Day 86 in 2020 (isolation day 11)

We are still here, truckin' along. I was so happy to go out running today without cold gear. Running these days is a totally different experience. I've run several times a week for years and most of those runs I'll pass only one or two people, but these days people are everywhere all the time. Most people remain friendly even while maintaining appropriate physical distancing, but there are some who have started to eye the world with suspicion, and other who haven't gotten the six feet memo. And today, running through the cemetery because there are no sidewalks along its busy street corner, I passed a woman sitting in an idling car, crying on the phone. Then I noticed her nurse's ID. I struggled with that image the rest of the way home.

We are keeping routine and continuing with school, which has been good for us, I think. This week we are studying the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, and sometimes I mistake the information in our history resources for current news (running out of masks, lung ailments, containment measures, stock market crashing). I didn't plan this overlap; I do all my school planning for the current year over the previous summer, so the study plan and resources for this week were set last August, but I couldn't have planned it better if I had tried. The similarity to our current situation lends a measure of empathy and realism to the history lesson, while the history brings a measure of hope today. (The resource we enjoyed most particularly was The Dust Bowl, a documentary by Ken Burns, which is available through Amazon Prime).

The flowers are just starting to come up in my garden. I don't have any of the early crocus, but my daffodils are making their way into the spring world and they promise to bring a burst of sun with them. I am deeply concerned about the changes in our climate, but early warmth and sun would be most welcome this year.