June 15, 2020: The emerging Harrison emerald domain

It took a year, from breaking ground to laying the sod, but Touchdown Drive now has a sodded lawn.

We are now in the fourth month of the pandemic "flattening the curve," going back to mid-March, to that night when I ran out to Pick and Save for what I thought would be two weeks of hard lockdown -- no shopping, no groceries, no restaurants, no public events, no crowds -- that turned into thirteen weeks. In that period, Gaby came and stayed for about eight weeks. She is back taking classes and prepping for her remote internship, living in her apartment in Los Angeles for almost a month now. Jane arrived about two weeks later than Gaby, and has been with us since, save two same-day drives with Dena to check her apartment in Milwaukee. Dena has been working at home since mid-March, with little sign of return in the near term. She now has her assigned accounts that she will officially take over in a few weeks.

Peter continues to pray, protect and provide. Daily Mass with Hank, a rosary, prayers from the Divine Office, an evening Examen, are all part of a somewhat regular, daily routine. Sometimes he makes a Monday dawn run to Dick's for basic groceries. In the past week, his schedule has ramped up to include watering before 10:00 a.m. and after 6:00 p.m. He ordered up hoses, sprinklers, a new lawn mower, a line trimmer, and more to prepare to return to emerald green management duties. He also has been spending more time with Fr Carl at Holy Spirit, working with him to better manage his ministry team. Back to old habits, like developing a SWOT analysis and a vision, establishing commitment to purpose, setting goal, and managing a team. Feels like an MBA class.

The recent murder of an innocent black man at the hands of police in Minneapolis has fueled a national movement of both peaceable protests and riotous looting. The protests are everywhere; the looting is sometimes later. Big cities feel it the worst. The flash point for the start of the protests was this past week end, while we were having an idyllic experience in Beaver Dam. What had started as an emergence towards a more normal 'new normal' turned into days of national outrage. Appleton had 1,000 peaceful protestors on Monday. For the most part, Peter is trying to avoid the news. Stick to prayers.

These past twelve weeks have also meant a strong revival of my relationship with Hank Hilton, who I hired at Loyola in 1997 and who is now pastor at St Joseph's in Hillsborough (or Millstone), New Jersey. His daily, online Mass draws as many as 10,000 views. We speak perhaps twice a week and even more often we exchange emails.

We've had some Zoom sessions with the eight Lorenzi siblings and Gaby is a regular Facetimer from her apartment in Westwood. Everyone seems to be making the best of a difficult situation, and we have been blessed in my extended family that those pandemic demands have not been that difficult for us, and all are in good health. Yet we feel the strongest sense of empathy with our friends from our previous ties, in Baltimore and at Loyola, for Jane's Cristo Rey kids in Milwaukee. We keep them in the hundreds of thousands of people just in the United States who operate at the front line of recovery, be they medical professionals, grocers providing food, truck]k drivers making deliveries, government workers maintaining services, utility workers keeping the water, power and internet running. We appreciate their labors in adversity.

Harrison, Wisconsin in spring 2020 has also turned out to be a real blessing. We are near Abe and Jane. We have a safe house for the four of us, and all the supplies we have needed. The weather has termed warm and pleasant and walking, once sort of a sideline, has become an obsession for Peter and a regular release and relief for Jane Q, Abe, Dena and Jane L. Just yesterday, after a dawn 'setting of the sprinklers,' Peter set off for 6.7 miles before arriving back home in time for 7:35 Mass with Hank, followed by a meeting with Fr Carl and then a lunch time visit to see Abe and Jane. By 2:00, it felt like a long and satisfying day, with few restrictions or limits. Our blessings and gratitude abound!