The saga continues...

Eleven months ago now, thinking that "it" would only last a few weeks, a close "cousin/friend/like a sister" and I began to "document" the "rural" experience with the damncovid -- although we didn't call it that back then.  I think we actually called it Covid 19... and then that transitioned into "the rona" and from there things went downhill.  The idea was and still is that someday descendants of ours would find this documentation in a dusty bin in someone's attic and be able to read about our experiences during this time. (She lives in a small lakeside village in Chautauqua County in Southwestern New York and I live in a rural township in Erie County in Northwestern Pennsylvania  - just six miles from the Pennsylvania/New York State border.) 

Some background on the process of this writing... I sincerely believe that personal journals give a legitimate accounting of things -- much preferable to those accounts of dubious journalists or removed historians who seem to sometimes believe that all life worth living occurs only in the big city. Further -- I found personal journals to be just what I was looking for when, for example, I was researching over two hundred years of history of the small parcel of land that I own.  Personal journals are the best. You go in knowing that you are reading one person's account from the very start...for them it is true and accurate for that moment in that particular place. You know the "limitations" going in.  All that being said -- our joint recounting is impressive.  It is a depiction of many challenges and of some meaningful victories ... a seemingly odd combination. There are tears and there are moments of laughter.  It is a telling of families trying to sort out unexpected problems, a story of resilience and of attempting to do the best they can within trying and unknown territory. It is -- at least in part -- just like the lives that all of us have been living for the past year or so. Some of the details may vary from place to place, but there is a common bond among us all. (I think people would do well to think more about that bond -- the things we share -- the similarities... rather than the differences.)

Anyway -- we did not anticipate the lengthy duration of the damncovid and we find now that we have over 700 pages of documentation - some of which we simply must edit, because we do not want our descendants to find us to be two crazy old eccentrics with language that sometimes is more befitting to, let us say, people who slam their fingers with a hammer while trying to fix something or while trying to start a cranky lawnmower.  I am thinking that you understand what I am saying.  Frustration sometimes salts and colors language.  To continue... this editing task looms.  Then again somewhere beneath the surface, I am actually beginning to think that maybe it might be more honest to just make two copies and let it stand as it is. (I do feel though that we do need to find time to correct the occasional spelling and grammatical errors as we were both English majors in college and I know that I for one just cannot help myself. I am thinking that she may feel the same way about her writing.  I will have to ask her.)

So... for the sake of the descendants who may discover this record and really for the sake of the entire world, let's get this pandemic thing over with. Now would be good.  Right?  One more set of minor concerns.... I wonder if we will need to make a reservation at a copying place?  How long does it take to copy what will probably end up over 1000 pages long?  Is Kinkos still in existence?  Do those UPS and FedEx stores offer copying services?  Do they offer discounts? Coupons? Will have to check on that.