So, “Stay at Home” Is in Order

By Emilie Vardaman*

HAVANA TIMES – In fact, it is an order, from the Arizona governor. We’re all at home, and all non-essential businesses are closed.

I started staying home about a week or ten days before the official order. It made sense, as I’m no longer young and the Covid-19 virus seems to hit older people the worst.

I wasn’t really prepared. Who was, really? But I’m a pretty good introvert. Or so I thought.

I used to teach at a community college, with classes, meetings, etc. After long days, I retreated home and rarely went out. I used up all my interaction energy at work.

During that time of teaching, I was glad to live in my small town of under 800 ihabitants. I’m right on the border in southeastern Arizona. I can sit on my patio and gaze south into Mexico.

Then I retired, and I changed. In my head, though, I was still an introvert.

Now I’ve been home the bulk of the time for over four weeks.

My friends to the south, in Sonora, Mexico, are also under stay-at-home orders. Plus, hotels along the Sea of Cortez have mostly been closed, and the border going both directions is turning back out-of-country tourists.

First to go was my weekly writing group. Six women, rowdy and sometimes bawdy, all strongly opinionated. We got together weekly to talk, laugh, gripe, eat, and share our writing. I can’t believe how much I miss them.

Then it was the Saturday farmers market. Then my other book group. And then my monthly writing group. And the library. The library!

Coffee with friends. Lunch with friends. Wandering downtown Bisbee and poking into shops. Stopping to chat with friends and even strangers. All gone.

Short trips are gone. No browsing for plants at Lowe’s. No trips to Tucson, so no Costco, no Trader Joe’s, no Sprouts Market.

Not even my late winter trip to Bahía Kino (on the Sea of Cortez in Mexico), my home away from home.

And it hasn’t helped at all that the bulk of this four weeks has been cool and overcast, not the sunny late winter-early spring typical of southeastern Arizona. I began feeling lonesome. Yeah, isolated.

But it’s worse for Tricia who was passing through, traveling in her van. She had parked in my yard by the barn for a few days. She’s been stuck here for about a month now. She’s chomping at the bit to be able to finish her wanders.

My “daughter” Katie (we adopted each other last year) is up in Denver and wants to visit.

I have a plane ticket to visit my sister and family in Louisville. In June. Can I safely fly in June? Even if I can, I probably won’t feel safe. I’ll be canceling next month.

But there are magical moments.

Emails and phone calls from friends I hadn’t been in touch with for a long time. Web gatherings. Musical groups playing together but separately on the web.

The occasional visit from a friend. We sit on my patio, far apart.

Random acts of kindness.

And now sunshine is finally here, and days are hanging out in the low to mid-seventies. My garden is blooming.

My old girl Chloe loves to sit among the flowers.

So hang in there, folks. Find some fun and beauty right where you are. I guarantee you they’re there.

*Emilie Vardaman is a Havana Times contributing writer. Her web page is: https://emilievardaman.com/