I realized as I typed this heading that I did not know the day of the week! Mike and I are practicing “self isolation” so we are staying home. Without the normal cadence of doctor’s appointments, planned trips to do this or that…the days drift from one to another.

Here’s some random thoughts in no order…

While reading the online edition of the Bristol Herald Courier, I feel as if I’m looking at pages that many years from now, others will read as they learn how Americans coped with the COVID-19 pandemic. Did we do well? Did we do poorly? How many succumbed? I want to quit reading this stuff as it makes me anxious, but I cannot seem to stop taking occasional peeks.

Groceries. I have plenty but I’m not hoarding. The temptation to book an online pickup order is difficult. If Mike were not here to tell me to stop, I’d probably be booking an order of $30-$40 of more canned goods. I’m questioning why I did not do as much food preservation in 2019. I had a good reason — I was working at Adventure Mendota and the summer months are when you home can and that is when we were very, very busy.

We closed Adventure Mendota this season. We did this early, and some folks raised their eyebrows. However, I’ve been following COVID 19 closely since its onset in China. What many fail to understand is that a small outfitter or bike shop pays for liability insurance and vehicle insurance 12 months of the year yet we only operate 3-4 months (outfitters). These expenses were both due, and at the time, while I did not know if COVID-19 would be a pandemic, Mike and I both felt Adventure Mendota would be adversely affected in terms of guests. If we paid those large amounts out, we might not get any benefit and would not receive a full refund. Likewise, we are in the “vulnerable population” age group, and we didn’t want to expose ourselves or our community to an onset of guests from elsewhere. It just made sense. At first I felt sad, but now, I’m so glad we made that decision early. For tourism in Southwest Virginia, it will be a challenging year.

For everything in Virginia except the grocery business, medical professional and delivery business, it could be a challenging year.

I’ve been cooking and I’ve been trying to be thoughtful of how I cook. Admittedly in the past, I’ve been wasteful. Today, not so much. If I have a green pepper that looks “at risk” for spoilage, I chop it up and place it in a small freezer bag before it goes bad. While I do not think our food chain will stop, it definitely is under pressure and there are shortages. I searched for bread yeast and could not find it. I ended up buying it through eBay at about a $1 more per pack.

And what is this with toilet paper? I’m not part of that chase. Since we live 17 miles from a grocery store, we always have toilet paper. I assume at some point everyone’s houses will become saturated with toilet paper, and I will venture out and buy more. As of now, I’ve not bought any. I’d bought quite a bit on sale in early January so in the area, we are good.

My biggest concern on shortages is dog food. How do I explain to my dogs that we don’t have dog food should that occur?

“Flatten the curve” is a term I’d never heard until about 10 days ago. Now, we are all (hopefully) doing our part by staying at home. This means that Americans are cleaning closets! Everyone I speak with or text with is cleaning a closet. We have a guest bedroom that easily becomes a “holding spot” for things we aren’t sure what to do with. Yesterday I went in, put things in their proper place and vacuumed thoroughly. I pulled out the items in the closet and vacuumed the baseboard inside. Yikes it sure needed it. We are going room by room cleaning, and Mike is painting and doing small projects that we intended to do but never got around to.

I normally attend Bible Study Fellowship on Wednesday in Weber City. It’s all online for the coming weeks. If I spend just a few minutes with this daily, I feel more peaceful and less anxious.

I’m working on a quilt. I’ll have it ready to send to the long arm quilter next week. I’m looking forward to that.

What are you doing? If you read this, regardless of when, please comment and leave me a book suggestion. I’m hungry for good books. The physical library is closed but there is always e-books I can check out and I am upping my Audible membership.

Rambling over today.