QUARANTINED

My husband is 80; I am 79. We are elderly and we both have an  "underlying condition" that makes us vulnerable to the coronavirus. What elderly person doesn't?  Mine is IPF, a chronic lung disease.  

We have decided to self-isolate for at least the next two weeks. How hard can this be? We are both introverts, although I must say my husband is becoming more like his gregarious dad these days--striking up conversations with strangers he encounters here and there. Still, being confined to the house should be a minor problem for both of us. We can still take walks around the neighborhood, we like to read, we have Netflix. He does an online Spanish lesson every day and I'm thinking of getting back to my on-line Algebra 1 course.

One thing I could do more is blog. I've gotten out of the habit.  The past year has been difficult, not only because I lost my claim to be a healthy geezerette but also because we have a couple of close family members who suffer from chronic anxiety and depression. Unfortunately, I let their problems--about which I can do nothing--take up too much room in my brain, leaving little energy for anything else. This is a bad habit. I need to blog more and fret less. 

Tomorrow there was to have been a memorial service at our church for two lovely ladies, former parishioners, who moved to Tennessee and whose ashes have now come back to us in a couple of small boxes. They were an 89-year-old British war bride and her daughter, who had Downs Syndrome and lived at home her whole life. She was either in her late 50's or early 60's. I would have learned her age tomorrow from the service bulletin, but the service will have to be rescheduled.  This past Thursday, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington closed all the churches for the next two weeks. 

Maryland schools have also been closed for a couple of weeks. Our younger daughter, who lives in Virginia, fully expects to have the kids home with her the next two weeks as well.