Last Month Today

It's been a whole month since our friend Anne (from St. Louis) and her cousin Jane (from Chicago) visited us. It feels like a whole year. This picture was taken on March 8 at a Cubs spring training game in Phoenix. It was near the end of the days of normalcy. Of course we knew the virus was going to be a huge health issue, but though the days of social distancing and self-isolation were just about to hit us, we didn't quite exactly realize it.

Anne and Jane drove down from Phoenix on Monday, March 9. Truly it was about as late as anyone could have visited. This was the week that shifted everything. We were all watching and reading about the pandemic unfolding while they were here. While some parts of the country were starting to slowly fold down, we took some time to get outside. Our first hike was on March 10, at Sabino Canyon here in Tucson.

Our second hike was on March 11 at Madera Canyon, which is about an hour south of here. By then we were all getting antsy about the pandemic and Anne and Jane were anxious to get home. Our hike was beautiful and getting outside was a good tonic. But I was also antsy, to get myself to a grocery store. As it turned out, as soon as they headed to the airport on Thursday morning, I went to the store both on Thursday and Friday (March 12 and 13), and those were my only trips until three weeks later.

We went out to dinner while they were here too, and had two dinners at home. I don't need to tell you it was our last dinner out since then. And a stop at Culver's after one second hike was our last lunch out since then. But the four of us had a really nice visit together, and Allie of course enjoyed having one of her cross country buddies here with her. Having Anne and Jane here made the week that evolved into this life of self-quarantine quite memorable. Not only did we all follow the news together and talk about it together (not to mention stress about it together), but I can track the days of that week by their visit. In hindsight, obviously neither of them would have taken the trip had they known. But it turned out that they did, and now that they are both safe at home and healthy after a month, I can say that it all turned out. Thankfully.