Plague Stalks The Land

"It was about the beginning of September, 1664, that I, among the rest of my neighbors, heard in ordinary discourse that the plague was returned again in Holland . . . "

So begins Daniel Defoe's first hand account of the London plague of 1665 which carried off 68,596 of his neighbors of a population estimated at 460,000. They had no antibiotics, no effective hospitalization, no real understanding of the disease or the effectiveness of quarantine. As usual, the poor bore the brunt of it, but no class was untouched.

It makes interesting reading and keeps me from feeling sorry for myself in self-isolation. We know enough about our current outbreak to stem it if people will listen to and heed good advice.

Bonnie and I are well, as are Dan, Sarah, Thompson, and Madeleine. We have provisions and no current need to venture out, other than daily exercise. We are even doing Yoga from videos our instructors are posting online. On Wednesday we all went up to Forests For The World for a walk  and hot dog roast. There were lots of people out walking and keeping a respectful distance from others. Many businesses in town are closing their doors for now and restaurants are advertising carry out only. The grocery store delivers online orders and school, in the way we know it, is probably over for the year. Who would have dreamed this even a few weeks ago. Time to give thanks for living in a benevolent democracy with competent leadership and a clear sense of urgency.
We will all feel more comfortable when Doug, Jan, and Donald are back in the land of socialized health care.

We had planned to use this blog format to report on a trip to Texas and Louisiana. We had enjoyed Jan's cheerful,newsy letters from their trips and wanted to do something similar. We even purchased an ipad with keyboard to facilitate said reporting. The blog format would let us insert photos and maps easily and would automatically go to those who clicked the "Follow" button at the bottom of the left column. (hint, hint).

Maddy is coming over soon to bake cookies with Bonnie. Maddy says it falls under "essential contact" and who am I to argue when I will benefit in a culinary way. I will go for a walk while the ladies bake, then I'll practice my guitar a bit and perhaps read a bit.

I have an idea for tomorrow's blog entry. You'll have to join the list to see what it is.