Blue-Footed Musings

• Sundays are usually waffle days, but this Sunday also happened to be Father’s Day, so I cooked pancakes (again!) so that my hubby didn’t have to make waffles.
• I called my dad to wish him a happy day. He was in an unusually chatty mood and we had a nice long talk.
• It was so hot outside that I didn’t finish my walk.
• I figured out how to make my old MIDI cable work with my current computer. Now I can play on my music keyboard and the notes magically write themselves into notation on my computer. Ta-da! But my office is a mess because I had to move some things to make room for the keyboard. Two steps forward, one step back.

My daily walks do sometimes feel boring and repetitive, but I’ve adapted and found some extra benefits to them. Just by being outside I see things that I otherwise wouldn’t notice. I only noticed the pollen swirling in the puddles last week because I was out walking. During another walk, I saw a bird hunt an insect down and then fly away with its kill. I’ve found strange new plants growing in my yard and along the edges of the driveway. And there’s something to be said for letting your mind wander, as it will do when you’re walking and you don’t see anything that grabs your attention. So, between noticing and wandering, my brain seems to be getting good exercise, too.

A mile’s walk every day was good, but I’ve worked my way up to 1.25 miles per day (8 laps in the afternoon, 12 in the evening). My husband, surprised to see me out walking every evening, commented that I was “serious about this walking thing.” And I am. Very serious. I have enough problems right now. I don’t need to add fat and lazy to the list.

I have spent a lot of time lately cleaning my office. I folded all the laundry that had accumulated on the daybed, cleaned and reorganized the top of my desk, and dusted and rearranged the books on my shelves. While there is a lot more decluttering to be done on a deeper level (desk drawers, closet, etc.), the room at least looks tidy now and is comfortable to work in again. Finally!

Yesterday Marshall saw the title of my blog post, and he asked if it really had been 92 days since we started self-isolating. I was able to answer his question with confidence, because I had deliberately written a numbered post for every day just so I’d know what day we were on. I had also double-checked my work several times, to be sure I hadn’t skipped any days or made any mistakes on the numbers. So yes, I told him, it really has been over three months, as hard as it may be for any of us to wrap our heads around that reality.

I wish I could say those 92 days had bought us a brighter future. I mean, look at what New Zealand has done! They’re running around footloose and COVID-free now. Smaller country, different situation, I know. We’re a much bigger and more divided country. Even so, we might have been able to eke out a win.

We were doomed from the get-go, though, because we lacked an intelligent and unified strategy and the leadership required to implement it. We needed a federal government that listened to experts and knew what to do, brought all the states onboard, and supported the people trying to get the job done. Instead, the stupidity and cupidity in the White House and Senate, the patchwork approach of governors struggling in a leadership void, the anti-intellectualism that makes so many Americans distrust science, and the right-wing nutjobs who push the anti-intellectualism and actively work in other ways to divide the country–all of these things were ingredients in a recipe for disaster. How could we be anywhere but where we are today? Failure was already baked into the system.

So, we are 92 days into the disaster, and who knows how many more before we’re done. If I sound a little angry about it, that’s because I am angry about it. We deserve so much better, all of us. If things don’t change soon, I really do not know how I will manage to cope.

I have been walking a mile most days (8 laps in the afternoon, 8 in the evening). Tonight I walked an extra two laps. It was mostly the weather that made me want to stay outside, but this view from the end of the driveway didn’t hurt.