I'm Just Visiting This Planet

Okay, I’m done. This is getting boring, monotonous and weird. I don’t have the energy for all of the projects that I thought I would get done while we were on “lockdown.” My computer is acting weird, too—shutting down for no reason, not opening Word. I hope it doesn’t have a virus, ha ha. I guess we’ve only been confined to the house for two weeks but it’s starting to feel like forever. I hope when I look back on these days I can do so with a sense of compassion. I know that’s how I looked back on the days after 9/11. Peace to everyone—hope you are all doing okay!

Our days have fallen into a pattern: Up fairly early, feed the cats, shovel the litter boxes, make tea Anne showers, we each do yoga (sometimes together, sometimes I do sun salutations and she does AM Yoga with Rodney Ye on DVD) Breakfast Read the paper, do the Set Puzzle  in the New York Times, and if I haven't done the crossword yet, I do that Around 11 AM we listen to Governor Cuomo's briefing Depending on the day, one of us might have a Zoom event. Today I facilitated the Thursday morning Faith4Life class at First Presbyterian Church of Yorktown through Zoom. Anne was going to Zoom with her friends but instead, we got out and took a nice long walk along the trails at Gedney Park . Looking at the bright side, we've discovered the trails at Warburg Park  and rediscovered the trails at Teatown Reservation. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the country. At this point I know at least six people who either have COVID-19 or who probably h...

So today it snowed—of course! It’s that kind of time, isn’t it? My cousin called me from Puerto Rico. My cousin and his wife live just outside of San Juan where my cousin’s wife is a dean at the University of the Sacred Heart.  She was involved in creating an on-line university—in just a little over a week! Mike told me that they are fine, just one disaster after another. Maria, earthquakes and now Coronavirus. They are currently being required to stay at home and there is a curfew, from 9 PM until 5 AM in San Juan. We are settling into a routine. Today we did our morning stuff (shower, breakfast, newspaper) followed by snow day stuff (build a fire). Then we did a jigsaw puzzle and listened to a book on Audible, followed by a chair yoga class on Amazon Prime for about 50 minutes. I went off to pick up dinner (thank you, Craig Pellis at Silver Spoon Catering )—chicken, veggies, roasted potatoes (sweet and white) and a container of “Jewish penicillin” just in case. The news...

So here we are, March 22, day 19. But who’s counting? Anne is “at” Torah study (on Zoom). I’m about to “go” to church (on Facebook Live). Yesterday, thanks to our wonderful local supermarket DeCicco and Sons  we old folks were able to shop early. We kept our distance (socially, of course!) and were able to stock up on everything we needed. We just couldn’t get Anne’s goat yogurt. I now feel much more secure. We have almost a full case of wine, we have a full fridge and a full upright freezer downstairs, we joined Fable Farm’s CSA and Hilltop Hanover Farm’s CSA. And Anne ordered seeds for the garden, since we’re not going anywhere this summer. So bring it on, we’re ready. How about you? How are you doing? Let me know in a comment or two. Peace.

We are spending a ridiculous amount of time inside. Not that I want to do anything inside—we have a list of house projects that we have put off for literally years (clean the basement, go through the files in the home office) and now I know why. These projects are so enervating that even if there all that there is to do I don’t want to do them. Watching Governor Cuomo’s daily briefing at around 11 AM is the highlight of the day. He looks more presidential every minute. I find myself wondering when this all really began for us—the first person who was diagnosed in Westchester as an attorney in New Rochelle, on March 3rd. So let’s count that as the beginning. We had the house cleaned that day, I had lunch with a friend at a restaurant in Tarrytown, that was a “normal” day. The next day I attended the Women’s Circle at my church-another normal day. In fact that entire week was normal: Adult Ed on Thursday, Anne’s art class Thursday afternoon. A quick trip to Suburban Wines on Th...

Here we are, at the epicenter, sort of, of the coronavirus in New York. We live in Westchester County, about 30 miles north of New York City, and just a few miles from New Rochelle. The coronavirus epidemic/pandemic started out gentle enough--at the end of February we learned that a man in New Rochelle had come down with it, and his synagogue was closed. Then that man's friends have kids who attend the Westchester Torah Academy, which meets in our shul, so the shul was closed. That closure began on March 4 and was to last for 48 hours. That got moved to March 17, and now the synagogue is closed until March 26. So that's the synagogue. Then there's my church. Sunday, March 8 we "passed the peace" by sort of waving at each other. What to do--do we still have services "in person?" I am currently the Moderator of the Hudson River Presbytery, and a member of the Council of that Presbytery. The Council had an emergency meeting on Thursday, March 12...