This year is the weirdest year I can remember. I've completely lost track of time, what day it is. There has been nothing on our calendar for the past five and a half months. On March 12, we canceled scheduled house concerts through August, hoping things would get back to normal, that the coronavirus would be under control by then and we could resume having guests and live music here. But that hasn't happened. Now we've had to cancel everything through the end of 2020. In fact, the numbers of people contracting the virus has gone up continuously and some of the public isn't taking precautions recommended by the medical experts. Those same people are the ones complaining about having to wear masks, not understanding that the longer they refuse to take precautions the longer it will take our country to get back to any semblance of what we've thought of as 'normal'. Their refusal to comply with simple preventative measures only serves to lengthen the time we are limited in social interactions, to go without being able to safely attend a sporting event, to have our children go back to something of a regular school schedule. And the repercussions affect our economy and the ability of businesses to reopen. Bottom line, people's refusal to take the necessary precautions to stop the spread of the virus now hurts our entire country. This virus is a public health and safety issue, and we should put the politics of it out of our mind. If this epidemic were happening at any time other than an election year, reason would prevail and we would have gotten the epidemic under control much sooner.
On the bright side, we've gotten to spend time at home and get some cleaning done, things we've put off for the past couple of years. We've finally unpacked boxes and either given away stuff that's been packed up for 10 years or donated it, from clothes to house decor.
I started going to cardio rehab twice a week to work on getting my heart stronger and developing a good exercise regimen for when I finish the 36 week program and am on my own to keep up the cardio exercises. It's been like having a personal trainer for those sessions and I can really feel a difference in my energy level and my mental function. Even though I still have a little voice at the back of my subconscious reminding me that I have a life-threatening condition, I am not living with the fears I had three months ago. I haven't fallen unconscious, had to go to the emergency room at the hospital, or had a seizure since last November. I can't wait for my followup appointment with my cardiologist in December!
Andy and the kids are doing fine. School, sheep, and chickens are keeping the kids busy. Drew did most of the spring and summer semester on-line but has a couple of hands-on art classes on campus he has to go to twice a week so we are all still being extra diligent about wearing masks, social distancing, and disinfecting anything that comes into the house.
I've been working on a grant application through Oklahoma Humanities to bring a Smithsonian Institution exhibition about rural Oklahoma to our town. The exhibition is going to visit six towns in Oklahoma. The project is going to take lots of volunteers from the community to pull it off, if our town is chosen as one of the host towns. The grant application is quite the challenge, but what else do I have to do??
If anyone actually reads this, NOTE that we are no longer using a PO Box! We finally got a real street address both for 911 service and Google maps. The "new" address is 4978 S HWY 8A, WATONGA, OK 73772. AND soon we'll have fiber for our internet! Lots of things I miss about Texas, but I do love living out in the country far from the maddening crowd! We'll be open for visitors after the first of the new year.
