Dear Readers,

Today was D-Day. We spent the day getting my wife’s clothes and other teaching related items packed up. The biggest task was to go through the house and make sure everything I may need (water, food, etc) was on a counter or shelf at least waist high for me. Since I cannot bend at the waist, and I cannot lift anything heavier than a half-gallon of milk, we had to make things accessible for me since I’ll be going it alone for the foreseeable future. We’ve had to do this in the past when my wife has been out of town for a few days or a week, but this is the first time we are doing it without knowing when she’ll be able to come back home. Then it was time to load up her car. We said goodbye, and she drove away.

Obviously, she isn’t going to the far side of the moon. We’ll be able to talk/text every day. And at some point, we anticipate that she will be able to come home, we just don’t know when. It isn’t a permanent goodbye, though if she catches the virus at her school, I suppose there is a possibility that it will be. I am in a shitload of pain today, probably due to the stress, but I tried to hide it as best I could so I wouldn’t upset her. People who live with chronic pain get very good at hiding things like that. It’s how we cope without making everyone around us miserable. Here in a little bit, I can take my medication and lay down on my ice packs. Hopefully, that will drop my pain level from an 8 to a 6. A 5 if I am lucky.

I have a busy week ahead of me, which is a good thing. I have a meeting tomorrow, another one on Tuesday, my online classes are taking their finals, I have to submit their grades and paperwork, I have a telehealth appointment on Friday, and I also turn 42 on Friday. This first week, keeping busy will help me, I think.

As for tonight, I am going to lay on my icepacks and watch my favorite television mini-series, Тихий Дон (2015) on YouTube. It is fourteen episodes long and will a week’s worth of nights for me. I have it on DVD, but it is on YouTube for free. Losing myself in the saga of the Don Cossacks in peace, war, and revolution, not to mention the love between Grishka and Aksinia will be just the ticket for me.

I know this is a short post, but I’m at a loss for what more I can say. But I hope all of you are healthy and well and if you are fortunate to be with people you love, hold them close to you. As a retired firefighter, I know all too well how fragile life can be, even when we are not in the midst of a pandemic.

Until next time, Dear Readers, take care of yourselves. And each other.

L.H.