Just a thought… In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep yourself busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive. [Lee Iacocca]

Anger? Nope. Energy? Oh yes!

This is day three of our self-imposed (and extremely necessary) isolation. It’s making my blood boil to read about people coming home from their vacations or winters down south and heading straight to the grocery store. My niece in Kelowna is one of those working to keep stores stocked. Can some people not think beyond themselves – ever?

One bit of wisdom I read said “Don’t act as if you have the virus; act as if I do.”

My angel friends here learned that a woman they had lunch with three weeks ago has tested positive for the coronavirus. She contracted it after they got together, so they’re in the clear (and since we were with them in California in the days right afterwards, so are we), but it simply drives home the fact that this is everywhere – including among us. People who should be self-distancing, and still are not, are playing with fire. And that’s people of ALL ages.

So….what are you up to? I’m keeping busy, while also spending too much time each day reporting bots on Twitter. (I guess this is where the anger, to which Mr. Iacocca’s quote refers, could come in.) They’re often easy to spot: they defend the orange Dear Leader, insult the media who are trying to get correct information to the people he’s lying to, and have a very recent Twitter join date.

The lazier ones of the estimated 30 MILLION bots out there also have no picture (unless they’ve lifted one from a real person out there somewhere) and their handles are followed by a string of numbers. That’s not to say that everyone without a pic and with just a bunch of digits is a bot; I’m talking about the automated spam accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and pretty much everywhere else, many of them created simply to disseminate lies.

I report and/or block them immediately but the spread of misinformation and your basic Faux News talking points – especially in these particularly perilous times – is infuriating.

Sure, there are those who believe Trump never said it was a hoax, didn’t downplay it from the get-go (as in two months ago when he got intelligence briefings) and is spouting hope and optimism instead of the doom and gloom of reality. He lies as often as he sniffs, and that – as you know – is a lot. And the daily attack-the-press conferences are simply rehashes of whatever he’s seen on Faux the night before or that morning.

Can all of this really be happening?

Anyway…back to being online, we’ve had time to do some searching and it appears that we can’t get groceries unless we call upon the kindness of friends or family: the stores that deliver are showing no openings for at least 9 days, which is pretty close to when our self-isolation ends (if we come out of it; who knows what the situation will be in a fortnight?).

Our freezer is full but I’m missing produce in a big way. Luckily our supply of snacks was limited to a half tub of frozen yogurt and some stale rice cakes. Last night we had quinoa that expired in 2015 (don’t ask me why we moved it with us in 2016 to BC). But at least it appears we won’t be gaining weight these two weeks. Thank goodness our angel Nancy is bringing us a few more supplies today. 

If you’re like me, you find part of the challenge is staying active without breaking self-isolation. How? Well, on Friday I logged 10,000+ steps on my FitBit (thanks, in part, to two lengthy phone calls). I walk while I talk and it’s a great way to add steps; when I sound a little breathy, I explain to people what I’m doing and to this point (at least as far as I know) no one has taken offence. At least I hope not.

Then I sat my butt down, wrote and recorded the script to go around an interview I did with marketing guru Terry O’Reilly for an upcoming podcast series for the Canadian Real Estate Association. So we got that got done. (I’ll let you know when it’s up so you can enjoy it; we’ve done it especially so that it’s not only of interest to realtors.)

Oh, and we binge-watched the entire second season of Barry on HBO on Friday evening. I think that was enough for the first day, don’t you?

You have a gentle Sunday – ours includes FaceTime with our sweet boy and his family who are safe and sheltered in Ottawa. I’ll be back with another journal tomorrow. Glad you’re here – glad we are together.