We live in a small subdivision (Teeny Town) occupied primarily by retired or near-retired folks. A few still work every day, either from home or a strictly isolated office environment, but we also have a good number of retired people between 75 and 90, all within a block of us.
Our weeks used to be defined by meetings and gatherings with friends, all gone now.
Doctor appointments have been cancelled or postponed.
Pat's routine gathering with a group of women friends postponed.
My trips to the state park to volunteer are postponed.
Our church "small group" meeting postponed.
Music jams on Mondays and choir practice on Wednesdays postponed.
My occasional trips with friends to the local casino postponed, as are my weekly poker games with neighbors.
Frequent visits and shared meals with our neighbors are postponed. We have figured out we can share food without direct contact, and a lot of that goes on. Last night our neighbor provided steak, which I grilled, and a salad. Pat made wild rice and other sides, and we carried them across the street and left them on the porch.
Church is postponed, though an online version is available which we watch.
It is a very different way to be.
We set up a daily schedule for ourselves, which is rarely precise, but it is something like this:
8-10 a.m. Get up, stagger around, make coffee, drink coffee, and then decide if breakfast is a real production or a Granola bar. Pat almost always gets up early, and me late, because I usually stay up later.
10 a.m. Exercise. This may be a walk around the block, further if the weather is good, or Tai Chi in the living room (nor far from the coffee pot), or both. Pat is recovering from back surgery, doing well after about eight weeks, and my tender back is improving to the point our daily mileage is increasing slowly from a short block, to more distant spots.
We eat, exercise and walk just the two of us. We may chat with a neighbor who is out doing the same thing or on the porch, but always from a distance and not for very long. We do not go into anyone else's house.
11a.m. to 1 p.m. This is chore time. We try to have one household chore lined up every day, but we get sloppy. The idea is good though. We have reorganized kitchen cabinets, sewed some drapes, written to friends, gone through a few old photo albums (we threw nothing out). Pat spends some of her time on the phone and computer dealing with the church's Parish Care system, checking on people by phone, arranging food deliveries etc., and I spend some of my time dealing with the state park's non-profit organization, which has five employees, and is the major source of money for educational programs during normal times.
1 p.m. to 2 p.m. We have lunch, either leftovers or something light, at the kitchen counter.
2 p.m. till 5 p.m. We may keep working on chores, or move on to reading a book or playing games on the computer. I spend more time than necessary on Facebook, chatting with friends and trying not to be nasty to politicians I despise.
We may sneak in a nap, usually an hour, and take another walk if the weather is good.
5 p.m. 7 p.m. is taken up with dinner. We are well stocked, which was sort of an accident because I made big run before the virus hit. Normally we would eat out a lot but that is on hold.
7 p.m. to bedtime. We choose up sides and go to our computers for a while, reading or playing card games. Or read in a chair. We rarely watch TV but have signed up for Netflix at the urging of our children.
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