I am fortunate in many ways. One of them is that the current need for social distancing has not impacted my life all that much—I’m pretty solitary to begin with.
Nonetheless, the knowledge that I can’t travel, must stay home and avoid people, immediately made me want to hit the road. I have womanfully resisted the urge, until today, when I decided a trip to the beach in the van would be ok , since I would still be isolated in my own “home”, and when out, could easily be more than six feet from any other person.
I figured even my favorite walking beach might be unusually crowded, and it was. See all the people?
Look carefully—they’re there. I think I counted ten vehicles in the parking lot, and saw at least seven people on the beach. About what I would expect on a summer weekend.
It was typical spring Oregon beach weather, which means windy. I figure any virus trying to get to me—or anyone else for that matter—didn’t have a chance.
More pictures.
Holed up there out of the wind for a bit. Scamp kept bringing me the remnants of her stick, and I actually managed to get it away from her to throw it a couple of times. It finally got too short for me to risk playing tug any more—she’s not particularly careful about avoiding my fingers, and her jaws are very strong—to her disappointment.
Heading back downwind to the van:
And now I’m here . . .
. . . overlooking my beautiful valley home, creating this post.
Hope this finds you all well, coping, and not overly anxious.
Beautiful beach since all I see is blue sky and don’t have to deal with the wind. WA beaches are the same! I had a similar reaction to the idea of NOT being able to get out and socialize. I wanted to because I couldn’t. I am a very outgoing person though and live alone, thus isolation isn’t great for me. I am anxious about my kids in Ohio and New York, especially my pregnant daughter in NY. Many worries also about my elderly parents who refuse to behave themselves and stay in. 😦
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Hi Jean, When I heard the news that the tennis bubble was shutting down I was thrilled. It is a burden – almost like going to work – to commit to tennis three times a week, but I know it’s good to socialize and get exercise. I was less thrilled that my Lightroom course was also canceled, but gives me time to work on editing some photographs with some of the amazing stuff we’d already learned. All in all semi-isolation doesn’t seriously impact my life greatly either, at least for now. Once the novelty of not having to do anything wears off it might not be so much fun. (My new car finally arrived and I am kind of sorry there’s no place to go and no one to go show it too, but I admire it in the driveway.) And if all the closures don’t do their job it will be downright depressing. Let’s hope the virus can be reasonably contained.
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Stay safe and sane!
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Wonderful social distancing, with fresh air, the sea and a home out of the wind when you’ve had enough. Good thinking and preparation made it all possible. Well done, Jean.
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