This is the best I can do for you today – taken as I sit in my chair after a nearly sleepless night. I had a not so good night of sleep on Thursday night as well, so the combination of two such nights in a row has resulted in my stationary position. I have noticed that when my usual bedtime is changed for some reason, it sometimes results in sleep difficulties. And that happened both nights, simply because we were watching a movie that was longer than usual. Ah well.

The movie we watched last night was The Shape of Water, a movie that is on my top ten list. We haven’t seen it in a couple of years and Don suggested it for last night. I’m so glad he did. It is exquisite.

What else? Still reading The Sisters  and I read a good chunk of it this morning. The book I ordered from Oblong Books (which has, like everything else around here, had to close temporarily) arrived. Don ordered a book from them yesterday. We want to help our local bookstores during this time. As the Governor has issued an executive order,  New York State on Pause, essentially closing all non-essential services, I’ve received emails from all my favorite bookshops indicating they are closing. (A side note: in some European countries, bookshops are considered essential services. How enlightened!) Of course, this encompasses far more than bookshops, but since they hold a special place in my heart, I worry for them. Oh heck, I worry for all small business owners. Another book that Don ordered from a local bookshop arrived, but it was closing down, so Don paid now so that they have the money and will pick it up some day in the future. By the way, Governor Cuomo is my hero right now. His daily briefings are a beacon of sanity. They’re so well done. I feel fortunate to live here.

Don and I talk all the time about how surreal this is. I’m reading about the Mitford sisters and the section I am currently in is all about wartime London, when huge sacrifices were being made. If they could do it, we can do it. We’ve never really had to sacrifice in our lifetime, not like that. So it’s time to step up and do what is right. We citizens of New York State are being told to stay in our homes unless we have vital reasons to go out, just as California is doing. Frankly, that’s what we should all be doing anyway. No one is exempt.

STAY HOME

Look, it sometimes drives us crazy. And as of Sunday, restrictions are going to be even more stringent. But we’ll do it for our health and the health of everyone else on the planet. Don is getting quite creative with the food supplies we have on hand. Heck, we could live on beans and rice if we had to and we may have to do that at some point. Plenty of people currently living on this planet do just that. I’m reminded of the sacrifices my grandparents and parents made during the depression and WWII. We can do it as well. After reloading when we heard this was going to last longer than two weeks, we are doing our best right now to stay the course and, if at all possible, not go out to a grocery store for the foreseeable future. If we do, it will only be for something absolutely vital.

Happy Saturday.

Well…it’s been a week, which has sometimes seemed like a year. But we’re hanging in there here at the cottage. We’re doing our best to remember to be kind, send love to all, to be aware that on any given day one or both of us is going to have a hard time with this. It’s something we have never experienced before – none of us – so we take it day by day.

Today is rainy and foggy. Sigh.

I’m staying away from the news, though in my online explorations on Instagram I do encounter more facts and figures. Sometimes I read them, sometimes I don’t. But speaking of Instagram, I find much there that is heartening. Well known singers giving little concerts every day. Cooks sharing recipes. Book lovers posting their favorite ‘comfort’ reads. Gal Godot and many other performers singing “Imagine.” Jennifer Ehle, my favorite Elizabeth Bennett, reading Pride and Prejudice  out loud on IG Live. (Note to self: despite your TBR piles staring you in the face, I think a reread of P & P is in order.) The sharing and support that is cropping up all over the place on IG reminds me of how good we are. How we can and do rise to the occasion. Parisians clapping nightly for health care workers. A street seller in Columbia who sells sweets for $1 being give $100 instead by a couple who suspected he wasn’t earning any money because of the pandemic. Turns out he had no food in his house. The goodness and generosity of our fellow man is what I want to cling to. In Italy: a video of Fred & Ginger being projected onto a building (to the sound of Cheek to Cheek even though the dance is to Pick Yourself Up) and a couple dancing inside their apartment. Beautiful.

Bless them all.

Nothing else new here. I’m still reading The Sisters  (it’s 529 pages long) but I’m more than halfway through. Our copy of the Census arrived in yesterday’s mail. I’m looking into procuring absentee ballots for our primary on April 28th because who knows where we’ll be then. I’m yearning to start some sort of clearing outside, but the temperatures and the rain of the last two days have delayed that. I posted a quick video on IG of the nightly chorus from the peepers and bullfrog that live next door. We watched The Kings Speech (one of our favorites) last night. It’s time for feel-good movies.

I hope you’re well. Please take care of yourselves and STAY HOME.

Happy Friday.