More thoughts in the time of COVID-19 …
Day 144 of the lockdown …
There are still some who question the necessity for masks but, with a nursing background, I tend to think wearing them is a safeguard. I don’t like it. Never did. Not when I was working. Not now. But I will continue to wear mine.
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The weather here has remained warm, on the verge of hot, and dry with humidity in the teens. Fortunately, the fires are around us and in the lower part of the state. A watering schedule has been set up around the house and most of the clearing has been done. The trees, both deciduous and evergreen, are shades of green. And the air is clear now that the wind has changed direction.
There is a place very close which is being rented out as a campsite (without permits so far … but that’s a different tale) which was noted to have a campfire last week. A bit scary, but the campers were very accommodating when asked to be aware of the danger to the area and put out the fire.
Makes me wonder if the owner is aware of his liability (he lives 5 hours away and is supposed to be “overseeing” campers), which in this weather could run into the millions were a fire to get out of hand.
Oh well …
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Only one more morning (tomorrow) of preparing lunches for south county kids in need. And still no concrete decision about whether or not schools will open.
Some loud opinions being voiced about kids NEEDING to be together made me think about the years of radio schooling in the Australian Outback. Those children would sometimes go months without seeing anyone other than their immediate family and the hired help on the station. I never heard that they suffered from lack of a good education, and they seem to have matured into an adult society much like other adult societies.
Of course, because those stations were pretty much self-sufficient, those children didn’t go hungry. So maybe we need to concentrate on seeing that children don’t go hungry, have access to communication, and as a result education will follow.
Call me a dreamer, but wouldn’t it be nice if that were part of the new world following this pandemic?
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Tomorrow is the first of the planned “Pizza at the Fire House” evenings. There are two goals …
1. To make contact between more of the locals and the fire fighting personnel, and
2. To distribute information about planning for a fire and possible evacuation.
The fun comes with planning with COVID restrictions in mind. Fortunately, weather is not a problem so a lot of what is planned can be set up outdoors (and being the first event of this kind makes all planning new). Letting folks see the equipment, meet the firefighters, listen to the emergency planning spiel, and eat pizza can all be set up spaced in and around the firehouse. We aren’t expecting a lot of people, since this is a first, which means there are no rules. We’ll see how it goes and replan for the next time which is scheduled for the first week in September.
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Had an interesting thing happen a couple of weeks ago. One day, out of the blue, more than two-thirds of my Facebook “friends” were unfriended, but not by me. I am gradually getting them back, but it was a jolt.
I’ve seen posts from others who had the same experience. Seems normal is no longer normal in a lot of places. Guess I’ll just check my “friends” list occasionally.
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The family spent last monday at Crater Lake. I remember years ago when George and I went the first time. It was late summer and we were the only ones there. That is happening more now with restrictions in place. There were controlled one direction lines in place for the information centers and the prime outlooks.
It seemed to have been an enjoyable day. Mark reminisced. Kamille saw more of the west. Paul wrote and drew pictures of the area (the caldera, Wizard Island, and the Phantom Ship). He even had a conversation with one of the tourist-wise chipmunks.
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With all the finger-pointing going around, my thoughts recently turned to “blame” … what is it? why do we feel it is necessary? who is our favorite target? why them? does it really make us feel better? more secure? stronger? less identifiable? even maybe blameless?
And conversely … what if we always accept the blame?
Sometimes pondering can be heavy.
To criticize ourselves when we make mistakes is not useful. Learn from mistakes. The definition of a spiritual person is someone who makes 30-50 mistakes each day and talks to the Creator after each one to see what to do next time.
Today let me see my mistakes as a positive process. Let me learn the aha’s of life. Awaken my awareness so I can see the learning designed for my life.
… Adapted from the Pawnee
So … ‘til next week …