Friday 02 October
It hasn’t stopped raining today. Batches of perpetually wet, dark grey clouds drifting below a blanket of higher cloud. Just a shade lighter.
Left work early enough to allow for a walk with Mabel around the orchards and polytunnels. More light tonight, so not so eerie. Although I looked down the lanes of raspberry plants, which are starting to wilt, and I thought back to last night’s experience.
I shook hands with my son this evening. Not because we are a formal family, it was a light-hearted jape. And it felt very strange. I realise that I had not shaken anyone’s hand since March. I was struck by a sadness that we are all missing out on even the most basic of contact with each other.
I would shake hands with so many people during a typical week and hadn’t appreciated just how intimate a simple handshake is. This pandemic has made it such a weird experience and I wonder how permanent some changes to our social behaviours may turn out to be.
Donald Trump has been diagnosed with Covid-19 just a few weeks before the US election. He blatantly refused to follow advice to wear a mask and avoid crowds. As I write this late at night, he has just been moved to a hospital for closer observations.
The Bald Birder 