At sunset last night, while we were relaxing on the couch and deciding what to watch, we heard music and laughter. I looked out the window to see a small party going on in a rooftop gazebo a few yards away, fire flickering in a fire-pit, four, maybe five young-looking people holding glasses. One woman with long blonde hair stood and danced. It’s possible they are residents of the building.

Michael was annoyed , but I find it hard to blame them. If I were still young this quarantine would be much harder to bear.

An email from my mother today. She’s taking the quarantine seriously, even on her mountaintop in the Carolinas.

She has two dogs, so she does need to take them for walks, but hers is a rural, remote area, so she’s unlikely to violate the social distancing guidelines.

She also ventures out to deal with the mice that occasionally show up in her house. My mother can’t bear to kill anything, so she sets out live traps. When she captures a mouse, she carries it in the trap to her car, drives off to a churchyard a couple miles away, and lets it go.

Thus, she enjoys some fresh, uncontaminated air and releases one of God’s creatures into a bucolic, peaceful setting.