Today I feel like a logjam broke. A logjam of busyness. This morning I put the final touches on our 2019 income taxes, printed and signed them. Tomorrow (or the next day, perhaps), I’ll take care of mailing them. I had them done about two weeks ago but let them sit. I did some searching/organizing in papers and found an interest statement I hadn’t put into my spreadsheet. I entered that this morning, updated the forms, reprinted two pages of the Federal and two pages of the State, and now it’s done. Again.

Then, my wife and I can finally take care of the final distribution of her mom’s estate. It was waiting on the taxes to be figured, since some of our taxes this year were really estate taxes. That’s done. Today we’ll write the next to last checks from the estate account, and next week we’ll write the last. Then we can close those accounts, bundle up the statements, and tuck them away in an archive-type file.

Having done a fair amount on de-cluttering, I’m putting some of that on hold for a time. Oh, I’ll get the now-empty boxes from the basement to the garage, consolidate the electronics for recycling, and get the boxes to the AARP recycling center. That alone will clear a lot out. But I’m going to leaf off from sorting my mother-in-law’s papers for now. Maybe I’ll get back to that in a month or two.

So, the checkbook is up-to-date, the budget is up-to-date. I caught up on filing on Saturday—though immediately generated more items for filing. I paid the bills on Saturday and will mail them today.

My outlook is much, much better than it was when I posted this. Perhaps I’ll see my way clear to resume writing this week, something I haven’t been able to do lately. Reading is also on the Memorial Day menu.

Oh, I haven’t mentioned the pandemic, have I? For us, being retired, with Lynda much better but still convalescing, the pandemic isn’t having a huge effect. I go to the grocery store a little less frequently, planning my trips better to keep from having to go back for that item missed. We can’t go to the bank lobby, but the drive-through windows work for our purposes. Doctor appointments are mostly on-screen, though Lynda did go to the eye doc week before last, and will have her cataract surgery in July. I’m schedule for lab work in late June, but have no appointments until September.

But I still walk for exercise. I still go to construction sites and do my observations, keeping my distance from the workers on site as I do. I still went to the office last week for a meeting (though all training meetings and the recent annual stockholders meeting was virtual). Our church and Life Group meetings have been virtual, or course. That’s allowed me to learn some new skills.

I think we will still mostly isolate at least until July. Except for going to Texas and getting the grandkids in just under two weeks, keeping them for nine or ten days, then taking them back. Their county has only 6 confirmed cases of the virus. We will practice isolation for the few days we are there, and once we get back here.

This too shall pass. What will life be like on the other side? I have no prediction.