Going Feral

We haven't gone to full lock-down yet, though I wonder if people understand the whole distance thing.

The sky is cloudless, birds are singing, and all day there was the hammering and buzz of electric saws from nearby construction.

I went to try to buy quarters for laundry, but my nearest bank is closed, so no luck.  Walked to Whole Foods to buy cranberry juice, I'm not feeling better, and now there are lines.  Only 70 people in the store at the time.  At least the sun was out.  As I walked to join the line, I had a weird interaction with a driver trying to pull into the parking garage, "You go" "No, you go." "Okay, no you."  Which went on, then he screeched down into the garage.  When I finally entered the store, he approached me and apologized.

Everyone was let in one at a time, the man at the door squirted your hands with sanitizer, sorta the equivalent of entering a club and getting your hand stamped for re-entry.  Once inside, I felt a rush looking at the produce, like I'd just been let into Disneyland to run wild.

Dairy case picked over.  No tp.  I don't think there were baby wipes nor Kleenex to be had, even though there are now limits imposed.  Limits on how much product you can buy that contains elderberry: you can purchase two.

Walking back home, an abandoned field underneath the freeway was covered in blooming lawn daisies.  The cherry and plum trees are ablaze, and there are bees making their rounds.  It's a big change from last weekend.

Took off the afternoon to get some gardening, but so far haven't made it over.  Stopped by last evening, tried to help get the water turned on, but we didn't have any luck.  It's a mystery.  Turned some soil.  I want to get some peas, and maybe flowers, and lettuce in, but I've got a lot to clean up, and we have a manure delivery at the end of the month.

I walked there, and back home.  The sun was dropping in the sky and it was a glorious first evening of spring.  The white flowering trees catching the last golden light of the day.  It almost feels like summer. And I could lose track of time.

Almost.

And then Italy had over 600 deaths in the past 24 hours.  My work is on lockdown.  Most places are closed and people are out of work.  You still can't get testing, almost two weeks after the President promised "everyone can get tested."  Hospital beds are being set up in soccer fields, and parking garages.  Hospitals are enlisting the public to sew PPE for hospital workers being of a dire shortage.  And military hospital ships are being deployed to New York, Los Angeles, and possibly Seattle.

I'm feeling handwashing fatigue, and we've only just begun.  My housemates are mostly keeping to their rooms.  I'm catching up on cleaning, since I'm in here so much, and realizing how much I appreciate the amount of light I get in here when all the blinds are raised.  I never got around to showering yesterday, I was too tired by the time I got home from gardening.

I'm not quite anxious.  I feel alive and really awake.  And I wonder how much the world will change by the time summer comes?