WOW – Go look at Dave’s Woodies – A series of photos I will never forget – TGO Photo Club 

Hey, I think this social distancing may save us.  

Cabin fever seems to be a problem for some folks in our TGO (The Great Outdoors) community. Maybe I have a little touch of cabin fever but not much. I am accustom to being socially distant – so I have been told.

I believe that having a routine fights cabin fever.  I have a daily routine that is much the same as pre-Coronavirus. I try to enjoy a relaxed breakfast, catching up on Gloria’s projects, classes, her painting challenges, & some times we plan maintenance projects on our house. Most of the maintenance work is done by contractors but we need to plan it and I need to find the budget dollars to pay for it. 

Then the day begins.  I try to get outside on my bike for 1 1/2 hours, them play 3 hours with photoShop and this blog. Then I do office work for and hour – for example find a way to afford the maintenance. Then I bike and hike for 2 hours.

Of course in-between I take a nap, shave and bathe, eat, talk to my family more often than before Corona – my son Jim even arranged a Zoom like audio session with the family.   I read digital books – Now reading “The accidental President – Harry S Truman”.  Then, sometimes I listen, alone, to old country western music.

Let us all figure out a way to adapt to the new way.

Being outside on the nature trails, 4 to 5 hours a day, I see Gators, snakes, tortoise, bobcats, eagles, and all kind of fish in the lakes.   While standing on the Nature Trail bridge I watch birds  catching fish for dinner.

I observed that, except for mating, most of the non-bird animals practice social distancing. You seldom see mature gators hanging out together, and bobcats hunt alone.

I love snakes – And none is more beautiful then this one which we saw yesterday – Red on yellow kills fellow but red on black venom lack. – always alone, 

Snakes, it seems, only get together for mating. Not like us humans who  gather to talk, eat, drink, play Pickle Ball, shuffle board, pray, and sing.

We humans have not been gathering long though. We only developed a capacity for language about 50,000 years ago. So we have only been gathering to sing and talk for a short period of time.

Looking out from our lunch table, this big old gator swims by often – always alone

Now lets look at the gators and snakes.  About 80 million years ago, the alligator appeared. The oldest snake fossil is 167 million years old. I think gators and snakes survived that long by not gathering to talk, sing, and compete at tennis.

Now birds of a feather are different.  You know they hang out in flocks. A total of 182 bird species become extinct since 1500. Avian extinctions are continuing, with 19 species lost in the last quarter of the twentieth century and four more have gone extinct since 2000.

My conclusion – If we humans learn to enjoy ourselves, and stay away from flocks (crowds), we may be around millions of years from now.  If not, our species may be like the birds  become extinct in another 50,000 years.  If you listen to TV news folks, of course, they got us thinking extinction may happen this fall.

I just had to make up a photo of of this Scarlet Kingsnake (I think that is what it is called). This is what it might look like if it could talk and sing – They would gather, sing together, and spread virus – Oh My – no masks!   But  they do not gather on a daily basis and they have been here 167 million years.  WOW

Now take a look below – Just for fun I wondered if Coronavirus came from outer space:

Ambleside Drive in front of our house.

Oh my – From which planet? –  I think my mind slipped a cog!

Oh my – as you swing through life – Use social media more and keep social distance, and stay healthy. Enjoy the new way!