The last few months have been difficult ones for all of us. For myself, I’m doing my best to keep it together. Staying home so much is fine; I have T and the cats for company, and if I really need a change of scenery, I mask up and go out for a walk and play some Pokemon Go. I mostly walk around my own neighborhood, and encounter very few people.

I’ve been the one to mask up and go out for supplies: groceries, prescriptions, and the occasional shopping trip to Target or the hardware store for stuff, and every time I do I get nervous. If my throat gets a little dry or scratchy and I cough, I wonder if this is the time when I will catch Covid-19. We could sign up for more deliveries, but we live in a townhouse-style condo, part of a row of them, and our row is perpendicular to the street; finding our place for delivery drivers is a challenge at best. That they can’t park right in front of our home, but rather have to park on the street and walk up, is not appealing to most drivers, who would rather not stray far from their vehicles, and I can’t blame them. Not even a little.

T and I voted absentee weeks ago. I took the ballots in to the City Clerk’s office rather than trusting that our sabotaged mail system could deliver them accurately and on-time. This is perhaps the most important election I’ve ever voted in, and I can’t stress enough that people need to make the effort and vote, always,in every election. Otherwise, we end up where we are now, with heavily gerrymandered states such that the minority party can control a majority of the districts without fear of consequences for their actions.

Hobbies are an important part of keeping myself busy. I enjoy painting miniatures, and I’ve taken it up again lately, trying to finish some figures I started months ago. Painting runs in cycles for me; I’m enthusiastic and work on them every day for a while, but then I run out of steam and put them away from a month or two. I’m working on some Warhammer Fantasy figures right now, adding to the armies I already have (Wood Elves and Goblins at the moment.) I’ve also been painting some Napoleonic War miniatures, and they’re much smaller than Warhammer figures. Try getting hundreds of miniatures on the average tabletop using larger figures and you’ll understand why the smaller ones sometimes work better.

Of course I’ve been reading, and writing some, but I can’t focus my attention on writing these days, so my output has been scant. A book I worked on was just released last month as a PDF; it’s a fiction anthology, about shapeshifters in the Wild West, and so far it’s doing okay, sales-wise, though I had hoped for better. Besides my story, nine other talented authors came up with fantastic tales, and I’m extremely proud of how the book turned out. You can read more about that in a previous blog post: http://billbodden.com/2020/10/11/new-book-i-worked-on/

Most people are doing their best to mitigate the dangers of our current existence, but we need to keep in touch; human contact is severely underrated in our society. Call up a friend to say hello. Write a letter, post card, or greeting card to a friend you haven’t seen in a while. If you still have income, maybe look for artist friends who make things and buy something from them. With no conventions, Renaissance Faires, and swap meets happening, many people who depend on those events for their livelihoods are suffering. Retail shops have been hit hard too; instead of buying from Amazon, maybe try mail ordering a few things from a local mom & pop store instead? They’re hurting too, as foot traffic is pretty much non-existent right now. Let’s all work to throw each other lifelines during these difficult days. We got into this mess together, and the only way we’re going to get out of it is the same way – together.