Toilet paper, anyone?

Posted 4/29/20

Accepting the fate of having to stay home for the time being, I have given up my yearning to get back into the office to work. Hubby, who is perfectly content staying home for the rest of his life, rewarded my newfound freedom of spirit by creating a

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Toilet paper, anyone?

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Accepting the fate of having to stay home for the time being, I have given up my yearning to get back into the office to work. Hubby, who is perfectly content staying home for the rest of his life, rewarded my newfound freedom of spirit by creating a home office. My computer and desk were gently placed into Marie’s old bedroom, with new, fluffy carpeting to warm my barefoot toes. Sitting in my office chair and basking in the morning streams of sunlight, I sip my tea uninterrupted. The quiet clicking of my keyboard is the only sound in the room. My concentration is much more acute shut away in my home office; the clothes that need folding piled on the kitchen table, the kitchen floor that needs to be washed and the dishes in the sink no longer haunt me in the background. I can work peacefully, uninterrupted.

Because I work from home, my clothing is much more casual. (It cannot get more casual than a pair of pajama bottoms and a t-shirt.) No lipstick needs to touch my lips, and my eyes are fine unadorned. My hair is styled by tussling it with water and shaking my head. However, looking in the mirror yesterday shocked me. My hair, which had not been colored since this whole fiasco began, had turned white! Most frightening for me was that I saw the face of my mother looking back at me. My mother was a wonderful person and I should be proud to look like her, but all I could think of was how much I had aged in the past month. (Has it only been a month?)

Other things have changed, of course. People stand masked, six feet apart, lined up waiting to get into Wal-Mart or Stop and Shop. They stand straight, not communicating with their neighbors-in-waiting. Little by little the line moves, only to be replaced by more people. It generally seems isolating and lonely. Except for today. Trying to leave Stop and Shop, I found myself waiting in a long line of people standing six feet apart. It just so happened that a woman who was at the exit door started chatting with a woman who was just coming in the entrance door. Engrossed in their own conversation, they were unaware that a long line of people standing 6 feet apart was piling up behind them. Laughing and clueless, they carried on their conversation like they were long lost buddies. Those of us in line turned and looked at each other knowingly as the line snaked backwards to the other end of the store, smile wrinkles appeared at the top of our masks. When the women finally broke off their conversation, those of us in line started to clap and cheer. It would have been easy to get angry, but the two women were obviously enjoying themselves, and through their joy, we could live vicariously.

Hubby prefers to shop at the smaller, independent stores. His reasoning is that because they are smaller, less people shop there so there is less of a chance of contracting COVID-19. I am not sure of the scientific reasonability of this, but I do applaud his unwavering support for small businesses. Under the best of times, we generally only eat in small, individually owned restaurants, so it is no surprise that during this difficult time, he doubles down his support. He continues to get his turkey dinners from Governor Francis’ Inn and buys his toilet paper at Salk’s Hardware store. It is a lesson we should all learn during these financially troubled times. Toilet paper, anyone?

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