Pandemic Journal - Day 164

Last week, I had my second haircut since the pandemic started. I had the hair stylist cut it short because who knows when things may shut down again.

Schools have opened, and there is already a reported case in one of the county elementary schools. It did not take long and I don't expect it to be the last one.

The upcoming elections have knocked the Covid virus out of the news cycle somewhat, although the daily newspaper and the local TV stations are still running reports on it constantly, updating numbers and pointing out hotspots. They are reporting too on how the local colleges and school systems are handling the pandemic.

We continue to "mask up" and mostly stay home. We are homebodies anyway so this is not a real trial for us. My husband can go out and do his farm chores without worry, and I am ordering groceries online and having things shipped to us instead of going out. I ventured inside Kroger on Thursday because they kept leaving things out of my orders and I finally went in after them, but I tried to be quick about it. The store has been changed around since I was last in it so it took a little longer than I'd expected.

I know other people are eager to be out and about. Not everyone likes to stay home. Some folks like to travel and others just need to be around people more than I. I feel bad for them because they can't do what they want. I have a blogging friend who is in a hotel right now and she said they aren't coming in and cleaning every day and they have to change their own sheets and things. If I have to do all that, I may as well stay home.

The most recent book I read is Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers, by Carolyn See. It was written in 2002 and it was startling to see how much the publishing landscape has changed in the last 18 years. Some of the advice no longer holds true, but every story still needs characters, plot, location, and a time frame, so that was a good short refresher course.

Other things to note: protests continue, along with damage that I think is not done by the peaceful rioters but instead by people looking to make trouble. Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane, and we were supposed to have a great deal of rain from it but we had very little. California has had multiple fires again. The candidates are set for the November election.

Today, we have rain.