spring & all

& the weather was beautiful, sunny & mild, with a refreshing breeze.  i had the day off work so i mowed the lawn & swept up the leaves & pollen & other organic pieces of spring scattered on the porch, driveway, sidewalk, & grass.  the work was wonderful.  just the kind of physical thing i needed to do to get my mind off the present show of shit.

later i went shopping at trader joe's being pleasantly surprised to find everything i needed on the shelves, like bread & bananas.  the store was busy but i didn't feel that 'end of the world' vibe.  i also listened to a science podcast with a disaster preparedness expert who said to be serious about the pandemic but don't panic & put it in perspective.

which was a long way from feeling like yesterday at work & later at my local safeway.  it feels to me that we are moving to a war footing.  this shit is unprecedented in my life, & i'm sure yours too.  & yesterday panic was vibrating the very molecules of the air.

well, later today i settled in to read the news.  first, the local government issued a decree placing sacramento county on lockdown starting at midnight.  later, the governor ordered the entire state to begin self-quarantine.  anna is watching a counter ticking off the number of infections in real time where you can read the arithmetic of exponential growth as it happens.

what to say about all this?  i'm as concerned, confused & flummoxed as you.  i am not at the stage of panic.  this is not the end of the world, nor is it like the year 1348.  but today my friend john b-r reminded me that we would encourage each other with the words, 'let's party like it's 1347' as we were assembling our anthology, the end of the world project.

how the hell could we even hazard that the roaring '20s would be caused by a fever?  it does feel as if this were the night before new year's eve 1348.

it is dark right now.  it will probably get darker in the following weeks &/or months.  we got a ways to go 'to get back to normal'.  tho i am not sure the normal i knew as a younger person is no longer the norm of our present time.  i keep reading articles about how this pandemic will permanently reorient & change our society.  will it?  we shall soon find out.