My Sheltering in Place Life So Far

I had many good intentions of getting at least two blog posts done this week. Did I do it? No.
 
It’s not because I’ve been sick. I’m well, in case you’re wondering. And I’m washing my hands so much that they look like they belong to one of the zombies on The Walking Dead.
 
What happened was that I’ve been busy. Most of my time has been spent helping to get our church get functionally online. This has been a lot more involved than anticipated. However, we’re surfing the transition pretty well. These days I spend more of my time updating information on our website and Facebook page. I also lead an online Bible study and a morning prayer group, both weekly. If you want to see how the people of First United Methodist Church of Somerville, NJ are  handling the situation, feel free to visit us at http://www.fumcsomervillenj.org/
 
Another thing taking up a lot of my time is cleaning. The old “I don’t have time to vacuum” excuse is hard to justify when you’re sitting in said house day and night. Suffice it to say, my dwelling no longer resembles a haunted house or something a tornado left behind.
 
The downside is that my vacuum cleaner decided to attack me. It says it was an accident, but I’m not sure I believe it. It’s an old upright model. I was pulling on the hose attachment to get under some piece of furniture that only Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson could move, and I guess the vacuum didn’t like it because it toppled over, crashing onto my left forearm. Now I’m sporting a giant, swollen bruise on it. I feel sooo pretty! It’s a good thing we’re social distancing. Also, I now know why I hate vacuums and vacuuming. My dogs were right.
 
I’m also cooking more these days. And surprise, surprise! I’m realizing that I’m a better cook than thought. Under normal circumstances, I visit Dan for a few days each week and we either go out to eat or he makes dinner. Of course, that will not happen for the duration, especially since I don’t want to give Dan anything I might have come in contact with.
 
Now I’m making three squares a day, seven days a week all on my own, with special attention to keeping within my WW points. That said, I’m eating well and not starving. And – get this – I am shedding pounds during our current period of social distancing. As for the dreaded COVID 15-pound gain - ha! I laugh at you.
 
Getting the food to do all that cooking is a requirement, so of course I visit my local supermarket. This week, I decided that, since I’m now an oldster, I’d shop with all the other old people from 7:00-8:00 a.m. And this certainly hits my list as my latest adventure. Grocery shopping as an adventure. Who knew?
 
When I arrived at the store, I found an organized line of people, all standing anywhere from 6-10 feet away from each other and waiting to get in. So I hopped in line, too. The whole thing was organized just like a ride at Disney World. Every time three or six people came out of the store, three or six people got to go in. As I stood there, a very weird thing happened: my brain started shouting, ‘Yay! I’m going on a ride!” I was as excited to go food shopping as I normally would be to get on Space Mountain.
 
And this made me unreasonably happy. (I swear I’m not right in the head.) In fact, as I drew closer to the guy guarding the door and to some amazingly good rock playing on the store’s PA system, I couldn’t help but bounce along to the tune a little.
 
However, once I got inside, my Disney World ride abruptly morphed into a semi-post-apocalyptic TV game show. And that will be the topic of Monday’s blog post. It will be up. I promise. It has been written and is in the queue.
 
Until then, I’ll stop the joshing. Here are some serious survival suggestions.
 
1) Stay safe.
2) Don’t be overwhelmed by fear.
3) Maintain a sense of humor.
4) Be kind, generous, and compassionate.
5) Remember all those who are on the “front lines” – the military, first responders, medical personnel, supermarket employees, delivery people, and many more.
 
Finally, as Bill and Ted would say, “Be excellent to each other.”
 
 
Janet Stafford