. Most of our members are over 65. Yesterday I think only a couple of cards were sold so its not worth being open. I was supposed to work today and was planning on going in and closing early but was told not to bother (yay). Not sure what the studio is doing.

I should use this time to throw out stuff and organize papers but instead will probably play a load of internet scrabble. Its playing a real person who could be anywhere in the world. Not words with friends. If anyone wants the details on how to play.

More later.

Diane S

I'm glad you found some sort of coffee, even if it is inferior. I'm almost out of chai tea, but I can order it from Amazon. I too have what I consider a superior brand, and if that's not available, a less than superior brand.

I woke up from a nap to discover our governor has closed all restaurants, bars etc starting 5pm tomorrow. Necessary, but another surreal moment.