May 2

Today was a beautiful day to arise from the deep slumber that had taken hold of me. Saturday I think.  We started our day looking to see if fuzzy face was on TV. Apparently he had taken the day off.

 Slapshot was on TV. I was so desperate for hockey that I decided to record it. Slap shot staring Paul Newman as a young man, a classic hockey film from the seventies. The Hansen brothers were anti-hero’s in the classic comedy about hockey and goonery. I recorded it not sure when I would take the time to watch it. I just knew I missed hockey, we should be watching the playoffs by now.

We finished planting our garden today. Working the soil felt satisfying, I channeled my energy directly into the earth. I looked forward to the boon from the seeds that we relinquished into the ground. Our seedlings ready to settle into our soil, we committed them to the earth and felt a satisfaction with what we have transferred into our future. The harvest that we worked toward will be a boon beyond any we have had, our garden is planted earlier than ever before.

My daughter has been a big help this week. We had a good day yesterday, today we decided it was time for her to learn to cut the grass. She did a great job as she spent the afternoon pacing the mower around out spacious yard. The garden was in and the grass cut we  welcomed our neighbours for a cocktail hour on the back patio. I lit a campfire and we connected over a few beverages. We spent the next couple hours hanging out at the fire. We were joined a while later by another couple of neighbours.

Social distance backyard fire was our evening entertainment. We enjoyed connecting with our friends until the rains came.

With a sudden rush the sky opened up and sent us fleeing into my shop. I set up a propane fire and we continued our visit under the cover of the garage. The storm squall didn’t last too long and we moved back out to the fire. By now it was six of us hanging out trying to social distance at the fire. We know inherently we are safe. Underneath we hold a nagging fear; what if one of us has it? We all agree that we have spent the last six weeks avoiding people and if we were going to get the virus we would have it by now.

Our friend the health care worker tells us that this virus really is new and they don’t know what to do to deal with it. The testing and tracking is new. We really have low numbers in our area and we felt pretty safe. As the sky opened up again we fled one last time into the shop. we did our best to stay distant yet we felt a comfort and enjoyment to be together. Life feels too short to stay completely apart forever.

Tonight felt more normal, more connected than I have in long time. I love to see my friends, even at a safe distance. We agree we will see each other some more. We will have more fires, more connections.