Health officials: 72 new coronavirus cases in Mass., total rises to 328

I am not a writer, but an artist, so to speak. It occurred to me that we are going through something that we’ve never seen before, and the news is changing day by day. I set up my blog yesterday, March 19, 2020, the first day of spring, in order to keep a journal of what’s been happening lately. Not so much to inform anybody, but to get my thoughts down, and to collect my observations. Again, this isn’t intended for the public, for mass consumption, merely a way for me to document these days. We try to conduct our lives normally, but a global pandemic has sent us into a panic.

The number of cases and deaths locally and globally comes to us in our newsfeeds, giving us an increasing sense of fear. Yesterday as I worked through the issues on my WordPress site, I had not paid much attention to the news, but felt like my life was on hold, and I could rearrange my priorities at will, almost like preparing for A blizzard, which we are so used to here in New England.

Today, the first Friday of spring, feels like a winter day. In a sense, we are still in the midst of a cold, bleak season. I hope for warmer days, and better news, but every day the reports get more severe.

I recently read someone else’s blog, seeing that their need to write lead to some very dramatic language, the likes of which we’ve seen on Netflix, HBO, and other series related to the end of days. I found it to be kind of annoying, and commented on Facebook, which I later regretted. It is no wonder that we all need to express something, be it fear, hope, desperation, or stating facts that allow us to sleep at night.

At this time everyone in my circle of friends and family, some young some old, are trying to stay safe and nobody has tested positive for this coronavirus.

we have never seen anything like this – with stores closing and restaurants shut down, it feels suffocating. Add to that fact that my current job at Greener Group is unclear as to my schedule. I have been working two days per week Monday and Tuesday, and conducting a job search in order to collect unemployment. I am making 50% of my salary plus the two days pay, and it is about 66% of my income. My return date was scheduled to be April 1, but I’m not sure if that is going to happen if the state goes into a lockdown.

I have been able to use voice commands on my iPhone to write 99% of this, so it is interesting to hear the words out loud that I am putting down.

I am inclined to keep to some sort of agenda so that I don’t begin rambling on. My intention is to report on my observations, with some daily numbers, but there is so much that I haven’t even covered.

My family recently had an emotional reaction to one of us traveling, Combined with job loss, and business closing, and it sent everyone’s mind into a new kind of thinking.

I may try to cover some of those details in a later post, but for now I just wanted to start by writing something and seeing how it lays out, and to say that I am trying to be hopeful today, but some days are harder than others.