Day 25 of rollback-California Covid-19 spike-Governor shuts us down

A crowded hallway at North Paulding High School in Dallas, GA on Tuesday…

You know those Georgian students who tweeted pictures of their high school hallways, crammed with unmasked students as they changed classes?  They were suspended!!  The Georgia Superintendent said the pictures “weren’t a good look” and forbid students from posting similar pictures on social media!  Maybe the pictures “aren’t a good look” because returning to school and pretending Covid-19 doesn’t exist isn’t a “good idea.” If this isn’t censorship, I don’t know what is.

Thursday. 8/6/20

College enrollment dips to 18…

8:30-10:00 - The dog starts barking so I go downstairs and take her out.  Again, no accidents!  And, she is barking later in the morning now. I open the downstairs windows and light a candle. Cheese. Back upstairs and I alternate drinking water with my coffee – primarily coffee – and listen to The Daily; Start Here; What a Day; and Up First. I also read a Money Diary.

10:00-12:00 – I write yesterday’s blog post.  I have a lot to say.

12:30-1:30 – I eat two cookies and do a 1-hr HIIT Full Body Circuit workout with weights.

L. leaves for Portos in Burbank to pick up a cake and empanadas for R.’s birthday tonight. I ask her to pick up some empanadas for me. She stops elsewhere for a cheese plate.

1:30-2:00 – I make a strawberry, almond butter, and avocado smoothie.

2:00-2:30 – I drink my smoothie and read another Money Diary.

L. returns with the goods then leaves again to set up the hotel room she reserved for R.’s birthday before she reports to work at 4:15.  She’s off at 6:30 and will meet R. later at the hotel room. L. leaves 4 empanadas for me.

2:30-3:30 – In assessing my daily retirement routine, I’m not sure that I like how I’ve structured today.   It’s largely over and I haven’t done much... Shower and listen to This is Uncomfortable.

4:30-5:30 – I braid my hair and listen to The Political Gabfest.

I have a spinach and cheese empanada, but , as usual, find that Portos is highly over-rated. The empanada is too dry.

5:30-6:15 – I go on a short bike ride and it’s short because my muscles are locking up from the workout I did earlier in the day. The other day, as I was driving down McBean, I noticed an interesting bike path that I’d like to try. I make a hard left out of my community and bike to Red Robin, just to see what’s going on and also because it’s semi-near the bike path I want to take. Red Robin has a few tables outside but it looks like they have pivoted primarily back to take-out again.

I ride to the path and check it out – I’m in, but not today as my legs are really sore – and I decide to bike home. If this entry sounds defeatist, it’s not.  I’m not discouraged at all.  If my annual tarot-card fortune-teller [December] had foreseen my 2020 future and proclaimed, “In three months, you will be more physically active then you’ve ever been in your life [excluding my teen years when I played volleyball, basketball, softball and was on the cheer leading squad] and the bulk of your activities will evolve around outdoor activities, like biking, hiking, walking, and going to parks and the beach,” I would have thought he was crazy. But, after Covid-19 happened, the activities I liked to do – local theater, chamber music, plays, musicals, brunches, cruises, traveling – disappeared and the only thing left was nature. For better or worse, it is what it is.

7:00-8:00 – I read online news.

8:30-9:45 – I talk to B. and continue skimming online news. He’s back from his road trip and had a good time.

9:45-10:45 – I check out the MMA Bellator main fight card and watch a video clip of one of the fighters. I was a big UFC fan, but that has also disappeared post-Covid.  It’s a vastly different experience watching a cage fight on TV instead of attending it in person. I wouldn’t mind paying for a fight and watching it at home, but I can never figure out the platform that’s hosting it, so I (sigh) gave up.

10:45-11:30 – I clean the kitchen and heat up a frozen enchilada meal that I bought pre-pandemic when I was stockpiling food because I thought L. and I would starve. It doesn’t taste very good, but I wash it down with champagne. My food choices today were abysmal.

11:30-12:30 – Night time routine while I’m watching a few Forensic Files.