Wednesday morning I got up and worked out and then put some things up for my students to work on before going to pick up my kids. I hadn’t been to the grocery store in almost two weeks and everything was pretty much down to subsistence food. When I got the kids home, we looked through the fridge to make a shopping list and I went to Murder Kroger around the corner since things weren’t crazy busy. Other than a few people in masks, things looked pretty much normal for a Wednesday afternoon. At the beginning of all this, my dad and step-mom threw some cash my way and so they bought groceries this week and next. I had fallen into the habit of trying to make every meal a special one since I was only seeing the kids every other weekend but since they’ll be spending more time with me for the foreseeable I decided sandwiches and toast were fine on the regular.

The past couple of days I’ve been ramping up my strength and core routine and things are starting to finally feel like they should. Running is happening, I was going to take a day off today since it was supposed to rain but I’ll workout here in a bit and go run with the clouds. Having the kids here doesn’t change the fact that we are all cooped up and have to find ways to keep moving and it can’t be an excuse. My current routine involves a couple of kettlebells and core/stability work and my body is starting to catch up. Tendinitis in my feet was starting to flare since I’m getting relatively higher mileage but it is starting to realize this is the new normal and I think they gave up.

I’ve also been communicating more with the outside world. I’ve had a few old friends reach out and reconnect and some new ones that I’m connecting with as well. I started doing some silly Instagram Live videos in the evening, playing a song or two, and even if no one is watching, at least they could be. It has been so fun to get to share music with her now that she is a little bit older and has her own opinions about what she likes and doesn’t. Last night we played around for a bit, improvised a short song and then she sang with me on a song. I had to keep focused and in the moment because that isn’t something I ever really imagined would happen, at least not a year ago. An old friend from high school saw the live video and reminded me that we used to play music together back in the day. And we did. I had a huge crush on her, of course, but we only ever played music and sang together. When I would come back from college we would still get together and play music and when I moved back to Tyler we would connect occasionally. I was so wrapped up in music at that point so it is funny to have someone, maybe the only person, who remembers those times and knows where I’ve been.

Wednesday I made burgers for the first time in months. Sam asked for them specifically since that was one of the “dad” foods that everyone would eat. Sophie helped me make some potatoes and special sauce and things were fine. Yesterday Sophie decided she wanted something takeout. Pei Wei was her choice but they are closed so that wasn’t an option. Mr. Chopsticks is open, however, and so we tried an order from there. I asked my dad if he wanted us to pick something up and bring it over and he decided that since we are all social distancing that it would be ok to come over and eat with us. The kids went for a walk with him, brought out the kites he keeps in his car and when I drove back down to the house I saw them in a parking lot flying kites. What a set of memories this will create…

On my way to Chopsticks I was driving down Crescent and saw this group of kids chasing a small dog. I had a feeling there was going to be either a dog or children or both in the street any minute and kept an eye on things. Of course the little pup decided to make a break for it and I was able to stop in time for the dog and two or three kids to run in front of my car. They didn’t look, they didn’t make eye contact and I can only think what a distracted driver would have done through that street at that time.

Anyway, there isn’t much on deck for today. I’ll do a workout here in a bit and go for a run. I’ll respond to the work that my students have turned in and give my kids some extra love and attention since they are going back on Sunday afternoon and my ex is “taking things week by week” right now since she works from home…but like actually works from home and has for a year. Sigh. I was listening to the Freakonomics podcast the other day when I was running and they were talking about what the world will look like after all of this. It was scary to listen to experts talking about things that none of us can really know. Data isn’t the only thing that we can rely on because hopefully the human spirit will win out in this, and not the ugly hateful shit that we’ve seen the last decade. Every story, every film where there is some major catastrophe the only way out was the human spirit. Or mutants. Or Norse gods. Well…so maybe…nah.