San Francisco Bay Area. Shelter in Place. Day 3.
I wake at 5 this morning. An hour later than yesterday. Wait with the dog beside me on the couch for the sky to lighten so we can venture out for our morning walk. The living room is still chilled with the night and I cover myself with my dark blue wool blanket as I drink two cups of Peet’s coffee and look through my email. I text back and forth with a friend who is also an early riser. Fill out a check to transfer funds from the bank to the credit union. A strip of silver-grey sky widens outside the tall windows.
If you need to keep things as light as possible, watch “Puppy Prep” (on Hulu). There are only five 15-minute episodes of this show, but if you need a jolt of joy that is appropriate for all ages, this is it. The series follows puppies who are in training to become service dogs, which is great on its own (see also Disney Plus’s “Pick of the Litter”), and the quirky and bright narration adds another element of fun.
Since, Tuesday, the first day of the Shelter in Place order, I’ve been publishing daily tips for members of the Sausalito Village. Things for them to do during these 45 days: free live streaming opera and classical ballet; suggested reading; Qi gong and yoga; free online courses; ideas on free food delivery services. And it is through the information which flows from Village members into my inbox each morning that I discover Whole Foods is featuring a “Seniors Only Hour” each morning before they open to the general public. Providing us with access to the store when it is freshly clean and the shelves are amply stocked.
During these volatile and challenging times, it's natural to feel afraid, anxious, or threatened. But being consumed by fear causes wear and tear on the body, which actually undermines your safety. To help people cope, stay calm, and be effective during the Coronavirus pandemic, I've created this page of free resources. Rick Hanson
Last night, a young volunteer from Sausalito Village dropped off some groceries for me, but this morning, as I’m heading to the bank anyway, I’ve decided to stop off at Whole Foods and pick up some blueberries, sparkling water, and salad dressing.
About 7:30 and the pup and I are walking around a field near the house. The air smells green like freshly cut grass: A maintenance crew is out, mowing the lawn and taking down the temporary plastic orange fencing which has surrounded the grounds the past year. Not an essential service, but I’ve been noticing the past few days on my daily walks around the neighborhood that gardeners are still gardening, house cleaners are still cleaning. Everything is always eerily silent. On Tuesday, there were perhaps ten cars in the teacher’s parking lot in the school up the street. Yesterday, only one.
READ: 11 Musical TV Shows to Binge While Self-Quarantined During the Coronavirus Outbreak
More and more, live musicals are being filmed for PBS or streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, BroadwayHD and more. Productions of Off-Broadway’s Puffs to Broadway’s Indecent to the West End’s An American in Paris, new captures of stage productions regularly become available.
We get in the car, my little bottle of hand sanitizer in the cup holder beside me and head over to the strip mall. I’ve got to be honest here: I’m feeling frightened. For the past five or six days, only one person has been in my house and we kept six feet apart and I sanitized the doorknobs after she left. I know that my house and my car are safe places, that I’ve isolated enough to feel safe from the virus. Now I am about to interact with the world again.
Of course, books can be a balm in these terrifying times—but as the surge in sales of plague-related literature reveals, sometimes all we want to read are books that speak directly to our terrifying times. Well, friends, with a little elbow grease, any book can be a coronavirus book. Behold: the first lines of 10 classic novels, rewritten for these times of social distancing.
Mrs. Dalloway
“Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. Then she remembered the florist was closed. And the party was cancelled. Finally, some time to rest and reflect on her marital choices.”
Swann’s Way
For a long time, I went to bed early. I wasn’t even that tired. It was more like, hey: here’s a good way to pass the time.
The first lines of 10 classic novels, rewritten for social distancing.
I take the dog with me into the small 24x7 cubicle outside the credit union’s lobby to deposit my check. A self-dispensing container of Purell is located right next to the front door. Two employees are standing outside Whole Foods, informing shoppers that they are not allowed inside unless they are over 65. The store is scantly occupied. A stooped older man with his grey hair tucked under a Cal cap fills a bag with bagels before getting behind me in the 15-item express check out. Sanitizing hand wipes are provided at the door and just to be extra careful I use my hand sanitizer again when I get back into the car.
Nightly Met Opera Streaming
The New York Metropolitan Opera is streaming encore presentations from its award-winning "Live in HD" series of cinema transmissions on its website for the duration of it's closure, Selections include Puccini's "La Bohème" (March 17), Verdi's "Il Trovatore" (March 18), Verdi's "La Traviata" (March 19), Donizetti's "La Fille du Régiment" (March 20), Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" (March 21), and Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" (March 22).
A friend just came by to visit in the backyard. He is a sensational gardener and while house-sitting for me last year he planted cuttings in beds around the deck and alongside the fence. He dallied for about fifteen minutes, weeding. After he left a neighbor called to check in on me. Told me they are no longer allowed to go out for walks in Italy. (I researched it after we hung up and found out it’s not so. (Link: Vox: “Each city is a ghost city”: Life in Italy under full coronavirus lockdown). You can still walk your dog or go for a solo outing. )
I find I am just cherishing the times I spend outside with my dog. Listening to the ground beneath our feet, the birds rustling in the undergrowth. I feel gratitude for the people in my life who check in with me each day. But those six feet feel like a mile. The space between us on the telephone line seems infinite. I will celebrate my 69th birthday next month without receiving a hug.
LINCOLN, Neb. — My mother was born into a flu-stricken household at the height of the flu pandemic of 1918. Within minutes she was swaddled in a homemade quilt and placed into the arms of the local priest who had come to deliver last rites to my grandmother and, they feared, to the baby as well. We’re Doing What We Can to Keep Truckers on the Road
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
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