suspicious eyes, smiles masked

personal space means sickness or health

distance is more than social

wash hands, don’t touch face

routines abandoned, purpose questioned,

risky shopping, empty shelves

don’t touch face, sanitize hands

and every day seems like Sunday

an overwhelming weariness

dogged determination meets eroding resolve

anomalies challenge trust

nerves fray, attitudes morph

and every day seems like a tedious Sunday

like a Sunday without worship, without rest

muffled laughter, muted joy, singing hushed

vacant pews, parks empty

every day, even on Sunday

stores line up, traffic doesn’t

streets are safe, shopping isn’t

distance is more than social, hands and face

every day, every day

suggestions become warnings, warnings become rules, rules become law,

parks patrolled, fines levied

smiles concealed, distance challenged,

empty streets, risky parks,

and every day seems longer and like Sunday

weariness becomes restlessness

grocery workers, our new heroes

revered for doing their job

healthcare workers, our new gods

worshipped for their career choice

warnings, rules, laws, gods, heroes, leaders,

and every day longer lines

masks, distance, suspicion, risk, emptiness, challenges

trust undermined by anomalies, confidence eroded

and every day is long and longer, interminable

and seems like Sunday

How is everyone doing?

I hope everyone is having a nice Saturday.

I am airing out my house right now (I like do that every couple of months) and doing laundry. I am also ignoring Junior as she pads around under my chair trying to get me to pet her.

My friend came over with her little girls and they played on the lawn while we all stayed 6 feet away from each other. They dropped off a puzzle which is for "readers." I love it. I can't wait to get started on that.

I am really missing hiking right now, but since Northern VA has closed all of the parks and keeps giving out warnings because people don't understand social distancing rules and also leave garbage and park on people's property, I think the police are finally issuing fines.

It's a warm Saturday here in Alexandria and I will go for a walk around my neighborhood later. And finish up my books. 

I hope everyone is okay!

I am feeling much better and think the 72 hours I was on forced isolation last weekend definitely helped with things. 

My job is busier than ever. I’ve had to actually set up a home office instead of just plopping myself on the couch like I usually do during telework days. All praise the IT guys who helped me figure out what equipment was compatible with my work laptop.

Next up is replacing my grandmothers bedroom bench with an office chair. I ordered a cushion from purple to help with my stiffness and back for now, but I really need a chair to support my back. I’ve managed to narrow it down to three choices and will probably end up ordering one by next week.  

I feel very lucky I don’t need groceries or any supplies. Since I know a lot of people are having issues finding food I promised myself to only go shopping for essentials every three weeks. I have a huge pantry so I made sure that was fully stocked. 

I have been doing virtual workouts via my gym and it’s actually been fun and working. I have group chats going with my gym buddies so we let each other know what sessions were going to participate in. The only fly in the ointment is I had to buy equipment for use at home. And there seems to be some ridiculous price gouging going on with weights right now so I just bought a step package that included dumbbells and some yoga blocks and strap for a virtual yoga class that I joined that will start in the next week. 

How are you all coping? What changes have you made to your daily routine or homes?

... Part 1.

It started last weekend when I resolved to finally catch up with a few overdue tasks, which -- go figure -- suddenly also restored at least a semblance of order to my office.  (A colleague with whom I'm working very closely, and who is just about the only person permitted to get away with this sort of comment, had recently -- before "social distancing", of course -- wondered aloud, "What happened here?  This used to be an office once ...")

Part of the decluttering of my office involved finally inventing shelf space for all of last (and this) year's, as-yet unshelved books, a large number of which had taken residence stacked up on my office floor -- which in turn, eventually, also went a fair way towards decluttering my living room, where yet-to-be-shelved books had started taking up more and more space in the same manner.  In furtherance of their shelving, a while back I had decided to finally tumble to creating a TBR cart: something I'd so far resisted, because there's no place in my home where it can have a permanent space, so whenever it's not actively being consulted, it will have to live wherever it is least in the way at any given time.  But as a temporary expedient, and to whittle things down to a selection of those books I really do want to get to sooner rather than later, it may end up serving very well ... and at least, we're off to an excellent start in that very direction.

As per usual, "decluttering" actually started with yet more clutter, when I piled up all my stacks of unshelved books on my living room floor to then sort them by "audiobook / print edition", "read / TBR", genre, etc., in preparation of actually shelving them.

(For the record, this is obviously NOT the way these books had been stored up to then.  In fact, this is a sight so horrible to my eyes that it's the fastest and best motivator to get me to find proper shelving for my as-yet unshelved books as quickly as possible.)

I decided that in an effort to further prioritize my selection, I would stack my new TBR cart with:

* A few "comfort watching" DVDs;

* Audiobooks yet to be listened to (regardless whether I've already read the books in question or not); and

* Print editions of TBR books that I do not also have as audobooks.  Mostly these are books newly acquired in 2019 / early 2020, but I ended up going back to my shelves and pulling a few books from there as well.

And hooray, this way I actually managed to find / create shelf space for all those books not going into the TBR cart, and to stack my cart with a selection of books I'm truly looking forward to reading soon!

Now onwards and upwards to the rest of my apartment ... (ah, the things that social distancing makes us do at last!)

One of the results of this week's Big Decluttering Project was that rearranging my Golden Age mystery shelves finally allowed me to put up my Margaret Millar omnibus volumes in the upright position and right next to each other.  And look what I found!  I love it when that happens ...