Pink dogwood blossoms (photo by Dick Schmidt)

After what has felt like nonstop work since my college and so many others stopped seeing students, shut down and converted to online teaching, I finally got outside on a lovely spring day. I took a lovely 2-mile walk around the park-like grounds of the Woodside condo complex in Sacramento this afternoon with my sweetie, who has lived there since the early 1970s.

Dick has been struggling with leg pain, but thanks to a lower back brace recommended by my sister, the PT (yay, Donna Just!), he’s feeling so good that we were able to do our usual 2-mile walk at about two-thirds speed as usual… the two of us, out in nature in T-shirts (not jackets), stopping to admire and shoot flowers on our iPhones (as we do).

We are aware of our great privilege with one of us retired and not unhappy to mostly stay inside as the other one works from home. (I am a Zooming fool now, people, and I ran five writing groups this week from my home office and laptop.)

We’re supporting small, local restaurants we love by getting takeout food (thank you, Evan’s Kitchen for the yummy meatloaf sandwiches today and Nopalito’s for the always-tasty taco plate and burrito yesterday—not to mention Joe Thompson’s Crisp Catering for fine dinners.) We ache for people who are sick, for people who have lost loved ones to complications from the coronavirus, for those who are scared and sad, who have been forced out of their regular routines and, like many of my students, lost their jobs. We have friends who work in the medical field, and we pray that they stay safe and healthy.

While we keep those who are struggling in our hearts, neither of us is sick or in pain today, and we call that a big win—along with the pretty pink dogwoods bloomin’ their fool heads off.

Woodside dogwood tree and residents (photo by Dick Schmidt)

#lifeisgood #ontherightsideofthedirt