Creating a New Daily Routine

David and I tend to be routine-driven animals. Though we enjoy doing many different things, there’s also comfort to be had in finding a routine that works and settling into it. Even when we walked the Via Francigena last year, we quickly adopted a routine and pretty much kept to it. For the most part, our early morning routine remains the same. The alarm goes off at 0500; we drink coffee and chat for 45 minutes, then we hit the golf course walking path by 0600. We’ve added a quick look at the New York Times Daily Briefing each morning during our ‘chat time’ to find out what the coronavirus is doing and what’s happening in the world. This is where our normal daily routine ends.

There is no gym to head to per usual and try as we might, we’re just not motivated to follow through in the exercise department. We have the best of intentions. We bought exercise mats for the back deck and thought we’d do some floor exercises as well as strength training right after our walk. We downloaded the exercises that made sense and figured out how to do them. So far, however, it’s been hit or miss… mostly miss. We just don’t seem to be able to discipline ourselves into a regular exercise regimen beyond the morning walk.

What else has changed? Just staying close to home and being mostly at home is quite the change for us. We should be packing for Portugal at the moment, but of course, we’re not. We should have our daily camino routes all planned out, but we don’t. Instead, David is concentrating on Blue’s upfit and I’m just filling in the time gaps with reading, writing (no ‘rithmetic), language study, correspondence, yardwork, cooking and cleaning. We meet in the kitchen for lunch, work some more on our own projects and then have dinner together. We watch the news and Jeopardy as a family and then we retire to our room for reading or once in awhile, maybe a movie. I’ve raked and bagged leaves. I’ve painted the deck rails. I’ve weeded and pruned. I try to vary the tasks to keep from thinking about the fact that we’re homebound and that this new ‘routine’ might last for several more weeks (or months?).

We don’t usually eat out at restaurants on a regular basis. For us, it’s a treat rather than a usual occurrence. That said, in the past (was it just a couple of weeks ago?) when we were on errand runs to Home Depot or the grocery store, it was common to just stop in for a quick bite at Denny’s or for a low-carb chicken sandwich at Carl’s or maybe a salad somewhere. I know we could do drive-up and we could order in, but it just seems easier (and safer) to cook and eat at home. That does however, become a rather boring routine. We’ve decided that ordering in once a week might help the local restaurants economically as well as our atittudes. Two of the places we decided to call this week were closed for business. Sigh! We’ll try again next week.

Who is that masked man?

We had a few (six, actually) N-95 masks left over from projects on Nine of Cups… enough for our household and we sent two to David’s sister, Karen, in Oklahoma. We’ve been wearing and re-wearing them whenever we go into stores or any public places. There have been mixed messages as to whether wearing a mask is effective or not. The latest consensus of opinion is that a person wearing a mask can block out ~70% of the beasties out there. If I wear a mask (70% effective) and other people I meet are wearing masks (70% effective), it should be effective against ~90% of the bugs floating around in our close proximity. Seems that decreases the odds of either contracting and/or transmitting the disease.

Locally, many stores are limiting the number of people allowed inside at any given time. At my local supermarket, they wipe down each shopping cart and give it to me as I enter and have hand sanitizing stations at entry and throughout the store. They’ve erected makeshift plastic screens at the checkouts to better protect cashiers and there’s hand sanitizer available at the checkouts for use after accessing the credit card machines. I consider myself more of a European shopper when it comes to groceries. I prefer to go out every day to purchase fresh ingredients for our meals, especially dinner. That’s come to an abrupt halt. We now go out once or maybe twice a week.

Seeing the Las Vegas Strip and so many other usually busy streets almost empty is somewhat disconcerting. Like everywhere now, most retail stores are closed. Parking lots at the malls are empty. Restaurants are closed. National parks, movie theaters and museums are closed. It’s all surreal… scenes from thriller/pandemic movies we’ve watched through the years and hoped would never really happen.

So, a new routine? Well, I guess we’re settling into a psuedo-routine which will probably become a real routine if the ‘sheltering in place’ order remains in effect until May or June as predicted. We’re doing what we need to do to stay healthy and hopefully keep others healthy. We try to mix up the tasks and chores so it’s not drudgery and intersperse some entertainment and education/information along the way. We try not to get stuck in front of the computer or the television all day and night. We’re doing backyard chores as well as inside chores. We count ourselves lucky to have a backyard to work in.

It’s still hard to get my arms around the fact that I can’t go where I want to go, when I want to go. Heck, I can’t even go thrifting which is weighing particularly heavy on the happy Marcie scale. However, I think I’m going to survive.

What about you? How are you adapting to the ‘new normal’?