Monday 6 April 2020

Gaby ran a half marathon yesterday. Dena and I tried to show support, walking about five miles of the distance. It was a glorious, sunny, Bruin blue day when she set off just after noon thirteen miles east and ran due west on Schmidt Road, finishing with a 7:22 pace.

Last night Gaby and Dena made a large grocery run to Festival Foods. We are back to our four-person grocery budget and schedule and we have been fortunate that the grocers have had supplies in their normal abundance, save some of the paper and personal care products. We are now seeing shields at the check out counters, and more people in masks. And by 'we' that does not include me or Jane for the most part, as Jane and I have tried to minimize exposure.

Received a call this morning from 81-year old Hank Sims, my doctoral advisor from 1976-78. He and wife Laurie are long retired, living near the water in Pasadena, Maryland, and are now planning to move into a continuous living two-bedroom apartment once they sell their house. In the middle of all this, it is hard to identify a timetable but for now it seems better that they be isolated at home than in a senior community living center.

Started the morning reciting the rosary with parishioners of Hank Hilton's St Joseph parish back in New Jersey, followed by a moving Stations of the Cross, using a link from the same parish, and closing with Hank's 7:35 a.m. Mass. Fully 'prayed up' for the morning, the day rolled out with Sims' call, laundry, dishes, some online accounting...and more laundry.