Masks & other things on my mind at the moment

In March, when my social consciousness was aroused, I wanted to do something to help the world.  Corona virus was being recognized as a pandemic and   a serious health concern.

I decided that I would sew masks.  Hundreds of them.  I called the hospital down the road and asked if they needed masks.  They gave me another number to call.  I called that  number and left a message.  Never heard back.  That's okay.  I was not bothered because I figured they were too busy to get back to me.

I got out my fabric.  Printed a few patterns from the internet.  Started cutting up mask patterns from my fabric.  I made two masks and started a third.   Then I stopped.  I am good at sewing and following patterns. But  these patterns got me all confused.

I saw that a friend needed fabric.  I took a bag full to her.   On a crafting page I am on I found that people were having difficulty finding elastic.   So I mailed elastic to a couple of people.

Today while on the phone with another old friend, she mentioned that she has been making masks, but was running out of fabric.  Nick and I drove over, kept social distancing while I put the bag of fabric down in her driveway.   She gave us a couple of masks- that she set down for me to retrieve.   It's so hard to see old friends and have to stand apart.  No hugging.

It's been easier for me than I think it has been for many people.   Nick and I are both home (and now Austin too).  Nick's retired, so doesn't have to go out.   Whatever activities I was involved in are not happening right now, so I am staying put.

I was on a real roll for a while sorting through old letters and filing them in binders.  I still have more binders that I plan to fill.

I found a little spiral notebook.  The kind what you can keep in a pocket or a purse.  There are notes in it from back in 1975 when Nick was first in the Foreign Service.   He wrote in tiny print, the names of possible overseas postings.   I wrote the names of the people I had met in the spouse's class.

There are even a couple of poems that I wrote:

October 12, 1975

The trees looked like broccoli that had gone bad.  Turning yellow and brown against the feathery sky.

Cotton ball clouds  stuck on the poster board blue sky with hunks of school paste.  Lollypop sweet.

Power lines crazing the blue paint.  Hitchhikers looking for a ride to the moon.  And getting there.

Packs on their backs and stars in their eyes.

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Early November 1975

I smack my lips at the delicious weather.  Cheeks blush, chap, sing alive at the wind.   Hair a wild animal grabbing at my eyes.

People dressed like Christmas bundles cursing
the cold under their breath- and loving every minute of it.

Leaves running across a field and into the street.  Stumbling and tripping over each other- giggling the whole time.

A grin full of birds and more crowding the naked  trees trying trying to keep them warm

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This is a sketch of the house where we lived, in College Park, Maryland.  I don't know if Nick or I drew it