"It's a Beautiful Life"- Genevieve Galvan Frenes

Day 4 – I awaken to silence, until my daughter’s beagle, Buzz (named after the Disney character) begins his morning barking. Our other dogs, Oreo and Morgan, snooze in their pen, and Theo (Sparky for short) sleeps in his bed in my room.

Today is my doctor’s appointment which I scheduled last Friday. This was before I heard about the social distancing everyone is talking about. Supposedly, we are to remain indoors as much as possible, and stay at least six feet away from someone when talking or visiting with them.

I contemplate if I should go, then realize I’ve had sinus and ear pain for way too long. I tell myself I’ll wait in the car until my appointed time is up.

As I drive to the nearby town for my doctor visit, I realize that I’m paying attention to things I never noticed before —The number of cars on the road, people going for a walk, farmers out on their land — things seem normal as always except for a slight drop in the number of cars I would expect to see on the road. I enjoy the scenery of grapevines and trees that encompass my ride to the doctor.

When I arrive, I wait in the car until ten minutes to the appointment. When I enter the waiting room, there’s only one other older woman sitting on the other side of the room. And although I’ve only been sitting for maybe three minutes without touching a thing, my name is called.

My doctor examines me and suggests her remedies. We laugh and talk about other interests. It isn’t until after I’ve left the room that I realize we never mentioned the topic of the virus at all.

When I leave, I decide to go to CVS in our town to get a few things. Before I enter, I tell myself, “If the lines are outrageous, I’m going home.”

But incredibly, there are only a handful of people in the store, and my wait in line has only two people in front of me. Not too bad, but then again, this is my first real outing since Friday. Now Monday, the customers in this store seem calm, relaxed, normal,

I get home, make lunch, and begin catching up on grades from Friday. I decide that although we’re not in school, maybe I can figure out an approximate grade for students at this time.

Then, thinking back to the number of people I came in contact with today, I wonder, “How would I know if anyone was contagious? How long does it take for a virus to spread even if I’m far away from someone?” I’m not fearful at this point, but the questions do pop up more frequently in my analytical brain.

Within the next few weeks, I know news reports will continue to flood its viewers with numbers, predictions, data… and I can’t help but think, even they don’t truly know when or how this virus lurks within an individual.

All I can do is pray that others are taking precautions as suggested by the experts, and we all remain healthy.

This is my Day 4… stay blessed and love those around you.