Hump day of week 5 of working from home. It has been sunny and lovely in Seattle so that helps. I put a lounge chair out back in the sun for Ena yesterday afternoon and she spent an hour recharging her solar cells. With Ena being on crutches, her outside time has been practically zero for the past 2 weeks.

Ena’s surgery spot is healing well. She has a couple of more weeks on crutches. We heard from her cardiologist. She thinks Ena has a blockage but it isn’t high risk at this time. There are drugs in the mail – a statin that will reduce blockages. We will try that before something more invasive like an angiogram and stent placement or angioplasty (do they still do angioplasty?). All this is taking me back to my time at Target Therapeutics developing catheters for interventional neuroradiology.

Things that get me through the day: I use the Calm Blog’s – Take Deep Breath to do a 10 to 20 minute mediation each morning. I go for a brisk 30 minute walk before I sit down for the day. I have spending more time in the garden. We have an area that the raccoons tore up getting to chaffer beetle larvae that I had to replant. The very first sprouts are starting to pop up.

I take heart in the fact that Seattle’s early intervention seems to be paying off. There are vaccine trials under way.

I have really enjoyed watching Adam Savage’s Tested YouTube channel. He is like a close friend who is funny, cheerful, smart and insightful. It is a really joyful thing to watch him answer questions or to watch him build his various (and I do mean various) projects.

I leave you with a quote from Adam, quoting Letters to A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, about these times: “I think we find our moment of sadness terrifying because we find ourselves standing in a place where we cannot remain standing. The past has left us but the future has not yet taken hold.” You should really listen / watch Adam tell this story.

Stay healthy and stay well.