It’s 6 am.  My hair is wet, and my mouth tastes like toothpaste.  Everyone is asleep and I am thinking quietly.  It occurs to me that no one has played a sport, no one has been to play practice, and no one has gone outside.  It’s cold, but not snowing, and there is nothing to do outside in the freezing cold. We are lucky when it snows, and we can shovel to get some exercise.

Indoor track, theatre, in person scout meetings, off season weight lifting, The High School Thanksgiving Football game, and in person shop classes are all canceled. In favor of nothing.  In favor of zoom. This is now.

This is pandemic life.  This is what we are living with.  No more birthday parties, no more extended family Thanksgiving, no more visiting parents at Christmas time.  We are lucky if we run into a friend in the grocery store, at the dentist, at a stoplight in traffic, with our windows rolled down. We do the best we can with phone calls, with cookies sent in the mail, with Facebook, with Instagram, with distance love.

But we are ok.  We are making it.  We are doing our best.  But we look forward to the future, when the vaccine comes out.  And it’s good bye Corona.  And hello life!