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Week 20 - Friday in North Texas marks the end of a testing week for Graeme.

 Edited BY


G P Kennedy

Graeme - Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas

 The dam broke this week.

 

 All told the virus-related restrictions and lockdowns have not had too much of an impact on me and mine, on a practical level. Sure, the immigration system slowed, closed, then reopened, per my post last week. Yes, it would have been preferable over the summer to sit out in the heat of a Texas evening, drinking beer, eating food someone else has cooked and which someone else will wash up and put away. Chatting with friends, giving them a hug, would have been great. That said I am very adaptable. I have needed to be for a long time now and feel that I had got to where I can mold to any new circumstances; shape myself according to what life throws at me.

 

 Since early March of this year adapt is exactly what we did. We have not set foot in a restaurant or bar since Spring Break. We have, however, been greatly served by the smart and indefatigable business folks of North Texas as they furnished us with curbside pickup or delivered food and drinks. Same goes for our weekly grocery shop, accomplished online and delivered to our door within two hours.

 

Chillin' by the pool

 We have the great luxury of enough indoor and outdoor space to adapt to the ‘new normal’. My wife and I have been able to set up separate home offices, able to go to our separate corners to get work done. We had our pool and back yard (garden) completely overhauled and we now have quite resplendent areas on the patio, sun deck, expanses of grass, and in the pool in which to relax, work out, drink, play with the dogs, chat, and listen to music. Hard earned and well deserved.

 

 For months that was enough. It was plenty. My wife is my favorite person and best friend. Lucky me except luck has nothing to with it.

 

 This week – Wednesday night to be precise – it all became too much. The lockdown drags on with no end in sight. The US still has well north of 40,000 cases a day and in excess of 1,000 deaths. The months-long state of emergency in Texas is not going anywhere, as our infection rate is stubbornly around 20%. 


 As a result all education – except for the high dollar private university nearby – is online. As detailed last week this means low enrollment numbers. As of Friday morning I have no idea whether I will be teaching the classes assigned to me for the coming semester. Classes start on Monday. I have been promised a phone call today to let me ‘know one way or the other’.

 

The boys - Zeus and Ziggy

 I had to leave the house and go to a store Wednesday, to return a package to UPS. I found it massively stressful. Boo hoo! First World Problem. My problem. The immigration stuff is at a dead stop again; I need grief counseling to be able, finally, to adequately deal with my mom’s death – it is increasingly clear that the longer it is since I was able to have ‘one of our chats’ the more I miss her and the deeper the grief burrows.

 

 So, the dam broke. I need to do some repair work. I have the tools and the instruction manual. I may need another day or two before I have the drive to start rebuilding and for anyone that knows me this will come as a shock. If I am one thing, consistently, it is relentless. I mold, adapt, face things head on, and carry on regardless. I will persist just give me a minute.

 

This week called for a stiff drink, or two

 Be safe - talk to each other - Big Texas Love x.

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