2020 Life Logs, Day 79: First Day of Spring
Date: Thursday, March 19, 2020
Weather: Overcast and Rainy; High 47 degrees, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
For the first time since 1896, spring came a little early this year. Usually the vernal or spring equinox, the moment when we have more daylight than darkness, the moment when exactly half the earth is in darkness while the other half is in light, happens on March 20 or 21. This year March 19th was that day in every time zone in the USA. I normally celebrate that day, but somehow with the coronavirus threat, I don’t feel like we just emerged from the darkness. Nevertheless, the extra seconds/minutes of daylight will help me cope. 
My first day of spring was not particularly productive, but I made some progress. I did a load of laundry in the bathtub as I don’t have a washer or dryer. I made the decision not to buy one and to just continue using Heather and Jed’s. But since I am not going over there for now, I decided to do the essentials here at home. For the years that we sailed around the world, I did all of our laundry in a 5-gallon bucket, so the bathtub is a step up in the world. I actually put things in to soak overnight and then rinsed, wrung out by hand, and hung up on a rack in the bathtub this morning. Since it rained all day today, I couldn’t hang things outside, but everything is drying nicely, even a pair of jeans and a king-sized sheet. I then turned my attention to the shelves I brought up from the basement yesterday. I assembled them yesterday, but still needed to screw down the cross bars that stabilize the two sets of shelves. These are open shelves used for growing plants, so there is no backboard to stabilize them. Once that was done, I put the living room furniture back in place and brought up the seed starting kits and grow lights from the basement. I didn’t get anything planted, but I will work on that tomorrow. I truly feel like I am working in slow motion these days, but I’m giving myself permission to do this for now. I think it is taking all of us time to adjust to this new reality. Heather called on her lunch break and brought me up-to-date on what is happening over there. They are still struggling with striking a balance between working and schooling at home. Heather and Jed realize just how lucky they are to be paid to work at home, but that doesn’t make dealing with three boys at the same time any easier. I know they look forward to the weekend so they can take a break from work and spend more time trying to get the boys to buy into this new lifestyle. Ollie’s birthday is on Saturday and we talked about having an outside birthday party. Yay! I haven’t seen any of them for a week now, so I’ll look forward to our outdoor party with appropriate social distancing.
Heather and I talked about our worries about the impact all of this is having on local small businesses and about those people who are losing their jobs. She and many of her friends are trying to find ways to support them. Then on tonight’s news, I saw an interview with celebrity chef José Andrés who founded the World Central Kitchen whose slogan is, “Wherever there is a fight so that hungry people may eat, we will be there.” This is a non-governmental organization that is dedicated to providing meals for people in the wake of natural disasters. It was started in 2010 when the organization prepared food in Haiti following the devastating earthquake there. They were also in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria and Andrés is now working in New York City in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and helping other restaurateurs all over the country to find a way to help feed people in need at this time. Pandemic or not, people do have to eat and José Andrés intends to make sure he finds ways to support those in need. That gave me the incentive to find ways to support those small local restaurants who have had to close their doors but are still providing take-out. I seldom eat out, but for those that do, getting take-out from these small restaurants might help them survive this disaster.
