Day: March 22, 2020

So, it’s not the sunny white powder beach of Siesta Key in Sarasota, Florida, but we have water, sand and sun. Yes, I’m wearing a coat as I type this on my phone on the Potomac, about an hour south of the city on the Maryland side.

We’ve seen a few other other people on our hike through the woods, but we have this strip of beach to ourselves. A friendly bearded man came by about an hour ago and gave us tips on how to look for shark teeth fossils. We now have about 40. I’m sitting here listening to the small waves wash up on the beach while Sasha lies in the sun, her ears twitching like satellite dishes with every sound. Chris and the kids are just over the small cliff behind me setting up a hammock between two trees. One hammock + two kids = I think I’ll stay right here.

I usually have a pretty good sense of time, even on the weekends – I’m not usually more than a few minutes off when I guess. I felt a shift today, the first day of the weekend, which has a lot less significance that it did seven days ago. Today would have consisted of running the kids to crew practice, a regional science fair, and a piano festival. I probably would’ve also tried to squeeze in a run, some grocery shopping, and maybe an evening get-together with friends. I did manage the run after a leisurely morning with coffee and the newspaper, and I was honestly surprised when I ran by a closed nail salon and saw that the clock read 11:45. What? That can’t be right. On a normal Saturday, I’d be wrapping up my run around 9:30.

It happened again after working in the garden. I spent a while pulling up weeds in the strip between the street and the sidewalk and moved a few plants into the bare spots. I had nowhere to be, so I kept working until I finished the job. When I headed inside and checked the time, I was shocked to see that it was 5:30. I really expected it to be around 4:00. These are strange times, and I am definitely feeling off-kilter. The boundaries between weekday and weekend have bled into each other and has left me disoriented.