My Daily Struggle in the COVID-19 Lockdown

More bad news today. Illinois faced its deadliest day. This day, 125 people died from this plague, bringing the death toll to 1,072 and the total infections over 25,000. Both Lightfoot and Pritzker say that the curve is flattening and that they are still trying to decide if they will go easy on the lockdown or not, whilst Indiana and Wisconsin are prolonging it well into May. Because non-essential businesses have been forbidden to open, millions of Americans are seeking unemployment benefits because they have been furloughed or simply laid off. This is madness. Thank God I am an essential worker. What are everyone laid off going to do? Who is hiring now? How many of these stimulus checks can the government disperse? Speaking of checks, I figured out why I didn't get mine yet. Because the government likes to overtax married couples without children, I only received state refunds for the last two years. I ended up having to pay more money to my least favorite relative: Uncle Sam....

Today was a little better. I had gotten nowhere with Instacart, so I had to waste another hour of my schedule reordering groceries with Jewel delivery. I will never use Instacart again. Maybe they are biting off more than they can chew with the pandemic, but they are useless now. There are other delivery/pick-up services. God bless America! At least our governor has given us more good news. It appears that the curve has come and that the worst is likely behind us. We cannot see the sun yet, but at least the clouds are clearing. Sure, no one and nothing will ever be the same, but at least in a month, God willing, the children will be back in school, and social life will return. I saw a very clever music video about staying safe in COVID-19, taking the tune for the Sound of Music's Do-Re-Mi. Listen for yourselves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMBh-eo3tvE I continue to think about the COVID-19 prepared church I visited in Schaumburg on Resurrection Sunday. They had every othe...

CHRIST HAS RISEN!!! Today was a pretty good day. It was, after all, the beginning of the Resurrection Season. I went to a social-distancing prepared church and could actually take Eucharist. It felt so good to be in church again! I will probably go there until the lockdown is over, and if that means I need to drive 1 mile to get to Schaumburg, so be it! According to the major, today's death toll is the lowest it has been in 6 days, so that is good news. On the other hand, I read horrible stories about how a Michigan woman lost her whole family to this virus, and a Louisiana man lost 10 relatives and friends. I am not ashamed to admit that these stories made me cry. There has been so much death the past week. A friend of mine recently lost his grandmother from COVID-19. Thankfully, my mother, wife, and grandmothers are all safe and relatively healthy, and so are my golden-year friends. I have suffered so much loss, yet I have barely become numb to it. Each loss is still a dagger...

Getting ready for Resurrection Sunday--the best holiday of the year (for me, at least). I plan to go to Schaumburg in the morning for a quarantine-friendly Resurrection Service, but I am planning a little surprise for my congregation first. Nothing more to report. --Signing off.