Yes, this time of year does feel different this year. I love summer and am always sad to see summer end and autumn begin. Last fall I did a lot of hiking in NH with my friend and my dog, Teddy. We decided to tackle 4000 footers, an awesome undertaking, and hiked 4 of them. The picture above is from our 2nd 4000 footer, and really captures some of the beautiful fall scenery we saw. We had fun in spite of the really hard work, and felt proud of our accomplishment. There was a sense of freedom and adventure that we could take for granted. This year, I don't feel a sense of freedom and adventure. I feel much more apprehension and worry. I am worried about a second wave of the Corona virus hitting. I am worried about another quarantine. I wonder what it will be like facing all of this as winter approaches. At least when this all started, there was summer to look forward to. I worry about not being able to have social distance gatherings as it gets cold. I am also really worried about the upcoming election. I was horrified when our current president won 4 years ago, and can't imagine what 4 more years might look like. I am also worried at the distrust and confusion that has been created about the upcoming election and voting. There is so much confusion! I never look forward to the end of summer and this year, I am anticipating fall and winter with much more dread than usual. I certainly don't have the sense of fun and adventure that was so present last year.
September 3, 2020
... It is a really sad and hard thing to think about but the reality is that this virus has had an impact on everyone one way or another. All of my friends got sent back home because the campus needed to close down. They did not have time to take everything and many of them didn't know where to go because they lived very far away. Something else was that some parents lost their jobs. Others needed help to get supplies like food, water or toiletries. I know that in the news they talked about people not having enough money to pay the bills. All of these things definitely impacted the way they had to change lifestyles.
September 23, 2020