Perspective

Perspective is a funny thing. A year ago, when the pandemic hit and we were told schools would close for 2 weeks, I panicked, thinking 2 weeks was forever. I never imagined Olivia would miss her entire senior year, spending it online in her bedroom on her laptop. Or that Mateo, who’s a sophomore, would have attended fewer in-person high school days than he has remotely. But those are the facts. Now I just heard the kids and I should be able to get vaccinated by late July. “Late July?!” I almost screamed. “That’s only 5 months away!!!”

Comfort food

Eggplant parmesan has become our quarantine comfort food. Our recipe is from a cookbook Costco was handing out free 5+ years ago, which we’d never opened until now. If you know us, you know Tim’s the better cook in the family: he adjusts the recipe by pre-baking the eggplant for 15 minutes on each side instead of the recommended 5; adds a little chicken stock and extends the overall baking time to an hour 10 minutes. Any mozzarella will do, but with Buffalo. Oh my. (Tim’s PS: “Don’t skimp on the cheese.”)

Annie’s Annuals

Our big activity this week was a drive over the Richmond Bridge to Annie’s Annuals & Perennials. Annie’s is a nursery that features all kinds of seedlings: California natives, low-water, groundcover, deer-resistant, bee plants, and succulents. Our find of the day was “Guatemalan Leaf Sage,” which is billed as “densely tidy & boasting flowers of the most intense royal blue.” We bought a small pot and anticipate the blooming. Counting the day as a win.

Covid-19 in Guatemala

Fear of Covid-19 has changed the way migrants returning from the US are received in Guatemala. Nearly 1/5 of the country’s 585 confirmed cases have been traced to deportees, many on the same US flight. Backlash to returnees includes threats of home burnings and lynching. One young man tells of a mob confronting him in Santa Catarina Palopo on the shores of Lake Atitlan. Fearing for his life and his family’s safely, he fled, and is now self-isolating in Guatemala City. The threat presented by Covid is real–an outbreak of the virus could devastate a village. Very uncertain times. Here’s a link to an article by Sofia Menchu on Reuters: Maya villages in Guatemala spurn US deportees as infections spike. The photo below is of Lake Atitlan, taken in January 2020 from the shores of Santiago.

My essay in the paper

What a joy today to open my local newspaper, the Marin Independent Journal, and see my published essay, “Slowing down while sheltering in place.” I’m grateful to the Marin IJ for publishing work by writers who live in our community. The piece grew out of posts I’d written here and on Facebook. Looking at them together, I realized several could be combined for a broader narrative arc. Love when that happens, because it rarely does. xo Here’s the first paragraphs: We’re at week four of sheltering in place. Like most people, we’re not used to so much isolation coupled with nonstop togetherness. There’s no escape. When Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the initial order to stay home for two weeks, and our kids’ high school shut down, we dismissed it as impossible. “How will we manage?” we asked, washing our hands and checking our toilet paper supply. Now two weeks feels like a nanosecond. Quarantine and remote learning are the new normal.