I haven’t blog in a while – in part this is because I wasn’t sure what to say and in part it is because I’ve blogged at Goingeast.

I am starting to confuse days – except that I know that I cannot hike on the weekends. My days are crazy busy but I’m doing slightly different stuff. In the last couple of weeks I’ve become significantly more productive, almost to the point of pre-cancer – at least that is what it feels like.

Yesterday (or maybe the day before, I’m totally losing track of days), I filled in the paperwork to officially withdraw from my PhD. I had made the decision before Covid changed my world, but telling people other than my supervisors coincided with it. When I initially made the decision, I gave myself til the end of the month to formally make the decision. With the end of the month approaching I did it.

I need to remember my own advice about decision making. You made the best decision you could with the information you had at the time. There is no value in looking back and doubting yourself. Once I hit send, the decision was formally made. Now I can move on with my life.

And so my Covid days have gotten crazy busy. I’m doing a lot of work for Treehouse Village now. Now that I am no longer feeling guilty about not working on my PhD, I’ve been able to sign up to some things that I enjoy doing – and with Covid moving everything online, it aligns nicely with my skills. I’m what I can to support community building and marketing at this time (we are looking for future neighbours).

And I’m teaching. Three classes right now and three in the summer. We added a second section to the course “the design and instruction of online courses” because the demand was high. As a result, we have have two full sections now and enough students needing to take the course that it will run again in the fall. I’m going to busy.

I also try to get out for a hike once a week, but it seems to be happening closer to every other week. I go on a weekday, and I use only the trails recommended by the local Open Space preserves and County Parks. Fortunately, so far they have been doing a great job of indicating which trails are Covid friendly.

With my husband home 7-days a week, my weekdays and weekend blur. We have separate offices so he pops out at various times during the day to grab something from the kitchen. He knows not to bug me when I’m typing, so we are fully able to work together. We spent every day together for 16-months on our bike trip – so we fall right into the flow. At this time of social distancing, I am exceedingly lucky to be living with my soul mate and a partner that I enjoy being with 24/7 (OK almost 24/7). If I want to be alone, I go on a walk. If I want to say hi to another person not on Zoom, I pitter in the garden until I see my neighbour who is also spending a lot of time pittering in the garden.

So far we are healthy and our plan is to do everything we can to stay that way.

What does your day look like now?

Feature image by me – Calero County Park on one of my hikes.