2020 Life Logs, Day 86: Congratulations, Goldstones
Date: Thursday, March 26, 2020
Weather: Sunny with a Chill in the Wind; High 53 degrees, Low 39 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Congratulations to the Goldstones! Despite the statewide ban preventing all non-essential businesses from conducting in-person operations, they were able to close on their new home today. Evidently banks, the registry of deeds, and lawyers are considered essential services, so the sale was finalized today. The new home is only 3.4 miles from their current residence, just a little closer to downtown. It is a beautiful home in a wonderful neighborhood and now that it is theirs, they are anxious to make the move. The plan had been to wait until the school April vacation to move, but since there will be no school until at least May 4th, there will be no vacation week. The move can begin now. They spent the afternoon in their new home doing some cleaning and planning. Getting any work done right now is tricky. For one thing, you don’t want anyone coming into your home, so Heather and Jed are going to have to do most of the work themselves. The problem being that now that they are working and schooling kids at home, there is no time for anything else. But they will figure it out. For this moment, I just hope that they are celebrating tonight and dreaming of how wonderful it will be once they are moved into the new home. Once they returned home, I delivered a bottle of bubbly to Heather in the front yard as a celebration gift. They had just gotten home and it was past time to fix dinner, so we really didn’t get to talk. Hopefully we can talk this weekend so she can fill me on their moving plan.
Shelter-in-Place, Stay-at-Home, Lockdown, Quarantine . . . the policies that guide our lives in the time of Covid-19. It was a busy day and I thought I was following all of the ‘rules’ of physical distancing. But tonight as I reflected back on the day, I think I overstepped the bounds of safe confinement. This morning I delivered a couple of books to my friend Midge Frieswyk. We had planned to meet in her driveway, but before I got there, another friend stopped by and they were sitting in the open garage when I arrived. There was another chair for me, as well as a cup of tea, so I sat down and visited for a bit. It was wonderful to visit face-to-face, but probably not the best idea. Then I drove on to the Woodin’s to deliver a package, a hardcopy of a ‘How to Use Zoom’ PowerPoint, and some potting soil for Jane so she can start growing microgreens inside. We met outside the front door and certainly kept more than 6 feet between us as we tried out our abilities to connect via Zoom. It was great to see them for the first time in two months, but again, we’ll try to stick to Zoom in the coming weeks. When I got home it was time to take Shadow for a walk and get ready for my Memoir Writing class on Zoom. 
Today we reviewed my book introduction and first chapter in what I hope to develop into a complete book about the Voyage of Windbird. It was a small group of 4 and the input was very helpful and encouraging. We enjoyed the class on Zoom so much that we plan to meet again next week.
