Tuesday

A beautiful day, one to be acknowledged if not enjoyed to the fullest. I unfortunately have things to do! Groceries to buy. Mom things to straighten out. (The move was good, but she's had some grumblings and miscommunications, so I need to get to the bottom of things.) Kids to pick up.

But of course, first comes animal care. Here's an early morning photo of our most beautiful shed cat: Dark Blue Tuxedo. She is a girl and others took the lead on naming her.






And breakfast, solo. Ed overslept and had to rush to a meeting. On zoom. That's going to be the new normal for a bunch of people in the weeks to come.






I pick up the kids at school and there I find the first true colors of spring. They have a south facing flower bed and sure enough, today the crocuses burst open.






(In Snowdrop's classroom, Sparrow is learning the ropes. He loves treating this as his space too.)






(At the farmhouse, the entire afternoon is spent reading and telling stories.)






(hey, chocolate mouth!)





And toward evening, I visit with their mommy. She has had a tumultuous set of days. It's so good to sit down and just exhale and offload together.



And now I am at the farmhouse. Dinner of leftovers long finished. Time to write some emails with explanations about a decision I finally came to. I'm canceling my trip (which was to begin this Friday) to Poland and France. You'd think -- well of course! So much danger out there at the moment! But this wasn't what prompted me to call it off. Though there is some chance of picking up the virus, none of the cities on my list are reporting huge outbreaks (at the moment). And chances are high I'd be sitting alone on the long flight there and back.

So why cancel? Ed would call it a Black Swan event: small risk, but with large consequences should it come to pass. Me, personally, I'd take a small risk to go see my sister, my friends. To walk through the Luxembourg Gardens. To be thrilled by the sight of primroses there. But this isn't about just me. We here in the US likely have a very large number of unidentified infections. Wisconsin's deceptively small numbers may be completely off. Between that and the flight, why would I want to make my friends in Poland nervous about getting together with me? And, importantly, why would I want to bring worry home? Ed and I are older. We need to look out for each other, for people we love, for others living in this grand state we call home.

So I wont go, even as I am terribly sorry about missing this trip. But, people have worse choices and greater anxieties facing them now. Me, I'm merely slated to have an expensive  (all those lost prepaid moneys) staycation. Still, I wont bring home the anxiety that would otherwise surely follow me around, like some wild animal waiting to bite hard. 

In the meantime, I'm also following this advice: skip the shakes and hugs for friends and colleagues. Let's all get used to a simple, elegant bow. A greeting of respect and of love.