COVID-19 Pandemic

This past week I'm wavering between a state of anxiety and denial. It feels like I am in the middle of a Margaret Atwood dystopian novel, but, make no mistake, COVID-19 is very real. 

Our state, our nation, our world is reeling. Too many have died and too many are sick. COVID-19 has branched out to every state and almost every country. 

I feel as though living in Minnesota is a pretty good place to be during this time. I am not getting into politics but do have to say that our  Governor seems to have our best interests in mind and tells us the hard truth, that things are difficult and doesn't white wash anything. He closed down schools and businesses pretty early into this pandemic.  He doesn't want to reopen until we can test and test thoroughly. We have some of the best  medical, manufactures and food companies world with Mayo, University of Minnesota, 3M, Medtronic, General Mills, Land O Lakes, Hormel. We are getting along.  I feel like we as a population follow our Governors' direction. We hunker down, we take social distancing seriously. I feel like we can do this. It won't be done without out grave loss.

Grocery stores near me are still being fully stocked each night. I haven't seen bare shelving. I think that because I live in small rural community our grocers haven't had the mad rush on products that the stores only 30 miles away have had. The only thing I have not been able to find is yeast, so I ordered a two pound brick from Amazon. Yes, I have plenty of toilet paper. My local mill is still grinding whole grain organic flour. 

I am not a social butterfly. I stay at home, I run alone, I enjoy time by myself. This shelter in place has taken away my weekly run with Amy, my yoga teacher training class and numerous races. I know that Amy and I will resume our weekly run, I know that yoga teacher training class will resume and races will come back next year.  I haven't had to change my schedule too much. I've realized again that I don't run to race. I race to force myself out of myself. I dislike packet pick up, the large crowed and chit chat. I dislike the crowds at the start and the finish. People feed my anxiety.  I enjoy the time from crossing the start line to crossing the finish line.  I enjoy the hours in-between. I don't mind the cancellations. I feel for the race directors, for their livelihoods. 

I feel like I have practiced social distancing my whole life. 

My down time is spent running, practicing yoga, baking  breads, reading, watching too much CNN and knitting. Instead of going from one of my hobbies at a time to another I am practicing them all, all of the time. I've been able to keep busy, to run long miles. I'm training as if I were still running a 50M in a few weeks, alas, it is cancelled. That's OK. I enjoy the time running alone. It brings me peace during this not peaceful time.

Hang in there. We can do this. 

I'm going to bake my way through Bread Baking Apprentice. I haven't picked it up in a few years and probably only baked a quarter of the breads. It brings back such good memories. The boys would pick out a bread a week for me to bake. I recall Tyler's favorite was the salami and cheese boule, Troy's favorite-caramel rolls. I looked at my notes throughout the book and the last one I wrote was from 2008.  Gosh, 12 years. Crazy. 

Stay healthy. Stay strong. Stay patient. We will get on the other side of this.