COVID Coping

In the 227 days of my COVID precautions, I have prepared (and EATEN) 681 meals! That sounds like a heck of a lot, doesn't it? We eat 3 regular meals each day (well, apart from the two or three brunches that condensed two meals into one, so give or take a few), and have eaten every meal at home, or from home. We haven't bought take-out, or frozen meals from the grocery store, either (my soy allergy precludes me doing this under normal circumstances). When we take a road trip, we make sure to prepare a picnic lunch for ourselves, and I bring my own thermos of coffee. It's always a fun thing to do! Especially because ... it's not pretty when I get hungry, and food is not readily available.

Yesterday, we packed bacon and egg sandwiches, yogurt and a thermos of coffee so we could eat our breakfast after a routine (fasting) bloodwork appointment, and before a sleep clinic visit in the same town. It turned an ordinary little thing into an event. We sat along the Eastern Trail and had an outdoor, picnic breakfast. A goods train thundered along behind us, vibrating in the ground beneath me - a breakfast adventure!

This is our normal. It's what we're used to - it's how our parents lived, how we were raised. It's familiar and comfortable for us. I usually don't even consider buying a cup of coffee anywhere when I'm out, in non-COVID times. It's just what we do. Even after 26 years in the U.S., it's still an unfamiliar phenomenon to stop somewhere to buy coffee when we're out and about. It's foreign to me.

So for us, this is nothing unusual. I don't miss things that I wasn't doing previously. I'm fortunate, since this has made it easier for me to weather this unpredictable period, without impositions on my lifestyle.