Isolation?

Isolation?

Not at all. 

Yes we are allowed out with a purpose and a dated and timed form for an hour. And yes we see neighbors also darting out for bread and victuals and we call to them from across the street.

Ca va? we say. Ca va, they answer. We ask about  (     ) who lives with them. How are you holding up? One neighbor comments on Rick's improved French, and he comes home chuffed. 

The police will tell us not to be too close together. I want to tell them we share a bed. If one of us gets the virus the other will, I'm sure. C'est la vie and hopefully not la mort.

"Where will we go today?" I asked my husband as I got out of bed this morning. Even the dog has slept in. "A tour of the snore room, a walk around the drying clothes in the entry or maybe a strut in the dining room?"

Most likely we will visit the laptops and TV and of course the kitchen. We are cooking more filling the house with good smells at least around lunch time.

Once at the laptops, we are no longer alone. People come in via Facebook and email. There's:

• Pam from Ireland, 
• Kikka, Alexander, Louise, Camilla from Denmark
• Andy, Pauline, Carol, P, Barbara from the UK
• Carol and Gerry, Sylvia from Australia,
• Ruth, Lannie, Adrian, Margaret, Bill, Millie from Canada
• Ro, Kay, Alan, Tracey, Robert, Geoff, Keith, Becky, Barbara, Don, Terry, Sherri, Bruce, Nicole, Glenn (2), Gretchen, Richard, Mike from the US
• Robin, Lydia from our neighborhood
• Fanny, Paul, Mary from France
• Julia, Scott, Alistair, Daniel, Anil from Switzerland 
• Barbara from Monserrat
• Karrie from India

It's only a partial list, and I haven't added in our daughters. Llara appears on messaging every few days and we share the webcam to admire her cats and Sherlock, discuss her WFH and any other topic that we would discuss if she was in front of me to share a pot of tea.

Politics, books, humor, personal news and more are battered back and forth.

Sometimes, I get so caught up in emails and Facebook, I never get to my own writing. I haven't gotten to the stack of mail, but even if I deal with the paperwork and mail it, no one is there to open it.

And if the internet connection wearies us their are books. Fortunately we have a supply and if we run out there's Kindle. I've read five books since the lockdown plus I'm catching up on three months of The New Yorker.

There's the Washington Post, Guardian as the base papers and at least six other international news sites. For TV News we check France, Switzerland, England, Scotland, US, Canada.

We are still part of the group fighting FATCA, but much more relaxed at the moment. We still check to make sure what is happening.

I don't feel isolated at all.