UPitP- A new normal weekend- March 28-29
This past weekend was novel in that no new restrictions were put in place by our governor. Only essential travel has been in place for almost week and only essential businesses have been able to operate for the same amount of time. So, this weekend, nothing new was restricted. We were just living in the new normal that is our life now with many restrictions and social distancing ourselves from others. As expected, it was not super exciting as all entertainment buildings/ sporting events/ social events are closed/ not in operation/ illegal at this time.
I woke up super early Saturday morning which has not been the norm for me. I've actually slept better the past three weeks than I have in a long time. Anyway, when I woke up and realized that I wasn't going back to sleep I decided to go and run. I love running in the dark- fewer people are out which I greatly prefer in times of social distancing and in normal times as well.
I decided to go to the grocery store early- I think stores stock shelves overnight and I wanted to increase the chances of getting things I needed. Kroger was pretty well stocked in produce and in their meat section which was great. Some shelves were close to bare, however. There wasn't much pasta, rice or bagels in the fresh bread section (I did see some bagels in the frozen section).
In the early afternoon, we decided to go to Charleston Falls Reserve park in Miami County. (It is permissible to leave your house to drive to a park in order to walk/ hike.) This was the park that the girls and I went to two weeks ago. I figured the falls would be more robust with the recent rain we'd had. Speaking of rain, it was in the forecast but there was only a 50% chance of it. As we approached the park, I could see that not only was the parking lot completely full but also an auxiliary parking lot was full as well (I hadn't even noticed the auxiliary parking lot when the girls and I went before). A police officer was in front of the entrance next to a sign that said, "Park closed due to full capacity" or something like that. Oh man, we weren't the only ones with the idea of seeing the falls- and the knowledge that the park's wide paths made social distancing possible. We drove past the park to turn around and go home. After we turned around, as we approached the park from the other direction, we could see cars leaving the park. We were able to get into the park. Unfortunately, the reason people were leaving the park was because a storm was approaching. We'd no sooner turned the car off than a big lightening bolt lit up the sky. And then the rain came. Oh man, that 50% chance was now a 100% chance of storms.
We returned home and didn't do much the rest of the day/ evening. We watched some TV, talked, played Scrabble, read the news, etc- the sorts of things one does at home. After dinner (shrimp scampi), two of the teens and I went on walk. It was super warm and humid outside.
By the time I woke up Sunday morning, it was bright and sunny out. Donnie asked me if I'd heard the storms over night (I had not). Went on a run in the sun and wind. I went early enough- even though it was light out- that there weren't many people out. I think I saw one couple walking during my run. For most of my run, there's a sidewalk and between the sidewalk and the road there's a decently wide stretch of grass. So, I move over to the grass when I see that I'm going to encounter people walking or running on the sidewalk. It's never difficult to maintain a wide berth when I'm out running or we're out walking (thank goodness- I've never been so pleased to live in the suburbs than during this pandemic. We live close to stores but we have wide open spaces very near to us, too). I knew from checking the forecast that there was a wind advisory in place for almost the entire day on Sunday. It was extremely windy all day.
After the teens woke from their slumber and had breakfast, we went to the basement to watch our church service on TV. The TV in our family room is bigger than the TV in the basement but we have comfier seating options in the basement so that's where we watch movies together and now, our church service, each week. The sermon was good. Listening to truth in the form of our online church service in the midst of this hard season is a highlight of my week.
Abby and I put air in the tires of our bikes and went on a bike ride around our neighborhood and into the country (as far as we can go before we lose our bike path). It was great to get out and cycle even though the wind took a little bit of the wind out of our sails (we had wind gusts up to 45 mph during the day). A day with a little less wind would have been ideal but at least the temperature was nice- mid to high sixties.
After our bike ride, Donnie and I worked on cleaning out our garage. Really, it was a matter of getting the leaves out and cleaning the floor. We'd organized/ purged items in our garage last summer so it didn't have a bunch of junk in it. Getting the leaves out was a bit like playing wac-a - mole. We'd no sooner get them all out than more came blowing in. We closed the garage doors as soon as we had five seconds of no leaves blowing in.
Later, we took a walk at a nearby park, Patricia Allyn. PAP (short for Patricia Allyn Park) is the park where Jacob trained and played home games when he was on his first select soccer team at age seven. We've been to this park probably hundreds of times over the years for games, practices, play dates, hikes in the wooded portion, tennis, etc. It's a nice large park and, in addition, steeped in tradition and memories for us.
The weekend consisted of a lot of family time and a lot of physical activity. I'm so glad we are not prohibited from getting out and moving. Exercise is good for physical and mental health. Grateful for healthy bodies, wide open spaces, and fairly nice weather during these trying times. I will take the occasional rain shower and wind gust if it means many moments of comfortable weather in which to be moving.
Saturday-
Nothing Bunt Cakes is open for business... we were the lucky recipients of these goodies. Donnie did a favor for a neighbor who repaid us with these. Yum!
Sunday- A cleaned up garage and a picture of one of the bikes that Abby and I ride. The other bike looks just like this one...
The bikes have been around since the last century. Here are pictures of Donnie and me on the same bikes that Abby and I currently use. Donnie bought the bikes for us when we were in law school (mine was a birthday present).
At PAP- all playground areas in parks are roped or taped off. Kids are not allowed to play on them. Just trails and open fields can be used by the public now. Sunday was windy- normally the fountain spray in the pond is upright. Not on Sunday, it wasn't :)
I woke up super early Saturday morning which has not been the norm for me. I've actually slept better the past three weeks than I have in a long time. Anyway, when I woke up and realized that I wasn't going back to sleep I decided to go and run. I love running in the dark- fewer people are out which I greatly prefer in times of social distancing and in normal times as well.
I decided to go to the grocery store early- I think stores stock shelves overnight and I wanted to increase the chances of getting things I needed. Kroger was pretty well stocked in produce and in their meat section which was great. Some shelves were close to bare, however. There wasn't much pasta, rice or bagels in the fresh bread section (I did see some bagels in the frozen section).
In the early afternoon, we decided to go to Charleston Falls Reserve park in Miami County. (It is permissible to leave your house to drive to a park in order to walk/ hike.) This was the park that the girls and I went to two weeks ago. I figured the falls would be more robust with the recent rain we'd had. Speaking of rain, it was in the forecast but there was only a 50% chance of it. As we approached the park, I could see that not only was the parking lot completely full but also an auxiliary parking lot was full as well (I hadn't even noticed the auxiliary parking lot when the girls and I went before). A police officer was in front of the entrance next to a sign that said, "Park closed due to full capacity" or something like that. Oh man, we weren't the only ones with the idea of seeing the falls- and the knowledge that the park's wide paths made social distancing possible. We drove past the park to turn around and go home. After we turned around, as we approached the park from the other direction, we could see cars leaving the park. We were able to get into the park. Unfortunately, the reason people were leaving the park was because a storm was approaching. We'd no sooner turned the car off than a big lightening bolt lit up the sky. And then the rain came. Oh man, that 50% chance was now a 100% chance of storms.
We returned home and didn't do much the rest of the day/ evening. We watched some TV, talked, played Scrabble, read the news, etc- the sorts of things one does at home. After dinner (shrimp scampi), two of the teens and I went on walk. It was super warm and humid outside.
By the time I woke up Sunday morning, it was bright and sunny out. Donnie asked me if I'd heard the storms over night (I had not). Went on a run in the sun and wind. I went early enough- even though it was light out- that there weren't many people out. I think I saw one couple walking during my run. For most of my run, there's a sidewalk and between the sidewalk and the road there's a decently wide stretch of grass. So, I move over to the grass when I see that I'm going to encounter people walking or running on the sidewalk. It's never difficult to maintain a wide berth when I'm out running or we're out walking (thank goodness- I've never been so pleased to live in the suburbs than during this pandemic. We live close to stores but we have wide open spaces very near to us, too). I knew from checking the forecast that there was a wind advisory in place for almost the entire day on Sunday. It was extremely windy all day.
After the teens woke from their slumber and had breakfast, we went to the basement to watch our church service on TV. The TV in our family room is bigger than the TV in the basement but we have comfier seating options in the basement so that's where we watch movies together and now, our church service, each week. The sermon was good. Listening to truth in the form of our online church service in the midst of this hard season is a highlight of my week.
Abby and I put air in the tires of our bikes and went on a bike ride around our neighborhood and into the country (as far as we can go before we lose our bike path). It was great to get out and cycle even though the wind took a little bit of the wind out of our sails (we had wind gusts up to 45 mph during the day). A day with a little less wind would have been ideal but at least the temperature was nice- mid to high sixties.
After our bike ride, Donnie and I worked on cleaning out our garage. Really, it was a matter of getting the leaves out and cleaning the floor. We'd organized/ purged items in our garage last summer so it didn't have a bunch of junk in it. Getting the leaves out was a bit like playing wac-a - mole. We'd no sooner get them all out than more came blowing in. We closed the garage doors as soon as we had five seconds of no leaves blowing in.
Later, we took a walk at a nearby park, Patricia Allyn. PAP (short for Patricia Allyn Park) is the park where Jacob trained and played home games when he was on his first select soccer team at age seven. We've been to this park probably hundreds of times over the years for games, practices, play dates, hikes in the wooded portion, tennis, etc. It's a nice large park and, in addition, steeped in tradition and memories for us.
The weekend consisted of a lot of family time and a lot of physical activity. I'm so glad we are not prohibited from getting out and moving. Exercise is good for physical and mental health. Grateful for healthy bodies, wide open spaces, and fairly nice weather during these trying times. I will take the occasional rain shower and wind gust if it means many moments of comfortable weather in which to be moving.
Saturday-
Nothing Bunt Cakes is open for business... we were the lucky recipients of these goodies. Donnie did a favor for a neighbor who repaid us with these. Yum!
Sunday- A cleaned up garage and a picture of one of the bikes that Abby and I ride. The other bike looks just like this one...
The bikes have been around since the last century. Here are pictures of Donnie and me on the same bikes that Abby and I currently use. Donnie bought the bikes for us when we were in law school (mine was a birthday present).
One run, two walks, one bike ride= lots of steps for the day
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