Good evening my Corona friends. I hope you all had a very good day today. I am sorry if I was a Debby Downer yesterday but considering what we are living through every day I consider myself one of the upbeat. Some days you wake up and you can’t believe it could get any worse but we soldier on and just make mine a double and we will get through it. Before the protests I was actually thinking we were kind of back to normal. Of course that means always wearing a mask and never asking to use a public restroom.  I know I can be obsessed about the bathroom issues but honestly when you get to a certain age you always want to know where all the rest stops are located and you may plan your night around them. A few months ago it was nothing for techie and I to walk to the North End for dinner and I had my pit stops all mapped out on the way home. Now they are closed and so are the dining spots. The past few summers what I thought was a really great thing were these beer gardens that had sprung up along the Greenway, city Hall plaza and down in the Seaport.  They made the city a fun place to hang out after work and sometimes a bit longer. I believe they won’t even be opening this year, but we will have to wait and see. I am positive it will be a really fun and exciting place again real soon. I hear the rumor of the North End of Boston may close a road and allow people to serve on the sidewalk and I will be the first to reserve a table. I realize it may be a bit weird to enjoy the time out as we have to be mask compliant.  Today I was taking a walk to with my granddaughter and fifteen minutes in I realized I wasn’t wearing my mask and it was a bit strange. I mean we have become programmed to do a mental checklist when you leave the house, keys, and phone and mask all checked. It must have been because I was in Medford or the fact that I hadn’t seen anyone on my walk till we got to crossing at the light.  The thing that upset me the most about my missing mask was now I wouldn’t be allowed into the ice cream shop. Thank goodness my daughter in law had hers because how was I going to explain that to Tilda?  Grandma screwed up and there will be no ice cream. I don’t think so. Anyway we were able to get our ice cream and even find a spot where we could enjoy it. No hanging out in the shop. I am grateful for these little forms of entertainment and I hear there may be even more fun on the horizon.  There may be a few more drive in movie theaters opening soon and as long as there is a car hop service, I am game. I am sure they will have to be G rated movies and I hope they can find more than a few that will satisfy the masses. There are after all only so many times we can watch Ferris Bueler’s day off. Who am I kidding anyway if I put a movie on at home I am asleep in the first fifteen minutes, but it is always the idea of the adventure that brings you out in the first place.

Techie and I have has a truly great week having our granddaughter visit this past week, and the parents were an added benefit. Kind of a bummer that they are going back to their home tomorrow, but again                    once again grateful for the extra week of Tilda time, thank you Coronavirus.  We will go back to our routine of just the two of us in this one room apartment and will have to find our groove again. Depending on how it goes next week we may be opening up a bit and that will mean a bit more venturing out into the world.  We have been preparing for months and I think we are ready. We wash our hands more than ever and sometimes just for practice. We have accumulated a wide assortment of masks, paper and fabric, some you can breathe out of and some will slowly suck out all your oxygen. We have taken many walks with our friends and kept six feet apart, at least most of the time.  I believe we are ready for the next step a little retail therapy and I don’t mean Costco or Target because recently I have been enjoying those outings. In the beginning it was just for the food sources but the distraction can happen very quickly. In fact tonight I am wearing my favorite designer Kirkland, and a pair of seersucker stretch type pants for 10 bucks. Seriously a few wears and you got your monies worth. Today we went into target for diapers but quickly became distracted and filled our cart very easily.  Just want you all to know I didn’t see anyone following me and was sure to wipe down all surfaces that we may have touched but that is apparently in the new regulations for retail opening next week. I am not sure what retail opening will be like next week but I hope people will want to visit live and in person. I know it has been three months and I could have made an appointment for my hair last week but I was just too lazy and kind of like being able to tie it up in a ponytail, it has been a long time since I could that and super slobby the way I like it. I can tell you one thing what I am most looking forward to is getting a pedicure. I have a really hard time reaching my toes and quite frankly they have become kind of Frankenstein looking. I caught my son the other day taking a picture of one of my renegade toes and sending it out to the universe.   How gross is that?  What is the first thing you all want to do when the opportunity comes up?

Just sayin….