Schedule Stuff

I know that nursing home residents have a terrible time remembering what day it is. The problem isn't just a matter of senile dementia: When every day is exactly like every other day, they tend to blur. I'm feeling that too.

In my previous ("BV") days, there was a lot of structure. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I went to Ashland to teach my classes. Wednesday evening, I met with a group of Democrats at Phoenix Brewery to write postcards encouraging people to vote. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday were my gym days (and sometimes on Saturday). Almost every Saturday morning, I went to Panera Bread for a nice breakfast and spent some time there writing letters. And of course, church was a fixed point for every Sunday morning.

None of that is available any more.

On the larger calendar, my time was pretty structured too. Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Advent, Christmas, performances of Mid-Ohio Opera, and Ohio Heritage Days at Malabar Farm all provided mileposts as I moved through my year.

Everything I read says that we should prepare for the quarantine lock-down to go at least six months and maybe two years or more. No mileposts in that vagueness.

No wonder it's difficult to remember what day it is.

Things are no better on the micro level. In the "BV" days, I had to plan on being out of the apartment by 9:15 four days a week (easy schedule this year). That meant getting up promptly, showering, making breakfast, shaving, and getting dressed. And the need to be out of bed by 7:00 meant that the night before I had to be in bed by 10:30 or 11:00. My first class was done by 11 AM and the next one started at 1 PM, so lunch was pretty well nailed down too.

None of those daily schedule points exists any more. A single man, living alone in an apartment and avoiding all human contact, can realistically sleep and eat at any hour of the day. Shower, shave and brush my teeth? Why bother? I won't see anyone for several days.

This is all starting to sound rather grim and pathological. I think the only way to preserve sanity in this quarantine life is to come up with a schedule and stick to it very legalistically. Times for meals and for work. Strategies for physical exercise in the apartment (because in typical Ohio fashion the weather is predicted for rain and temperatures in the 40s for at least a couple of weeks).