Spending Time Alone, Together
Trapped at home with my wife for weeks? Throw me in that briar patch!
Once upon a time, there was this elderly couple¹ who was planning to retire. They had set aside money for decades. They had invested in a four-season back porch overlooking a nice yard, perfect for relaxing and reading. They had applied for Social Security, and one of them was expecting an annuity from her employer of many years. So in the near term, at least, they felt secure.
You know that old saying, “When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras”? Fine. But what’s riding on those horses?
Yep, sometimes it’s the boys, taking the horses out for a spin. And next thing you know, everybody is being told to stay home.
Well, everybody who isn’t important. (That’s not a complaint. I see what the important people are going through, and bless ’em and the work they do, but I’m glad we’re not them.)
We’ve been doing okay the last couple weeks, since our county was placed on full lockdown. Trips to the grocery store have been better planned than usual, both so we only have to go once a week and so we can spend as little time there as possible.
We have made two runs to Home Depot, once for emergency bug spray², once for replacement door hardware to fix a door that had been kind of okay previously but was now definitely broken while there’s time to fix it. We spoke to no one; we didn’t even make eye contact with anyone! Best home improvement store runs ever!
We have home projects to keep us busy, plus things we’re doing to help our church.³ We have been very lucky in having an income stream, emergency funds just in case, and nobody in our family or close friends who has exhibited signs of COVID-19. Even in our extended friends sphere, so far people who caught the virus have pulled through. We’re worried, so we’re careful, but we know people who are highly anxious because they have compromised immune systems that can’t handle bad colds, never mind deadly viruses. We know that the general population staying safe helps those friends.
We may not see our families in person for another week (or four, or eight), but we are comfortable in a nice house with our best friend, partner, lover, and spouse. As apocalypses go, the Trump Pandemic could be a lot worse. And if (when) it gets a lot worse, we will meet it head on and together.
We hope you, reader, are safe, in touch with someone you love, and holding up well emotionally and mentally. Because if you have read down this far, you are someone we want to make it through.
But if you were hoping for a quick chuckle, we might be able to help with that:
¹Who previously had not felt all that elderly, but if the CDC says we’re old, who are we to argue?
²Every spring, we have bug infestations that eat up our insecticide. Stink bugs, ants, lady beetles, and something that looks like winged ants or termites but doesn’t actually fly and squashes easily. The varmints hatch or wake up, start to move outside, realize it’s still cold, and then come inside with us. Where they die abruptly through chemical means. The numbers vary; we’re heavy on the winged mystery creatures this year, so-so on stink bugs and ants, and we’ve seen maybe one lady beetle. Keeping an eye out for locust swarms, because it’s that kind of year, know what I mean?
³Yes, I’m still an agnostic, but we belong to a church who has trouble making payroll every year because the money keeps going to local, national, and international people who need help. I can get behind that.
