a cold spell came through and i can't just sit on the porch without getting a few more layers on. it's kind of like winter, with everyone crowded in the house and making too much noise.

we are in an ok groove at home, with four kids way out at the end of a mountain road, only one of them seriously set back by it. That one has a lot of issues, but isolation is hard for every teenager, and he can't be faulted for being seriously hurt, enough to possibly ignore sensible warnings. if he manages to get his mom to let a friend come over, it will be under massive quarantine restrictions, as she is probably more careful even than i am. and i am careful, or rather, afraid of this virus. i am not eager to have these kids over to our house.

it is technically against the law, or at least the governor's restrictions, to have friends over at this moment. yet it's almost a mental health issue, and, out in the community, people are loosening restrictions all over the place. the town is not being too careful, with its teenagers or with anyone else. people are coming and going from stores, bank, post office, you name it. if you are polite you wear a mask.

some say the mask has become politicized, to the point where you wear one if you respect the coronavirus, and you don't if you don't. i don't really know if that's true for everyone. one day i went into the family dollar and forgot my mask - does that make me a rebel? a mountain man? one who spits on fate and goes boldly out into the world?

i wonder about this "right to infect" crowd. it's standard wisdom that the virus will be traveling around this crowd soon enough, and the rest of us better just hold still until the dust settles. i'm ok with that. i'm in no hurry to go anywhere. i'm abour ready to settle down, and just live someplace. out at the end of a mountain road, up against the national forest, not far from the mescalero apache reservation, it's as good a place as any.

unfortunately we are not so clearly "right" on our "stay home and don't go anywhere" side - although my reasons are different from most people. i am not a big fan of the big waste economy - gyms, nail salons, hairdresser, cruises, i could live without all this stuff. i don't even go for music concerts or basketball games where spectators are all crowded together. if some of this stuff changes toward the mellow, cheaper or even online variety, we'd all be better off and the world would breathe better. and i think, starting with us, it's not all that bad to stay home, stay outdoors, and entertain ourselves. especially since we're able to do it.

but i am very mad that so many people have no choice. go back to work at a meat-packing plant? or a theater? i can't see risking one's life for the kind of wage you're talking about here. i don't know that these people have any better choice - but i would get a "contact tracer" job if i were one of them. first, to help out. second, to not die. third, to have security. this contact tracing business will be going on for quite a while i think. and since coronavirus caught the health care industry by surprise, and we lost a lot of health care workers, that will be another job that will open up soon enough.

but that's a very cynical view. we don't really want people to die. and that's a good enough reason to slow down. don't get in people's faces. don't even go into the store if you don't have to. and my kids, too, need to learn that and just adjust. they have internet. they'll live, and we'll try to make sure of that.