Hello everyone, I hope this update finds you all well. Although I had been socially isolated for almost two weeks before traveling home to DC, this was my first full week sheltered in place. To be honest, it was a pretty good week, the terrible news on TV notwithstanding.
It’s springtime here in DC, and the days have been really nice and the nights cool but pleasant. The spring flowers are in bloom and are exploding with color all over our neighborhood. While DC is known for the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin downtown, there are actually plenty of them throughout the city. The tulips are fantastic and my mother’s azaleas are in full bloom. Because the traffic is so minimal right now, the air is cleaner and you can actually smell the flowers when you’re outside. It’s a wonderful sensory experience. The flowers are definitely brightening my days and helping keep my spirits up.
The city is very quiet right now, which I’m also really enjoying. Most people who live in touristy areas will tell you their favorite time of year is the off-season, when things quiet down and they get their town back for a while. In DC, we like the holiday weekends because the transient population goes home, and the traffic dies down and the city rests for a few days. It’s been like Memorial Day Weekend since I’ve gotten back, and I’m loving it.
There are a lot of walkers out right now, as everyone is trying to get out of their houses and get some fresh air, sunshine and exercise, and I’m right there with them. I’ve been trying to get out for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening and I’ve been enjoying my walks immensely. I’ve found a good set of outdoor steps to use to get my heart and lungs going a little bit, and I’m probably going to come out of this in better shape than I went into it.
Between my walks, I’ve been trying to catch up on some of the work that went unfinished as I was without internet for two weeks at the end there in Texas. I’ve put up some good Snapshots posts this week from my journey down the Gulf Coast, and still have a couple more to come. I’ve been working on some podcast episodes, but my plan is just to stockpile them for a while so I can roll out Season 2 a little more consistently than Season 1 came out. Incidentally, if you haven’t listened to my podcast yet, this may be a perfect time to get caught up. You can find it HERE or by searching “American Anthology” wherever you get your podcasts. It’s been nice to get back into writing on a more regular basis. I was so busy on the road that I wasn’t really getting to it as much as I would have liked. I will get back to working on my book next week.
Shadow Catcher is safe and sound and parked right outside. I can see her from where I’m writing. I need to get her cleaned out and emptied before it gets too hot and make sure she’s ready to go when the opportunity arises. Who knows when that will be, or where we will go, but we will get out there again one of these days.
I’ve also been enjoying reading my book on the back porch with my morning coffee and again in the evening with a cold beer. It’s nice to have the opportunity to read and to have a nice place to do it. I’ve got a whole pile of books and there’s no way I’ll get through all of them. But they’ll definitely keep me busy.
I have been getting out and taking some photos this week, and plan to do more before the flowers disappear. As I’ve been out walking, I’ve been looking at the neighborhoods I walk through in the same way I look at towns I’ve never been to before. I’ve been looking at different angles and seeing details I’ve never noticed, despite having lived in this neighborhood for 20+ years of my life. I hear from people all the time who tell me I’ve shown them their hometown in a way they’ve never seen it before and that always makes me feel so good. Now I’ve got the time and the opportunity to look at my own neighborhood with the same clear eyes and open mind. I hope to show you all where I’m from and some of the beautiful places in my neighborhood in the weeks to come. I’m looking forward to it. Beyond that, I have thousands of photos from last summer in the Rocky Mountains which I never got around to editing, so I hope to share some of those with you in the next few months as well.
On that note, the outlook for my summer gig guiding tours looks pretty grim right now. I’m hoping that we may be able to salvage some of our high-season, but only time will tell. We generally rely on most of our clientele coming from overseas, and I don’t know when leisure travel will pick back up again. I do hope that when people can get out of their houses again, that they will take advantage of their local destinations and get out to those state parks and historic towns in their region. We may not be able to go far, but hopefully we can at least go somewhere. Again, time will tell.
Other than that, I’ve been enjoying spending time with my folks at home. We are playing games and watching some nice shows and even had a fire in the back yard this week. We had a long distance Happy Hour in our respective yards with our neighbor, catching up on the week’s events and laughing as much as we could. I also had a chance to chat with another neighbor up the street who was one of our earliest cases of coronavirus in DC. She seems to be doing well, and it was good to see her up and about.
So that’s about it from the home front this week. It’s been quiet, but not in a bad way. I’ve been trying to keep up with the news but not overdo it. I’ve long since resolved myself in this life to try and worry only about the things I have control over, and try and keep the rest at a bit of a distance. Please stay safe out there. I’m looking forward to the day when we can all be outside together again, traveling and laughing and holding our friends close. It’s not that long to wait.
Until next week then, thank you for reading.
-Mike