Venturing Out—A Little, A Very, VERY Little

10 a.m.

Right now I am sitting in our car outside a doctor’s office in West Akron. Joyce is inside for a routine visit with a physician. Joyce had called the office earlier about a possible cancellation, but the doctor wants to see her. So here we are.

We were told that when we arrived, we should sit in the car and call the office. Then someone would get us when all was ready inside. So we did.

And, as I said, Joyce is inside now. I’m waiting. Nervously so.

We’re both a bit hyper about all of this. (“Paranoia strikes deep”—remember that old Buffalo Springfield song, "For What It's Worth"? Link to song.) We’re both in vulnerable demographics, and we’d like to emerge from all of this somewhat ... alive.

We haven’t really been out at all in a week—until yesterday. Early in the afternoon we took a walk around our neighborhood (about a mile, I guess), moving far, far away when we encountered other walkers. We all smiled and waved.

Then, after supper, we drove to McD’s to get some Diet Cokes—and were alarmed that both the young woman who took our money and the young man who delivered our drinks wore no sanitary gloves.

Back home, we scrub-a-dub-dubbed and sanitized our hands. Joyce wiped the cups with those sanitary wipes.

We’ve ordered our groceries this week via Acme online. We’ll pick them up late Saturday afternoon.

We’ll see how that goes.

And I’ve ordered from other sources some of my bread-making staples—things I usually went to Marc’s to find—or to Mustard Seed Market. (Marc’s, by the way, has a very good variety of flour and other related products.)

Our son offered to come up the other day, but we declined. I would never forgive myself if he acquired the virus that way. NEVER.

And so I sit and wait in the parking lot—thinking about this “new normal”—thinking about how much I miss my old routines—and freedom.

I smile when I remember that sometimes--in my pre-COVID-19 life--I used to think my routines were boring. Oh, what I would give to have such boredom back again!

*BTW: You probably noticed that the pic atop this post is a little ... delusional?