Covid 19, Today’s Update

We are so fortunate. We have a house we adore in which to “camp out”, so there’s not a lot of room for complaint.

Our spirits remain high in general, and we feel so fortunate in our community. Obviously, we have a very small sample size, but it appears that we are not alone: Conte’s approval rating (he’s the Italian leader) is at 72%! That is HUGE given that the Italian political scene is very much a plurality of parties. There aren’t just two or three, but rather a ridiculous number. In order to achieve an approval rating that high, you’ve got to be doing something right.

The local news organs report the scheduled flash-mob activities that are playing out throughout the country to allow anyone and everyone to participate. So far, we’ve pretty much been slackers. But today is the feast of Saint Joseph (San Giuseppe), and at 9.15 tonight there’s a flash-mob prayer (never would have thought there would be such a thing, but I guess it’s a sign of the times?). We’ll probably do that.

What has us most concerned, to be honest, is our children: one daughter reports severe shortages in her local shops in London. The last few days have been quite hard, and up until yesterday or a few days ago the UK government had placed its collective fingers in its ears and was singing “lalala.” I try to keep things non-political, but this is where politics and living conditions intersect. Our other daughter in Scotland was released from university classes significantly earlier (they just called it quits in London a few days ago). Our daughter in the US was called into work yesterday...as late as last week, she was expected to continue to do her entire job (she works with children in a school setting). It’s clear that her wedding in May will not be as we had all envisioned even a few months ago.

Anyway, apart from that generalized feeling of helplessness, we are all doing just fine. I have enough projects to last me for many, many more months...so no worries of boredom over here! The boys end up playing one or two long strategy games per day, and they are having some semblance of distance learning. Michael, of course, is continuing to work frenetically; when does he not?

Love,

Alexandra