My life has gone virtual.  

I just went virtual grocery shopping via Instacart. This is for fourth or fifth time for me.  Each time it gets a little easier.  I have been sharing the shopping with my neighbor Sue makes the task a little less onerous.

A writing group I am a sporadic member of is thinking about using Zoom to meet.  I have done a few family & friends zoom meets and they actually have gone fairly well.  At least we get to see each other and chat in real time.  

I have been participating in social media platforms even more than I was before.  Facebook and Instagram are my chief addictions.  I check Twitter once in a while.  YouTube is right up there. My church has been broadcasting via YT and I must say I have been attending regularly after a long absence.  

​I've dabbled in a few others, but these are the ones I am most acquainted with and are easy for someone such as me.

I have also been sending this blog and my pholog via email to a select group of friends who don't necessarily participate  in any of the foregoing.  My computer and smart phone have become my chief facilitator of communications these days.

For other entertainment I am using my DVR more than ever to watch Jeopardy, Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, some Rachel Maddow and Anderson Cooper.  I also enjoy some escapist network shows like American Housewife and Bob Hearts Abashola for some much needed comic relief.

It is amazing to me just far we have come from the days of radio and three channel TV.  Yes, I go back that far.  I remember how my folks reminisced about the days before any of that.  I used to be in awe of the changes they must have seen in their lifetimes.  Now here I am, thinking the same thing about the changes I have seen in my lifetime.

All the above technologies have their problems to be sure.  One friend calls them "time-sucks."  Another fears they are invasions of privacy and we run the risk of being hacked.  Honestly, that can happen just tossing you mail in a careless fashion.

Basically, I appreciate the ability to continue living virtually through this technology and associated science.  It is all a choice.  I choose to use it to my advantage.  I always think to myself there are plenty of more interesting and lucrative targets out there for hackers and thieves.  

So I live by password, encrypt where possible and keep my fingers crossed always.  It's all part of what is fast becoming the virtual way of life.  I still go outside daily for walks with the dogs.  On decent days, I work in the yard.  I do my chores and function okay in "real time".  I'd have to say,  I'm keeping up okay.  

Virtually Yours,
​R 

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I apparently suffer from S.A.D. which stands for "seasonal affect disorder."  It means my mood is affected by the weather.  Indeed for the past several seemingly interminable stretches of rain and cold here in So Cal, I have been given to feelings of ennui and malaise. I choose those terms because they may be somewhat archaic and not used all that often, but indeed sum up what I have been feeling during much of March and April (so far) this year.

But, rejoice, the sun has come out again!  The weather has warmed a bit.  Flowers are blooming and the birds are singing.  The pix above were captured in my yard dancing gaily in the first sun last weekend.  Alas, we had a cloudy cool setback, but then yesterday and today spring has tried to spring forth once more.

In spring, there is hope.  We certainly need that now.  I know I do.  Getting out of the house, even if it is just into my yard or for walk the neighborhoods with the dogs, does me a world of good.  Last evening, I sat on my front porch for the first time in months with a good read and a nice glass of wine,  Miguelito in my lap.  I lost track of time and soon it was dark.

Last night I slept well in spite of  vivid dreams of, well, I can't remember, but I do remember dreaming.  And that is a positive thing for without dreams, the future can seem seem bleak especially with global pandemics and political posturing everywhere.  Spring will inspire us through all of this madness.  We will survive.

Happy Spring.

​I'm sitting in my home, isolated from social interactions, trying to figure out what is happening...and why.  I often say it is best to tell me something rather than to leave it to my imagination.  I will, being human as I am, creative some narrative that may or may not be accurate.  But I also resist speculating any more.  Whether I'm right or I'm wrong, it doesn't matter in the end.  Some things just are what they are, with no rhyme, no reason.

So here I am wondering about this pandemic and how it got started and why we weren't ready for it and a myriad of other castings about for a reason why this happened.  The only thing I can come up with is that what is going on with our world right now it happening for a reason.  Perhaps we will find out.  Perhaps not.  But the bottom line is, it is happening and we are going to be forever changed by it...probably, if we are smart.

That makes me think that maybe the reason an opportunistic virus such as this one spread.  It was time.  We were ripe.  The world, as it was, was headed for the proverbial "hell in a hand basket."  One way or another, we were gonna  have to do something to save ourselves.  And this is our chance.

For many years I was uncomfortable shaking hands.  I finally became able to offer my hand freely.  And hugging, well I took to that like that duck into water.  But now that may be something we cannot do for a very long time...maybe forever.  Going with human touch will be quite an adjustment, but perhaps it was where we were headed anyway as things like social media and virtual reality made actual human interaction less and less the norm.  So here we are.

So is there always a reason?  Yes and no.  And that's the rub.  For every reason there's a question, a challenge.  And to say something  just are, is deeply unsatisfactory.  So I will continue to meditate, noodle, ponder and wonder about all this, the reason being, there is always an answer.  And if we are lucky, we find it before our time has passed.