Amigo’s been struggling. His favorite week of the year, the adult camp where he sees his closest friends, has officially been cancelled. His barbershop chorus doesn’t know if they’ll be able to rehearse live, much less sing the National Anthem for the minor league baseball team – if baseball is even going to happen at that level.

One of the chorus members passed away last week. In the pre-Covid world, the guys would have sung “Nearer My God to Thee” or “You’ll Never Walk Alone” at the ceremony. At this time, there will be a small family gathering, but no formal funeral.

Camp was officially called off last night. Barbershop live rehearsals were put on indefinite hold as of today. And then, when Amigo logged in to his Zoom voice lesson, he heard the news first hand from the director: the division contest in October will not go on. This on top of all the rest is heartbreaking.

Did I forget anything? Oh, the pet rabbit is struggling, and she’s getting worse by the day. I can’t tell if it’s old-bunny arthritis in this awful wet weather or if she’s losing control of her legs and should be…let’s not talk about it any more.

Amigo and I pulled together to cope. We invested in a local drive-thru place and indulged in ice cream. He had an Arctic Blast (like a Dairy Queen blizzard) with cookie dough in it. I had a hot fudge sundae. We did without the plastic spoons and used our own at home. Even in the darkest of times, we’ll make it easy being green. Amigo reminded me that it was okay to “drown our sorrows” as long as we remembered moderation in all things.

If only the world of Coronavirus would hand us moderation, too.

Let’s see: shortages. Toilet Paper, hand sanitizer, hand soap, cleaning supplies, and now – meat.

Trouble in the form of Covid19 at meat packing plants hit the world as we knew it, and suddenly people weren’t sure whether to hoard meat or to avoid it. I saw a bunker full of bacon – bacon! – because it carried the Smithfield name.

We felt fortunate yet again. We own two chest freezers: one small, one medium sized. When there’s a sale on meat, we buy extra. Our small freezer is full to the brim at the moment. The medium has some space in it because that’s where I store the vegetables from the farm markets and the backyard garden. At this time of year there isn’t much there aside from the last of the green beans and several containers of soup broth.

Well, that’s not entirely true of the second freezer. That freezer has a corner I call my Prepper Stockpile. I have extra butter sticks, grated cheese, and a few other staples that go on sale often and freeze well. Loaves of bread sometimes, but at the moment I’ve used those up. Hint Brownberry bread, with its doubled plastic wrapping, freezes and thaws very well. Buy it on sale.

Our neighborhood meat market always has their sale items on a sandwich board outside the entrance. Lately, their sign has stated simply, Yes, we’re Open and We Have Meat. I know where to go when my freezer gets low.

Then again, we could turn vegetarian. I made black bean tacos tonight to rave reviews. Readers, are you eating less meat with the news out of the meat packing plants?

Amigo may have his first sunburn of the season. He hung out on the patio swing most of the day, listening to podcasts and audio books and enjoying the breeze. It’s good for him; he doesn’t get out much. Well, none of us get out much, unless it’s the grocery store or the pharmacy.

We’re fortunate to live in a community where it’s possible to enjoy the outdoors and still maintain social distance. We have a backyard – not to be taken for granted, We have neighbors! Neighbors who are willing to wave and say hi and chat while maintaining social distance, which no one should take for granted.

I took advantage of the weather this weekend to dig out a lot of the “walking” green onions. I originally planted them in the hopes of growing a natural border around the garden. The onions would discourage the small (and larger) furry creatures, or so I hoped, eliminating the need for a fence. Ha. Ha. Ha. No such thing. Now I have the standard chicken wire fence, lined with BIG Onions. Last summer I dug up a batch that were SO BIG that they blocked the sun in the way of my tomatoes.

What does a prepper-sort of gardener do with excess onions? Make a soup broth, of course! I used slow cookers to do it Friday, and once again today I filled two crock pots with vegetable scraps (and one with beef bones and beef fat, too). Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain – a perfect time to bring up the pressure canner and store these broths for a, well, another rainy day.

I continue to be surprised at the empty shelves in seemingly random parts of the grocery store. Yesterday it was in the candy aisle. Petunia wanted chocolate chips, and she specified the gold standard: Nestle’s semi-sweet chips. The entire shelf was empty. We did find a good quality brand of true semi-sweet chips, and she was satisfied. But why the empty shelf? And why were the M&M’s vacant? And who, I mean who, hid the last package of tonic behind the ginger ale?!? The joke is on that person, because we found it and bought it.

How does that relate to enjoying the outdoors in these pandemic days? Well, a gin and tonic will ease my acid reflux as I enjoy the backyard and maybe, just maybe, enjoy the breeze.