It’s been three months…three LONG months…since my last entry. I started off 2020 with great intentions. I was gonna start traveling again, pour myself into writing and publishing, get my finances and taxes straightened out, get my house in order…the list goes on and on. But, like so many of the plans of mice and men…

Actually, on January 10, only 2 weeks after Linda’s passing, I drove to Nashville, TN to visit my son, a distance of just over 200 miles…the first time I had traveled more than 25 miles from home in over 2 years. And on January 29, I drove to Tazewell, TN to visit my sister, crossed over to Nashville to visit my son again, and back home…a total distance of roughly 750 miles. And THEN, on February 27, I drove to visit my son in Wheaton, IL, a round trip of almost 1,500 miles. I was primed and ready to start traveling in earnest!

And then came COVID-19. From this morning’s journal entry:

COVID-19 has become...as it has been from the start...highly politicized. Some believe we're over-reacting to it; after all, the annual death toll from seasonal flu is staggering, and we've never shut down the economy for it. However, I can't remember a single time that seasonal flu...or any other disease...swamped our hospitals as COVID-19 has done, and continues to do...despite our extreme social distancing efforts. The flu...WITHOUT social distancing...has never done that. Not in my lifetime. Downplay it, overplay it, or whatever you want to do, COVID-19 is more contagious...and more deadly...than anything I've seen in my 70 years. That's not political. It's not opinion. It's fact. (And imagine how bad this would have been if we had NOT practiced social distancing.)