Ever since I moved from semi-retirement after a career as an Ohio labor economist to full-time “retirement” about 3 years ago, I have fallen into a ‘typical’ routine. That means getting up about 7:30 every morning, feeding the feral cats, breakfast, and the comics. Then I head out to ‘my’ Kosciuszko Park at Hard Road and Riverside for a 3-mile hike. Being of Polish heritage, I claim “The Peasant Prince” as one of my ancestors even though I am still trying to prove that genetic link. I’d been told that my Grandfather Leṡ had immigrated from Bialystok, Poland, which was only about 150 miles from where General Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the last person buried with the Polish Kings in Krakow, lived. I feel that I have inherited his passion for social justice.

I try not to do any ‘work’ until after lunch. That is probably the biggest change in my daily routine since the pandemic started. Because I have a very large family and extended family, I seem to get caught up in calls, texts, etc. in the morning now so it has backed up my schedule. For the past 3 months, I had been working on my downstairs bathroom, building a “Shower from Scratch.” I could only work on that for about 2 hours a day due to poor knees, but I thankfully got it done just as the pandemic hit. I need to put in the ceramic tile floor, but I wait to make sure that I am not the next victim of COVID-19 while being in quarantine.

Now my time in the afternoon is caught up with yard work and watching Ohio’s daily press briefing, followed by Lester Holt’s national news at 6:30 and Jeopardy at 7. We never used to watch any daytime TV, but it now seems important to stay current. Our monthly Folk Music coffeehouses at CMC are on hiatus. As I shared as a newcomer, Sour Cherry Pie (Phil and Steve) was the featured performance which first attracted me to CMC. I miss those, but they have started daily live music which I haven’t had a chance yet to incorporate into my new routine. Music is something which I enjoy even though I don’t sing very well and can’t usually remember song titles or lyrics! I am cycling through all of my folk music CDs while working on the laptop. I also recommend Michael W. Smith’s instrumental album, Freedom, to soothe the soul.

While my wife, Sally, and I remain in quarantine after her visit to her sister and my treks to the pharmacy and to the grocery store prior to the stay-at-home order, she is laying a 1,000 piece puzzle in the living room. Her love of puzzling came from doing them at the family cottage on Donnell Lake in Michigan (near the Mennonite church camp) every summer. On our visits there through the years, there was always a puzzle that everyone would chip in on.

Now we reminisce more about our years in North Dakota and the winter blizzards that could keep us locked up with cabin fever for weeks. But this is different, with people suffering and dying.  We pray for all people everywhere that we will soon see this virus defeated.