1.

Really good to talk with you. I did not tell you my cleaning story. Tuesday I was scheduled to host a subcommittee meeting of the 1000 Grandmothers. Only five of us. Then two said they would do it remotely. So I was only having two people come over, but I truly did not want to inadvertently expose either one. Washing and wiping down door knobs, light switches, the table, serving “boiled soup,” off dishware that had been in the hutch untouched for two months….. The first arrived, curious what “boiled soup” was. “So it was disinfected,” I exclaimed.

2.

A SIX FEET STORY
I went for a walk to Lake Temescal. More people, understandably, then in the days previous. People did not get “six feet.” After reminding a few, then getting exasperated and mad, I spied a dried fennel stalk. Just my height. Holding it horizontally from my hip out the additional four inches, I created the required space, much to people’s perplexity. Until some appreciatively got it. Now I am happy, said I the third gen teacher.  Two runners took my picture, calling it performance art.

3.

Yep: doing just fine. Put a raw slice of onion into my sandwich in an embrace of survival tactics. Playing dress-up with my closet: each day a new outfit! Cherishing every missive received and given by text, message or phone, like when I was a girl and my bedroom and my neighbor Joyce’s bedroom were across our two driveways. The adults rigged up a rope on pullies so we could clothespin notes to each other. Starting a diary. Don’t I have a book soon out on the topic?!?!

4.

Day 2 of quarantine in kid’s old bedroom (I have what feels like a cold, but there is a funny twinge in one lung, and who knows, right?)

8:30: Wake up. Feel no worse. Yay! Put mask on and go to bathroom.

9:00: Call Bob on phone. He brings up tea. When he goes out to grocery shop, fret, fret, fret as I was the designated one to risk exposure. While Bob is out, put on mask and wash hands and waste all kinds of paper towels as barriers to heat up medicinal soup I had already intuitively made and peanut butter sandwich.

10:00 to 5:00: where did the time go? Emailed, read online. Listened to radio. Did yoga for breathing until head started to hurt and stopped. Napped. Bob adds hot water to my tea and lemon jug. Take big breaths outside and stop because it feels cold out. Write letter to an investment company that intends – they better not! – to invest in the GasLink Pipeline project in Alberta. Tell them I am in quarantine with a head ache but we are all in this together so cut it out. I probably ate lunch.

5:00: Another call to Bob. Pose question, which will be repeated in the following days? “Am I making this too hard on us by quarantining when it really is a moot point?”  Answer always the same from both of us: “I don’t know.”

7:00: Dinner arrives. Bob, who is highly adverse to onions, has put raw onions in my salad. We never comment on how thoughtful that was. I eat everything, facing the window, until it is dark.

7:45: Hear a frog! Tell everyone on Facebook.

7:50: Look at the overflow bookshelf in this room from Bob The Voracious Reader. Didn’t I say I wanted to read more????

7:55 to 12:30: Reading Lisa Lutz’s The Swallows not knowing anything except Lisa Lutz, why not? It is terrific and I love the inserted texts, notes, a map, and a textual drawing. A weave, just like I said in my book!

The frog kept on singing as I read and then fell asleep.

5.

I am feeling better after three days, but now I am afraid to come out of my room! Because ….[sing along with me now] “I Don’t Know. I Don’t Know, I Don’t Know!” Am I contagious? I was before I went into the bedroom……

Bob made me a little container of hot water with a dab of Vic’s Vaporub to breath in, under a towel. That helped. I feel like I am going back in time, remembering all the remedies and rituals that I have forgotten, like the healing properties of eucalyptus oil, and giving thanks for our food and the many people, front line people now risking their health, who made this meal possible.

Feeling very humble in prayers for this as a time of healing and transformation.

6.

I am feeling better, especially after hearing Dr. Fauci say to Steph Curry in their Q and A today that the ones we live with we must be especially careful re: washing hands and surfaces, but we will be sharing exposure. So, after being afraid of coming out of my room, BECAUSE WE DO NOT KNOW, I am trying little jaunts out, now, but will be sleeping separately for the duration. Sat in the sun for a bit. We are all getting sunburned because the air is so clean.