(6.1 miles) Solo Hike on Crystal Hills Trail - 6 wet & soggy miles

Wore my Salomon boots and due to recent rain and tall grass, feet were soaked as soon as I started. Didn't get any better, and I had to wade through a river near the turn around point so feet were even more wet on the way back. I used the SMD Flight 30 as a bit of a test run and it was comfortable with about 10 pounds in it. Hated going solo, but glad to get outside.

Coronavirus

Outbreak you may recall - within 1 month it killed over 2K people. Not sure how it will affect the USA. Our family bought some extra food, medicine, and water just in case the country gets shut down. The stock market is taking a nose dive and now I'm personally worried about retirement in another 10 years! Will we have enough???

This first set is from Feb 27, 2020.

Then, around mid-March, we in NY received a "stay-at-home" order and all the schools & non-essential businesses were ordered to close. Here are some other images from April 2.

It's stunning how nonchalant President Trump was at the start and how starkly different things are now. The current "hope" in the US is that the infection apex will be mid-April and then things will slow down & eventually stop. But no one knows yet if this is seasonal like the flu, or if it will stay vibrant all year round.

It's been nice being home with you kids more, but I do have about 10 - 100 time the stress that I used to. We are worried about our jobs, your grandparents, our health, retirement savings, provisions for living at home, etc... Before all this, the only thing I worried about on a daily basis was whether or not my boss would notice I wasn't that busy. That and what was I going to prepare for everyone to eat for dinner.