Wait — I Can TALK on This Phone?
Journal day 9 (feels like day 9,000): My little corner of NYC in the age of the Coronavirus, Monday, March 30, 2020
My favorite thing to do now is to chat on the phone while I’m taking my daily walk. It’s safer and less stressful than going for a walk with someone else and having to be vigilant about keeping six feet apart.
So for me, the virus has brought back the lost art of talking on the phone, something that has not seemed so central to my life since before the days of email. That, along with some of my other new habits, like ordering groceries online, may be worth holding onto when this is all over.
Last night Trump announced he was extending social distancing for at least another month, instead of continuing to urge everyone to crowd into churches for Easter. I guess Drs. Birx and Fauci finally got through to him. With hindsight, Dr. Birx’s seemingly insane pandering to Trump — saying how helpful it was to have him use his business know-how to analyze the data — now makes sense. She did what she had to do to get him to listen to her, and it worked, so I am grateful, albeit slightly nauseated.
I think I’ve been watching the news too much. It’s hard to resist the compulsion to stay plugged into the news all day long, but it’s making me anxious. I can’t avoid anxiety altogether, but maybe I can dial it down to a slow simmer.
