Suburbs – self isolation made easy

For the last several years I have envied my friends in DC and other urban areas for their ability to walk out their doors and go to restaurants, bars, plays, the movies, and all sorts of other interesting places without having to drive for 30 minutes and deal with parking. Now that we are in a pandemic, I am not so envious.

It turns out that suburban single family homes are isolation pods. We have space in the house and plenty of buffer space outside. And we don’t even have to mow the grass. Yet. (That’s for tomorrow.)

I do escape the pod daily to go for a bike ride. Today I had dead legs, the result of riding for five days in a row. I decided to only ride 25 miles. A week ago I washed and put away the holey wool sweaters that I use for warmth during the winter. As a result, I was underdressed. I managed to get through 21 1/2 miles before running back inside and eating a bowl of hot soup.

I rode to Fort Hunt Park. The Mule posed for a photo in front of some of the ruins of the fort, which dates back to the early 19th century.

I rode the 1.25 mile circuit road in the park four times. I only saw one group that was not social distancing. They were talking to a park volunteer. Derp.

After riding in the park, I made my way over to Collingwood Road. There’s a double loop that goes from Collingwood to Alexandria Avenue and back and then back again. C to A to C. One leg of this is on East Boulevard Drive. Another is on the Mount Vernon Trail. The third is on West Boulevard Drive. The entire course is a little over three miles. I did it twice, once in each direction. I seriously needed a holey sweater so I came home and called it quits after 21 1/2 miles.

Finally, I reported yesterday that my niece and her boyfriend were ill with the virus. Her father, my brother, texted this morning that the two of them had a “miraculous recovery.” I suspect that these two northerners were struck down by DC’s nearly lethal levels of springtime pollen. Having been very sick from sinus afflictions on more occasions than I can remember, I gave up and started taking a 24-hour antihistamine daily, year round. And I still get runny eyes, a sore throat, headaches, and a sour tummy from time to time. The biggest culprit is shredded bark mulch. I used to spread this all over the flower beds in our yard until I got so sick I missed two days of work. No more.

Even with a Buff covering my nose and mouth I received a big dose of mulch dust during my ride today. People spread it this time of year. Ick.

Time for a nap.