Coronavirus Still Life

Following our Zoom coffee meeting yesterday, I was part of a  a group text from Tobi this morning:

Gail, how can I help with deliveries/pick ups. I've got eggs for Maggie, you and Jennie. Dan has an 'order' from Bob. Jennie has masks to pass out. How can we make this easy? 

Another psych experiment to unravel.*

The solution was that the four of us chose a large parking lot and agreed to park near See's candy, put our items in the trunk and stand aside. I wish someone had been there to document it all, but the four way trade-off went off with the efficiency of a drug deal, and we all traded something we had lots of for something that we needed.  I wonder if four men would have been as resourceful and efficient?

My next stop was the pharmacy. John and I each have two medications we take regularly, and such are the vagaries of the insurance system and the 'streamlining' of the process, that every one of them expires at a different time with only a few days' leeway to get them refilled. One trip every three months for all four of them shouldn't be that difficult, but it is actually impossible. The doctor and the pharmacist have both tried to solve the problem but to no avail.

A sign on the door requested only two people inside at a time. A man was waiting outside the door, so I waited a good 12 feet away while I pulled my mask with stalks of chard depicted in tasteful pastel shades over my face. A pas de deus ensued with a man in a full blown respirator mask who emerged and was on a collision course with me on the narrow path. He nodded in relief as I stepped well back to allow him to pass. The pharmacist and his assistants were all wearing home made matching masks in sombre shades of black and white. I was in and out in less than five minutes, and home again  with my eggs and toilet paper in less than 45...

Today is granddaughter Julia's** 21st birthday. I don't think spending it with her parents and younger sister is what she had in mind for such a coming of age, but I told her that at least it would be memorable...

Happy Birthday, Julia! You are an accomplished young lady with a bright future. I still have a copy of your college essay which I reread regularly. Nobody could have better described the difficulties of your birth and the lessons you have learned as a result. Some day I would like to reprint it here with your permission. You are an inspiration.

* I participated in a number of psych experiments when I was in college which always required the solving of a problem when some major component of the solution was not available. I this case, each of us had one or more items to give to one or more of the others. We all live in different parts of town (the common denominator being the Pilates) studio, and are not supposed to get within six feet of one another.

**  see extra