I have good days and bad days during all this CoViD19 stuff. Today was a more bad than good day. We had Pacific Northwest rain all day – gray and continuous. Unlike Midwest storms, these storms come from low woolen clouds that drizzle all day long. We probably got ½ inch of rain all day. Maybe more. The Midwest storms could dump an inch and a half in 30 minutes – 3 inches in a morning. Dark and brooding with flashing lightening and roaring thunder. Dumping and dark – so dark that street lights come on midday. But I digress again.

I feel like I oscillate between being a bit manic about everything that needs to get done efficiently to run the house, take care of Ena, and do work and depression that haunts the back of mind over the dark impact of this pandemic on life, business, restaurants, people and our society. Today was darker. It helps if I can escape into work but today I worked on “what it means to come back to work”. I’m helping leadership think about all the things that must be thought about when people return to work… whenever that happens… however that happens… and whatever that means.

When things get dark mentally, I think of August. Bright Summer. It might not be this August but next August – 2021 or maybe even 2022 – when we will gather with friends in the back yard on a lovely Summer evening, the smell of the BBQ will be rich in the air. We will have wine or Blanc d’Blanc. We will talk. CoViD19 won’t be the only topic. When we discuss it, CoViD19 will be in the past tense. Mostly, we will breathe warm summer’s night air and listen to birdsong and discuss food and drinks and hopes and dreams and travel and other things.

I think of that August to come. The one where things are back to a new normal and all of this is a thing that happened that one year. “Wasn’t it crazy!?”, we will say. “I’m so glad it is behind us”, we will all sigh.

I think of August.

Stay well.