I Just Want to Stay Home (Lockdown Day 89)

It’s Day 89 of the South African lockdown. Initially I had plans to go out and do a couple of errands today, which I was hoping would give me something to blog about. But then I didn’t. Despite spending much of the morning trying to mentally psych myself up, I never did leave the house.

Upon further reflection, I don’t think that’s necessarily such a bad thing.

Plant in my old garden
It’s full-on winter in Joburg and my garden photography options are officially exhausted. So here is a photo of a pretty fern in my old Melville garden, taken in 2012.

At the risk of sounding alarmist, COVID-19 is really starting to make its presence felt around here. Yesterday South Africa surpassed 100,000 total confirmed cases. 10,000 of those cases were confirmed in the past two days alone. Hospitals in some parts of the country are experiencing strain. I’m hearing more reports of people in my sphere coming into contact with the virus and even losing loved ones to it.

For the last several weeks, COVID-19 – like, the actual disease, as opposed to the lockdown or some other pandemic by-product – has felt like a fairly distant threat to me. Today that threat feels more immediate. Also it’s cold. The days are short. I don’t have anything terribly important to do. And if I’m honest, I don’t really want to go anywhere. I’m pretty content to be at home, huddled next to the fireplace with my cats.

So I’m thinking this is a good idea to lay low – or lay lower, since I was laying pretty low to begin with – for a week or two and see how things develop outside.

My biggest concern about staying home is what on earth am I going to blog about for the next 11 days, until I reach my promised “100 Days of Lockdown” milestone? Early in the lockdown I didn’t have much trouble coming up with daily blogging inspiration, even when I essentially didn’t leave my house for weeks at a time. I would write down my thoughts, feelings, and ideas as the day went along, and I was often bursting to share them by evening.

Nowadays…yoh. The struggle is real.

I still have thoughts and feelings. I’m still cooking and reading and exercising and knitting and watching Netflix and listening to podcasts. But none of it seems blog-worthy anymore.

I can’t squeeze any more water out of this rock today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.