73 is.

Exactly one year ago today I was having a peak experience. Today I am not. But I am also not complaining.

I may not be up a mountain by a beautiful little lake, but I am in my comfortable house in a beautiful setting, strategically placed just enough inland to avoid the worst of the coastal fog and rain, and yet close enough to the coast to benefit from the natural air conditioning. [Which is apparently going to fail us in the coming week, but still–it will be the first time this summer the temperature has climbed higher than the eighties. (27-32 degrees celsius for everyone outside the US).]

I’m one of the Americans still practicing shelter at home, social distancing, and masking, but it has all impacted my life much less than most. My county has so far had a low incidence of covid, and in spite of the high proportion of conservatives and rabid trumpists*, compliance with masking has gradually increased, as far as I can tell (which is a good thing–fall and winter are coming.) I trim my own hair, but that’s not new–I have done for fifteen years or more. I canceled my planned cross-country trip–that’s probably the biggest adjustment I’ve had to make, but I have still taken some nice jaunts nearby. Like others, I miss in-person socializing and hugs, but I’m normally a bit of a hermit, so again it’s not that big a change for me. Day to day hardly any change, in fact, it’s just the length of time I’m going without socializing that’s the biggest difference. *Actually this is more of an assumption than any intrusion into my life. I know the majority of voters in this county vote Republican, and I do see trump signs around, but not a lot–did see a pickup flying a couple of trump 2020 flags a week or two ago, but it’s the only one I’ve seen–and I rarely get into political discussions around here, so . . . .

My shingles and PHN have affected my quality of life more than covid (knock wood and hope to God I never get it), BUT the PHN is gradually, ever so slowly, receding so I have hope I won’t be one of those who never get over it. And I got the first shingles vaccination shot this week, so hopefully this is not an experience I will have to repeat. My energy level is almost back to my pre-shingles level, and Scamp keeps me walking. Here’s some video from a short (about an hour) walk on the beach we did yesterday.

So. 73 is. And all in all I’m doing ok.