COVID-19 LIfe: Comfort Food, Writer's Block, and Isolation

Month two in social isolation. The last time we were in public together was March 10 to vote in the Michigan primary election.

March 10 was also the date of Michigan's first COVID-19 cases.

We have been able to order delivery groceries from a local store and Imperfect Produce, and health and personal care items from the local drug store. You have to be up and online early in the morning to find an Instacart opening for delivery!

I wipe all the packages down with a virus-killing solution, repackage what I can, discard all the packaging, and then wash my hands and all the surfaces. Will this become the 'new normal'?

My hubby panic-ordered toilet paper on March 20 on Amazon, and it arrived from China April 10! We were down to one more roll.

It's comfort food time, like goulash.

And streusel-topped coffee cake like Mom used to bake. I used her cake pan, too, the one I remember from the 1960s.

My brother will be on unpaid furlough from Ford. My son is on a two month 20% pay reduction and his partner on unpaid furlough. Our retirement investments plummeted. Still, we count ourselves lucky; we all still have health insurance.

Sunny is reaching the age when she should be spade, but the vet office is closed. She will go into heat any time now. We haven't seen the grandpuppies in a month!

My husband and I take daily walks very early in the day, bundled in winter clothing. We rarely see anyone else. The young folk, dog walkers, and families wait until the day warms up.

 We did, though, see a gigantic opossum making its way home one morning. It likely spent the night rummaging through the trash set out for morning pick up.

We had several warm days in the sixties, then a snow and sleet. In other words, it's been a typical Michigan spring!

The birds are building nests and the daffodils are in flower.

My brother finds the lonely places to commune with nature. He shares spectacular photographs. Below is Dodge Park in Oakland County, MI, on a misty morning last week.

Earlier in the week he took his kayak down the canal to Cass Lake.

Meanwhile, life goes on.

I received the Advanced Reading Copy of The Preserve by Ariel S. Winter.

Book requests came in at the last minute and there was one offered by the publisher which I could not resist.

I am working hard to keep up! Writing the reviews is not coming as easily now. I am distracted.

New books on my NetGalley include

• Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put In Us and On Us by George Zaidan
• Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald, author of H is for Hawk
• Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation by Candy J. Cooper, a Middle Grade Book on the Flint Water Crisis

My LibraryThing win to come is

• In Search for Safety: Voices of Refugees by Susan Kuklin

My mask-making abilities have proven abysmally bad. Every other quilter in the universe is mass producing masks for family, friends, and local hospitals. I have tried various patterns. I have no elastic, no twill tape or ribbon, no hair ties, no stash of batik cottons. Now it's asked we wear masks in public. I could wear one I made if need be. But I just stay home.

Sad news has come from my weekly quilt group. We haven't been together in over a month. One member lost her grandson to cancer. Another was diagnosed with cancer of the brain. She was a real creative force in our group. 

I am thankful that I can shelter safely in place, with all the food and books I need, and with my companion of 48 years. I am thankful we have a yard full of flowers and trees and suburban wildlife to enjoy. I am thankful we can safely walk the neighborhood in the early morning.

This pandemic has unearthed the great social and economic disparities in our country. I hope that they will be addressed in the future. 

The way Michigan's Governor Gretchen Whitmore is doing, she may be tapped to a national leadership role in the future! 

I hope you and yours are all isolating and safe.