Lifelines...

    Recently in a conversation with my friend, Amy, we were talking about how our introverted personalities helps us deal with quarantine. Amy said a very introverted friend talking about the restrictions imposed by COVID said "I've been waiting my whole life for this!" Now, I wouldn't go that far but solitude is not oppressive for me.
    Amy lives in Melbourne and teaches at the University of Melbourne.  After intitial success at curbing COVID a second wave started there. To counteract the spread of the virus Melbourne locked down. If Amy is caught leaving her neighborhood, except for emergency, she would be fined $1,600. Contrast that with America!
  There are several lifelines that assist me in dealing with quarantine. Access to the outdoors is a real mood enhancer. Today, with little work pressing in the fields, I walked 2.5 miles before breakfast. As a boy I accompanied my father out to see the crops. I thought we should take a tractor, we walked😃. Walking (marching) in the Marines could be a bit excessive, but I do like to walk.
    The telephone allows me to fill my "people bladder" everyday. 2-4 phone calls a day, some of them quite lengthy, is another lifeline. It is a good antidote to isolation.
     Yes, I'm old, but I value the internet. Tonight I'll watch a replay of the WNBA Lynx afternoon win over Connecticut. Without internet I'd probably need television. Everyday I read the Minneapolis paper and the Washington Post online. My internet dependence was quickly revealed when my laptop died a few weeks ago. The internet brings the world to me  in The Little House On The Prairie...another lifeline.
    My parents gave me the gift of reading. When the days works was done, the cows milked and the supper dishes washed, my parents could be found in their respective rocking chairs reading. The gift of reading was one of the factors that helped me compensate for an inadequate high school. Now I have time to read and it's a blessing. In addition to the daily papers and other online material, I've read 32 books since March 1, and I've barely gotten started. Blessed with good eyesight the parental gift of reading is a very important lifeline.
    My mother suffered from macular degeneration and was almost blind the last ten, or so, years of her life. Services For The Blind sent her books on tape so she could keep up with her reading. Our telephone calls often included discussions of the books she'd read via tape.
   So, that's how I stay sane....OK OK...some semblance of sanity anyway.

Takk for alt

Al

The building in which I attended grades 1-8. The entry room has been replaced by a garage door.