May the Fourth be with you...

As we begin week 8 of lockdown, I'm not sure whether to say "OK, we know the drill now, let's just keep calm and carry on..." or "Hey, we're being good here, washing our hands and keeping our distance and mostly staying home... haven't we earned a bit of a reprieve?" Nothing really awful has happened to us but nothing really interesting or exciting either. We replenished our groceries today. I did a CARP survey on seniors and covid 19. I finished another mystery by Florence Yonin Brown. I'm now now reading Emily Carr's The Book of Small, alongside a book of essays on reading therapy.
I feel like we're captured on a carousel of time, going round and round and round in the circle game.

We still get a newspaper every morning, but it's very skinny these days. And after my annoyance at the cancellation of the supper-hour CBC local newscast, I was pleased when just after the Easter weekend, they at least brought back a half-hour of local news (from 6:00 to 6:30, repeated from 6:30 to 7:00). But I hate how technology-dependent everything is now. My computer is adequate for getting news, blogging here, doing online banking, reading e-mail and most day-to-day stuff. But not everything loads well on it and online shopping can sometimes be frustrating too.

In short, the virtual world is now the real world for most of us.

I've almost forgotten what is was like to be able to physically go somewhere real and meet real people, let alone do those things on the spur of the moment - take in a movie, visit the library or a real-life bookstore, go out for lunch, wander through the Experimental Farm, go to an art gallery.

Is this what they mean by the "new normal"?

I hope not.