Yesterday I walked Ben through the application for Medicaid. That was my one accomplishment for the day, besides putting in another grocery order and making nice greens flavored with smoked salmon along with rice and fried tilapia. I ate too much.

Today, laundry will be my accomplishment. This doesn’t take up much time, however. I hang my clothes on drying racks but I have always done that. Dinner tonight will be beans and veggies cooked with a smoked turkey leg.

We got a new set of face masks that are so superior to the ones I made that I immediately ordered another set. We are supposed to launder masks between uses. We don’t use them much because we only make rare dashes into a grocery store or into a restaurant for pickup.

Restaurants are catching on to the advantages of offering “family meals”. Last Friday when I didn’t feel like making my Friday curry I ordered a family meal from a local Italian restaurant: an aluminum pan of pasta, one of salad, and a loaf of fresh bread. It was yummy and no wasteful Styrofoam. We had gotten away from eating pasta but it is so comforting. Oh, and two pints of gelato! We have also been avoiding ice cream because my husband is pre-diabetic and has little willpower against ice cream in the freezer. We made the gelato last four days.

It is gray and chilly again today after a string of lovely days in which I pulled most of the weeds out of my huge garden. Gardening makes me happy. Watching the robin’s nest above our backdoor light makes me happy.

I sit and meditate for 20 minutes but meditation these days usually means letting myself be sad and angry and helpless. What does one do in a country run by a madman? There are only so many, and limited, workarounds.

When our governor announced the immediate, though gradual, lifting of restrictions I was of two minds:

1. It’s way too early; the numbers are still going in the wrong direction and this move is simply to avoid the fascist protests we’re seeing in other state capitols.
2. I want to visit my family and get my hair cut.

The want-to-visit-family mind is being very cautious, however. The numbers are changing crazily in the wrong direction because the Madman has suppressed the truth. Nothing that comes out of his mouth has any relation to the truth.

I cut my own hair a while ago so the haircut can wait a bit. I did a pretty good job on my husband’s hair.

People lined up at a local mall waiting to get in when it opened yesterday. The thought of going to the mall makes me shudder.

The nearby park has a new labyrinth. Walking in convoluted circles seems an appropriate thing to do.

I am wealthy. I have enough toilet paper, meat, face masks, and daffodils. A robin couple and a refugee make their home with us. What do you value these days?