Day Nine (Tuesday, March 24): Today had some highs and lows. I didn’t sleep well last night, which is never a great way to start the day. But I sleep in longer than I normally do. Just when I say/think I’m getting more sleep than usual, I don’t sleep well. Such is life.

I did get outside for a long walk with one of my dogs. I know, I should take both of them, but that seemed like too much work. But it felt so great to be outside, by myself, with my own thoughts. The memory of it, just a few hours later, makes me smile and relax, and resolve to walk (both dogs) each day. However, it is supposed to rain tomorrow, which has already put a damper on my walk and my mood.

Trying to stay connected during this time is drastically improved with technology. We all have (multiple) group chats with various friends and family members. Today, one such group chat spontaneously turned into a group FaceTime, which Friday night will turn into a FaceTime Happy Hour. Something to look forward to at the end of the week. (Hopefully I won’t drink all my wine before then. And thankfully, liquor stores are considered an essential business and allowed to stay open.)

No Monopoly games today. Instead we had a family meeting. We’re all adjusting to this new (hopefully not for long) normal, and needed to clear the air. (More wine please…) But I did manage to clean a few rooms. Nothing like the smell of bleach to feel like you’re keeping the virus out of your house.

I remember several years ago, I was frantically sweeping the leaves out of our garage, and my older son (who was not-so-old at the time) looked at me and said, “You really hate leaves in the garage, don’t you?” I paused, looked at him and smiled, and then went back to sweeping; but his question stuck with me. Did I really hate leaves in the garage so much that my son noticed? And then I realized that cleaning was a form of control. Or, for me, I clean when I feel out of control. That afternoon, when I came inside, I wrote the first page (or a page) of what I hope will be a new book.

I thought of this story today as I was scrubbing our master bathroom grout with a toothbrush. And I thought of the one page I had written many years ago. Tomorrow, I will find that page on my laptop and continue writing. Because “not having enough time,” is no longer a valid excuse.
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