Life Back to Normal

The past few weeks a busy, energetic, on-going series of activities bombarded me and pushed everyday life aside.

Now, special events concluded, life returns to normal.

The excitement of touring new places, meeting new people, tasting different dishes fade into days of scenery sameness – my front porch and backyard, neighborhood streets and stores and familiar eating and shopping places. Not a bad thing. A comforting fact.

Long travel days to far-away destinations are now miserable memories of hours scrunched into a tight plane seat, mediocre to bad food, inability to sleep, and cramped muscles. Transportation these days is often by foot, exercise and fresh air replacing inertia and stale air.

The challenge and intensity of attempting to satisfy grandkids of different ages and interests over (temporarily!), replaced by time to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee.

Multiple trips to the Rite-Aid drugstore a couple of blocks from the house decrease to once a day, and occasionally NONE a day! I do not own stock in Rite-Aid, but perhaps should. And I have no doubt my family’s repeated visits to the store had something to do with the recent uptick in the company’s share price. (Stock analysts will tell you the price jump had to do with the fact that Walgreen’s is buying half of the Rite-Aid stores, but I know better…I wonder if my neighborhood store will soon have a name change. In that case I might buy Walgreen’s stock.)

I look forward to catching up with friends missed but ignored for weeks.

Volunteer responsibilities on hold now demand attention.

Returning home and looking forward to cooking once more, bare shelves need restocking, and summer means excursions to farmer’s markets for delicious local fresh produce.

Flower and vegetable gardens beg for attention after weeks of benign neglect. Weeds gloat, reaching for the sky. It is time to let them know who is the boss!

A pile of books beckon.

And last, my political awareness dropped a few notches over the past few weeks. I was not around a TV constantly blaring the latest Presidential buffoonery. I ignored newscasts droning on and on about repealing, replacing, voting on, and changing the good, the bad and the ugly in the GOP health plan. My inattention changed nothing, but my blood pressure thanked me. I will make an effort to minimize my exposure to all political discourse hoping my blood pressure remains under control.

Life back to normal.