Coffee at Mamadou's

Mamadou brought his daughter Stella to Cafe Freida today. It was perfect weather to sit on the patio for our coffee and chat face to face. We had a lot to talk about. Mamadou's wife Andrea owns a clothing boutique called Tamarind which began in the Barlow but was flooded out, and eventually moved to Healdsburg. I feel for them and so many other friends who have small businesses and have been through so much. Andrea has been suffering from attacks of stress related vertigo. Mamadou just opened Cafe Freida a few weeks before the shut-down. 

The county health officer is allowing gyms and exercise studios to open and I have an urgent request from the Pilates studio for more face masks, so I'm turning out a new batch as quickly as I can...(I'm afraid I'm getting hopelessly behind on comments.) The teachers there have done a wonderful job of providing classes online and plan to keep the mat classes online for awhile because they have to spread out the reformers to six feet apart which will take up the mat class space in the studio. One of the teachers is pregnant, due the end of August, and one has just been diagnosed with Crohn's Disease ...another stress related illness, and working out a new schedule is turning out to be a nightmare since none of them can be in two places at once....

Gail is an esthetician and shares offices with another woman. They have had to divide up the days they will be working because they can't both be there at once. She says a lot of her clients are feeling reluctant to schedule an appointment just yet, and Gail herself is nervous...

Tobi and Dan are both retired but Tobi volunteers at a garden called Harvest for the Hungry. Many of the older volunteers have been ordered to stay at home so Tobi, because of her relative youth finds herself doing yeoman's service she didn't sign up for. Her husband , a tireless man of boundless energy keeps taking on new projects on on which he focuses with laser like attention which means other things don't get done. Sort of like me at the sewing machine.

As we discussed all these issues Stella seemed to be having a wonderful time running about, eating cake, and playing with dad without a care in the world.