Shelter in Place: Day 5

Argh. I’m going a wee bit crazy here, isolated from friends and family and activities beyond these walls.

Six days ago, when the shelter in place was announced, the very first thing I did was rush out to Safeway to buy a six-pack of bubbly, before cloistering myself in my house.

The first day of isolation I didn’t take any pictures. All I did was pace and play on the computer, and cancel a bunch of plans. For about four months, Eleni, Ember, Molly and I have had a reservation for an AirBnB in the northern Sierra town of Taylorsville. That went out the window, as did everything else on my calendar.

Day 2: I started a jigsaw.

Day 3: I finished the jigsaw.

My friend Morgan posted a link on Facebook to a site that was, I think, put together by a Cal and a Harvard student. Several times throughout the day, it updates to show the current coronavirus count: https://livecoronaupdates.org/#/. As of noon on Day 3, the national tally was 11,287 cases, with 889 of those being in California. Now on Day 5, the stats are 20,175 and 1,254, respectively. It’s moving fast, especially in New York.

Day 4: At 10:25 in the morning, after my computer kept going dark, to my horror (what would I do without it these days?), I took a picture of a shadow in my back yard.

At 8:54 a.m. on Day 5, while talking with my mother on the telephone, I took another shadow picture in the same place. It was cast by the closed umbrella over the patio table. It is reminiscent of something I might have seen before:

Also on Day 5, I left the house for the first time in six days. Elana and I walked up to Indian Rock. It was pretty surreal. There were a lot more people out than I expected, and a few seemed clueless about personal space, but most everyone was giving wide berth to all they passed.

Just in case anyone is reading this and looking for something to do while locked away: Elana sent me a good website for killing time, with links to live cams around the world. I have particularly enjoyed watching the watering holes in South African game reserves, where, in the dead of night there, nothing is happening: https://explore.org/livecams/.

And later today I might explore this: https://allarts.org/2020/03/1200-museums-and-cultural-sites-to-visit-on-a-virtual-tour/?fbclid=IwAR01Mjs-KjgctqXGhQlPkrABxUzpaG9YILEcbg-7WTSbKE800ZG_SPCSuFc.

And in an hour, I’m going to have my very first Zoom video chat with my faraway daughters whom I’m not allowed to visit. That’s it for now.