Roz Wonders: Is Anyone Out There?

This self-quarantine might not be so bad. Patty is back home from her recent gallivanting around the country, and so we are free to continue some serious Skyping without the usual interruptions. I even received an e-mail from my dentist advising that all routine work was canceled. This was like the prison warden telling me I was out on parole, as long as I continued to floss.

Our first Skype began with Patty on her elliptical and me painting my nails. But once we’d hashed out the world’s news as well as our own, we were quickly able to knuckle down and start working.

This quarantine sounded easy. I have many projects around my house that need attention. Baseboards long overdue for painting, and an area in my study that needs to have the wallpaper removed. But staying home isn’t quite the picnic I expected. The painting and wallpaper stripping has not begun in earnest, or in fact, at all. But I have spent a lot of time of time online researching newfangled items for home improvement. Who knew there were so many gadgets to help you paint a straight line? And when did the good old blue tape become green?

As the isolation proceeds, it’s becoming clear that work around the house is going to have to wait, as more important issues surface. Eating, for example. Where did all those food delivery services spring from? And grocery delivery, which sounds complicated to me, but I’m assured is safer than actually going to my store and risking bumping into an eighty-year-old grocery sacker who may have recently spent three weeks in Italy and returned home via Iran.

All news outlets are to be avoided. The last thing I need is a so-called expert on infectious diseases sharing his revelation that drinking bleach will kill any virus. So it’s down to watching TV shows, or rewatching shows I haven’t seen for a while. I thought I only vaguely remembered Downton Abbey, but it turns out I can quote Lady Violet word for word.

So back to the isolation business at hand. I was never aware that I apparently touch my face ten thousand times an hour, so gotta work on that. And wearing surgical gloves to collect my mail only to forget to put them on when I retrieve my Amazon boxes from my front door. This quarantine is no joke and seems to go on forever. I’m worn out from all the things I cannot do.

So now I am ready for day FOUR. Bring it on.

But seriously, we wish all our readers a safe and tolerable—dare we hope enjoyable?—time keeping their social distance. To that end, we offer you a FREE getaway to Door County through March 23 via a download of DEATH IN DOOR COUNTY to your Kindle or Kindle app. Although it’s No. 3 in our Val & Kit Mystery Series, all our books stand alone.

But you do not. We are right here with you, and we’ll all get through this. Maybe we’ll even finish our still-untitled No. 7.