Useless sketch April 2020:

Well, how do you start the day?

I get up out of bed, find a cold cup of tea stored in the fridge, put it down on the coffee table and I recline on the couch.  Snoozing.  Hoping for energy and a vision to make some effort to come.  Mom calls.  Okay, all good.  I now have the impetus to go back to the little kitchen and get the water kettle going.  A fresh pot of green tea.  Maybe I put some eggs on, heat on low, three, sunny side up, with a plexiglass plate over the pan.  I stir a healthy teaspoon of ground flax seed into my tea cup.

Back at the coffee table, Ikea, I look through the apps on my iPhone, The Weather Channel app for the pollen report, the other Weather Channel app to check on the basic weather details for my mom, Oswego, then back to Washington, DC.  I've checked Facebook already.  I'll check it again.  I stir in a little Ashwaganda powder into my tea.  After calling my mom I have my breakfast, the eggs runny over the sliced deli chicken breast, a sprinkle of cayenne and turmeric, olive oil.

Let's see, I took my mountain bike back from the bike mechanic.  I rode it around last evening, clicking through the gears.

Just stay busy, I tell my mom.  Have your little projects.  Make your tea and breakfast to start the day.

I only had one bottle of wine, with dinner.  And it didn't seem to be enough.  I went off to bed depressed.  Mom had called me as I was preparing to do my evening yoga on the bluff, and she sounded frightened, anxious, and I calm her down.  "I don't want to bring you down with me," she says.  "Everybody has died," she tells me, my father, her uncle, her aunts, her parents...  "You still have me, you have my brother, you have your sister, you have your friends..."

The sunlight of the later part of the day is coming through the trees now, and I position myself on the hill so that I remain in the light.