Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day One Hundred Seventy Nine

Everyday it becomes more and more evident how long we will be faced with the grippe reborn’s malicious powers. Even after we have developed an effective defence against the dark lord’s predations, it will be many months to raise up those edifices across the world. Some places and peoples will be lucky and will do so quickly, others will be less fortunate and so the quarantine protocols and anguish will linger on for months.

So long as the dread lord has a foothold anywhere in the world, he is everywhere. The impact will be felt by all regardless of where we are. This is especially so because our first defences will, of necessity, be less than complete. There will be breaches in our walls that will have to be sandbagged and rebuilt. It is the work of years, not months.

I have been thinking little of the grippe reborn lately, not that his presence has diminished any in these parts. In fact, the numbers have been steady and rising in some cases. Children have returned to school, bringing an anguished relief to parents, who desperately want a return to some normalcy for them, but fear not enough has been done to thwart the dread lord. We shall find out in a few weeks what cost we will bear.

My own worry has diminished to a low ebb of late. Mostly this is because I have been preoccupied with my correspondences and have had little time for other considerations. As well, I have made a conscious decision to enjoy these last days of summer and the coming of fall. Winter, I fear, will be a grim and chilling time of isolation, one that I would rather not dwell on.

It is happier to consider each day as its own, with its own peculiar delights and horrors. It leaves me with a feeling of serenity, no matter what they might bring and how they present themselves to me. They have a fullness they did not before when I was forever casting my eyes forward to what was to come.