Hello!

All is good with me and the rest of my family and I hope that you and your family are also well and taking the necessary precautions and STAYING HOME.

We are really fortunate – we dodged one when we went to Europe in February. We got back just as it started to heat up. Wisely we took precautions to sanitize everything on most public transit when possible and didn’t touch door handles etc. None of the three of us have any illnesses (other than the seasonal tree pollen allergies giving me problems) after being back for six weeks so that’s quite a relief.

I have been home from MT about four weeks as of this post, and I have been out away from the house only 5-6 times getting groceries and prescriptions. I limit my exposure pretty seriously. I do not order takeout even though I would sure like to have some Thai or Vietnamese food while I support our local businesses – I’ll sure be back in line there when this goes away. I am staying home and away from everyone, and any shopping trip I take is get in/get out as fast as possible. I should be able to stay away from the store for two weeks after my last trip.

Cooking new things at home has been fun though. Since I am not eating out I figure if I want to eat something bad enough I will make it so that is what I have been doing. I want to try to make some Irish brown bread but a lot of the baking supplies are nowhere to be found – no flour on the shelves. Perhaps this will spark some huge change in people actually cooking at home again, which will be necessary since many restaurants may not recover from this to reopen.

We finally are enjoying a break in the weather in my area so the dog and I are getting outside quite a bit. We have been out in the sun playing fetch, ball, and Frisbee several times each day so that is a welcome change. We even get to just kick back on the patio and relax. He is enjoying getting out more and we have a lot of fun even though he’s a little bastard sometimes. Yesterday it was a very sunny and pleasant 58 degrees and calm and it is supposed to be even nicer the next two days. Pretty perfect weather.

My backyard is pretty well shaded and the grass is getting tall but it is too wet to mow everything at once so I hope to finish it up over the next few days as it dries out. I really hate mowing grass and have never understood the need for it other than keeping defensible space right next to the house and to keep rodents out. It pollutes, is noisy, and is completely unnecessary. I don’t care how it looks and I hope that we can get away from that thinking at some point.

I’ve been in a major Ireland state of mind lately; I’ve been really thinking about our adventure quite a bit. Yeah the rest of the trip was great, too, but Ireland really affected me very deeply. It is something I was really not prepared for; I had an idea that spending that much time in Ireland and seeing the family castle would “do something” to me but I didn’t know how or what or how much it would be but I have to go back there before I go anywhere else. And I will.

Given the current state of affairs I don’t know how long it will be until it is safe to fly again (biologically, that is). I plan to go back over as soon as I can and the focus of the trip will be Ireland – other countries if time (and money!) permits and if, in fact, I feel like it. Also, given the current state of affairs, it is something positive that I can begin to think about and look forward to doing.

In the meantime, though, I can also think about road trips. Whenever it is good to do so I can try to get some of my U.S./Canada road trips in while I can, but only when I can. I had some fairly ambitious plans to do some road trips this year but sometimes things change so you have to be flexible and sometimes it means you’re staying at home like it or not. I am not making any trips other than necessary.

I am looking for a few other things to do with all of this downtime. I have been looking at new guitars online but I want to play one before I buy one. I am also looking at getting a Dremel tool. I need to install a water heater power switch in the trailer and a Dremel would be handy for doing that but i would like to do other stuff with it if I weren’t artistically deficient.

That’s all for now. Just wanted to post a quick update to let those who read the blog know that my family and I are staying well. I send good thoughts to everyone out there to stay well. Be sure to think about and support the healthcare pros on the front lines by staying safe and doing what you are supposed to do and not what you want to do. Listen to those who really know what they are talking about and ignore the fucking idiots who may think they do but don’t.