More notes and thoughts…
We walked into the cul-de-sac today, joining our neighbors singing happy birthday to a neighbor boy turning 18. Later, we took some family portraits as a photographer drove past people’s houses taking “porch portraits” for donations.
This weekend (Saturday) was Max’s birthday. He got a decent haul of gifts that he enjoyed. We sang happy birthday via videoconference on zoom between grandparents and cousins. His local cousins drove by and did a dance-a-thon in the street. At his request we made spaghetti and cookie-dough balls for dessert.
Stores are still experiencing shortages, but it’s targeted and somewhat random. Some days the entire cheese section is bare. Some days there’s no eggs. But there’s never been a day without some sort of decent food. You may have to settle for different brands or skip something you can’t find. But food isn’t a problem if you’re flexible.
I took our van through a drive through car wash today. We did this for the photo, which I’ll post when we get it. For some reason it was only $5 when it’s normally $20. I took Violet and the dogs as a treat to get out of the house. Somehow I managed to put it in drive when I thought I had it in neutral and took my foot off the brake. The car lurched and the guys started hollering. I fixed it right away of course, but I felt like an idiot and felt very jittery after that. I suppose it’s just general distraction.
My careful eating and workout schedule has gone right out the window. I really need to get that under control. I came into this pandemic in the best shape of my life, and that seems like a pretty good thing. But I find it hard to maintain a Keto diet when the stores are inconsistent. And my regimen of going to the gym every other day is right out the door. I have some weights at home, but they can’t make up for the loss of the barbell equipment at the gym.
We’re pretty well stocked for food, but I don’t want to be complacent about it. I’m frankly worried this pandemic is going to hit the US harder than it hit Italy. Scratch that. I believe it will, and by the numbers that’s what is happening so far. I don’t want to let our food dwindle down only to find that we’re low when stores become really bare or both Jill and I get sick.
I’m not sure when this pandemic will hit its peak in the US or locally here in Central Texas. It’s hard to know, because we can hardly trust the numbers we have, given the lack of testing capability. I’m sure the number of actual infected people in the US is multiples of the 146k or so confirmed cases that are reported. But I expect it to get much, much worse over the next few weeks.