I’m now thinking the coronavirus death toll is going to be a lot higher than I first guessed it would be. I didn’t think it would get close to 1/4 mil, but if things keep going the way they have, it very well could.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve got something and other times I’m not sure. Tom had a sore throat and lung tightness for a couple of weeks, and I’ve been having that as well. I don’t think we’ve had the virus, though. My throat was a little scratchy when I woke up, but I haven’t had any lung tightness yet today. Yesterday I had tightness in my chest and back.

What’s a little scary (assuming you can believe what you read) is the 42-year-old woman with no pre-existing health conditions that died in just two weeks after the onset of the virus. Well, I’m 54 and I do have some pre-existing conditions. It’s definitely not just an old people’s disease.

Called my doctor’s office yesterday, and as I suspected, they prefer to keep their healthy patients home. Therefore, instead of going to see my doctor on the 2nd at 9 a.m., we’re going to have a video appointment at that time on Zoom. Then, if all goes well, I should only have two more appointments with her as we hope to get the house on the market around this time next year. I’m guessing we’ll leave a few months later which means we’ll have been in Cali for 14 years.

I realized that this is the longest I’ve gone without leaving the state I’m living in. In the other states, I rarely went more than a few years without going to some other state or country. It’s now been four years since we’ve gone anywhere.

Rockefeller screams every time I run the disposal, LOL.

Anyway, even though I’m not a social butterfly and I work at home, even I’m starting to get a touch of cabin fever. I’m definitely used to going out more often than I have been. The only good in this is the lack of traffic and the quiet. In the middle of the daytime, the streets have been nearly as dead as they are in the middle of the night and that doesn’t happen in California. He ran out to Walmart yesterday and it was pretty dead. He only grabbed a few things. He’ll get a week’s worth of stuff for us at 9 this morning when only those over 60 can shop at Walmart. Sam’s is also starting to have set times for older people.

I haven’t been hearing the planes at night, but I hear them faintly in the mornings. Just not for hours at a time, and they’re not coming nearly as close as they usually do. One who didn’t know any better might mistake them for the distant rumble of thunder or fierce winds.

Even the freeway is quiet and that’s not usually quiet unless it’s raining or the middle of summer. Where summer is noisier in most places, it’s our quietest season when it comes to most things…planes, landscaping, the freeway.

Norma is definitely ignoring me. I don’t doubt for a minute that Tammy’s viciously and falsely slammed me to her, and I also get that Norma’s always going to believe her over me. I don’t care what she thinks of me, though. What I need to decide is whether or not I should delete her. If I delete her, there’s less of a chance that things could get back to the termite. On the other hand, she isn’t doing anything wrong other than giving me the silent treatment. I’ll give it the rest of the year to decide. If she blows off my birthday, I’ll blow her off my friend list. No point in remaining connected to “deadbeats.”

Despite Aly keeping in touch, I sometimes feel a bit underappreciated. I’ve been there for her in ways that I’m able to be yet sometimes I feel like she just doesn’t value me. Maybe I’m being paranoid and perhaps a bit selfish but it’s seldom to never that I hear what a good friend I am and how she really appreciates this or that from me, etcetera. It seems that there are some people that no matter what you say or do, it’s just never good enough. You can say or do what you think is the most innocent of things only to later learn they were hurt or offended. I know I shouldn’t worry too much about that, though, because it’s their fault if they don’t speak up right away. Still, some people make me wonder. No, I don’t feel like dumping her. I doubt I’d ever do that, but I can’t say that she wouldn’t.