CVSD: Day 68

Our state cancelled its Shelter-in-Place order at the beginning of the month of May, and we have been back to the social distancing/safer-at-home mentality for the last 18 days.

For us, we have the luxury of continuing pretty much the same. Daniel is still working from home. Our homeschool has been carrying on as usual (Jack completes the 2nd Grade on Wednesday), and we have mostly ventured out for groceries only.

However, we have been starting to loosen up. We started ordering pizza (delivered or curb-side pick-up) and even food from a few other places with easy pick-up. I discovered that our local Chinese restaurant now how online ordering, which I am grateful for.

I have also noticed that we, along with most of our neighbors, are out walking and riding bikes more frequently. And more kids are playing in the open spaces at our neighborhood park.

I ran by our recycling center today for the first time in close to 3 months. They have streamlined the process, making it a drive through situation. You are supposed to go on the same day as your trash pick-up. There was only one other car there and I had no problem unloading my items and keeping the appropriate distance.

Last week, our local library had a mystery bag sale of children's books for $3 a bag. I went and ended up with two bags of books for my kids – lucky for us, they even matched up with what they have been learning this year. While there I struck up a conversation with another mom, a stranger. We ended up standing in the parking lot and talking, through our masks, for 30 minutes. It's like we are so starved for conversation with other grownups (outside our own homes) that we just talked about a bunch of topics we were mutually interested in. That conversation would never have happened in the pre-quarantine days.

Quarantine life is hard, but it also has good moments sprinkled in. Especially the ones where we aren't in such a hurry and have time to chat with a stranger.

Daniel went last weekend to help a friend work on his car, and this past Saturday he rode dirt bikes with another friend. Slowly easing back into friendships, while maintaining distance. Likewise, my monthly book club has talked about meeting in person this month – in camp chairs in someone's front yard. I think we are all ready, but also cautious.

Friends of ours are starting to camp and we are looking into what campgrounds are opening and determining how safe it will be, and considering the possibility of camping with friends. We are hoping to start some mid-week camping trips soon... we cancelled our summer trip out west but are looking into more places closer to home that we could explore.

At the same time as we are loosening our standards, we are seeing Coronavirus cases start to jump. I think this is to be expected. It's not big jumps, but numbers are increasing, though still low. I think the next couple of weeks will be the most telling. In the meantime we are mostly staying home, and wearing our masks when we are out.

Life feels tentative, but hopeful right now.